Release Notes 2.x

Aus expecco Wiki (Version 2.x)
Zur Navigation springen Zur Suche springen

see also: Release Notes 1.x

Release 18.1 [previously known as "2.12"] (Spring 2018)[Bearbeiten]

With this release, we will start a new naming scheme, using the publishing year as major version number and the delivery within the year as minor vsn.
Thus, this version will be named "18.1.x" in marketing material.

This is a major new release with many UI enhancements, and a number of new features.

  • Fix: attachment handling when moving items across projects (into/out of imported projects)
  • Fix: occasional loosing SIGCHILD when multiple shell/cmd scripts were executed in parallel (race condition)
  • Fix: many fixes for bugs/inconveniences reported by customers in expeccoALM
  • Fix: STDLIB: "Stream [ read through]" was broken
  • Fix: STDLIB: "Collection [ copyFromTo ]" and "Collection [ all but Last]" did not always raise an error.
  • Feature: many GUIBrowser enhancements
  • Feature: FileBrowser: dump can be changed to be hex, octal, decimal or binary; character decoding in EBCDIC or 7-bit ASCII (to ignore high/parity bit)
  • Feature: FileBrowser: search pattern can be entered as hex byte sequence
  • Feature: Patches server: one expecco may deliver patches to all other installations in the local network
  • Feature: script actions are now executed inside the attachment folder by default. This makes it easier for the script to access files containing test data or configuration files. However, this is somewhat incompatible with previous versions, so this can be disabled via a settings flag. It can also be changed by providing the execution folder at the "execDir" pin.
  • Feature: can pass shell environment variables to shell, batch actions (and all derived actions, like Ruby, Node.js, etc.)
  • Feature: script expansion with pin-value strings for shell, batch actions and all derived actions, like Ruby, Node.js, etc.
  • Feature: prompt matching in shell, batch actions (and all derived actions, like Ruby, Node.js, etc.)
  • Feature: better error diagnostics (and error-line highlighting) in shell actions (and most derived actions, like Ruby, Node.js, etc.)
  • Feature: individual control over pin-value in activity log (e.g. to suppress passwords, cryptokeys etc.)
  • Feature: output pin values can be individually timestamped (via step's pin menu)
  • Feature: Node.js script blocks and Node.js elementary action blocks
  • Feature: VNC GUI Testing plugin
  • Feature: additional call API to invoke actions from elementary code (see Expecco_API -> Execution)
  • Feature: "Interrupt & Debug" button in the Test-Runner (to interrupt runaway elementary blocks)
  • Feature: New libraries for  MQTT (IoT) and Some/IP (Automotive) (licensed addons)
  • Feature: Immutable FreezeValues
  • Feature: New Plot/Graph action blocks
  • Feature: New R action blocks
  • Feature / UI enhancement: screenshot dialog includes an "Attach" button.
  • Feature / UI enhancement: embedded XML inspector in the attachment editor
  • Feature / UI enhancement: "Generate" submenu to generate XPath accessors in the attachment editor, when showing XML.
  • Feature: New library (StatisticDistributionsLibrary.ets) to generate random numbers with various distributions for statistic/monte carlo/simulations
  • Feature: New library (Plot_Graph.ets) to demonstrate the new Plot/Graph actions
  • Feature: New probe types to record values without checks (especially useful for plot/graph generation)
  • Feature: timestamps can now have sub-millisecond resolution
  • Performance: Speed improvement in testplan execution
  • UI Enhancement: coloring by type is now on by default (if you don't like it, go to "Settings"-"Look & Feel"-"Diagram Editor"-"Look-Elements" and turn it off again)
  • UI Enhancement: Limit the number of levels in follow activity
  • UI Enhancement: ActivityTree shows activities with handled exceptions in orange (used to be red). Also, the handling activity shows where the handled exception was thrown. Finally, the automatic navigation to the first error (after a run) will skip over handled exceptions, to place you immediately to the activity which was responsible for the failure or error.
  • UI Enhancement: goto "recently modified" and "recently executed" menus in the main-menu
  • UI enhancement: "Select Step in Diagram" menu-function in the activity log tree viewer
  • UI enhancement: "Exchange Connections" menu-function in the network editor
  • UI enhancement: "Import Attachments" tools menu-function (to import many files)
  • UI enhancement: more information and functions in the Diff-viewer; new menu item in the "Extra"-menu: "Compare two Testsuite Files"
  • UI enhancement: "Add/Remove Tag" menu functions (in tree) can also be applied recursively to children of the selected item
  • UI enhancement: if a step was selected when a new step is created (by the "New Step" function or by paste), the new step is automatically connected via trigger-out/trigger-in
  • UI Enhancement: Connect multiple (same-named) pins
  • UI enhancement: fix (rewrite) JavaScript elementary code, when a pin is renamed
  • STD-LIB: New action blocks: Stream[Set Binary Mode], Stream[Set Text Mode], Stream[Set Error-at-End Mode]
  • STD-LIB: New action blocks to access and query probes by ID (in Misc/Probes)
  • STD-LIB: New logInconclusive and logError actions (similar to logFailure, these mark the test's outcome, but continue execution)

