Blue Bootstrap

How I Picked Blue Violin

Servinity, a local company, posted on its blog how it picked its name and logo. I thought I'd share how I picked Blue Violin because it's a question I get asked occasionally and because the process I went through was so much different than Servinity's.

I started work on Ratchet, the product's original name, in 2005 and originally intended to create a desktop application. I didn't like the look-and-feel of Visual Basic controls so I started to create a mock-up in HTML of how I wanted the product to look. During that process, I figured out that I could deliver Ratchet through the web and voila! Automated testing delivered through the browser.

A couple of months after that, I wasn't happy with the name Ratchet and felt a different, better name was needed. I tried a couple of different names like QAWebTest but honestly, generic names like that suck. I remembered reading a story that said consumers can't distinguish any fast-food restaurants that include the name Taco and felt that applied to boring names like QAWebTest.

Being out of ideas and at a Mexican standoff with myself, I went to iStockphoto and started looking at pictures to get the creative juices flowing. That's when I found the following picture:

The rest, as they say, is history.

Let There Be Light

Tonight I released the full source code to Blue Violin under the GNU Affero General Public License. You can get the code at http://code.google.com/p/blueviolin/ . I chose the Affero General Public license because it allows users who interact with the licensed software over a network to receive the source for that program. 

For those who aren't familiar with Blue Violin, it's an automated testing tool for websites that's delivered through your browser; currently, it only works in Internet Explorer. My hope is that I'm offering something useful to the community that allows any organization to take advantage of automated testing and website monitoring. I truly believe that the core technology behind Blue Violin, called Ratchet, is very good and on par with some commercial offerings. However, the documentation sucks. Although the source code has been released there aren't any instructions on how to compile the code or create an environment to run it in. The documentation will be online within a couple of weeks at www.blueviolin.org but if you have any questions on how to get started, feel free to email me at josh.watts@blue-violin.com or call me at 770-715-1334.

 

 

 

Latest info from the lab

Howdy party people. A quick note about what's happening deep in the bowels of Blue Violin's R&D labs. First off, I implemented reporting in Blue Violin. This was the biggest hole in the application because what good is automated testing if you don't know what happened during the test? If you're registered, it emails you the report as well.

Also, I put together a service that allows you to schedule when you want your tests to run. For example, you can run your test(s) every hour, day, etc.. to perform application monitoring. If you're interested, drop me an email to josh dot watts at gmail dot com.

Q & A

Below are questions and answers from a post in the Business of Software forum at Joel on Software about Blue Violin.

"How do you actually test that what you're doing is working?  I can see how to record a sequence of actions, but how do I add a test that the action has worked?  For instance, if I have a contact form, how do I test that I get a 'Please enter your email address' message when I submit it without filling in the email address field?"

I agree with you - Blue Violin needs better validation features. What you're asking about are "checkpoints" and that is at the top of my development list. Currently, the only way to know your test is successful is if it completes.

"Is there any documentation?  (If not, write some!  If so, link directly to it!)"

Agreed.

"The ActiveX control is called 'RatchetBrowser', which makes a little nervous since I was expecting something called 'Blue Violin'.  (But that's a minor nitpick since it's signed by Blue Violin.)"

Ratchet was the original name of my product when I first started development and is now my codename for the ActiveX control.

"Replay seems very slow - as if the replay mechanism is introducing gratuitous pauses."

I did put a small delay after each step; otherwise, the replay runs so fast that you can't see what it's doing.

"Some indication of intended pricing would be good - I'd be reluctant to even seriously evaluate this technology without it.  Is it $100 ballpark or $10,000?  Or will it be licensed monthly?  Perhaps you don't know yet, but the lack of any indication makes me reluctant to invest much time in it."

Ah, the $64,000 question. Blue Violin will be offered as a service meaning you rent it when you need it. Below is my pricing guide:
24 hours - $40
1 month - $350
1 year - $950

Also, you'll always have access to the tests/scripts you create. Another feature in development is the ability to export your script to Perl (using Samie), Python (using Pamie), or Ruby (using Watir).

"How do you feel you compare to something like Selenium?"

