Thursday, 20 June 2013

A free test tool a day - Foxe XML editor

Foxe XML editor
I needed to create some test data for an application. The data in an XML file was to be imported in the application under test. I wanted an application that I could run without installing and showed me a physical overview. I found this simple XML editor and used it. And I like it.

What does it do?
It has a tree view and the XML and you can view the data and edit data in the XML. If something is wrong with the data, the tree view will display that. I use it at this moment  in combination with Excel, in which I create the data for testing a specific feature. So in fact I'm using the tools of tools also (MS Excel).

In Excel I create some test data in the first tab. The overview, group, block, chapter numbers on the top are used in the "screen" test data, just by using simple formulas as ="Chapter "&B6&", lesson "&B7.
On the second Tab in Excel I've got the XML with simple formulas as above filled in the XML that I first copied out of Foxe XML editor.

This looks like this at the moment.

I put the colors there for readability. And now I can copy & paste it into Foxe.

Very simple and effective to quickly create some test data. You don't have to be an XML expert to do this and this tool helps a bit by showing a tree view and possible problems in the XML.

How does it look?

  • On the left there is a representation of the XML in a tree
  • You are seeing green icons, one with red, one with a yellow dot. Apparently something is wrong with the red and yellow items.
  • Just double click on a tree branch and on the right the section higlights for easy searching.
There are some tools, for example XHTML validation and you can even script with this tool, but I didn't research that yet. 

So, very good tool for the "I'm a new tester in XML", but also usable with script features for researching XML files for the more experienced. See their website www.firstobject.com for more info and a video introduction.

No comments:

Post a Comment