The Savvy Web Tester's Tool Kit

My notes from the Erik Petersen presentation at Starwest 2008. Petersen presentation was an inspiration, both his technique and content. He used mind mapping software instead of PowerPoint. So a very scattered talk about dozens of unrelated tools was organized and cohesive. Bottom line, you have to get out there and try lots of stuff and keep the gems. Recommended getting into Portable Applications. Tool you keep on your thumb drive that don't require installation to run. There is a version of Firefox you can use that allows you to travel with all your bookmarks and cookies and when you leave the PC your surf history and cookies go with you, no evidence that you were surfing is left behind.

• FLV Player
• VUE---from Tufts University, the really really cool software used to give the presentation
• wink---animate
• pstart---launcher/organizer
• psPad---editor with file types. Able to do an date inteligent global change.
• winAudit
• Double Finder
• TCP/UDP endpoirnt viewer
• Chrome Googles' brower
• Cam Studio Recorder
• Printscreen---Lightscreen
• TimeSnapper---screen shot with playback, "Here is how I reproduced the failure, watch the movie."
• xampp
• Firefox Portable Apps
• Firefox Profiles used at start up for different modes of browser usage.
• TestingSpot.net Peterson's site that should have the Starwest 2008 notes for this presentation posted in November.
• Firebug
• Virtual Magnifier Glass
• Selenium IDE---capture replay
• MindMapping
• Better Software, November 2008 article (TBD)
• Freemind
• Mindjet, MindManger--with Microsoft Project interface
• iMindMap
• mindmappingsoftwareblog
• Generatedata :-) :-) :-) After seeing this I dropped all the requirements for BPX 4.0 to produce stochastic test data, we can buy this utility and be done.
• WWILF---What Was I Looking For?
• Versioned backup
• fiddler---tamper with the data intended for Internet Explorer. Peterson did a little demo of fiddler and hosed his machine inadvertently, it really causes havoc when you muck up the input stream to the web server ;-) WARNING, this tool is considered a "hacker's tool", you may be prosecuted for owning it some day.