Release 2.11.1 (Fall 2017)[Bearbeiten]

  • Bugfix Release including all patches for Release 2.11
  • Fix: Windows Automation - Stability
  • Fix: Problems with OLE

Release 2.11 (Spring 2017)[Bearbeiten]

  • Fix: JSON parameter save/reload fixed
  • Fix: method name check in codeView was disabled
  • Feature: "must be executed" attribute in action definition
  • Feature: extensions to the expecco GUI automation framework
  • Feature: new interfaces for automotive and mechanical engineering technoligies
  • Feature: new host bound single user licensing scheme
  • Packaging: new expecco product bundle: "expecco Testcenter" - test automation plus test and resource management in one package

Release 2.10.1 (= 2.10 + Patches)[Bearbeiten]

  • Fix: keyboard focus for menu
  • Backward Compatibility Fix: the fixes in the JavaScript "indexOf()"-functions (done in 2.8) lead to problems with a customer (which migrated from 2.7.5 to 2.10). For this, two flags have been added to the suite-attributes, which enforce the old behavior for individual and/or all imported libraries. This allows for old code (which expects the wrong 1-based indexOf return values) to coexist with new code (which expects the correct 0-based versions) within a single test suite.
  • Feature: Patches can be loaded via HTTP (FTP was blocked in some customers' networks)
  • Performance: Bulk data transfers to network drives under Windows.

Release 2.10 (Fall 2016)[Bearbeiten]

  • Feature: Mobile Testing Plugin (renamed from "Appium Plugin") got more support functions to administer appium & adb connections
  • Feature: new "Reimport Tool" for bulk reimport and library (dependency) checking
  • Feature: DLL-mapping dialog in the settings. For a typical usage example, see Installation of AutoIt
  • Feature: New blocks in the stdlib ("Split by Size" and "Split by Element"), to split collections (strings) into sized pieces or at a separator.
  • Feature: New command line options to specify individual parameter values
  • Feature: More formats supported for external parameter files (JSON)
  • Feature: new command line arguments: -E, -P:, --parameter:, --silent, --licenseServerHost, --licenseServerPort
  • Feature: the new Java Bridge V2/DotNET Bridge V2 is now used by the default. The new bridge uses only a single port for communication (thus making firewall/router setup easier), supports casts, better controllable argument-type specification, is faster in its communication and supports asynchronous messages with lazy results. In case of backward compatibility problems, the old bridge is still available and can be used by changing the settings.
  • Feature: custom print length of the pin and log values for the report
  • Feature: "Ignore All Skip in Trace" settings to enforce a full trace (for debugging)
  • Performance: (dramatic) speedup in some image handling functions.
  • Performance: speedup (50%) in the XML reader.
  • Performance: speedup initial startup by not loading unlicensed plugins
  • UI enhancement: GUI Browser: double click on action/attribute item adds it to the list
  • UI enhancement: GUI Browser: reconnect/fix autostart when deleting recorded steps
  • UI enhancement: GUI Browser: better undo handling
  • UI enhancement: GUI Browser: keep tree and selection on refresh (not all technologies)
  • UI enhancement: better replace-step dialog in diagram editor (library filter added)
  • UI enhancement: Line numbers in the attachment editor
  • UI enhancement: Line numbers and trim-blank-lines option in multiline freeze value entry
  • UI enhancement: color settings for red-green deficiency (in status color dialog)
  • Change: SerialPort Plugin: the port parameter pins (baudrate, stop-bits, parity etc.) are now parameter pins. This will only affect you, if the open-serial-port block is triggered via one of those pins (which is very very unlikely)
  • Fix: All leftover (unclosed) external connections (Sockets, Serial Lines, Bridges) are closed after a testrun, when in slave mode
  • Fix: All leftover (unterminated) started appium servers are closed after a testrun, when in slave mode
  • Fix: Multiline freeze value editor interpreted strings starting with digits as numeric value
  • Fix: Multiline freeze value editor allows for empty lines at the end


