Agile Testing by Example-driven Development

Running the Robot Framework in your own Docker Container

The Robot Framework is a test framework to automate acceptance tests. Docker is a well-known and widely used container solution. In this article we will combine both tools showing the benefits this has in using the Robot Framework. It is almost impossible...

• Container
• Testing

22.2.2019 | 8 minutes reading time

Gamma-TicTacToe – Neural Network and Machine Learning in a simple game

This post is about implementing a – quite basic – Neural Network that is able to play the game Tic-Tac-Toe . For sure there is not really a need for any Neural Network or Machine Learning model to implement a good – well, basically perfect – computer...

• AI
• Machine Learning

12.1.2018 | 12 minutes reading time

Robot Framework – Compare Images (Screenshots)

The comparison of images (screenshots) is one aspect of acceptance-level testing for web applications. It is especially meaningful for relatively static web pages to check for broken image references and layout flaws that are hard to detect otherwise...

• Agile

21.9.2017 | 6 minutes reading time

Given-When-Then in JUnit Tests

Looking at JUnit tests can be a bit weird at times. Often a lot of preparation work in terms of preparing mock objects and responses is required. Even though this is very well supported by tools like Mockito and PowerMock , the resulting test code is...

• Java

14.9.2017 | 3 minutes reading time

Next Generation Test Automation with Usetrace

Test Automation is an inherent part of today’s modern software development. It is the foundation that supports short release cycles and processes like DevOps . Automated tests are written on different levels testing different aspects of an application...

• Testing

7.9.2017 | 8 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Web-Template – Selenium2, PhantomJS, Basic Authentification

This article and the corresponding template-project has been updated on 10th of March 2017 to include support for Geckodriver. This article is an up-to-date version of “Robot Framework – A complete example” from 2012. Even though a lot of things from...

• Testing
• Agile

24.2.2017 | 8 minutes reading time

My 100th post on the codecentric blog :-)

Today this will be a “slightly different” blog post than usual. That is because this very post will be an anniversary for me personally as it is my 100th post on our company blog. Thus I thought this cannot be just some “ordinary” post. Some kind of ...

24.1.2017 | 4 minutes reading time

Flyway Tutorial – Execute Migrations using Maven

This is the second part of our threepart series on Flyway. The first part showing the installation, basic concepts and a sample project can be found from here . Executing Migrations using Maven is nothing that is really required to work successfully...

• Open Source

20.1.2017 | 3 minutes reading time

Flyway Tutorial – Managing Database Migrations

Many software projects are still using relational databases as an important part of their technology stack. This typically requires the handling of database migrations, also often called schema migrations. Reasons to perform migrations on the database...

• Open Source

16.1.2017 | 10 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 – Wrap-Up and Conclusion

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 Part 1: Installation Part 2: Keywords Part 3: Implementing Keywords in Java Part 4: Selenium2Library as a drop-in replacement for SeleniumLibrary Part 5: Integration with TeamCity CI-Server Part 6: Integration ...

22.12.2016 | 4 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 – Working with Collections

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 Part 1: Installation Part 2: Keywords Part 3: Implementing Keywords in Java Part 4: Selenium2Library as a drop-in replacement for SeleniumLibrary Part 5: Integration with TeamCity CI-Server Part 6: Integration ...

16.12.2016 | 5 minutes reading time

A short history in Version Control Systems – RCS, ClearCase, SVN, Git

Let’s start this post with a question: Have you worked productively with RCS in any software development project? If the answer is “yes”, then you are either old – so am I 🙂 – or you are really unlucky if you have used that one recently – read “in ...

18.11.2016 | 6 minutes reading time

(J)Unit Testing Principles

This article is about basic principles for Java JUnit tests. Even though most of the following principles are probably also true for unit tests written in other programming languages. Every now and then I am really wondering why we – the folks developing...

• Testing

11.11.2016 | 4 minutes reading time

A Developer’s View on the PostgreSQL Database

Basically every project is using a database as one of its central components. At least I cannot remember a single project from the last 15 years that has not been using one. And even though NoSQL databases are on the rise, relational databases – like...

