Getting started

XStudio is an ALM solution including one of the most powerful versatile test management software in the market (that can drive any kind of tests, manual or automated). XStudio makes the management of your assets (requirements, tests, bugs, etc.) trivial and less costly to maintain.

if you installed XStudio on a web server, you'll need a Java-compatible browser. Each browser has its own way to handle Java Web Start application but in all case when you'll click on the Run XStudio link you'll have to open the .JNLP file with the Java Web Start Launcher application you have on your computer (that is part of the Java Runtime of your browser). This will probably done transparently.

Internet Explorer

Firefox

Chrome





You also have the possibility to install a shortcut on your desktop:
Control Panel > Programs > Java > General > Temporary files > View
Then select XQual Studio in the list and click on the Install shortcut button:




From now on, you can just start XStudio by just clicking on the icon you have on your desktop.

Data-model

manages ALL the objects involved in the life-cycle of your projects:
  • Products/SUTs (System Under Tests)
  • Business requirements
  • Functional/technical specifications
  • Tests and Test cases
  • Test campaigns and campaign sessions
  • Bugs
  • Documentation
  • Projects


Of course all these objects are linked together so that quality metrics can be easily extracted.

Here is the data-model XStudio is based on:



In addition, XStudio includes a flexible right-management module allowing to assign user profiles to users and to manage teams of users so that they have access to different projects.

Components

XStudio is made of several components including:


  • A management console (through a web interface and/or by installing heavy clients available for Windows, Linux or MacOSX): XStudio
  • Several optional agents: XAgent. The agents can be used to execute the tests on remote computers
  • A utility to drive test execution: XContinuousIntegration. This is a command line tool that can be called for instance by any continuous integration system (Bamboo, Hudson, Jenkins, etc.) and that will trigger the execution of some tests at the end of a build
  • An SDK API allowing to develop your own custom launcher to interface XStudio with any kind of tests (even proprietary)
  • An API Server allowing to programmatically communicate with XStudio's database
  • An iPhone Application allowing to get some reports on your current projects directly from your iPhone
  • An iPad Application allowing to get some reports on your current projects directly from your favorite tablet




XStudio URL

If you installed XStudio web package you can send some XStudio URL (for instance via email) so that the recipient can open XStudio directly on the right object by just clicking this URL.
  • If XStudio is already opened, it will just automatically select the right tree and object
  • If XStudio is not opened (even never been launched on this computer), it will run XStudio and open directly the right object
To have this feature operational, you need to have your xstudio.php correctly configured (exactly the same way as the xstudio.jnlp file) on the server.



User authentication

Access to XStudio is restricted to users who have suitable credentials. A login process is used to authenticate the user before he can use the system. Each user is then granted with a list of permissions depending on its user profile and the team he's member of. All the passwords are stored encrypted on the server to ensure a maximum security.



By default, an admin account is created (at installation time). By default, the admin's password is password. The admin has ALL the permissions on the system.

If you leave the default selection ([User's language])in the language drop-down menu, the language that you indicated in your settings will be used and XStudio's interface will be fully localized using this language. You can also force to load XStudio in a different language by just picking it up in the drop-down menu.

If you do not know your credentials, contact your XStudio Administrator.

The GUI

XStudio’s GUI is rather simple and based on a clean design:
  • a menu
  • a global toolbar
  • a left vertical pane including all the trees (each tree includes its own dedicated toolbar)
  • a left panel including the currently selected tree
  • a right panel including:
    • some detailed information concerning the element selected in the tree
    • a toolbar allowing the user to execute some specific actions on the element selected in the tree.