Release 2.9 (June/2016)[Bearbeiten]

  • Feature: Mobile Testing (aka "Appium")-Plugin: Add recorder
  • Feature: Mobile Testing Plugin: Update capabilities
  • Feature: Mobile Testing Plugin: Settings Dialog for setting up external auxiliary programs (adb, Appium Server, AVD Manager, SDK Manager)
  • Feature: Mobile Testing Plugin: New menu for launching auxiliary programs (Appium Server, AVD Manager, SDK Manager)
  • Feature: Mobile Testing Plugin: New buttons in Android Wizard to refresh the device list, launch AVD Manager, install APKs.
  • Feature: Mobile Testing Plugin: Save and load connection settings in and from attachments in test suite.
  • Feature: Mobile Testing Plugin: Allow editing and copying of connection settings.
  • Feature: Mobile Testing Plugin: Allow adding arbitrary capabilities for forward compatibility.
  • Feature: Mobile Testing Plugin Bundle: Update contents, in particular use Appium Server 1.4.16.
  • Feature: Mobile Testing Plugin Bundle: Remove Android emulator from bundle as it is huge. If needed, download and install it separately.
  • Feature: New Java Bridge (still experimental in 2.9). The old Java Bridge is still available and enabled by default.
  • UI enhancement: Mobile Testing Plugin: More verbose warning dialogs.
  • UI enhancement: Mobile Testing Plugin: Remove obsolete "Emulator Settings" from connection dialog (using the wizard is superior now).
  • UI enhancement: Mobile Testing Plugin: Make newCommandTimeout capability user visible
  • UI enhancement: Mobile Testing Plugin: Remove unimportantView from default capabilities
  • UI enhancement: Mobile Testing Plugin: Automatically select entry in Android Wizard if only one is available.
  • UI enhancement: Mobile Testing Plugin: Highlight unknown capabilities to give a hint in case of bad spelling.
  • UI enhancement: Mobile Testing Plugin: Add a search filter for packages in the Android Wizard.
  • UI enhancement: General/Linux: Support for Anti-Aliased XFT-Fonts.
  • STD-LIB: Image Save block supports writing of JPEG images.
  • Mobile Testing Library: New blocks for multi-touch actions
  • Mobile Testing Library: New block for reading capabilities from files
  • Mobile Testing Library: New blocks for reading logs
  • Mobile Testing Library: New block "Find Elements by XPath" for finding sets of elements
  • Mobile Testing Library: New blocks for consecutive actions on single elements
  • Mobile Testing Library: New block for taking screenshots
  • Mobile Testing Library: New blocks for pressKeyCode API, make old blocks (sendKeyEvent API) obsolete
  • Localization: Mobile Testing Plugin: German translation mostly complete.
  • Documentation: Update and add more documentation to Appium library.
  • Fix: Mobile Testing Plugin: Timeout in Android Wizard if adb does not return.
  • Fix: Mobile Testing Plugin: Do not cut off multi-line status messages in Android Wizard.
  • Fix: Mobile Testing Plugin: Fix error and bad behavior when cancelling file dialog in connection settings.
  • Fix: Mobile Testing Plugin: Do not drop connection settings on connection error.
  • Fix: Mobile Testing Plugin: Use Java path from Settings
  • Fix: XML/XPath - accepts underscore ('_') and Unicode characters in element and attribute names.
  • Fix: RemoteAccess Plugin - fix error waiting for prompt
  • Fix: RemoteAccess Plugin - fix response in same line as command
  • Fix: Java GUI Plugin - fix error in "Verify Path"


