Look and feel test automation tools

dpdxt make continuous deployment safe by comparing before and after webpage screenshots for each release. depicted shows when any visual, perceptual differences are found
PhantomCSS visual/CSS regression testing with PhantomJS
Huxley testing system for catching visual regressions in Web applications
Applitools Eyes  testing of all the visual aspects of your application
CSS Critic  lightweight framework for regression testing of Cascading Style Sheets
Gemini utility for regression testing of web pages using screenshots
Needle automated tests for your CSS
Galen Framework supports both JavaScript and Java tests
Snap and Compare screenshot comparison tool used for CSS Visual Regression Testing
Specter  dead simple automated visual regression testing
WebdriverCSS regression testing tool for WebdriverIO
Grunt PhotoBox plugin for creating screenshots of any site and compare them
FBSnapshotTestCase snapshot view unit tests for iOS

What google knows about you?

In case if you are using google account while browsing across endless internet there few things stored about you;)

• Full google search hisroty https://history.google.com
• Devices connected to your google account (Don't worry you always can check it) https://security.google.com/settings/security/activity
• Your preferences based on google profile https://www.google.com/ads/preferences/
• Location history tracked in case if you check in all the time https://maps.google.com/locationhistory
• All the data stored and can be download (read as back up) https://maps.google.com/locationhistory
• List of application that have access to your google account https://www.google.com/takeout

How to send an email with Mandrill and jquery by submit contact form

It's easy to send notification email just by ajax request. Sure would be good to add some validation.
Create simple form contact.html

 <link href="//netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.1.1/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"></link>  
 <form class="form-horizontal" id="contact">  
 <fieldset>  
 <!-- Form Name -->  
 <legend>Contact Us</legend>  
   
 <!-- Text input-->  
 <div class="form-group">  
  <label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="name">Name</label>   
  <div class="col-md-5">  
  <input id="name" name="name" type="text" placeholder="Your name*" class="form-control input-md" required="">       
  </div>  
 </div>  
   
 <!-- Text input-->  
 <div class="form-group">  
  <label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="email">Email</label>   
  <div class="col-md-5">  
  <input id="email" name="email" type="text" placeholder="Your email*" class="form-control input-md" required="">  
     
  </div>  
 </div>  
   
 <!-- Textarea -->  
 <div class="form-group">  
  <label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="message">Message</label>  
  <div class="col-md-4">             
   <textarea class="form-control" id="message" name="message" cols="6" rows="6"></textarea>  
  </div>  
 </div>  
   
 <!-- Button -->  
 <div class="form-group">  
  <label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="submit"></label>  
  <div class="col-md-4">  
   <button id="submit" name="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Send Message</button>  
  </div>  
 </div>  
   
 </fieldset>  
 </form>  
 <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script></code>  

And following ajax call:

 jQuery(function($)   
 {  
   $("#contact").submit(function()  
   {  
     var email = $("#email").val(); // get email field value  
     var name = $("#name").val(); // get name field value  
     var msg = $("#message").val(); // get message field value  
     $.ajax(  
     {  
       type: "POST",  
       url: "https://mandrillapp.com/api/1.0/messages/send.json",  
       data: {  
         'key': '#PUT_YOUR_MANDRILL_API_KEY_HERE',  
         'message': {  
           'from_email': email,  
           'from_name': name,  
           'headers': {  
             'Reply-To': email  
           },  
           'subject': 'Message from Contact form',  
           'text': message,  
           'to': [  
           {  
             'email': 'johndoe@email.com',  
             'name': 'John Doe',  
             'type': 'to'  
           }]  
         }  
       }  
     })  
     .done(function(response) {  
       alert('Your message has been sent successfully'); 
       //reset input fields after successful submission  
       $("#name").val('');  
       $("#email").val(''); 
       $("#message").val('');  
     })  
     .fail(function(response) {  
       alert('Error sending message.');  
     });  
     return false; // prevent page refresh  
   });  
 });  

Few links: This time is more pythonistic topic

• Quickbuild CI: working with build tools
• Practical lessons in peer code reviewh - http://blog.salsitasoft.com/practical-lessons-in-peer-code-review/
• Python working environment - http://slides.com/ykalchevskiy/python-working-environment
• A random collection of useful Python snippets http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/rasbt/python_reference/blob/master/python_patterns/patterns.ipynb
• The Updated Guide to Unicode on Python http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2013/7/2/the-updated-guide-to-unicode/
• Everything you did not want to know about Unicode in Python 3 http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2014/5/12/everything-about-unicode/
• Windwows 10 technical preview is ready to be tested http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/ff967560(v=vs.105).aspx
• The flask mega tutorial now with python 3 support - http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-now-with-python-3-support

Few links: Today - Jmeter lessons

Jmeter lessons from Blazemeter

Lesson 1: Getting Started with JMeter 

Lesson 2: JMeter Browser Recording

Lesson 3: JMeter Error Checking and Dynamic Requests 

Lesson 4: How to Login to a Web Application with JMeter

Lesson 5: Using Dynamic data from a CSV file with JMeter

Getting Started Scripting with JMeter

Learn JMeter in 60 Minutes [webinar recording] 

Interesting video from TestBash

Scott Barber - Managing Application Performance Throughout the LifeCycle from Software Testing Club on Vimeo.

TestBash 3 - Automation: Time to Change Our Models – Iain McCowatt from Software Testing Club on Vimeo.


TestBash 3 - How to win [Developer] friends and influence [business] people – Jez Nicholson from Software Testing Club on Vimeo.

Do we really need testers? or Don't do everything by youself

Recently we have had a conversation with colleagues about "Do we really need testers?" Why should we have someone dedicated to this role? Can't I do testing, documenting by myself or with a  help of another developer to get a different point of view? Code review and automation would be done faster by developers. They know product, architecture, they're experienced in development, unit testing, automation. And end-to-end testing could be done with a whole team including product owners and managers. So, why do we need them?

Of course we as engineers can do everything, but one person should not do everything! Developer or tester should be exited about what he/she is doing and it's very rare case when developers like to test thoroughly and waste their time writing test plans, thinking about test strategies, assuming customer point of view, spending time on a long discussions and so on. We are already doing a log of different tasks in today's software development era especially those engineers who are working withing DevOps model. I't not every time possible to do everything with the highest quality and that's basically why we should split our roles at some point. Testers becoming more technical, they're developing automation frameworks, supporting environments, deploying, maintaining and more responsibilities are coming all the time. Not only test plans, reporting and manual testing anymore. And are you still really want to do everything and more by yourself?

What to choose as an IDE for python development is up to you...

... It's your choice whether you develop in vim, Notepad++ or modern IDE. There are always pros and cons and every developer has his own preferences. I use several of them daily: Notepad++ if I need to write short script very fast, iPython command line if I need to check some expressions or object properties, Eclipse from historical reason for big projects, PyCharm for personal usage (and thinking to move from Eclipse to it), vim if I'm working in Linux. Didn't try sublime, but I'm satisfied with the tools above.