SilkCentral^® Test Manager 2006 Release 2
Release Notes

This file contains important information that may not appear in online Help. Read this file in its entirety.

For information about installation, deployment, and licensing issues, see the SilkCentral Test Manager Installation and Configuration Guide.

For an overview of the new features in the current release, see the What's New section below.

What's New

Code Coverage & Code-Change Impact

Now you can obtain visibility and control over your code's testing coverage and progress with SilkCentral Test Manager's new Code Coverage module. Switch on code coverage during test execution runs to automatically capture details about the specific lines of code that are covered by your tests. Upon completion of a test run, you can quickly see whether covered code has passed or failed and identify code that still requires test coverage. You also have the ability to drill down through your code to the component, class, and method levels to identify specific areas in your code that cause trouble in your project. Code Coverage Reports provide insight into the impact that specific code changes will have on your test planning and testing efforts, thereby giving you greater control over your projects.

Manual Testing Client (MTC)

The Manual Testing Client (MTC) is a new standalone execution client for manual testers. Manual testers are no longer required to execute tests via Test Manager's Web browser interface. The MTC provides a simple-to-use rich client for quick and effective running of manual test plans, while ensuring that test results are uploaded to the central repository for analysis and reporting. Manual testers also have the option of running test cycles offline and using the MTC to upload test results at a later time.

Data-Driven Testing

With SilkCentral Test Manager you can now manage your test definitions as data-driven tests. Test data from common data sources, such as Excel spreadsheets and standard database systems, can easily be imported, updated, and associated with tests in your test plan. SilkCentral Test Manager provides the option of working with data-driven tests as either single data-row instances or as a multi-row instances, enabling you to control your test data as required. Data-driven tests are created and executed based on the option that you have specified for the test.

Gauntlet

Gauntlet users have the ability to launch execution definitions in SilkCentral Test Manager and store test results within the central repository, thereby enabling analysis and reporting of results back to Gauntlet.

Setup & Cleanup Executions

Now you can create and manage setup and cleanup procedures for execution definitions. A setup execution allows for preconditions or application states to be set on a target machine before an actual test execution is run. After a test execution has completed a test run, a cleanup execution performs any defined finalization procedures. The results from both setup and cleanup executions are excluded from the actual test execution result metrics and reporting.

CaliberRM

Requirement traces are now updated with result status (pass/fail) for all linked test definitions within SilkCentral Test Manager projects. CaliberRM also provides SilkCentral Test Manager integration capabilities out-of-the-box.

HTML Support for Description Fields

Description fields in Test Manager's UI now benefit from support for HTML-formatted text, providing users with the option of including bullets, images, and Web links.

Directory Service Integration

SilkCentral Test Manager provides support for LDAP and Active Directory password authentication for logging users into active projects.

Test Planning Web Service API

You can create, modify, and delete tests and test plans in SilkCentral Test Manager from external sources by utilizing the new Web service API.

Uploading Attachments via API

The improved Web service API allows you to upload attachments associated with requirements and tests to SilkCentral Test Manager from external sources.

System Requirements/Prerequisites

For optimal performance of SilkCentral Test Manager, the following configuration is recommended:

Server requirements:
(applies to database server, application server, front-end server, execution server, and chart server)

Known Issues

This section contains a list of known issues and provides work-arounds where available.

• Settings issues
• Test Plan issues
• Execution issues
• Reports issues
• Third party tools issues
• Display issues
• Issue Manager issues
• SilkTest 2006 R2 known issues
• SilkPerformer 2006 R2 known issues

Settings issues

• IIS integration does not work if Java 1.4 (and possibly earlier releases) is installed on the system. (30440)
  Workaround: Uninstall Java 1.4 or lower on the front-end server machine.
• If the database is disconnected (e.g., for administrative tasks), users which continue working with Test Manager may receive Nullpointer exceptions. (27023, 31596)
  Workaround: Wait until the administrator reconnects the database and login again.

Test Plan issues

• With the data-driven feature new parameters are generated from the columns of the assigned data set. If a value is empty (optional or undefined parameter) the value is marked as "<undefined>". This could be a problem with, for example, SilkTest scripts, because is also sent to the SilkTest agent via the execution interface. (31548)
  Workaround: In your data source/data set, define a valid value for optional parameters (e.g. 0 for a number) and check these values in your SilkTest scripts before using them.
• A data-driven test definition with the options "Each data row is a single test definition" and/or "Enable data-driven properties" enabled, is not supported as Setup & Cleanup test definition. Changing either of these options while a test definition is assigned to an execution definition can cause the results of a setup/cleanup test definition to vanish. (31484)
  Workaround: None.
• It is not possible to remove the data-driven properties from a test planning node. Due to this, you cannot remove an assigned data source in Administration/Configuration. (29280)
  Workaround:
  1.) Delete the test planning node
  2.) Delete the data source configuration (work cautiously with folders and test containers)
  3.) Recreate the test planning node
• Creating an automated test from a manual test does not work if the description is too long. Since the description for a new automated test is generated from the step descriptions, the resulting length for the description can exceed the allowed maximum of 2000 characters. (28564)
  Workaround: Reduce the length of the proposed description for the new automated test in the first wizard step to a maximum of 2000 characters.

