Hexawise recent updates

Hexawise recent updates

September 6, 2011
IMPROVED
Wording and help on the Analyze Tests page

Part of ongoing work to make this powerful feature easier to understand. We're not done yet.

NEW
Explanatory info for Excel XML spreadsheet export file format

PC users of Excel see a warning dialog when opening Hexawise exports since these have a .xls file extension rather than a .xml extension. We do this to make sure Excel is used to open the file since a lot of technical users (you!) will have the .xml file extension configured to open in some other application. The text just explains that the warning from Excel is innocuous and what to do about it.

IMPROVED
Progress checklist at login for disinterested users

The progress checklist is no longer shown to users that are not trying to complete it. How do we detect disinterest? Apathetic mouse clicks of course.

IMPROVED
New user registration flow

The confirmation page is now more clear about the next step to take to confirm your email address. Also you no longer have to login after confirming your email.

September 2, 2011
FIXED
IE 7 and IE 8 problems in Create Tests

This was a triple mode fault where a higher latency connection, browser of IE 7 or IE 8 and creating tests would intermittently cause a partial page render.

August 26, 2011
IMPROVED
You can now export plans without generated tests if you so desire

Thank you to Sreenuraj for this request.

August 23, 2011
IMPROVED
Basic How-To Progress Checklist

Added two new items to the Basic How-To Progress Checklist:

  • Create an Invalid Pair
  • Export a Test Plan
NEW
Advanced How-To Progress Checklist

There is a new, Advanced, How-To Progress Checklist with explanations of how-to do these six things with Hexawise:

  • Create a Thorough Test Plan
  • Create Value Expansions
  • Create a Risk-based Test Plan
  • Analyze Tests
  • Create Auto-Scripts
  • Import a Test Plan
August 5, 2011
IMPROVED
Project sharing dialog

The project sharing dialog is now more user friendly. If you add a users email, but forget to click the add user button before leaving the dialog, it now asks if you want to add the user.

FIXED
Empty parameter values when using biased value expansions

In some rare cases, generated tests could display an empty parameter value rather than an expanded value when using biased value expansions with a small number of values and a higher test strength. In the unlikely event that you have this case in one of your plans, you may need to force test regeneration by making some innocuous change in your test definition.

Thanks to Tanmay for bringing this issue to our attention.

August 4, 2011
IMPROVED
Format of the AutoScript worksheet in Excel exports

Due to popular demand, we are now using a slightly modified version of the HP Quality Center export as the AutoScripts worksheet of the Excel export. Thanks to the users that requested this change. We like it too.

NEW
Instructions in XML Export on how to preserve file formatting for import

These instructions (permissible file formats) are in the Table of Contents worksheet of the export.

FIXED
Text bolding in AutoScript worksheet of Excel export

After some recent changes to handle illegal XML characters, the bolding was coming through as HTML. This is now resolved. Special thanks to Bryan for alerting us to this error.

FIXED
Error updating parameters with some special Unicode characters

Now resolved.

FIXED
Error exporting some test plans

After some recent changes to handle illegal XML characters, a small number of customer plans would not export. This is now resolved.

August 3, 2011
FIXED
Graphical Glitches in IE 8 and Chrome

Some graphical glitches (mis-sized fields, overlapping panels, etc.) were introduced in an upgrade last week. These issues are now resolved.

July 23, 2011
FIXED
Escaping of illegal XML characters in import and export

A few illegal XML characters were not being properly escaped for the spreadsheet importing and exporting. This is now resolved.

IMPROVED
Test strength order in export dialog

The strength of the tests you will export are now in strength order (rather than the order of when you created them) in the export dialog.

IMPROVED
Upgraded additonal system components

Should result in some modest performance improvements of the server-side processing.

July 15, 2011
FIXED
Errors when using some Unicode characters in value expansions

Now resolved.

IMPROVED
Upgraded system components

Should result in some modest performance improvements of the server-side processing.

June 17, 2011
NEW
Educational user tasks

There are a set of 4 "Basic" tasks to introduce new users to Hexawise. When you complete a task, it is marked complete. You can click on a task to see how to do it.

NEW
New user tour of Hexawise

New users get a tour of the major features of Hexawise on their first login to the tool.

FIXED
Highlighting of invalid pairs (before a refresh)

Immediately after creating new invalid pairs, the hover highlighting was not correct until the plan was refreshed. This is no longer the case.

June 10, 2011
IMPROVED
Fewer "no possible value" cases

Some improvements were made to the test generation algorithm to decrease the likelihood that lots of invalid pairs will result in tests with a "no possible value" for a given parameter value.

It is always possible to chain invalid pairs in such a way that a test won't be able to provide a valid value for a particular parameter, but the point of this improvement is to be more sure that it's truly not possible to provide a value, and that the algorithm hasn't missed a value that could be possible if other changeable values were changed.