Forum Discussion

mfoster711's avatar
mfoster711
Regular Contributor
11 years ago

Managing Chrome Updates is a nightmare?

It appears that managing updates to Google Chrome is a complete nightmare when working with TestComplete. I am curious how others manage this.

 

This week Google pushed out Chrome 42 and all my PCs were updated. To get TestComplete working with Chrome again I need to update all 30 PCs from TestComplete 10.30 to 10.60, update all 30 PCs from TestExecute 10.30 to 10.60 and then install the Chrome patch for Chrome 42 on all 30 PCs.

 

If this were to occur on the day of one of our software deployments then I would be in a serious bind because our testing would not finish until hours after it is supposed to finish.

 

So how do you manage this? I don't object to having to udpate TestComplete and Chrome on a monthly basis but I just need to be able to manage exactly when that update occurs.

23 Replies

  • mfoster711's avatar
    mfoster711
    Regular Contributor
    11 years ago

    To clarify, I am not opposed to keeping Chrome updated or TestComplete. I just want to manage this on my timeframe since it is not a small undertaking when you are using 42 PCs.

     

    My biggest fear is that Chrome will push out an update the day before I need to do final testing on one of our major releases.  We would have to delay our software release or skip Chrome testing and hope testing Firefox and IE is good enough. Even if TestComplete has a patch available the day the Chrome update comes out, it would still mess me up because I can't update 42 PCs in an hour.

     

    I simply want to be able to say "wait until next week to update Chrome" so I can do it at a timeframe that does not disrupt my business.

    • Ryan_Moran's avatar
      Ryan_Moran
      Valued Contributor
      11 years ago

      I get it, but you're really going to have 42 PCs with an outdated browser?

      Or did I misunderstand this? "update 42 PCs"

       

      "Firefox and IE is good enough."

      This is ultimately what our team decided...to stick with just IE for automated testing until this process is improved upon by SmartBear. Ultimately the decision was made when we reevaluated the purpose of automated testing (good to to do every now and then for sanity sake) and it was determined that the ultimate goal is to catch major issues with a release. Testing every browser and every scenario was not determined to be a focal point of automation since we have manual testers running those browsers. So far, for us, this has proven to be time better spent and we're able to dedicate more time to automated script expansion.

      • mfoster711's avatar
        mfoster711
        Regular Contributor
        11 years ago

        You said:

        This is ultimately what our team decided...to stick with just IE for automated testing until this process is improved upon by SmartBear. Ultimately the decision was made when we reevaluated the purpose of automated testing (good to to do every now and then for sanity sake) and it was determined that the ultimate goal is to catch major issues with a release. Testing every browser and every scenario was not determined to be a focal point of automation since we have manual testers running those browsers. So far, for us, this has proven to be time better spent and we're able to dedicate more time to automated script

         

        Fair point and this might be what we are ultimately stuck doing. We don't test everything on all browsers but we do have certain types of regression testing that we want to run on each release and on each currently supported major browser. 

    • mfoster711's avatar
      mfoster711
      Regular Contributor
      11 years ago

      How do you do that? Chrome stopped honoring Registry settings to disable udpates and it appears the only way to manage this now is through Group Policy changes? I don't know much about Group Policy settings and I am guessing this is something my IT department would have to manage and that I can't control on my test PCs? Is that so?

      • AlexKaras's avatar
        AlexKaras
        Community Hero
        11 years ago

        Hi,

         

        > How do you do that? Chrome stopped honoring Registry settings to disable udpates and it appears the only way to manage this now is through Group Policy changes?

         

        Personally I used to navigate to c:\users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Google\ folder and rename the Update folder to something else.

  • Ryan_Moran's avatar
    Ryan_Moran
    Valued Contributor
    11 years ago

    Has been an ongoing issue forever. About the only thing people will tell you on this forum is to disable updates which in my opinion is completely unacceptable for many reasons.

     

    One... our system administrator would likely have a melt down if he knew we had any PC running with an out dated browser. 

     

    Two...our customers do not disable browser updates. We are mandated to configure our systems to the most commonly used configuration by our customers to increase our likelihood of catching issues that would affect a majority of our customer base.

     

    • mfoster711's avatar
      mfoster711
      Regular Contributor
      11 years ago

      I sent a request to our network team to find out how they suggest I do this. I agree, I don't want to completely turn off updates for an extended timeframe. I simply want to make sure there is a patch for TestComplete/TestExecute before the update gets applied.

      • von_bailey's avatar
        von_bailey
        Contributor
        11 years ago

        I don't think you're going ot get pathces from SmartBear before Chrome updates the browser unless SmartBear is on some kindo fo list that gets advanced notices on any changes in the browser from Chrome.  While I don't mind a few days for a fix to come, it is problematic when it's more than a few days.