• Database

13.10.2016 | 7 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 – File Processing

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 Part 1: Installation Part 2: Keywords Part 3: Implementing Keywords in Java Part 4: Selenium2Library as a drop-in replacement for SeleniumLibrary Part 5: Integration with TeamCity CI-Server Part 6: Integration ...

• Testing

14.7.2016 | 4 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 – Integration with Jenkins

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 Part 1: Installation Part 2: Keywords Part 3: Implementing Keywords in Java Part 4: Selenium2Library as a drop-in replacement for SeleniumLibrary Part 5: Integration with TeamCity CI-Server Part 6: Integration ...

• Testing

7.7.2016 | 5 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 – Integration with TeamCity CI-Server

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 Part 1: Installation Part 2: Keywords Part 3: Implementing Keywords in Java Part 4: Selenium2Library as a drop-in replacement for SeleniumLibrary Part 5: Integration with TeamCity CI-Server Part 6: Integration with...

• Testing
• Java

14.4.2016 | 6 minutes reading time

What Agile Software Development has in common with Sailing

Writing about Agile feels a bit like shoveling water from a strainer to the ocean … with a spoon. But as this blog post says “Sailing” in its headline it fits quite nicely with the ocean metaphor. I like sailing! And I like Agile Software Development...

7.4.2016 | 8 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 – Selenium2Library as a drop-in replacement...

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 Part 1: Installation Part 2: Keywords Part 3: Implementing Keywords in Java Part 4: Selenium2Library as a drop-in replacement for SeleniumLibrary Part 5: Integration with TeamCity CI-Server Part 6: Integration with...

• Testing

18.3.2016 | 9 minutes reading time

JUnit Testing using Mockito and PowerMock

Von diesem Artikel ist auch eine deutschsprachige Version verfügbar. There was this nasty thought coming to my mind when starting to write this blog post: Does the world really need yet another article on JUnit , Mockito and PowerMock ? Well, in fact...

• Testing

4.3.2016 | 7 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 – Remote Server Keywords in Java

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 Part 1: Installation Part 2: Keywords Part 3: Implementing Keywords in Java Part 4: Selenium2Library as a drop-in replacement for SeleniumLibrary Part 5: Integration with TeamCity CI-Server Part 6: Integration with...

29.1.2016 | 5 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 – Keywords

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 Part 1: Installation Part 2: Keywords Part 3: Implementing Keywords in Java Part 4: Selenium2Library as a drop-in replacement for SeleniumLibrary Part 5: Integration with TeamCity CI-Server Part 6: Integration with...

15.1.2016 | 10 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 – Installation

Robot Framework Tutorial 2016 Part 1: Installation Part 2: Keywords Part 3: Implementing Keywords in Java Part 4: Selenium2Library as a drop-in replacement for SeleniumLibrary Part 5: Integration with TeamCity CI-Server Part 6: Integration with...

• Agile
• Testing

8.1.2016 | 7 minutes reading time

MicroPlode – Microservices dialogue

MicroPlode – A Microservices Experiment Part I: MicroPlode – A Microservices Experiment Part II: MicroPlode – Implementing the first Microservice This blog post will differ quite a bit from the previous ones of this series. Now that even two codecentric...

• Functional programming
• Node.js
• API

14.12.2015 | 6 minutes reading time

My take on Story Points

Ok, some confession first: This is a rather spontaneous blog post … story points … it is somehow funny how in the past few days the discussion about story points have been accumulating in totally different occurrences for me. And the following simply...

30.11.2015 | 8 minutes reading time

MicroPlode – Implementing the first Microservice

Content Context: Where am I here and why is it so dark :-)? Getting started: Setting up a new project for our first Microservice implementation. Message for you: Doing the hard things first. Conclusion and Outlook: Some thoughts on the progress of...

30.11.2015 | 8 minutes reading time

MicroPlode – A Microservices Experiment

Content The Idea: What the heck does the term MicroPlode mean and what is this all about? The Architecture: A first sketch on a Microservice Architecture for the playground project. Some Technical Stuff: Well, here comes some technical stuff, yeah ...