Execution issues

• Executed JUnit test executions sometimes end up with a "Not Executed" status if code analysis is enabled. If code analysis is enabled, the execution server process and the child process executing the Java code need to communicate with eachother in order to synchronize coverage recording and code invocation. There is a timeout of 10 seconds for this communication, which can be exceeded if another process consumes CPU time on the execution server, thus slowing down the Test Manager processes. As a result one of following messages occurs in the messages list of the test result: "IO error synchronizing with executing child process VM" or "The executing child process VM did not respond to start coverage recording". (31704)
  Workaround: Install your execution servers on machines where only the execution server process but no other software is runs concurrently.
• Test execution results are missing and an "IllegalStateException" stacktrace occurs in the list of messages of the "Results for Execution Definition" view. This occurs if the timeout specified in "Planning - Success Conditions" is exceeded by two or more JUnit test definition executions and code analysis is enabled. All test definitions following the second timed-out JUnit execution are not executed and results are missing. (31688)
  Workaround: Increase the timout defined in the "Planning - Success Conditions" section.
• Data imported from a data source for data-driven tests appears in a single column. This happens when the locale of the computer on which the data source was created differ from the locale of the computer hosting Test Manager (if the default CSV separator of the two locale differ). (31145)
  Workaround: None. You need to make sure that the client on which new data sources are created uses the same CSV separator as Test Manager's application server.
• After starting an execution definition with "Run Once" it sometimes takes a long time for the execution definition to show up in the "Current Executions" section of the "Activities" page. The "Run Once" operation uploads all associated information of test definitions assigned to the execution definition to execution servers before initiating the execution, which takes time. If the application server is busy uploading data due other user's actions, this increases the delay further. (31542)
  Workaround: None.
• If the execution server runs as service, rather than as a Windows process, the execution server may have insufficient rights to detect the SilkTest installation directory via the file system and throws a Nullpointer exception. (31507)
  Workaround: Run the execution server in process mode to run automated SilkTest executions.
• When entering Unicode characters in the test step result field while executing a manual test, those characters are sometimes not displayed as entered when viewing the manual test results. (28194)
  Workaround: None.
• When creating a new filter (that has at least two criteria) within the Execution unit, and selecting "Execution Property" (the default) from the "Selection Criteria" drop-list box as the last of the criteria, you'll receive the error message, "Could not apply filter to tree: unknown resultingCategory: 3." (27063)
  Workaround: Select a value other than "Execution Property" from the "Selection Criteria" drop-list box on the "New Filter" dialog. Then re-select "Execution Property" from the list and continue configuring the filter.
• The last execution results of a test definition and execution definition cannot be deleted. (28563)
  Workaround: Run the execution definition again (via schedule or run once) in order to generate new results. Now the previous results can be deleted.
• If an execution server shuts down during the execution of an execution definition, the results of the already completed test definition executions are lost. (21303)
  Workaround: None.
• No warning that changes are lost is displayed if the Assigned Test Definitions tab is left without having clicked the Apply button. (19681)
  Workaround: Always apply changes before leaving the Assigned Test Definitions tab.
• When rerunning failed tests, the execution definition status (Execution/Document View) only displays the test definition executions which were re-run, not all. (21179)
  Workaround: Although the Document View does not display the total Execution definition status, reports display the status for all test executions.
• .NetExplorer Test Execution might not end if the event log is full, as in this case .NetExplorer brings up a message box. (25539)
  Workaround: None.

Reports issues

• When displaying the "Report" tab of the "Reports" unit, a "refresh" operation in the browser sometimes (rarely) displays a "500 Servlet Exception" . (28418)
  Workaround: Click the "Update" button on the current Report page.
• The 'Insert Placeholder' feature in the advanced query mode of the 'New Report' and 'Edit Report' dialog doesn't work when editing the query manually, using Mozilla Firefox as Web browser. (28506)
  Workaround:
  1. After clicking Edit on a report with an advanced query or switching the 'New Report' dialog to the 'Advanced' mode, first insert all the needed placeholders before modifying the query.
  2. Insert the placeholders manually: ${$...}
• Full-text indices can't be used on text objects in Oracle databases because Test Manager uses the NCLOB data type. (26330)
  Workaround: Contact Borland Customer Support for information about possible solutions.
• When changing the Microsoft Excel report template, a "File Download" dialog appears. (23980)
  Workaround: This problem can occur on Windows 2000 operating systems. To solve the issue, open Windows Explorer and select Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types -> XLS -> Advanced. Check the Confirm open after download checkbox.
• If Microsoft Internet Explorer's security level is set to High (which is the default setting in Windows 2003 SP1), JavaScript is disabled and Test Manager will not work correctly.
  Workaround: Add the Test Manager URL and the chart server URL to your local intranet site or to the list of trusted sites in MS Internet Explorer.

