Compuware’s QACenter Enterprise Edition TestPartner 5.4 supports GUI controls and widgets of the latest version of Microsoft .NET Framework. It also makes it easier to have tests populated with external data sources, and share test scripts in team-based development through a new test repository import/export feature.
Additionally, TestPartner 5.4 extends existing capabilities, such as the ability to test compound, customized controls, such as a data grid with a radio button embedded in one of the cells.
It does so with a tool that uses Microsoft’s own Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) as its scripting language (rather than using a proprietary scripting language of its own).
In so doing, Compuware is following the path that Microsoft has set for .NET partners: to go beyond the functionality that Microsoft already offers. In this case, with VSTS providing the collaboration platform for sharing development assets, partners add different capabilities relating to specific functions across the development life cycle.
For instance, Microsoft VSTS already has a Tester Edition that includes fairly basic unit testing and code profiling capabilities. But Microsoft does not offer functional testing, where the user interface is exercised, which is where Compuware and other rivals come in.
Although TestPartner is supposed to support multiple development platforms, for now its .NET platform support for functional testing is more current than that for Java. For instance, while it supports the latest .NET Framework controls, Compuware has yet to develop similar support for those of Eclipse. It promises to remedy that gap soon.