• Microservices

6.11.2015 | 11 minutes reading time

Perl – The Ultimate Programming Language :-)

Ok, I really really tried hard to avoid any exaggerations in the title of this blog post and I strongly believe ultimate is a more than proper description of what is for sure the best programming language on the planet. Maybe the universe … but let’s...

• Programming language

3.9.2015 | 4 minutes reading time

Testing your Liquibase Migrations in Continuous Integration

We are using Liquibase now for almost one year in one of our current projects and it really worked out very well so far. We are basically using the “best practice” approach described in one of our previous blog posts here . But … and isn’t there always...

23.7.2015 | 5 minutes reading time

Testing Web Applications with JBehave, PhantomJS and PageObjects

Testing web applications is the one thing that could be really really painful. Nevertheless typically there is no way around it when implementing web applications. Luckily the selected tools and applying best practices can help a lot to improve in this...

16.7.2015 | 9 minutes reading time

Managing your Database Migrations using Liquibase

Performing database migrations – or we can also call them schema migrations – is an essential task in almost every software project. There could be different reasons why updates to the database are required, some examples are: New features might require...

• Database

30.1.2015 | 9 minutes reading time

Robot Framework – Compact Sheet

Robot Framework Tutorial Part I: Robot Framework Tutorial – Overview Part II: Robot Framework – A complete example Part III: Robot Framework IDE Part IV: How to Structure a Scalable And Maintainable Acceptance Test Suite Part V: Robot Framework...

9.10.2014 | 1 minutes reading time

What is Agile Testing? – A comparison with classical QA

When reading articles about Agile Testing the explanation often goes like this: Agile Testing means testing in an agile project environment. Followed by a lengthy description of what agile is (or is not). Hardly any further word on the testing aspect...

29.6.2014 | 7 minutes reading time

Robot Framework – Testing Windows Applications

Robot Framework Tutorial Part I: Robot Framework Tutorial – Overview Part II: Robot Framework – A complete example Part III: Robot Framework IDE Part IV: How to Structure a Scalable And Maintainable Acceptance Test Suite Part V: Robot Framework...

• Agile

7.2.2014 | 6 minutes reading time

JavaScript – Search for text in HTML page

Preface Probably I should start this blog post with a big disclaimer, because so far doing anything with JavaScript to me was like entering a world of pain (sorry, but the movie reference is a must). Furthermore I see a really huge risk here that some...

• JavaScript

15.11.2013 | 3 minutes reading time

Aerospike NoSQL Database – First Contact

Just by pure chance I was stumbling upon Aerospike, a NoSQL data store that I had never heard of so far. Browsing a bit on the product’s homepage it sounds really interesting to me and so why not giving it a try. Quickly the plan was born to get a local...

• Software development

27.6.2013 | 7 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial – Loops, Conditional Execution and more

Robot Framework Tutorial Part I: Robot Framework Tutorial – Overview Part II: Robot Framework – A complete example Part III: Robot Framework IDE Part IV: How to Structure a Scalable And Maintainable Acceptance Test Suite Part V: Robot Framework...

• Testing

5.5.2013 | 6 minutes reading time

Struggling with Test Automation – Potential problems and how to approach...

Implementing automated acceptance or integration tests as part of a project is a very common thing to do nowadays. Even though already in “the earlier days” of software development often some scripting was done to automate certain testing functionality...

• Agile

11.4.2013 | 10 minutes reading time

MongoDB: Tutorial

This is the seventh and final blog post on my series on studying MongoDB by following the 10gen Developer Class . And this post will be quite different from all the previous ones and as I believe for a good reason. I started all this rather spontaneously...

• NoSQL

27.12.2012 | 2 minutes reading time

MongoDB: The Sixth Sense

Finally time for the almost final blog post on this series. It is the sixth lecture from the MongoDB course I am doing at 10gen education . As it is good tradition by now using film titles for the blog I will of course keep up this tradition . Nevertheless...