Release 2.8 (Q4/2015)[Bearbeiten]

Notice: You have to install a patch for expecco 2.7.5, if you want to load a Testsuite which was edited in expecco 2.8 and uses some of the new features! (More info)

  • Feature: Table driven actions; these offer a simpler, table oriented interface
  • Feature: Mobile Testing-Plugin (was "Appium"-Plugin) for Android and Apple iOS test automation for mobile devices
  • Feature: Variable number of pins in groups ("Variable Pin Groups")
  • Feature: First release of the Expecco Reflection Library (to automate expecco itself)
  • Feature: Enum datatype: support for individual assigned enum values, described in the Datatype Editor Documentation and the Datatype Element Documentation and also the API Documentation.
  • Feature: REST service for remote controlling expecco execution
  • Feature: New Ruby actions
  • Feature: Better execution directory settings for Shell blocks
  • Feature: New step attributes for more specific "skip in log/trace" options (for looping actions)
  • Feature: New user preference setting to ignore all skip-in-log attributes (for debugging)
  • Feature: "immediate fork new process" flag now also in block description or dynamically from elementary code
  • Feature: Improved performer data type handling; virtual steps now only accept valid performers, and freeze value choices are filtered for valid performers.
  • Feature: Option to start background action before or after pre-action
  • Feature: New constraint datatype type (for better freeze value selection)
  • Feature/Fix: compatibility of indexOf() / lastIndexOf() JavaScript functions (allow substring search)
  • Feature: Data inspector for strings shows another (XML-DOM) tab if the string is an XML string. This tab shows the parsed XML DOM-tree.
  • Feature: Attachments can now be declared as binary file attachment. These will not be interpreted; especially, no cr/lf translation and utf8 or similar character translation is performed. Binary attachments are required, e.g. to embed jar or other code files.
  • UI enhancement: Multiline labels in steps (use "\" as line-separator)
  • UI enhancement: Additional custom headline and custom text block in reports (can be filled in right before printing).
  • UI enhancement: Can now also set breakpoints on steps and code lines of readonly actions (e.g. in an imported library)
  • UI enhancement: Undo gives a warning when about to undo past the previous file-save state
  • UI enhancement: Added a menu item in "Extras" - "Debugging" to stop background menu actions
  • UI enhancement: Added more convenient pin-comment editing support to the schema editor
  • UI enhancement: Text editor has a new "split" menu function in its tools-submenu
  • UI enhancement: Better "New Step" and "Replace Step" dialogs in the diagram editor (showing preview, code and contents; also show attachments).
  • UI enhancement: Better autoconnect and matching blocks search algorithm in the "Place and Select New Step" function (i.e. New Step function, when an output pin is selected)
  • UI enhancement: New scale diagram function (scale and spread multiple steps)
  • UI enhancement: Lint performs a number of checks on a block being edited and gives immediate warnings in the info line (same checks as in the tree's error- and special search tabs)
  • UI enhancement: New lint-error check rules to detect consumed pin values in loops and multi-triggered chains.
  • UI enhancement: Double click on a search item to navigate to it in the tree
  • UI enhancement: Codeview and network view in the activitylog indicate that they are readonly.
  • UI enhancement: Secondary navigation tree for drag&drop.
  • UI enhancement: Warn if it is due time to check for updates.
  • STD-LIB: Collection creator and multi-setter blocks with variable number of pins (alternating key-value pairs)
  • STD-LIB: New DLL-Mapping block
  • STD-LIB: New blocks "File [modification time]", "File [access time]" and "File [creation time]".
  • STD-LIB: Additional blocks for event queue handling.
  • STD-LIB: Additional blocks for static step-local storage.
  • STD-LIB: Better versions for FAIL/WARN/INFO, LogFAIL, logWARNING and logINFO. New "Transcriber with Timestamp" action.
  • STD-LIB: Fixed some collection-type issues (now pins are #-template-typed, instead of Collection), which required a downcast in many suites.
  • STD-LIB: New blocks: "Trigger Periodically" and "Counter"
  • STD-LIB: New blocks: "Enumtype symbol<->integer"
  • Fix: Freeze value menu of unions of enums did not merge the individual enum values
  • Fix: Freeze value menu of unions of constraint dataType-types
  • Fix: The search breakpoints function (in the errors-tab of the treeview) now also finds statement breakpoints.
  • Fix: Fixes and improvements in the SOAP, REST and WSDL frameworks
  • Fix: Enum numeric value assignments were lost sometimes when saving/restoring
  • Fix: Search for references of a variable did not find them in imported libraries
  • Fix: Report of looped testplans (pre-action was reported multiple times)
  • Fix: behavior of cancel pin (did neither drive triggerOut-pin, nor exception-pin)
  • Fix: Fixes for crashes in follow mouse and backward (XPath) compatibility in WindowsAutomation Plugin
  • Fix: The embedded type editor for defined classes lost its code window, when reopened on another class type.
  • Fix: Proper class naming is now enforced in the type editor.


