After careful consideration among the executive management team at Software Research, Inc., we have decided to suspend the regular eValid BLOG references to routine eValid Forum posts and responses.
In the future, as time permits, we will use our BLOG to fill in more of the pre-2000 history of the eValid product development projects, and to various aspects and events from the early period of eValid introduction and deployment, 2000-2007.
Here are some recent selected forum posts from our eValid forum:
Understanding how eValid runs from the DOM better -- More details about exploiting the DOM interface.An eValid forum post recently asked this question: "You say eValid runs "from the DOM" but I'm no sure what that means, exactly.
Can you explain?"
It is a good question, and the response was this:
eValid obtains most of effects by manipulating the Document Object Model (DOM) that is maintained inside the browser.The DOM is an internal structure that the user ordinarily does not see. It in a kind of "private loop" to create and maintain what you see on the browser face.
Entries in the DOM are called "DOM Elements" and they are numbered 0, 1, 2... in a thread that is updated with each change in the state of the browser, or "triggers," that are initiated by the user or by some external event.
eValid provides a way of looking into the tree using the PageMap feature, described in part with this page: DOM Support Architecture.
eValid was the pioneer in this approach, fielding a product using that technology as early as late 1999, based on internal prototype systems developed from beginning in 1997.
Manipulating the DOM for purposes of testing a web application was very effective, and eValid's lead was followed -- over the years -- by WATIR, Selenium, and finally WebDriver, which is now standard in all of the major commercial browser systems.
That is all well and good, but you may ask how did that approach actually come about? Below is a "short" explanation of the history involved.
The main idea of eValid was to re-purpose the DOM, a key element of the browser, to provide a capability for testing and quality assurance of web applications. We got his idea based on these factors, in the late 1990's:
- Need based on extant development of CAPBAK/DOS, CAPBAK/Unix, and CAPBAK/X to apply o web applications.
- Frustration that every existing approach was fraught with failure.
- Impossibility of doing the job with conventional methods (including SR's own tools).
The team then knew that thinking "outside of the box" was going to be required. Previously every product approach that tried to automate web testing failed for one reason or another.
The MS-DOS solution for CAPBAK/MS-DOS, based on intercepting the Windows screen-event loop, was clumsy and complex and not terribly predictable.
The solution used in SR's CAPBAK/X product for XWindows based UNIX environments, was based on intercepting the traffic in the X-Windows protocol -- i.e. the communication between the client and the server. It worked very well, but the future of the XWindows system was in doubt, particularly after the introduction of the IE 4 browser in 1997.
We remember a Microsoft employee who at a trade show in 2000, upon having just seen a demonstration of eValid, asked: "have you guys really build a complete browser?" No, the answer was that What we did was to simply overloaded the IHTML object in the Microsoft library..."oh, sure, of course, he said..." Easy enough, once done.
What has happened after 1999/2000 in rough temporal sequence was:
- WATIR a Ruby-based solution that drove tests by compiling a wrapper that drove the IE browser through the COM interface. This works OK, but can't support more than a single instance of test playback -- there is only one COM/desktop interface per PC.
- Selenium, conceived by Jason Huggins in 2004, used the OLE interface in Windows to drive web tests.
- eValid's first patent was filed in preliminary form on 31 October 2000, in final form on 31 October 2001, and issued 12 June 2007 as US Patent 7,231,606. This was the first of what was ultimately to be a Portfolio of 10 US Patents covering many parts of the underlying eValid technology.
- WebDriver was an extension of Selenium done by Huggins and Simon Stewart, that solved a lot of problems that the classic Selenium had. It was introduced by Stewart at the Google Test Automation Conference (GCAC), 23 August 2007. Webdriver incorporated the same DOM-based test playback method that eValid introduced in late 1999.
With Google leading by incorporating WebDriver in versions of Chrome, the other browser suppliers (e.g. Microsoft, Firefox, etc.) soon all followed suit and incorporated the WebDriver idea as an option. After a decade of use, the Webdriver additions to browsers dominate.
Here are some recent selected forum posts from our eValid forum:
Can eValid make sure my click goes to the right place? -- The "right place" may need some script fiddling.We offer thanks to our eValid users and interested professionals who follow our regular "tweets" on Twitter.
Software Research, Inc., has provided a "feed" on Twitter for over a decade and the feedback has been quite positive.
But times have changed.
The recent public controversies about social media websites, including Facebook and Twitter, among many others, have been very concerning.
Software Research, Inc. is not a political organization. and its eValid product suite is a purely technical offering aimed solely at improving quality of websites.
Even so, acting out of an abundance of caution, we have decided to terminate our regular postings on Twitter hereafter.
eValid users and other interested professionals who wish to can look for insights and discussions about eValid in the eValid User Forum.
Here are some recent selected forum posts from our eValid forum:
More information about the eValid Patents -- The underlying technology has been under patent projection for some time.Here are some recent selected forum posts from our eValid forum:
How to use eValid to monitor a website continuously -- Just put the playbacks in a command line loop...simple enough.Recently, we were asked to participate in a study about the Global Application Performance Monitoring (APM) Software Industry, and we responded with some basic information about eValid and its use in monitoring.
The eValid product -- a browser based automated testing solution -- was introduced to the community in 2000-2001.
We believe it was "the first ever" product to do what it does (basic web application testing) in the way that it does it.
Many, many of our customers two decades ago used sequential automated playbacks (which really are just automated re-tests) from a programmable script to do comparative checking of web site performance.
For example, see this page:
Example eValid Monitoring
Not to thump the chest too much, but we believe eValid is the "father" of most of the contemporary solutions, in particular those which rely on the WebDriver interface.
Much of what WebDriver does was already incorporated in early versions of eValid, which technology is protected by a portfolio of US Patents, see:
eValid IP/Business Opportunity
Software Research's contributions to the software quality and testing community go back a long way. See the SR home website at:
Software Research Corporate Overview
Here are some recent selected forum posts from our eValid forum:
How does eValid tell if the page object model is present? -- Using DOM events makes this easier than you would think.Here are some recent selected forum posts from our eValid forum:
Need help with filling out two blank fields on a webpage! -- Simple enough to do, explained here.Here are some recent selected forum posts from our eValid forum:
Where does the eValid software stand in regard to WebDriver -- WebDriver "drives browsers" and is a W3C standard, and here are some details.Here are some recent selected forum posts from our eValid forum:
How the Multiple Value Substitution during LoadTest works. -- Pointers on how to get the best results from LoadTesting projects.Here are some recent selected forum posts from our eValid forum:
Understanding the standard and international license better. -- International licenses support all Double Byte Character Sets (DBCSs).Here are some recent selected forum posts from our eValid forum:
How to scrape text off a webpage -- Detailed validation often requires this.A founder of the Software Engineering discipline, Fred Brooks, passed away 17 November 2022 at the age of 91.
His seminal book, The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, published in 1975, formed the basis for stabilizing and systematizing the methods and tools of software engineering, including certainly the area of software testing and quality control.
Here is a link to Brooks' C.ACM Obit: In Memoriam: Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. 1931-2022.
Here is Brooks' Wikipedia page: Fred Brooks.