• NoSQL

21.12.2012 | 11 minutes reading time

MongoDB: The Fifth Element

What has been started more than five weeks back as my “small” personal MongoDB experiment is now entering its fifth round. Still I am following the corresponding MongoDB course at 10gen and this week it is all about aggregation functions. You know this...

• NoSQL

7.12.2012 | 12 minutes reading time

MongoDB: I am Number Four

Here we go again and I have to admit that my head is already spinning a little bit from all the MongoDB input during the last couple of weeks. With the fourth post in this series we have reached halftime in the 10gen’s seven week course on MongoDB. And...

• NoSQL

30.11.2012 | 21 minutes reading time

MongoDB: Supplemental – A complete Java Project – Part 2

The previous part of this series was dealing with storing some medium complex documents to MongoDB. Now it is time to pull them out again. As so far we are only dealing with a single document at a time (and not with a list of documents) that should ...

• NoSQL

19.11.2012 | 5 minutes reading time

MongoDB: Supplemental – A complete Java Project – Part 1

What is the best way to start a blog post on MongoDB and Java programming? Any idea? Take your time, it also took me some time to figure out. And the answer is: Some really big relational table model of course :-). Relational Table View After being ...

• NoSQL

16.11.2012 | 13 minutes reading time

MongoDB: Supplemental – GRIDFS Example in Java

As mentioned earlier it is time to do some real stuff in this blogging series. Therefore it is good that this week’s class had an example for storing blobs in MongoDB using Python. Yes, well, Python, you know, that is the programming language with these...

• Big Data
• NoSQL

13.11.2012 | 4 minutes reading time

MongoDB: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Just with the first key strokes of this post I am entering the third week of my MongoDB developers course @ 10gen . Luckily I found another film title that fits in here, well one way or the other . Writing this blog series along with taking the lectures...

• NoSQL

11.11.2012 | 15 minutes reading time

MongoDB: Second Round

My class on MongoDB is continuing and so is this blog series. After not only surviving the first contact with MongoDB but finding its concepts quite intriguing I am curious what comes next. MongoDB – Week 2 I am learning more on schemas for a schema...

• NoSQL

8.11.2012 | 17 minutes reading time

MongoDB: First Contact

I am still not 100% sure why I did this, but some days ago I spontaneously enrolled for an online MongoDB Developers Course. Me! MongoDB! That is after more than ten years of developing software heavily based on Oracle and another three years using DB...

• NoSQL

1.11.2012 | 8 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Generic Testdata Framework – From the Idea to the initial...

The basic idea for a Generic Testdata Framework as an extension to the Robot Framework was initially described here . Well, things have been proceeding since then and there is an initial release available for download. This is more then reason enough...

• Framework
• Testing

4.10.2012 | 4 minutes reading time

Robot Framework – Closing the Gap

Ever since I started working with the Robot Framework – already back in the days when I saw it evolving in the Nokia R & D – I am totally convinced of the power of its keyword-driven approach. It is an excellent example of the fact that the best solutions...

• Testing

6.9.2012 | 8 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial – Writing Keyword Libraries in Java

Robot Framework Tutorial Part I: Robot Framework Tutorial – Overview Part II: Robot Framework Tutorial – A complete example Part III: Robot Framework IDE Part IV: How to Structure a Scalable And Maintainable Acceptance Test Suite Part V: Robot...

• Testing

10.6.2012 | 7 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial – A complete example

Robot Framework Tutorial Part I: Robot Framework Tutorial – Overview Part II: Robot Framework Tutorial – A complete example Part III: Robot Framework IDE Part IV: How to Structure a Scalable And Maintainable Acceptance Test Suite Part V: Robot...

• Agile

26.4.2012 | 14 minutes reading time

Robot Framework Tutorial – Overview

Robot Framework Tutorial Part I: Robot Framework Tutorial – Overview Part II: Robot Framework – A complete example Part III: Robot Framework IDE Part IV: How to Structure a Scalable And Maintainable Acceptance Test Suite Part V: Robot Framework...

