To be a Professional Software Tester,QA ...

Follow up the certifications available for Quality Assurance and Software Testing professionals.

1. Certified Software Tester (CSTE) and Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA) certifications

www.softwarecertifications.org
www.qaiworldwide.org

CSTE - It is intended to establish standards for initial qualification and provide direction for the testing function through an aggressive educational program. Acquiring the designation of Certified Software Tester (CSTE) indicates a professional level of competence in the principles and practices of quality control in the IT profession. CSTEs become members of a recognized professional group and receive recognition of their competence by business and professional associates, potentially more rapid career advancement, and greater acceptance in the role as advisor to management.

CSQA - It is a widely recognized certification in the software industry now. As a CSQA certified professional, the QA executives will be able to put the QA principles into practice in the right manner at the right time and hence will be able to play a huge role in building the organizations. Acquiring the designation of Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA) indicates a professional level of competence in the principles and practices of quality assurance in the IT profession. CSQAs become members of a recognized professional group and receive recognition of their competence by business and professional associates, potentially more rapid career advancement, and greater acceptance in the role as advisor to management.

2. International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) certification

www.istqb.org

Professional testing of software has become an increasingly important task, which requires a profound knowledge of testing techniques. The International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) has developed a universally accepted, international qualification scheme, aimed at software and system testing professionals, and has created the Syllabi and Tests for the Certified Tester. The ISTQB certification has become an internationally recognized.

The contents of each syllabus are taught as courses by training providers, which have been accredited by national boards. They are globally marketed under the brand name "ISTQB Certified Tester".

3. Certified Software Test Professional (CSTP) and Certified Test Manager (CTM) certifications

www.iist.org

The International Institute for Software Testing (IIST) has been offering the Certified Software Test Professional (CSTP) certification since 1999. Currently there are thousands of people at different stages in the CSTP program. Although CSTP has been serving the purpose of establishing a foundation of software testing and providing test professionals with the skill and knowledge necessary to perform different test activities, a gap still exists in the management skills required by test managers and test leads to effectively manage the test process, the test project and the test organization. The Certified Test Manager (CTM) certification has been created to fill this gap. CTM is based on the Test Management Body of Knowledge (TMBOK) developed by IIST through its Advisory Board.

Thank you,

Set,Specify PDF font type in Flying Soucer & iText

The following Java code shows you how to provide the font face for the created PDF output as same as in the input HTML or XHTML.

public static void createPDF(String url, String pdf)
throws IOException, DocumentException {
OutputStream os = null;
try {
os = new FileOutputStream(pdf);

ITextRenderer renderer = new ITextRenderer();
ResourceLoaderUserAgent callback = new ResourceLoaderUserAgent(renderer.getOutputDevice());
callback.setSharedContext(renderer.getSharedContext());
renderer.getSharedContext ().setUserAgentCallback(callback);

Document doc = XMLResource.load(new InputSource(url)).getDocument();


renderer.getFontResolver().addFont("C:\\Windows\\Fonts\\Verdana.TTF","UTF-8", BaseFont.NOT_EMBEDDED);
renderer.setDocument(doc, url);
renderer.layout();
renderer.createPDF(os);

os.close();
os = null;
} finally {
if (os != null) {
try {
os.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
// ignore
}
}
}
}

"renderer.getFontResolver().addFont()" is the key method used the set the font face information of the PDF generated.

"BaseFont.NOT_EMBEDDED" specify not to embed the font in generated PDF.

"url" is the input HTML/XHTML file path.

"pdf" is the generated PDF file path.

Please find the input XHTML/HTML below:

<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
data
{
font-family: "Verdana";
}
</style>
</head>
<body style="font-size:16px">
<data>
<center style="font-size:24px">
<b>Hi Prasad...</b></center>
</data>
</body>
</html>


You can similarly embed the font in the generated PDF by changing parameters passed to "renderer.getFontResolver().addFont"

Thanks, have a nice day!

Do you like to test your application free?

Java Application Tools	jDiffChaser
Web Application Tools	WebInject	Solex
SOAP Application Tools	soapUI	iTKO LISA	MActor
AJAX Application Tools	GITAK	Selenium
Database Tools	LReport	DBFire	DTM Data Generator
.Net Tools	SharpRobo	WatiN
Linux Tools	BugnuX

Use Open Source Software Testing Tools …..

Many test teams are paying over the odds for highly priced software test automation tools, in a market dominated by a small handful of commercial vendors. But many freeware and shareware alternatives are available today. In the above table, free testing tools are listed with the suitable application type.

Have a nice day!

Bring HTML, CSS power into PDF using Java

Today web technology has become a very powerful tool in communication. The technology of HTML, XHTML and CSS are very rich and powerful.

If you can convert HTML into PDF with CSS styles, the power of HTML/CSS will creep into PDFs. Yes it is possible,

You will need “Flying Saucer” & “iText” Libraries, which is are free Java libraries to convert XTML, CSS to PDF.

"Flying Saucer" bundles iText library in its binary distribution. The source distribution also includes set of demo and sample codes making it easy to understand the API.

iText : http://www.lowagie.com/iText/
Flying Saucer : https://xhtmlrenderer.dev.java.net/

Converting XHTML, HTML to PDF with CSS styles

I was wondering to convert HTML with CSS styles 2 PDF. Though googling, I could not find a good guidance on this.
So, I thought of publishing some information I came across.

There are actually several options to convert a HTML or a Web page into a PDF.

1. Adobe Acrobat

Yes off cause, Adobe Acrobat is one of the best options to convert a HTML into a PDF,
it will most of the time preserve the WYSIWYG.
The problem is that you need to pay for it. Adobe Acrobat is not free.

