After a big push to introduce and refine some new features, Logigear announced on  its release of TestArchitect 8.2 for the Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.

Perhaps most notable in this release of LogiGear’s flagship product are the new provisions for invoking non-default project items during test execution: time traveling and variation branches.There’s also time zone support for teams with global operations, a new TA XPath property to identify elements, improved Action Recorder operation within Internet Explorer, and more.

Here are some notable highlights:

Time travel execution

Time-traveling execution provides support for retroactive execution – that is, the ability to execute a particular historical snapshot, or set of revisions, of project items called up for a given test run. Given its ability to find the right set of test assets for a particular past version of an application, time - traveling execution is well-suited for regression testing on AUT versions that precede the current release.

Variation branches

A branch node is a new type of node that can be applied to the Systems & Platforms tree of a TA repository, and a branch is a subtree consisting of one or more branch nodes. A branch is most typically used to represent the test changes implemented to accommodate a series of patches or hot fixes, usually involving such things as bug fixes or performance enhancements for a given version of an AUT. Note that you may also create subtrees of version nodes under branch nodes.

Time zone differentiation

To help teams spread across different time zones, TestArchitect can now automatically display date and time values for project assets relative to the time zone in which they are being viewed. As an example, during the months of Daylight Savings Time, Vietnam is 14 hours ahead of the

U.S. Pacific Time Zone. Hence, if a team in California checks in a project item at 3:00pm on January 1, Vietnamese engineers see the item as having a Last update date of 5:00am, January 2, which reflects exactly the time the item was checked in relative to Vietnam. Let’s say you have two teams working on a big test project. One team is in San Francisco, and the other in Danang where the time is 14 hours ahead. An engineer in Danang checks in an action at 8am on March 1. But 8am May 1 in Vietnam is 6pm April 30 in California.

Escape sequences

TestArchitect now supports the use of escape sequences in string expressions. Escape sequences allow you to insert non-printing characters in strings, such as tabs and newlines. They also allow you to tell TA to treat certain characters literally, rather than as special symbols.

For instance, a double quotation mark in an expression is treated by TA as representing the beginning or end of a string. But \” (backslash followed by double quotation mark) is treated as a literal double quotation mark.

XPath property

A new TA property, XPath, has been introduced. This property is based on the XPath language, which uses the DOM (Document Object Model) representation of a window or web page to uniquely locate elements and controls within the hierarchy.

Major improvements to Action Recorder on Internet Explorer

Performance enhancements and many improvements to the quality and robustness of the generated test procedures.
Support for picture checks in project subscription
Picture checks stored within TA’s Picture Checks node can now be shared across multiple projects via subscription.
Hence, your project can now reuse picture checks that reside in other projects.

Support for Context-sensitive help of built-in settings

Positioning your cell pointer over a built-in setting in the test editor and pressing F1 opens TestArchitect Help with the associated reference topic displayed.

Support for automation on Safari running on Macintosh

TestArchitect now supports recognition of UI web controls in Safari, allowing you to carry out testing of web applications running on in Safari on OS X machines.

Major improvements to TestArchitect – Microsoft Test Manager Integration
New features include:

• Mapping of test results statuses
  
• Mapping of TA to MTM projects
  
• More options for uploading TA tests to MTM 
  
• More convenient uploading of TA test results to MTM
  
• Mapping of custom fields between TA and MTM
  
• Easier upgrades to new TA plug-in versions
  
• Convenience in switching between Team Foundation Server accounts 
  
• Test case-by-test case execution of TA INITIAL and FINAL sections.