[hatatap] hatatap planned features

[Martin Klang]

Hi all,

with release 0.8.2 out of the way, now is a good time to look at what's 
planned for the future.

The plan is to allow test runs to be defined, where concurrent requests 
can be constructed using a pool of test data.
A typical use case would be to test a web application with multiple 
logins, picked sequentially or randomly from a list of usernames and 
passwords.
The idea can be generalised so that pools of any type of testdata can 
be declared, either as part of a test run or separately.

The first step to implement test runs will be to extend the script 
vocabulary so that a script can be called, with parameters, from 
another script.
Next the data pools must be managed, which should be fairly 
straightforward.
Most of the groundwork has already been done with the recent code 
refactoring, it's now a case of finding the time to implement it.

Other parts of the project will be incrementally improved, such as the 
reporting tools, website, and documentation.
It would be real nice with a reporting tool that generates SVG graphs 
from the XML results.

There's always been the idea to generate test scripts automatically 
using either a type of wizard or by recording browser activity.
The XML scripts lend themselves very nicely to autogeneration, more so 
than text-based scripts.
However there's currently no-one working on this that I'm aware of.

The current simple web application that is available as hatatap.war 
could/should/will be extended to a more full-featured test center.
It lets you manage and run test scripts (and in the future test runs) 
and view the results.
With a bit of work it could become a really useful, easy-to-use tool 
for testing both HTML-based web apps and XML-based web services.

As always, all help is greatly appreciated - contact myself or email 
the list if you have some time to volunteer!

regards,

/m