23.3.2012 | 11 minutes reading time

Database Library 2.0 for the Robot Framework

It has been really long time since the initial release of the Database Library for the Robot Framework. But finally a new release is available that contains some bugfixes as well as some additional keywords. But the biggest improvement is for sure the...

• Agile

20.2.2012 | 2 minutes reading time

Automated Acceptance-Testing using Concordion

There are plenty of open-source tools available that are supporting the automation of acceptance tests. This also results in a lot of different concepts to do this. For example the Robot Framework is using a keyword-driven approach and offers a lot ...

• Agile
• Software development

27.1.2012 | 8 minutes reading time

Robot Framework IDE (RIDE) – Overview

Robot Framework Tutorial Part I: Robot Framework Tutorial – Overview Part II: Robot Framework – A complete example Part III: Robot Framework IDE Part IV: How to Structure a Scalable And Maintainable Acceptance Test Suite Part V: Robot Framework...

• Agile
• Testing

13.1.2012 | 6 minutes reading time

Executing tasks in parallel using Java Future

Recently I was attending a really interesting presentation by Adam Bien who was using Future as part of his demo application. Future offers a very elegant way to implement parallel execution of tasks in Java. As I found the concept quite interesting...

13.10.2011 | 5 minutes reading time

Robot Framework and RIDE – To Go

The Robot Framework is a mature tool to implement automated tests. With the help of the GUI application RIDE (= Robot IDE) and supported by its keyword-driven approach even less technical oriented people can start implementing testcases quite quickly...

• Testing

1.5.2011 | 3 minutes reading time

Automated Acceptance-Testing using JBehave

Introduction Nowadays Agile Teams can choose from a wide variety of tools for automating Acceptence Tests. Thereby a lot of quite different concepts show up. FitNesse for example is using an integrated Wiki to organise testcases, while the Robot Framework...

• Agile

25.3.2011 | 13 minutes reading time

Jenkins – Continuous Integration Reloaded

Continuous Integration is a vital part of our Agile Software Development Process for quite some time now. And of course back then there was the question which tool should we use. By the way the tool questions is one that we developers are somehow addicted...

• Agile
• CI/CD
• Java

14.2.2011 | 3 minutes reading time

Agile Testing Days Berlin 2010 – A Report from Day One

“Are you working as a tester or developer in your organization?” – Well, honestly this is a question I do not really have a good answer for at hand. I could say both, but that is sometimes bothering people as they tend to doubt this is possible. Another...

6.10.2010 | 11 minutes reading time

Robot Framework – Feature found :-)

Well-fitting to easter I yesterday stumbled on exactly that feature in the Robot Framework that I was missing ever since I am using the tool and that was there in front of my nose all the time … but first things first. When automating tests there are...

• Testing

1.4.2010 | 2 minutes reading time

Agile Testing requires good Design

Automated tests are of upmost importance in agile projects. And automating tests means that those tests are developed; in a similar way than any other software is developed. This is a fundamental difference to manual testing, where tests are executed...

• Agile

25.3.2010 | 3 minutes reading time

Database Library for the Robot Framework

We are using the Robot Framework for quite some time now for our automated acceptance tests with very good results. Personally I am using the Robot Framework already for a bit longer time and I find its fundametal concepts really extremely convincing...

• Testing

27.2.2010 | 2 minutes reading time

Selenium and SSL Certificates

Selenium is a very efficient tool for testing web sites. The Selenium-IDE , that comes as a plugin to Firefox, makes it easy to record the required steps of a test. And to achieve real test automation Selenium is often integrated with some agile testing...

• Testing
• IT-Security

5.2.2010 | 4 minutes reading time

A mystery story of Jython, Hudson, Tomcat and port 6969

This is a mystery story of Jython , Hudson and Tomcat . Our environment for continuous integration is based on the Robot Framework and Hudson, where Hudson is running on a Tomcat-Server under Linux. From here our Robot-Tests are started and as we are...

