A Conversation with Parasoft's Nada daVeiga from JavaOne 2007

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The ability to apply the right tool for a job is among the most valuable developer skills. In this interview with Artima, Parasoft's Nada daVeiga explains that this skill is also crucial when it comes to choosing the right testing technologies—or, rather, the right combination of testing techniques and tools—for Web application testing:

Application logic today is very complex. You may have some business logic written in Java, some database logic in the back end, and some of our customers also have a Web service front-end, [while] others could have a thin client or a Web site.

Certain testing technologies are good at identifying certain types of [problems] really quickly. If you're using the wrong testing technology, you may hit [the defects], but it may take two or three times more [time] than it would have taken with the right testing technology. It's very important to use the right testing technology to grab the low-hanging fruit in [each category of problems]...

While JUnit [tests] are the perfect way to test the functional aspects of your Java application, especially if you're talking about bottom-up testing, if you have a Web application as a front end, you should also consider writing HTTPUnit [tests] as a ... way to test the look and feel of your Web application. If you have Web services, then you need to think about testing [for instance] your messaging layer, and you may need to employ other tools to help you in that...

Nada daVeiga, product manager at Parasoft, talks about why developers should use a variety of testing technologies to ensure the quality of Web applications. (2 minutes 38 seconds)

How many, and what combination of, testing tools and technologies do you use in a typical Web application project?

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About the authors

Frank Sommers is Editor-in-Chief of Artima Developer. He also serves as chief editor of the IEEE Technical Committee on Scalable Computing's newsletter, and is an elected member of the Jini Community's Technical Advisory Committee. Prior to joining Artima, Frank wrote the Jiniology and Web services columns for JavaWorld.

Bill Venners is president of Artima, Inc. He is author of the book, Inside the Java Virtual Machine, a programmer-oriented survey of the Java platform's architecture and internals. His popular columns in JavaWorld magazine covered Java internals, object-oriented design, and Jini. Bill has been active in the Jini Community since its inception. He led the Jini Community's ServiceUI project, whose ServiceUI API became the de facto standard way to associate user interfaces to Jini services. Bill also serves as an elected member of the Jini Community's initial Technical Oversight Committee (TOC), and in this role helped to define the governance process for the community.