Parasoft SOAtest: Test execution in different environments via Test Configuration

In Parasoft SOAtest, if you have 20 .tst files where your environment reference points to QA environment, after developers push the code to UAT, do you still need to manually change them to UAT 20 times and then do the smoke tests?

Later, if you would like to do regression tests in QA environment again, do you still need to manually change them back 20 times?  

Here is one easy way to handle the scenario above using the Test Configuration in SOAtest.

• Right click the tst file
• Click Test Configuration
• Duplicate the Example Configuration and rename it
• Click Execution tab
• Enter the name of environment
• Close the window

If you want to run the tests in QA environment, just right click the tst files and choose Test Using->User-Defined->QA1. The tests will be run in QA1 perfectly.

Fix the issue of EDI 834: the first line contains all of the strings

If you use Notepad ++ to open the EDI 834 file, sometimes the first line contains all of the strings. It is hard to read. If we would like to make it more readable in the normal way, how do we do it?

After talking to our BizTalk developer who works on EDI 834, he mentions one important point: In EDI 834, at the end of each line, you can see ~, which can be used as the line break.

Please follow the following screenshot and use ~\n to replace ~  and you are all set.

Expensive Manpower HSA plans of 2016

I am a W2 consultant in Manpower (Experis) in WA.  Some colleagues and I complain about the Manpower HSA plans of 2016 because it is really expensive.

After looking into their insurance plans of United Health Care in 2016, I would say the Base HSA plan is really expensive compared to individual plans in WA such as Premera, Lifewise and even United Health Care.

If I compare 2 plans between United Health HSA 6500 (HSA6500) and United Health Care (Base HSA Plan) in Manpower, I get the following result:

For the family size, we need to pay annual premium $15230.28 for Manpower, but the out of pocket is still high. If I shop by myself, I just pay $9,498, but the out of pocket is similar. Paying $5,732 annually gets the similar result. That’s really bad. If I use Premera’s plans, I get the same result. 

If you are W2 consultants in Manpower and you are healthy, plan to have the major surgery or pregnant in 2016, don’t enroll in Manpower’s Plan because you need to pay $15230.28. You can just shop individual plan in Premera , Lifewise or even in the State Exchange . You will save a lot of money.

Everyone says employers sponsor 20-50% of insurance, but in Manpower, I don’t see it at all.

They are trying to let consultants in 50 States pay the same price (bi-weekly). Different State has the different rate of insurance. That’s the common sense.

Manpower, if you expect to hire consultants to work for you,  please make them happy and treat them nicely. 

Fixed the issue- Find someone feature in Microsoft Lync 2013 didn't work

Last week, I noticed that when using “Find someone” feature in Microsoft Lync 2013, searching was pending forever and the names were never showing up.  

The interesting part was that when opening MS Outlook 2010, the color of the presence indicator in my name was not green, but it was green in MS Lync 2013. I was still available.

After looking into this issue, just repair Microsoft Lync 2013 in program and features. After the reboot, find someone feature in Microsoft Lync 2013 is working.

Fixed the issue of yellow triangle network icon in Windows 7 laptop without local admin right

 I use my windows 7 work laptop to connect to corporate Wi-Fi in the office without any issue. This week I noticed that for some reason, when I connected to Wi-Fi in my home network, it didn’t work. It was connected, but there was no Internet access.  It showed the yellow triangle network icon. However, there is no issue in other devices such as iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro and another windows 7 laptop.

The main issue in my windows 7 work laptop is that I don’t have the local admin right due to the corporate policy. I can’t look into the issues such as View the property in Network Connection and firewall settings.  

I tried to make it work, but I couldn’t.

• In device manager, all are looking good.
• In manage wireless network, remove the home network and re-connect to it: it doesn’t work.
• Restart the router and re-connect to it : it doesn’t work
• Ipconfig command: it doesn’t work
• Netstat command : it doesn’t work

Finally, I removed the home network and manually created a network profile. After connecting to Wi-Fi, opening IE to go to google.com is working. 