Release 2.7.5 (2015-06-09)[Bearbeiten]

New features:

  • The JavaFX plugin now supports keyboard input. Use the block "Request Focus" to focus an input field and the block "Type Text" to enter any text.

Bugfixes:

  • The JavaFX plugin now provides improved connection handling.


For expecco running under Linux you need glibc >= 2.14

Tested technology versions:

  • Selenium
  • The Java Bridge requires a JDK version 1.6 or higher
  • JavaFX testing requires JavaFX 8
  • Qt: Qt 2.6.3 (MinGW, vs2008), Qt 4.8.4 (MinGW, vs2008, vs2010, vs2013), Qt 5.4.2 (vs2010, vs2013)
  • .NET
  • MFC
  • HTML 5
  • DevExpress
  • Android
  • iOS
  • Windows CE/Mobile Phone
  • CANoe: 8.2 SP4
  • WSDL-Import: it is required that you re-import your WSDL-Definitions in your Testsuites

Release 2.7.1[Bearbeiten]

  • Convenient menu functions to add the special "java" and "groovy" input pins to a Groovy elementary block.
  • Standard library: new blocks: "Directory [ Contents as Filenames ]", "Directory [ Contents as Pathnames ]", "Directory [ Contents as Basenames ]", "File [ isReadable? ]" and "File [ isWritable? ]"

Release 2.7[Bearbeiten]

  • Patches go into a release specific directory (e.g. patches-2.7.0.5)
  • configurable external editor for attachments and csv data (e.g. excel or openoffice calculator)
  • tree view: markers in search lists; add to/remove from remembered list menu items
  • tree view: folders can have tags, too
  • tree view: per-tag icons in tree
  • "--diff" command line option
  • "--settings" command line option
  • Scatter/Gather composition of test plans from multiple suites via command line arguments
  • library: background OS process and background block actions
  • improved type checks and preference settings
  • schema editor: cursor up/down keys in pin name fields
  • schema and diagram editor: additional menu functions in multiple-pin selection menu
  • new blocks in the StandardLibrary: ExceptionClassifier, WriteCSV, Load/Save Environment from/to CSV
  • SAP plugin and VBScript action blocks
  • change in the handling of Groovy callbacks. Please read "Attention / Warning" and "Special Functions" in the Groovy API documentation.
  • improved Groovy debugging support
  • new common Android and iPhone/iPad testing framework
  • option to save a per-run report, when a suite is executed in a loop (especially useful, when running until fail or until success)
  • block assertions: assert-executed / assert-all outputs written / assert any output written
  • License server support


Release 2.6.2 bugfix release - April 2014[Bearbeiten]

Thus is a stable release consisting of the 2.6.1 base version INCLUDING all 2.6.1 patches (up to April).

Release 2.6.1 update - January 2014[Bearbeiten]

  • groovy action: the java-bridge can be passed in via pin named "java" or environment var named "JAVA". GroovyShell can be passed in via pin named "groovy" or variable named "GROOVY". Pins are optional for backward compatibility.

