Nov 08

 A new version of Mind2tests is released today.

You can download it at its page

You will need to uninstall your current version a manually remove the previous installation directory.

Here are the changes provided in this version:

  • The plugins have been reintegrated to the core application itself. You will probably have to reconfigure your plugins.
    • The plugin feature was a good idea, technically, but I think it was not as user friendly as expected.
  • Icons (extracted from your mind mapping tool) are now directly available from the Option form to configure the mapping of values of your tools . To use the icons from your mind mapping tool, you must first indicate its installation directory in the Options dialog.
    • This is a great feature as you don’t need anymore to know the name of the icons you use in your maps
  • A default attribute values of nodes can be assigned from the Configuration dialog if no icon is set on a node.
    • So if you define ‘High’ as the default priority value, all requirement nodes with no icon will get the priority ‘High’.
  • A new option allows you to use the ids generated by your mind mapping tool instead of the Mind2tests incremental ids. This is useful when you are used to import map files after some modifications as internal ids won’t change although the Mind2tests identification system depends on the map structure (node order, new nodes inserted between existing nodes).
  • Test results can now be imported. Icons can be configured in the option dialog. A chapter will be added soon to the online help to learn more about using mind maps as a test execution tool.
    • Please note that this feature is limited in Testlink (the currently only supported testing tool) as tests should be imported with their external id which is not done by default. So the feature will be really useful with other testing tool
    • So you won’t take great advantages of the 2 last points at the moment, that why the compatibility should be extended quickly.

 

Please note that this version is probably the last free version of Mind2tests. I will post something later about that.

Once again, don’t hesitate to send me feedbacks or report bugs and other requests.

 

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May 11

 A new version of Mind2Tests is available for download but unfortunately, your installed version won’t be auto updated due to an issue in the AIR updater framework. To install the new version:

  1. uninstall the current version (v1.1)
  2. manually remove the Mind2Tests application folder

New versions of the pluginsare also linked to this new version so I advise to download and install the new version of your preferred plugins (from here).

Just for your information, here is the release note of this v1.2:

ENHANCEMENTS

  • Issue #5 - HIGH - Convert links to requirement dependencies
  • Issue #23 - MEDIUM - Open sample directory in a native explorer (a folder containing samples files is actually created on your desktop)
  • Issue #27 - HIGH - Allow to use prefixes on either item ids or item titles
  • Issue #30 - MEDIUM - Auto install plugins as mind-mapping or testing tool
  • The layout of the item editor has been reorganized.

FIXED ISSUES

  • Fixed an issue occuring after install/uninstall of plugins.

 

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Mar 18

A new version of SQLite Sorcerer has just been released.

This minor version embeds just 1 enhancement and 2 bug fixes. The performance improvement for the loading of CSV files is good, between x4 and x10 faster than in v1.8 and earlier. So I really hope that the users who needed to import large CSV files will be satisfied by this result and will be able to work more efficiently with SQLite Sorcerer.

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Feb 24

The new version of Mind2Tests is made available today. I am very proud of the result even if some further work has to be done (the help page for instance). My main goal is completed as the aplication is now modularized and as Mind2Tests is compliant with 2 versions of Testlink, including the last one.

This version brings the following features:

  • Nested specifications and test suites can be managed, so multiple levels of requirement specifications and test suites can be defined in your mind maps.
    • Nested items must be manually identified in the map by a cloud / boundary (feature depending on your preferred tool).
  • A plug-in system has been implemented. The application is now able to use external tool-specific libraries for mind-mapping or test management tools.
    • The libraries are installed by a simple drag and drop onto the application area.
    • You will have also to configure your converters in order to set some values that are specific to your tools.
      • For instance, you can use icons for priorities or requirement types in your mind-map and configure the corresponding values to return by the conversion process.
  • The steps and the associated expected results are now presented in a Datagrid. They can be edited by a double click.
  • You can set notes (feature in your preferred mind-mapping tool) on some nodes of your mind-map to describe them. Their content will be converted. This is mainly used to shortly describe:
    • Specifications
    • Tests Suites
  • Define the way you work: you can define the structure of your test cases (node order / test properties).

If you already use Mind2Tests v0.3, you need to uninstall it and install the new version. This version is not signed so don’t be afraid by the ugly security warnings during the installation. The auto update is activated so you will get automatically the future versions…

I release this version as a beta version, in the hope that some users will send me some feedbacks on the current features, usability and add value of Mind2Tests. During this beta phase, I should change the distribution of the core application and its plug-ins: a new dedicated site should be open, giving access to the source code and a business model will be defined (the main principle being that the use of Mind2Tests will remain free if you work with free and open sourced tools and a small fee will be requested if you work with closed / commercial products). I have no idea how much time this will take…

Please let me or send me your email address, if you accept that I send you directly some more information, updates or questions on the app and its plug-ins during this phase. This is optional, the main exchange media must be the comments on this post or on the application page.

About the future, some enhancements are already identified:

  • localization
  • management of requirement dependencies,
    • this will not be exploited by the majority of test management tools, including the native current Testlink version but maybe on some customized installation.
  • more flexibility in the test case structure to allow the import of custom fields,
  • direct import to database.

Feel free to send me more ideas, knowing that when the code is open, you will be free to implement your own great features… On my side, these enhancements should start after the beta phase.

I really hope that this app will make the life of software testers and some business analysts easier ! I’m looking forward to hear from you…

But it’s now time for you to play with it !

Arnaud

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Jan 06

I have reopened the Mind2Tests project. I wanted to work on it earlier but I focused on the SQLite Sorcerer and other stuffs. Just to remind you, this little AIR application helps software testers in their test design activities: it converts mind-map files (from FreeMind and XMind) into XML files that can then be imported into TestLink (v1.8x). By this way, the mind-mapping becomes another powerful test design technique.

The next version will provide the following changes:

  • Should be open sourced (source code being published on bitbucket.org)
  • Implementation of a plug-in system: external libraries will be downloaded to allow Mind2Tests to work with a specific tool (mind-mapping or test management tool). And as a starter, 3 or 4 libraries will be provided to work with FreeMind, XMind and TestLink (v1.8x and probably v1.9).
  • The way the mind maps can be designed is improved in order to accept nested requirement specifications or nested test suite. So the user will have more freedom to organise the mind-map before the conversion.

The 2 first points will allow testers to extend Mind2Tests with new capabilities for other tools or their own home-grown tool. Nevertheless, I still don’t know if I will charge (very low charge) for libraries for non-open-source tools (as Mind Manager, Quality Center for instance).

I can’t commit a date but the release should come in late February 2011.

Cheers and Happy New Year ! (as this is my first post for 2011)

 

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