Tip #1 – Test Data: Creating exact file size using DOS command utility.
Let us say you wanted to test file upload feature in web application and the maximum file upload size is 3 MB. Now, you search in your local computer to see whether you have 3MB file and finally you see that you do not have exact 3 MB size for any file. Now, what do you do? Will you open *.txt and start entering characters and keep checking if the file is showing 3 MB? Well, that can be done; but it is time consuming and crude way of doing it. We call ourselves engineers, let us do it in cool way.
For windows user, you can just try this command on your DOS prompt;
fsutil file createnew enter_your_filename_here enter_the_number_of_bytes_you_want_to_create
Example: fsutil file createnew myprofilepicture.PNG 12000
Tip #2 – Converting image formats from one to another in bulk
Let us say, you took a lot of screenshots and finally you see that they have lot of file size as you saved them as *.BMP which is why they show up big file size. Now, you want to convert all of them to light-weight file sizes format which could be JPG or PNG. How would you do that? Keep opening every image one by one and again “Save as”? Again, crude way. What if the screenshots that you took are like 100+ images?
Now, let us show you some way where you can change the file formats in few seconds for large number of image files whose format is *.BMP
Download ImageMagick from http://imagemagick.org/
You have a command which you can execute once you install the software successfully!
Here is the command,
convert filename.BMP filename.PNG
Voila!
Well, you need not keep writing the file names every time you need to change the file format. You may want to collect all file names of BMP using DOS command, I will not let you know about this. I want you to figure out this while I have given you the command for conversion. You can run list of commands using Excel or *.bat (Batch file). Go, explore!
Tip #3 – Compare the build files for every new build.
The first activity that needs to be done from a tester could be, comparing the new build files with the stable build which has complete set of files. With this activity, one can get to know if some file is missing and a high alert can be raised to the development team to fix it and check-in new build files to start the testing activity. This can happen if you have access to the source code repository. Most of the testers do not even want to get access to the source code repository and have an assumption that, they are not allowed to do so, while it was just one e-mail sent to the development team your test manager so that he / she could get you the access. For doing this you can use “Beyond Compare” which has folder compare which compares file by file. If some file is missing, then you can get to know at the early stage and you get to know something if fishy with the new build.
Tip #4 – SysInternals Suite – Use them and find out how every utility can help
I have been a fan of Sysinternals Suite utilities. They are tiny, yet bloody powerful. I personally have used it since my school days for various activities, oh yes; being a hacker these tiny little chaps help me in doing a lot. I bet, you cannot ignore yourself from falling in love with them. Every tiny utility helps me identify the tests that I can do. It is like reverse engineering, I use the utility and then identify how this utility can help in my testing activity. Try them at your convenience and you may love them.
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