NeXtMidas Integration Testing

Introduction

Prior to every official release of NeXtMidas a large suite of integration tests (also called "Release Tests") are performed to verify that the release will run properly on each of the supported system configurations.

This document assumes that the user has a good working knowledge of NeXtMidas, Unix and Windows. The Web Server tests also assume experience in administering an Apache web server.

Test Groups:

Testing the Baseline
Web Server Testing
Testing Operation on a Headless Server
Testing X-Midas to NeXtMidas Connections via RMIF

The Baseline tests and WebStart tests (part of the "Web Server Testing") are run on each of the system configurations listed at the top of the NeXtMidas Release Notes. The other tests are run on a limited number of systems since they are not applicable to all platforms.

Testing the Baseline

Checkout a clean copy of NeXtMidas from the CVS repository. (Do not use an existing repository even if it is up to date.)
Set the NMROOT to point to the copy of NeXtMidas that was just checked out and set JAVAHOME to point to the appropriate version of Java.
Manually verify that NMROOT and JAVAHOME are set correctly.
Build NeXtMidas.
- Linux / Solaris / Tru64 UNIX
  Run nmstart and then build NeXtMidas using nm make all. (Use source $NMROOT/os/unix/nmstart rather than nmstart since some shells may statically define the nmstart alias preventing it from pointing to the correct place even though $NMROOT has been changed.)
```
$ source $NMROOT/os/unix/nmstart
$ nm make all
```
- Windows (Pre-Compiled DLLs)
  Run nmstart and then build NeXtMidas using nm make all. Check the output to verify that the pre-compiled DLL's are being used.
- Windows (Native Build)
  Follow the instructions listed in the "Compile Native Code on Windows Platforms" of the NeXtMidas User's Guide.
Start NeXtMidas and run the non-interactive confidence tests.
```
nM> CONFIDENCE
```
Run all of the baseline tests (which include all interactive and non-interactive confidence tests) except the ones that require direct access to a web server.
```
nM> CONFIDENCE/BASELINE/WEB=NO
```
Check to see that the demos are working correctly.
- The NeXtMidas Demo.
```
nM> DEMO
```
- The SD360 Demo (standalone).
```
nM> SD360 1e9
```
- The SD360 Demo (client-server).
```
nM> SD360/SERVER/BG
nM> SD360/CLIENT
```
Test the Java look and feel configurations.
1. Set the look and feel (the LOOKANDFEEL command is in the UCL option tree in NeXtMidas 2.0.0).
```
nM> LOOKANDFEEL JAVA
```
2. Verify that the look and feel looks correct in both traditional NeXtMidas applications (DEMO) and Java Swing applications (HELP/GUI).
```
nM> DEMO
nM> HELP/GUI
```
3. Repeat the above steps with various look and feels. Use the following to get a list of the available look and feels:
```
nM> LOOKANDFEEL
```
4. Verify that the /JSETUP switch works.
```
nM> BLD sd360.java MCR SYS
nM> SD360/BG/SERVER/JSETUP
nM> SD360/CLIENT
```

Web Server Testing

(This section assumes the web server is a RedHat Linux box running Apache.)

(Text in italics indicates details specific to the nextmidas.com web server, other servers may differ slightly.)

Load a fresh copy of NeXtMidas on the web server and test it following the steps in the "Testing the Baseline" section.

The copy of NeXtMidas should installed such that NMROOT is /home/nextmidas/sandbox/nxmXXX/ (where XXX is the version number).
Run the web tests.
```
nM> CONFIDENCE/BASELINE/WEB=YES
```
Link the release so that Apache will find it via the link http://<server>/nxmXXX/.
$ cd /home/nextmidas/nxm_apache
$ ln -sf ../sandbox/nxmXXX/ nxmXXX
Link the release so that Apache will find it via the link http://<server>/nmroot/ (Skip this step for beta releases).
$ cd /home/nextmidas/nxm_apache
$ rm current
$ ln -sf nxmXXX current

Update the top line of the WebStart demos $NMROOT/htdocs/demo.jnlp and $NMROOT/htdocs/shell.jnlp to point to the correct server.

Existing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<jnlp spec="1.0+" href="http://nextmidas.com/nm/htdocs/demo.jnlp" 
      codebase="http://nextmidas.com/nm/jars">

Should be (where <server> is the fully-qualified URL of the web server - don't use localhost):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<jnlp spec="1.0+" href="http://<server>/nxmXXX/htdocs/demo.jnlp" 
      codebase="http://<server>/nxmXXX/jars">

Check the release on several different systems using various web browsers.
1. Bring up the "NeXtMidas 'SYS' Tree" documentation.
```
http://<server>/nxmXXX/
```
2. Test the WebStart demo
```
http://<server>/nxmXXX/htdocs/demos.jnlp
```

Testing Operation on a Headless Server

(This section assumes the server is running RedHat Linux.)

Log into the headless server with all X11 forwarding disabled. This can usually be accomplished by using ssh with the -x (lower-case 'X') switch.
Load a fresh copy of NeXtMidas on the server and build it following steps 1-4 in the "Testing the Baseline" section.
Run the non-interactive confidence tests.
```
nM> CONFIDENCE
```
Run the SD360 macro in headless mode.
```
nM> SD360/HEADLESS 1e9
```

Testing X-Midas to NeXtMidas Connections via RMIF

(This section assumes that the system has X-Midas 4.2 installed.)

Load a fresh copy of NeXtMidas on the web server and test it following the steps in the "Testing the Baseline" section.
In a separate shell (that will be used when running X-Midas). Set the NMROOT variable and unset the JAVAHOME variable (this will prevent X-Midas from using any Java code).
```
$ setenv NMROOT <path>
$ unsetenv JAVAHOME
```
(Simulates a system without Java or NeXtMidas available.)
Run the RMIF tests.
```
nM> HOME TEST
nM> %TEST_RMIF
```
When prompted to test on X-Midas, enter "YES" and use the shell that has NMROOT set and JAVAHOME unset when prompted to run X-Midas.
Open a new shell and set both NMROOT and JAVAHOME.
```
$ setenv NMROOT <path>
$ setenv JAVAHOME <path>
```
(Simulates a system with Java and NeXtMidas available.)
Run the RMIF tests again, this time using the shell with both NMROOT and JAVAHOME set.