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Search in Book Reviews

The ACCU passes on review copies of computer books to its members for them to review. The result is a large, high quality collection of book reviews by programmers, for programmers. Currently there are 1949 reviews in the database and more every month.
Search is a simple string search in either book title or book author. The full text search is a search of the text of the review.
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Title:
Automated Web Testing Toolkit
Author:
Diane Stottlemyer
ISBN:
0 471 41435 2
Publisher:
Wiley
Pages:
285pp + CD
Price:
£35.95
Reviewer:
Christopher Hill
Subject:
testing
Appeared in:
14-4
The sub-title reads 'Expert Methods for Testing and Managing Web Applications'. I was really looking forward to learning a great deal about this very neglected area and was greatly disappointed in this book.

The author is a 'Certified software test engineer' and this book reads like a 1980s Quality Assurance manual, which has been reworked (a little) to weave in the latest languages and techniques. The book has the feel of a number of different 'seminars' bolted together, in no particular order. Business Requirements and Testing Methodology (Unit Testing, System Testing, Functional-black box testing. Regression testing and user acceptance) are 'covered' to a greater depth, but in direct proportion to how many paper based forms and templates are required. Life Cycle Models (Waterfall, V-shaped, Prototyping, Incremental, Spiral) are 'covered' in a paragraph each, towards the rear of the book. If you need this sort of information see the Wiley bookTesting Computer Software(Kaner).

As an aside ADA is listed as one of the languages that would be amenable to Unit Testing - while this might be the case how does this help the web site implementer?

There are two lists of web-related tools and resources. Each entry has a URL and a very short paragraph. Like everything else in this book a stepping-stone to somewhere more profitable. One whole chapter is given over to testing of different platforms and servers. In practice this is a page précis for each product listed (the ZD Net web site receives a credit for the information). Another Wiley bookTesting Applications on the Web(Nguyen) provides much better coverage and detail of this area.

To sum up, a dose of 1980s QA; out of date search results for web tools and resources; lots of paper based forms and templates; very poorly structured, touching on material much better covered in other Wiley books. Not recommended.Platform Specific