The Parasoft SOAtest 9.9 upgrade means side-by-side installation with SOAtest 9.7

We have used SOAtest since last July. We were told we needed to upgrade SOAtest 9.7 to 9.9. After the installation, we found that it is not really the upgrade. It is called side-by-side installation. SOAtest 9.9 and SOAtest 9.7 are installed together in my laptop.

Here are 2 main issues after the “upgrade”:

• We need to reconfigure everything in Parasoft->Preferences.

• If we create new tests in SOAtest 9.9, we can’t use SOAtest 9.7 to expand the test scenarios in the individual .tst file. It is not backward compatible.

Why let users reconfigure the settings in SOAtest after the upgrade? It is not user-friendly. 

Fixed the issue of Parasoft SOAtest: XML assertor didn’t work

Today I noticed that in SOAtest,  the XML assertor of validating the elements in WCF response always passed even if the elements returned were wrong.

After looking into this interesting issue, I was not sure why another tester set up the following flow type: While pass/fail=1, which made the XML assertor passed all the time.

After changing the flow type to none, the test failed. 

Fixed the issue: the language bar is missing in the task bar after the downgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 7

I bought my acer laptop 5 years ago. Before upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10, I would not install any software in this laptop from my testing experience. This is the best way to prevent any software incompatibility. If I have a lot of software installed, it takes a long time to finish the upgrade. That’s not what I want.

I downloaded the Media Creation Tool to install Windows 10. It was easy and fast. 

After the installation, I noticed the performance in acer laptop was really bad. When using Microsoft Edge to open Internet Explorer or using Chrome to search online, the laptop was in the heavy load, which caused DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION screen all the time. 

One day later, I decided to downgrade to Windows 7. It has “Go Back to Windows 7”  feature. After the downgrade, the performance is really FAST and one issue happened:

The language bar was missing in the taskbar even if my keyboard setup looked good in Regional and Language. I couldn't switch to Chinese language via Ctrl+ Space. Ctrl+ Space has been used for more than 10 years before Windows 8 was released. In Windows 10 & Windows 8, we need to use Win Key+ Space. I believe it is the downgrade bug. I finally found a way to make it work.

Go to the registry key : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Right Click to create a new String Value on the right side.

Enter the value:  ctfmon=CTFMON.EXE 

Reboot the laptop.  I can see the language bar in Windows 7 again

If you have the old laptop, upgrading to Windows 10 is not a good idea. 

Parasoft SOATest issue: Assertion tests still pass when the data returned is all blank in WCF response

Today I find one interesting issue in SOATest tool. Our developers have recently updated the namespaces in the data contracts that support “http”. For example,

Old: <ns1:Addresses xmlns:ns1=www.XXX.Com/member/06/01/2015

New: <ns1:Addresses xmlns:ns1="http://www.XXX.com/member/06/01/2015"

We have so many tests that it is not easy to tell which one has refreshed the WSDL in WCF methods. Our tests are using Value Assertion to validate the data elements in WCF response. After running all tests, all tests passed.

I noticed that in some tests, the data returned was all blank in WCF response. I could not believe that all assertion tests still passed.  That’s really surprising.

After updating WSDL again, the data returned can show all elements in WCF response. 

The appraisal tool called CoreLogic ValuePoint4 is not persuasive!

I applied the HELOC in BECU in June and finally noticed that BECU uses CoreLogic’s tool called ValuePoint4. After reviewing the report, I felt very surprised and disappointed.

The comparable sales section is totally not persuasive because all properties are from my neighbors. We bought the houses and moved in between last May and last Sep. We knew sales prices of the houses very well.

A lot of properties have been sold nearby in other communities in 3-6 months. I don’t see them in comparable sales section. What a surprise! This is very basic real estate knowledge. I can't believe CoreLogic does it this way

If the tool itself is not tested well and not persuasive, why give the appraisal report to customers? In my opinion, don’t waste the money to buy this appraisal tool- Core Logic ValuePoint4 .