VSTS automate system testing.

Question

We are trying to automate system testing using VSTS 2008 by using webtest for our asp.net application. The application uses 2.0 framework and Ajax extensions. We find that if the pages are changed we need to write record test cases all over again, as the number of hidden view states are changes. And it makes sense as the recorded web test extract rules no longer applies to the changed page. But this seems to be a lot of work as we will have to keep recording all the test cases each time the page changes. Is it advisable in this situation to use VSTS test edition for automating testing. Does any one use VSTS test edition for automating system testing for web application

Answer 1

You can try to Fiddler to record the test and save it as the .webtest . Import it to VSTS web test and run it. That's the most popular way.

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Ray

Answer 2

If your hidden viewstates are not being picked up automatically, and you are sure they are present in the html response, then you can create an extraction rule to dynamically parse those values, then store in a ContextParameter.

Just replace any hard coded viewstate withe this ContextParameter and you should be good to go.

Check this blog, I think it might be what you need exactly for your scenario. reply back if you still need a pointer ;)

Extraction Rules - this blog entry here may be what you need specific to ajax
http://weblogs.asp.net/pglavich/archive/2008/06/03/vsts-2008-web-tests-and-using-fiddler.aspx

Visual Studio Templates for Extraction Rules, Plugins, etc. (useful if you need to build your own custom rules)
http://blogs.msdn.com/edglas/archive/2008/08/19/new-templates-for-plugins-and-rules.aspx

Example of a custom extraction rule (not specific to your need, but a quick code sample)
http://blogs.msdn.com/densto/pages/querystring-correlation-custom-extraction-rule-basic.aspx