Release 2.6 - November 2013[Bearbeiten]

  • New testplan execution loop mode: "loop until required test fails"
  • More options for automatic check for and installation of updates & patches
  • Better default directories in file open/save/import dialogs.
  • Tuned automatic reimport when multiple libraries are imported.
  • Improved Java object inspector
  • New attachment contents representation modes.
  • Step tooltips include the underlying block's tree location.
  • Shift click on connection selects all underlying connections.
  • Give an indication (colorize menubar) if running with root/Admin rights.
  • Option to put the custom operations menu into the top menu
  • Additional tab in tree view to search by item-type
  • Additional search options for interfaces and concrete actions
  • Various bug fixes & enhancements:
    • handle duplicate attachment filenames,
    • fixed some type conversions,
    • fixed clipboard handling under XWindow/Qt desktop,
    • fixed non-changing testplan/testitem spec page.
    • added string search in resources, skills and inventories
    • no longer close expanded tree items when reimporting
    • fixed making an imported library writable, which is imported by another sub-import
    • fixed freeze of template pin to boolean/enum
    • fixed enum values which start with a digit (aka '001 aaa')
    • remove freeze value connection via menu


Release 2.5[Bearbeiten]

  • Can refer to shell environment variables in an environment variable's initializer.
  • New elementary block type: Groovy Code. Installs script code to be executed in a Java target or a local JVM.
  • New keyword driven actions
  • Additional checks in save dialogs to prevent overwriting another testsuite/library
  • Optional automatic reimport or check for reimportable imports (configure via settings dialog)
  • Additional freeze value validation when types are edited
  • New plugin: Jar Import
  • New and much improved manual test import plugin
  • Speedup, improvements and fixes in the JavaBridge plugin
  • Menu actions can execute in the background (name as "...&")
  • Background actions in testplan and testcase
  • Much faster: startup, plugin loading and bridge communication
  • Multiple freeze value menu organizations for enum types (hierarchical selection)

Release 2.5.1 - July 2013[Bearbeiten]

  • Automatic & semiautomatic update from server


Release 2.4 - February 2013[Bearbeiten]

This is a bugfix release, in which various patches and small enhancements from the past few months have been integrated.


Release 2.3 - December 2012[Bearbeiten]

  • New integrated GUI Browser
  • New menu functions: "minimize/restore all Windows"
  • Polarion compatible report
  • Improved Project-Diff-Browser


Release 2.2[Bearbeiten]

  • New SchemaEditor menu functions: copy/paste pin interface
  • New plugin: Gembird Power Control Plugin
  • New debug-menu function: "close all temporary windows"
  • Probes; easy recording and check of pinValues
  • JUnit compatible report
  • HTTP and SOAP transmission log (optional on Transcript)
  • Fixed WSDL/SOAP for document-style operations
  • Better inspector (hex dump tab, hex representation of floats)


Release 2.1 - November 2011[Bearbeiten]

  • Condition variables for simple (and easy to use) control of testcase execution
  • REST-Call blocks
  • Option to disable logging of activityNotifications (from the underlying language framework)
  • URL-override for SOAP service call blocks via the SOAP_URL environment variable.
  • Access to the certificate store (for SSL/HTTPS), allows adding and removing individual certificates
  • Elementary steps can have a variable number of output-pins (for multiplexer, dispatcher, round-robin generators etc.)
  • New menu function: "Generate Value Extractor" for Dictionary-typed pin values. (in the activityLog, output pin-data menu)
  • New tree-menu function: "Refactor"->"Change Variable Access", to search for and replace environment variable references.
  • New datatype "struct", to represent arbitrary compound (struct) values.
  • GUI improvements: better annotation-text editors; line numbers, tags in file viewer
  • Allow for multi pin-value parametrization in testplan (block with multiple inputs in a testplan item)
  • Proxy support for HTTP-fetch blocks
  • Recording feature for Java Swing GUIs
  • Enhanced Java Swing Function Block Library
  • GUI Browser improvements: tree view with widget specific icons, record tree actions


Release 2.0[Bearbeiten]

  • Elementary steps can have a variable number of input-pins (improves the format, plus, string-concat and many other blocks)
  • Statistic page added to the project editor
  • Improved manual test import plugin; nicer Manualtest runner GUI; user definable manual test GUI
  • Allow for pin-value parametrization in testplan (block with a single input parameter in a testplan item)
  • Configurable max. cleanup time after terminating a run; Confirmation Dialog when longer.
  • ActivityLog: added "Select in Tree" from log-entry
  • HTTPS / SSL Support for HTTP blocks



Copyright © 2014-2024 eXept Software AG