Tosca Tutorial:Complete Tutorial Series For Tosca 13.x

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Tosca Tutorial

The list of articles on Tosca Tutorial are mentioned in the table of content which will be explain through out the entire Tutorial. All the the articles are written in simple languages with proper example which will help the entry level software tester to understand in short time.

In this article, we will start with TOSCA Overview. To get the flavors of Tosca interviews, you can check the most frequently asked interview questions with answers from here.

Tosca Overview

The purpose of this tutorial is to describe a complete and detailed overview of TOSCA as a test automation tool for beginners.

  • Concepts of Software Testing:
    • Software testing is an important step to assure the quality of software products. It ensures that the requirements are fullfilled as per the expectations. Testing can be done in the different phases of Software development life cycles. Those are –
  • Unit Testing – Done by software developer at the time of development.
  • Integration Testing – After developing the different components, each of the components need to be integrated to make an unique product. After the integration, the integration testing is required to verify that the entire setup (includes all the software components) is working fine as a single product.
  • System Testing – After the integration testing, the system testing is required to ensure the quality of the software.
  • User Acceptance Testing –
    • It is one type of black box testing. The business team (end user of the software product) is responsible to perform this testing to verify that all the requirements are fulfilled.
    • The Software or application testing can be performed manually or through some automated approach. There is multiple test automation tool is available in the marked to automate the testing process. In this article, we are going to explain the overview of TOSCA as a test automation tool.
  • What is Automation testing?
    • Today, the IT industry demands the quality and the efficacy with minimum human efforts to deliver any kind of IT services. Here, automation testing is playing a big role for testing services. Automation testing is a service to automate the testing process and scenarios to reduce the human efforts. In the automation vertical, the leading tools like QTP (UFT), RFT, and Selenium were consuming the major spaces. Now Tosca is giving tough competition to these tools.
  • Why Tosca?
    • Tosca is one of the market leading tool in the present days. It has the ability to perform functional and regression testing as well. The API testing which has n important role in AGILE process, can be done through TOSCA. Now a days, marked demands lesser testing efforts and lesser training span on the tool. In this aspect, Tosca is best suited tool as it supports the script less testing which will consume minimum time to learn. Tosca user can write efficient test cases with minimum skill set. Also, it generates a standard test reports for the management with out much customization.

Tosca Key Features:

  • Model-Based Testing Approach: This is the main features of Tosca as a test automation tool. Due to this Tosca is more suitable than other test automation tools which are available in the market. As a part of test case development, we have to create modules for each of the unit level functionalities. All the technical properties of test objects are stored in the modules which will be merged during the test creation along with test data.
  • Risk-Based Testing Approach: The another important aspect of Tosca as it supports the risk-based testing approach. Tosca is capable of assess the risk with the test cases. Basically, it can identify the subset of entire test suite which will minimize the chances of risks. Once the execution is completed, risks are measured by considering the test execution result and the risk coverage.
  • Script less test cases: Tosca supports script less automation which means that test cases can be developed by drag and drop method of modules in the TestCase section of Tosca. The test data parametrization and implementations of checkpoints, can be done through the configuration. So, anyone will be able to develop tests with minimum skillset and training.
  • Dynamic test data:  The dynamic test data can be kept separately from the technical testcases. To achieve this, Tosca provides advance features such as, TDM, TCD, TDS etc.
  • Easy to maintain:  If there is an application or data enhancement, same can be incorporated in the entire test suite by updating the modules or data in the central repository. The efforts spent here, is lesser with compare to any of the other test automation tools.
  • Distribute Execution: It signifies about the distribution of test execution in multiple system to reduce the human efforts and execution cycle. Based on the configuration of distributed execution, we can schedule the test execution in multiple systems.
  • API Testing: API testing is very useful when the entire application is not ready but some of the application components are developed. Using the API, Tosca is able to test the corresponding application components.
  • Test Recording: Tosca is able to record test scenario to generates linear test cases along with checkpoints to save time. This feature is very useful for one time testing only.
  • Detailed Reporting: Tosca generates step by step execution reports and logs with captured screens. The execution logs are very useful while investigating any errors.
  • Mobile Testing: Tosca supports the testing of mobile apps in both android and iOS devices. For iOS testing, additional MAC infrastructure is required.
  • Supported applications:  Tosca is compatible with different types of applications such as Salesforce, SAP, Web, Powerbuilder, DotNet, Mainframe, Mobile devices, etc.
  • Integration with third-party tools: Tosca helps to integrate with third party tools with minimum customization such as Perfecto, Selenium, Azure, Jenkins etc.

TOSCA Architecture:

TOSCA is designed and developed by TRICENTIS Technology & Consulting GmbH (An Austrian Software Company based in Vienna). The test tool TOSCA have the below interfaces –

  • GUI – The Graphical User Interface
  • API – Application Programming Interface
  • CLI – Command Line Interface
  • Integrated Test Management
TOSCA Overview- Tosca Architecture
Architecture Diagram (Tosca Overview)

The latest version of TOSCA Commander which is available in the market is 13.3. The main components of Tosca are mentioned below –

  • Tosca Wizard
  • Tosca Commander
  • Tosca Executor
  • Test Repository

TOSCA Commander: 

TOSCA commander is the core backbone of the tool to develop, manage, execute, and analysis of test scripts creation. Tosca Commander has the five sections which are used in most of the projects – 

  • Module – All the Modules(keep the technical information of the test object) are stored in this section.
  • Testcase – The technical components of any test cases are kept in this section.
  • TestCaseDesign – This section is used to isolate the test data from the testcase in a well organized manner. The main intention of this section is not to touch the technical test cases to modify the test data.
  • Execution – This sections keeps the logs of test execution results in execution list. Basically, it is used to manage the test execution.
  • Requirements – All the requirements related information are stored in this section.
Tosca Overview - Tosca Commander
TOSCA Overview – Tosca Commander

A detailed study of different sections is available in the next article.

TOSCA Executor: 

Tosca Executor is used to performing executing test cases that are developed in TOSCA. This is an alternative to test execution without opening the Tosca commander. We can navigate the Tosca executor through the windows start menu:  Start-> All Programs-> Tricentis-> Tosca Executor. 

To get more details on TestSet files, please click here.

Tosca Overview - Tosca Executor
Tosca Overview – Tosca Executor

Tosca wizard: 

We need to scan the application to create modules (object map) for test automation. Tosca wizard is the old model of application scans. It can be open as a standalone component also from the Commander as well.

TOSCA Overview- Tosca Wizard
TOSCA Overview – Tosca Wizard

Test Repository:

Testcase can be stored in external shared repository/databases such as Oracle, SQLServer, SQL Lite, etc. Also, test data can be stored in an external repository in Tosca through different processes such as TDM – Test Data Management, TDS – Test Data Service. The test repository is required so that multiple testers can work at a time.

TOSCA Overview- Tosca Repository
TOSCA Overview – Tosca Repository

Tosca Supported platform:

  • Frameworks and programming languages: dotNet including WPF, Java, VB, Delphi.
  • Web browsers: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome.
  • Application Development Environment: PowerBuilder.
  • Host Applications: 3270, 5250.
  • MS programs: MS Outlook, MS excel
  • Enterprise Application: Seibel, SAP.
  • Protocols and hardware: Flash, Webservices (SOAP),ODBC.

Conclusion

In this introductory article of Tosca overview, we have covered the overview of Tricentis TOSCA testing tool, Tosca Commander and Workspace. Please click here, to navigate to the Tosca support portal for more information.

Please click to read the next article of TOSCA Tutorial – Complete Study of TOSCA Commander.

     

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