I feel Blue Violin compares well against Selenium, although I'm a bit biased :). I've used Selenium, DejaClick, and Perl/Samie at my day job and while they all do a good job, I was soon frustrated because I created certain tests that they had problems dealing with. To be specific, popups, uploading files, and knowing when the web page completed loading.

"To get real traction with people testing their AJAX apps, you must be cross browser.  This is the pain in developing Javascript: testing across all implementations. Obviously you have Firefox support planned, but note that people doing serious Javascript development often care most about Firefox."

I really feel your pain on this since I too have to deal with cross-browser Javascript support on other work. That's really one of the reasons I wrote Blue Violin - to be able record a test in one browser and test in another.

"+1 to the question of how you compare with Selenium.  You can compete with open source (heck, we do), but from what I can see you are offering a lot less than Selenium currently does."

I hope my answer above satisfies you and I'll add that Blue Violin does offer a few extras that Selenium does not.

"Where is the verification?  Am I expected to watch the replay to verify everything?  If so, it won't fly."

Another top development feature is to record the results of a test run and email the customer with the results of the test run. Watching the replay in order to verify the test really defeats the purpose of automated testing.

"What about automation?  Can I drive this thing from the command line and get the results?  How would develoeprs integrate it with their build server?"

You'll be able to export scripts to Perl, Python, and Ruby. That will allow you to drive test from the command line and integrate it into your build processes.

"Is it really necessary to have the browsing controls (location bar, back button etc) replicated in your control?  It would be cleaner and closer to the real thing if you could record actions on the real browser controls."

Yes; controlling Blue Violin from the standard browsing controls proved too unreliable.

"Documentation?"

Agreed.

O-official 1.0

I mentioned a while back that changes are afoot here at world headquarters and so I'd like to announce that Blue Violin 1.0 is released. First off, the ActiveX control we use is signed with an honest-to-goodness code signing certificate from Thawte which means that Internet Explorer won't give you any messages about an unsigned ActiveX control. Secondly, our tireless design department put together a spiffy new website. This is only the beginning - we have a lot more features and products to roll out.

New Logo

Lots of stuff going on at world headquarters with some exciting news towards the end of the month but I thought I'd share Blue Violin's new logo.

Update: Sorry if you see multiple posts in your news reader - TypePad had some hiccups.

Hello Denver!

I've noticed Blue Violin has a lot of new virtuosos from the Denver area in the last couple of days. It might be wishful thinking on my part but I'd like to think that the groovy cats from TechStars find Blue Violin useful as they start building their products. If there's anything I can do help, give me a holler. That goes for anybody else as well. I want Blue Violin to knock your socks off.

Be a Virtuoso!

I've created a social network for Blue Violin customers, which we call virtuosi (plural for virtuoso) here at Blue Violin worldwide headquarters. I hope you find it useful for sharing tips about Blue Violin and getting the latest scoop on what's shakin' with the rest of your fellow virtuosi - feel free to use it anyway you want.

It uses Crowdvine, a great site for creating your own social network. I met Tony at SoCon this weekend and I really like what he's doing to help people create their own micro social networks. It's based on a Web 0.0 concept - let's create a social network where the people might be able to meet and have a beer. Brilliant! LinkedIn, MySpace, and their offspring - you can have them. Me - I'm glued to Crowdvine.

Beta Baby!

That took a little longer than I thought. I'm proud to announce that Blue Violin's beta was o-officially launched today at 12:02 AM.

First, I'd really want to thank my wife Heather for putting up with me when I disappear into the basement for hours only to emerge cursing Internet Explorer's event handling (damnit, why doesn't it follow the W3C's event model?) She's been a sport through it all and I love her for it.

Second, I'd like to thank Scott, Gregg, Anne, and the rest of the gang for the encouragement and sound advice.

To my advisors - Amy, Wayne, Alton, and Don - I really appreciate for your help with the rest of the business. Let's turn your equity into something real.

See the rest of y'all at SoCon this weekend!

Sneak Peek

For those so inclined, you can take Blue Violin for a test drive. Pop on over to http://dev.blue-violin.com/.