Web Presence Working Group: Testing Guide
To Testers...
Please read the next section (as well as "Things to Remember" at the end) and select features that you feel that you can test. Once you have tested a feature, edit this page and write your name next to "Test by:". As much as possible, please select things to test that have not been tested as much as others.
Keep in mind that the main two user-side features for this release are IEA support and a unified way of creating ontology graphics, so most of the testing energy should be directed towards those.
Testable new features
Installation scripts
Basically, successfully install AmiGO on a machine and check to see if the installation script lies. This would mean checking with both version.pl and simulate.pl.
URL: N/A
Tested by: ???
AmiGO software page
Check that it contains the proper links to all features not included in the menu bar or welcome page.
URL: ...
Tested by: ???
IEAs
Term Enrichment
Check and make sure that term enrichment is properly using the IEAs.
URL: ...
Tested by: ???
General Check
Check and make sure that the new database build is working as expected. While we were trying to get it to work we had issues with gene product count, species, and the graph. While these seem to be working now, browse around and make sure that everything is in working order.
URL: ...
Tested by: ???
Visualize
We need to test the unified graphing backend.
Term Enrichment
Make sure that the visualization feature of TE works properly.
URL: ...
Tested by: ???
Browser
When browsing the ontology, check to make sure that the "Graphical View" link works as expected.
URL: ...
Tested by: ???
Homolset
Make sure that the homolset graphs appear as expected.
URL: ...
Tested by: ???
Standalone Client
Make sure that standard input and advanced input give the proper results with both SVG and PNG.
URL: ...
Tested by: ???
Things to Remember
Beyond checking functionality and correctness of the results, here are some other things to keep in mind while testing:
- Do things work in other web browsers--sometimes different browsers behave and/or display differently
- If possible, check things with Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer
- Please check for consistency in terminology (i.e. "ref genome" vs. "homolog" vs. "equivalog").
- Travel paths that are less travelled and use inputs that you might not normally use
- Do things more quickly or carelessly than usual
- Opening multiple sessions or windows and juggling between them
- Clicking multiple controls and backtracking
Another thing to try is fuzz testing. Basically trying random inputs in an effort to break the program. This would be random things in the URL and inputs. Usually this is automated, but we probably won't have something like that until more of the new AmiGO framework is written.
Along a similar vein is actively trying to break the system given that some of the internal structure is known. This can include things like entering MySQL statements (the bottom layer of AmiGO) in order to try and trick AmiGO into executing an inappropriate statement. Errors found along these lines are very important for the developers to fix quickly as they can allow unauthorized access to the underlying system.
Finally, there is load testing; where you might try and overload the system. This probably won't be very useful or informative while running on the toy server.