2. iText Library

“iText” Library is free and open-source. This project is mainly in Java, but now you have a C# iText library (iTextSharp) too.

The library is a very rich one doing many things on PDF files: create, manipulate etc.., but here I am considering only the HTML to PDF conversion. Actually you can convert a HTML into PDF easily with iText

"HtmlParser" class supports limited XHTML to PDF conversion. To apply CSS styles you need to use "HTMLWorker" class. Sample codes of these classes are available in Chapter 14 of iText in Action book. You can freely get the sample code form iText website.

However even this will not be a perfect XHTML to PDF conversion when it comes to CSS styles applied in HTMLs.

3. Flying Saucer & iText Library

The third option "Flying Saucer" with "iText" is much better, converting most of the CSS styles applied XHTML into PDFs nicely. This also free and open-source library given under LGPL. "Flying Saucer" bundles iText library in its binary distribution. The souce distribution also include set of demo and sample codes making it easy to understand the API.

Very simple set of lines to convert the XHTML into PDF,

Input xhtml:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>My First Document</title>
<style type="text/css"> b { color: green; } </style>
</head>

<body>
<p>
<b>Greetings Earthlings!</b>
We've come for your Java.
</p>
</body>

</html>



Java code to convert XHTML into PDF:

package flyingsaucerpdf;

import java.io.*;
import com.lowagie.text.DocumentException;
import org.xhtmlrenderer.pdf.ITextRenderer;

public class FirstDoc {

public static void main(String[] args)
throws IOException, DocumentException {
String inputFile = "samples/firstdoc.xhtml";
String url = new File(inputFile).toURI().toURL().toString();
String outputFile = "firstdoc.pdf";
OutputStream os = new FileOutputStream(outputFile);

ITextRenderer renderer = new ITextRenderer();
renderer.setDocument(url);
renderer.layout();
renderer.createPDF(os);

os.close();
}
}

I believe even SAAS clouds in www.salesforce.com also render PDFs using these packages.

4. Online HTML to PDF conversion

Apart from these options there are list of web sites those provide online HTML to PDF conversion which I will not discuss here.

Here are the useful weblinks:

Flying Saucer : https://xhtmlrenderer.dev.java.net/
iText : http://www.lowagie.com/iText/
Adobe Acrobat : http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/?promoid=BPDDU

Thank you, Have a nice Day..!

Google Introducing the Google Chrome OS

After launching Google Chrome Browser Google reveals that the new open source OS Chrome will be released in mid 2010. For further detail visit official Google blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Setting C# Date Time Picker Empty

Usually in C# DateTimePicker component is initialized with a default date. To use a blank or empty value in DateTimePicker set the Format property to Custom and the CustomFormat property to a space (" "), see the following code:

dtpDate.CustomFormat = " "
dtpDate.Format = DateTimePickerFormat.Custom

Eclipse Galileo is about to release

We are in the edge of Eclipse Galileo release it is interesting to see that it includes many projects.

Eclipse Galileo is scheduled to release on tomorrow 2009.06.24.
For further detail visit Eclipse Org, http://www.eclipse.org/galileo/.

Release Candidate Eclipse Galileo RC4 is currently available for testing.

Obtaining Microsoft Font License

Providing license for Microsoft fonts has been delegated to "Ascender Corporation".

Here, one can buy fonts and its license.

One can visit:

http://www.ascendercorp.com/

For Microsoft Copyrighted content visit:

http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/permissions/default.mspx#EAF

Oracle to buy Sun Microsystems

It is a hot news that Oracle and Sun announced that Oracle to buy Sun on 2009-04-20.

http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/2009-0420/index.jsp

Java Object Clone Sample Code

To create a deep copy of Java object you should implement "Cloneable" interface and override clone() method. Here is the sample code:

class MyClass implements Cloneable
{
public Object clone()
{
try
{
return super.clone();
}
catch(CloneNotSupportedException ex)
{
return null;
}
}
}

Accessing SAP XI Web Service through simple Axis 1 client

This a code for accessing SAP XI Web Service through Axis1, One can suggest Axis2 code for this.

Service service = new Service();
Call call = (Call) service.createCall();
call.setUseSOAPAction(true);
call.setSOAPActionURI("http://sap.com/xi/WebService/soap1.1");
call.setEncodingStyle(null);
call.setOperationName("YOUR_OPERATION_NAME_IN_WSDL");

Options opts = new Options(args);
args = opts.getRemainingArgs();
if (args != null) {
opts.setDefaultURL(args[0]);
} else {
opts.setDefaultURL("YOUR_SERVICE_URL_IN_WSDL");
}
//if athonticated service set
call.setUsername("YOUR_USERNAME");
call.setPassword("YOUR_PASSWORD");

call.setTargetEndpointAddress(new URL(opts.getURL()));

//requestString is soap envelope as a string
SOAPEnvelope env = new SOAPEnvelope(new ByteArrayInputStream(requestString.getBytes()));

call.invoke(env);

Castor - Open Source data binding framework for Java

You can use Castor java library to process WSDL files.
First you neet to download Castor library from http://www.castor.org/.

WSDLFactory wsdlFactory = WSDLFactory.newInstance();
WSDLReader wsdlReader = wsdlFactory.newWSDLReader();

Definition definition = wsdlReader.readWSDL("C:/Temp/order.wsdl");
if (definition == null)
{
System.err.println("definition element is null");
System.exit(1);
}
Map servicesMap = definition.getServices();
....
..