Preface

As the name indicates, Quality First Software GmbH is dedicated to quality assurance for the software development process. Our contribution to this area is the product QF-Test the manual of which you are currently reading.

QF-Test is a professional tool for automating functional tests for Java or web applications with a graphical user interface. Depending on size and structure of a company the ungrateful task of testing sometimes falls to a QA department or team, sometimes to the developers and sometimes to the unlucky customer. Users of QF-Test are therefore usually developers or testers with varying knowledge about software development and testing in general and Java or web GUIs in particular.

The video 'Overview' gives a general overview of QF-Test.

You will find a more technical overview in the video 'Technical insights'.

This manual is the primary source of information for QF-Test. We have tried to explain things in a way that is understandable for all users, independent of their technical knowledge, yet provide a complete and concise reference. In case of Java specific questions, testers may fare best by contacting their developers who will surely be able to assist.

Initially QF-Test did only support Java Swing GUIs. With version 2.0 support for Eclipse/SWT was added and web support with version 3.0. Parts of QF-Test and this manual owe to this history and most things are explained from the perspective of testing a Swing GUI. In most cases the concepts are universal apply similarly to all GUIs. Where things differ, specific notes explain the particularities of a web or SWT GUI.

How to use this manual

This manual is available in HTML and PDF versions. The HTML version is split across multiple files for better navigation and to avoid excessive memory consumption of the web browser. Due to extensive cross-linking, the HTML document is the preferred version for online viewing, while the PDF version is better suited for printing. Searching should also be done in the PDF version since the splitting of the HTML files prevents searches through the whole manual.

The PDF version of the manual is located at qftest-8.0.1/doc/manual_en.pdf, the entry page of the HTML version is at qftest-8.0.1/doc/manual/en/manual.html.

A web-browser for the HTML manual can be started directly from QF-Test. The »Help«-»Manual...« menu item will take you to the entry page of the manual and »Help«-»News...« will bring up the section documenting the latest changes. Context-sensitive help is also available for all kinds of tree nodes, attributes and configurable options by clicking with the right mouse button and selecting »What's this?« from the popup menu. This may not work if the system's browser is not accessible from QF-Test.

The manual consists of three parts which are kept in one document for technical reasons (it simplifies cross-linking and index generation). They may be split in a later version. These parts are

User manual

This part explains how to install and run QF-Test and how to work with its user interface. It shows how to create and organize tests, then continues with more advanced material. To avoid duplication of text, the user manual often refers to the reference manual for detailed explanation. We recommend that you follow these links.

Reference manual

This is a complete reference that covers all configurable options, all parts of a test suite , etc. When looking for specific information, this is the place to go. The reference manual also serves as the source for context-sensitive help.

Technical reference

The part about technical details contains in-depth and background information about miscellaneous topics as well as a comprehensive API reference for the scripting interface. Beginners will rarely need to take a look at this part, but for the advanced user and the technically interested it is a valuable resource.

A learning-by-doing tutorial is also available in HTML and PDF versions. The HTML version, which is directly accessible from the »Help«-»Tutorial (HTML)...« menu item, is located at qftest-8.0.1/doc/tutorial/en/tutorial.html. The PDF version is to be found at qftest-8.0.1/doc/tutorial/tutorial_en.pdf and is also directly accessible through »Help«-»Tutorial (PDF)...«.

The following notations are used throughout the manual:

• »Menu«-»Submenu« represents a menu or menu item.
• [Modifier-Key] stands for a keystroke, where the modifier is one (or a combination) of [Shift]/[⇧], [Control]/[⌃], [Alt]/[⌥], or [⌘].
• Monospaced font is used for names of directories and files, user input and program output.
• In order to transfer at least part of the convenience of cross-linking to the paper version, references in the PDF version are underlined and show the target page number in small braces.

Last update: 9/10/2024 Copyright © 1999-2024 Quality First Software GmbH