Menu

The menu provides the following functionalities:
  • Files
    • Exit: to exit the application
    • Log off: to log off and returns to the login screen
  • Settings
    • General: that's where are all the settings stored
    • Internationalization: to customize the week-ends and holidays for each country (language settings are customized per user)
  • Tools
    • Import from CSV: to import tests and test case from a CSV file
    • Import from XML: to import requirements, specifications, tests and test case from an XML file
    • Check database Integrity: to check the sanity of your database
    • Cleanup: to cleanup the database by removing old stats, attachments, campaign session, change tracking and also to check and auto-correct coverage metrics and deprecated links
  • Documentation
    • Documentation: to open the online documentation
  • Help
    • About: to get information about the licensing, the support and plugins activated, the libraries used and all the system properties


Global toolbar

The global toolbar is available all the time and allows performing several operations:



  • Navigating through the objects the user recently worked with (back and forth)
  • Refresh ALL the trees
  • Expand ALL the trees
  • Collapse ALL the trees
  • Search an object from all the trees using its Id. See the dedicated chapter about searching objects by id


Area buttons

The Area buttons are available on the very left of the main window and give access to the different trees available in XStudio:



Left panel

The left panel will display the objects tree corresponding to the area selected. It can be any of the following trees, documented each in dedicated sections:

Right panel

The right panel will display the information about the last object selected in the tree in the left panel. Once you have selected an object, you can continue to browse the other trees! the information will remain available on the right panel until you select another object (i.e. in a different tree or in the same one).

Wiki-formatted texts

When it's needed to store formatted text (i.e. for descriptions for instance), XStudio uses Wiki-formatted texts. These widgets are more reliable and store the information in a much cleaner format than the WISIWIG editors, hence improving performances and storage in the database.
Using these widgets is rather simple:
  • Type your text
  • Select a section of text
  • Click on a style button to apply the effect to the section
  • The section becomes surrounded by the appropriate tags




The tags are visible on the editor but you can press the Preview button to see the text rendered with the different effects as it will be printed in the reports or displayed to the user while he's executing manual tests.



Icons

Here are the main entities managed in XStudio’s Data Model and there associated icon:

Entity Function
 Company Several companies will be involved in the testing process:
  • The company who deliver the product to test
  • The company who is in charge of writing the testplan
  • The company who is in charge of implementing and executing the tests
Of course, all these companies can be the same.
 User Each company have users that will be involved in the testing process as:
  • Author of the testplan
  • Test developer
  • Test operator
  • Developer
  • etc.
 SUT (System Under Test)What we want to test. This can be a software or a Hardware target.
 Agent Tests can be run all locally or on any host having XAgent installed and running. All hosts with XStudio or XAgent MUST be referenced in the Agent tree.
 Requirement Features required for the SUT.
 Specification Deduced from the requirements, the specifications precisely detail each function of the SUT.
 Project A generic project.
 Task A project is made of tasks that will be spread in different sprints.
 Sprint Some tasks are associated to a sprint. An intermediate deliverable will come out of each sprint.
 Category Generally, there will be different categories of tests for one single product. A Category is characterized by a unique way to run all the tests under this category.
 Test Tests are developed based on the specifications. Each test must verify one particular item of the specifications. Tests can includes different testcases.
 Campaign A campaign is a selection of tests. A campaign can be executed several times on different versions of the product: these executions are called Campaign Session.
 Campaign Session A campaign session is an execution instance of a campaign. This includes results from the execution associated with specific configuration of execution.
 Defect Campaign sessions will highlight the presence of defects in the SUT. Several failures in a Campaign Session may be due to the same defect.



As you will see, XStudio is using a lot trees. Trees are flexible and allow managing entities a very flexible way. Each tree will be associated with a toolbar including one or several buttons:

Tree Button Action
Refresh
Expand all
Expand all exept for leaves
Collapse all
Show closed items (available for sprints, tasks and defects)
Display the previous/next page



All these icons will be used along all XStudio’s GUI. They may be associated with additional overlay icons which meaning is the following:

Overlay Represents
Create
Delete
Move
Copy
Edit
View
Initialized
Playing
Paused
Stopped
Open
Add
Remove
Search
Select
Special item (read-only)
Move to the right
Move to the left
Move up
Move down
Show items (available for closable items such as sprints, tasks or defects)