• Agile
• CI/CD
• Testing
• Java

18.12.2009 | 3 minutes reading time

Selenium – Last Resort

Everyone working with Selenium probably knows some problems when testing “complicated” web sites. Complicated here often means extensive use of JavaScript. For such web sites tests recorded with the Selenium IDE cannot be executed successfully. But ...

• Framework
• Java
• Testing

14.12.2009 | 2 minutes reading time

Continuous Integration – Overview

“You are working agile, are you using Hudson as well?” This is a really good question that is coming – in some variations – from people which are interested in agile methods but not really knowing them too well yet. But what is a good answer to this ...

• CI/CD
• Framework
• Java
• Programming language
• Frontend
• Testing
• Software development

8.11.2009 | 6 minutes reading time

Pattern Matching – Java compared to Perl

“Perl is born to pattern match.” – I truly believe that this statement is no exaggeration. Perl is solving this problem in an extremely efficient and elegant way. The following short script is showing some examples for regular expressions in Perl. Hopefully...

• Groovy
• Java
• Search
• Programming language

30.10.2009 | 4 minutes reading time

Testing Days Berlin – Key Note Mary and Tom Poppendieck

The One Thing You Need to Know … About Software Development Correctness can be confirmed at any time is the subtitle of Mary’s talk and it start off with the clear statement that Waterfall does simply not work. So let’s hear what works :-). The question...

• Agile
• Software architecture
• CI/CD
• Community
• Frontend
• Testing

13.10.2009 | 5 minutes reading time

Agile Testing Days: Learning is the key to Agile success: Building a learning...

This was really an excellent session and it was especially great as the things teached do not only apply to one’s professional life, but can really be useful beyond. Probably I still have to do some thinking on this, but here is what I was able to note...

• Agile
• Agile methods

13.10.2009 | 2 minutes reading time

Agile Testing Days Berlin, The Second Day

Key Note Lisa Crispin – Are Agile Testers Different? Visited and written by: Andreas & Thomas The answer to the question from the tile of this keynote is: Yes! As already partly in the tutorials yesterday Lisa has again emphasized how important it is...

• API
• BDD
• CI/CD
• Agile
• Framework
• Java
• Community
• Open Source
• Search
• Frontend
• Testing
• Agile methods
• Webdevelopment

12.10.2009 | 21 minutes reading time

On my way to the Agile Testing Days 09 in Berlin

Travelling by train is a thing that always makes me feel very relaxed. And while I was still thinking whether to use the time on the train by preparing for my SCWCD exam or not I peacefully felt asleep. After waking up in Bielefeld (which felt strange...

• Agile
• Framework
• Community
• Frontend
• Testing

11.10.2009 | 2 minutes reading time

Testing JavaScript with JS Test Driver

Some days ago I checked the Google Testing Blog for some interesting new articles when I saw the article about Super Fast JS Testing . Well, basically I have to say “again” as I had read it already some time back, but had no time to really dig into ...

• Java
• JavaScript
• Testing

8.9.2009 | 3 minutes reading time

Eclipse: Resource is out of Sync (no more)

Probably everyone working with Eclipse knows the following message that shows up when a file that belongs to the Eclipse workspace is changed outside of Eclipse: Resource is out of sync with the file system: '' Press 'F5' or select File Refresh to refresh...

• Java

20.8.2009 | 1 minutes reading time

Analyse code metrics with Sonar

Code metrics are one means of quality assurance for software projects. Most likely everyone has already worked with tools like Cobertura , FindBugs or Checkstyle . Sonar combines the functionalities of these (and additional) tools for static code analysis...

• Agile
• CI/CD
• Database
• Java
• Software development
• Webdevelopment

20.8.2009 | 3 minutes reading time

Agile Testing – The heart of Agile Software Development

Agile Software Development … Agile has let to a new approach in software development. The customer – and thus the customer requirements – are now much more in the focus of the whole development process than this was – and partially still is – the case...

• CI/CD
• Agile
• Framework
• Software development
• Agile methods
• Testing
• Webdevelopment

4.8.2009 | 7 minutes reading time