Third-party tools issues

• Integration with CaliberRM only supports CaliberRM servers that require a connection via the default port 20000. Specifying a hostname with a different port ("hostname:port") is not supported. (31296)
  Workaround: None.
• A synchronization task with many new requirements blocks the front-end server and users are not able to work with the system anymore until the operation has completed. If such an operation takes over an hour, the browser will display a "page cannot be displayed" page. This is a browser timeout issue, the synchronization task actually completes successfully. The "SynchLog.log" file in the log directory contains a complete report about the latest synchronization operation. (30963)
  Workaround: None.
• It is possible to create traces in a CaliberRM project to test definitions in a SilkCentral Test Manager project that is not configured for integration with this CaliberRM project. This will lead to inconsistency of traces in CaliberRM and assignments of test definitions in Test Manager. Such traces should not be created. (31594)
  Workaround: None.
• CVS SourceControl Integration with public key authentication does not work if the front-end server service runs under the system user. (26807)
  Workaround: Start the front-end server service with a normal user account or use another authentication mechanism for CVS.
• Using the GoTo functionality in Test Manager for an assigned external issue from StarTeam always opens a new instance of StarTeam instead of reusing an existing instance. (27640)
  Workaround: None.
• The Check Connection command on the Edit Configuration dialog for the configuration of IBM Rational RequisitePro integration projects may fail although all provided data is correct. (20000)
  Workaround: To enable access for IBM Rational RequisitePro SDK to projects in MS-Access database files (*.mdb), the access rights of the .mdb file have to be set to (rw) for the Internet Guest account (e.g.: LAB\IUSR_LABMASTER). This can be done on the parent directory to enable access for all projects in the directory.
• The Check Connection command on the Edit Configuration dialog for the configuration of IBM Rational RequisitePro integration projects may fail although all provided data is correct. (20001)
  Workaround: To be able to get access to Requisite Pro project files, you must have access to them via a UNC path. The SilkCentral Test Manager Frontend Server using this file must therefore either run under a user account (default is system account for services) with proper rights (admin), or the share must be configured for NullSessionLogins access. Otherwise the connection to the RequisitePro project will fail. See the MS article for more details. To enable NullSessionLogin, run regedt32.exe on the Requisite Pro server machine and browse to: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\NullSessionShares. Then add a new line to the REG_MULTI_SZ field with the share name used by the service.
• If the configuration of External Traceability for SilkCentral Test Manager in Borland's Framework Administrator is changed, all existing traces to SilkCentral Test Manager test definitions may become invalid. (28566)
  Workaround: Use the upload functionality on the External Properties tab of the Requirements unit to add the traces (assigned test definitions) a second time and delete any obsolete test definitions.
• You cannot set CaliberRM custom properties "Priority" and "Status" to map to SilkCentral Test Manager custom properties. These names are reserved by CaliberRM. (20710)
  Workaround: None.
• The PVCS support is limited to the English language version.
  Workaround: None.

Display issues

• Manual test definition steps are no longer displayed in the tree view.
  Since a test definition can now have multiple data-driven test definition instances, which are listed below a manual test definition in the tree, the normal test steps of a manual test definition are no longer listed in the tree. You can view the steps of a manual test definition in the "Steps" tab of the selected manual test definition. (26970)
  Workaround: None, this is the way the GUI is supposed to work now.
• In Issue Manager, release names within issues consist of "VersionName + BuildName". When performing an action in Test Manager, release names in the drop-down list are shown with "BuildName" only. (26970)
  Workaround: None.
• In Internet Explorer 6, drop-down menus in the background are clickable, even if a modal dialog is opened. (20471)
  Workaround: None.
• If you log in to Test Manager, and then log in again with another user account in a second browser window with the "Remember Login" option selected, the stored cookie is read by the first browser as well and the logged in user will change in the first browser. (21325)
  Workaround: If you must work with more than one open browser window with different user accounts, log in to Test Manager without selecting the "Remember Login" option.
• The preview wizard step in the Test Manager Office Import tool only shows the first 230 characters for requirements and manual tests that are imported. This is only a visual limitation on the preview page, the requirements and manual tests are actually imported with the full name. (20472)
  Workaround: None.

Issue Manager issues

• Files with less than three characters in the file name can not be uploaded. (27406)
  Workaround: Use only file names with three or more characters.
• Some imported custom reports might not work anymore due to database changes in version 4.0. (25225)
  Workaround: None.
• Parameter names with blank characters are not supported, though you will not receive an error message if you use a parameter name with blank characters. (25754)
  Workaround: None.

Resolved Issues

The following are resolved defects in SilkCentral Test Manager 2006 R2.

Tested Software

This section describes the software with which SilkCentral Test Manager 2006 R2 was tested.

Getting Help

Link to Technical Support page on Borland Web site

Installation Instructions

For information about installation, deployment, and licensing issues, see the SilkCentral Test Manager Installation and Configuration Guide.