Forum Discussion

mbeecham's avatar
mbeecham
Occasional Contributor
13 years ago

Will a mix of Scripting Languages in a Project SUITE allow Distributed Testing to work?

A Happy New Year to all.



We run a distributed application where different parts of the system run on separate machines – one part runs on machine A, another part runs on machine B, etc. With further parts also involved, there are around 10 (ten) parts to the whole system.



Before we buy floating licences and get too far into the scripting, here’s a scenario and questions:



We’re aware that for a particular project, you select a script language and then the whole of that particular project remains using that language.



However, we might choose for each part of our system to have a project of its own, with all the 10 projects then sat within a parent Project Suite.



If we have some of the projects with scripts written in VBScript and other projects with scripts written in Jscript, would we be able to use them within a distributed running, with synchronization points, of the whole project suite?



OR do we have to have all the projects using the same scripting language?



(asking this now, before we get started!)



Thanks.

  • tristaanogre's avatar
    tristaanogre
    Esteemed Contributor
    13 years ago
    Hello, Mark!



    May I ask why you have projects written in multiple script languages?  



    As for if they all need to be the same language to be in a suite, no.  You can mix languages within a suite.



    I, personally, have not had experience using distributed testing across multiple languages. Perhaps someone from SmartBear support can comment.  It seems, however, that if your Master Project contains no scripts itself (it's just used for executing the distributed tests), your slave projects can each be of a different script language.



    I make no guarentees as I have not tried this, but it seems you should be safe.
  • mbeecham's avatar
    mbeecham
    Occasional Contributor
    13 years ago
    Hi Robert



    We have not yet started on creating the projects and writing the scripts.

    The only reason why we might mix languages is due to user knowledge - I have experience with VBScript while a colleague has Java experience and so is more comfortable with JScript.

    There's no technical reason for it.



    I thought it best to ask now whether it's possible, before we get started, to avoid going down a path which might turn into a dead-end.



    Yes, it is the intention for the Master Project to simply be for control of executing the distributed tests.



    Thanks for your swift reply... I'm interested to hear what SmartBear themselves have to say about it.

  • mbeecham's avatar
    mbeecham
    Occasional Contributor
    13 years ago
    Here's a reply I had via email from a SmartBear engineer, so I'll share it here for anyone else who's interested...



    “The info Robert Martin provided on the forum is correct  - the master can call other slaves that are written in other languages. However, I'd suggest they standardize on one language for maintainability's sake. If they have one person who writes all their tests in JScript and the rest write in VBScript, for example, and then that JScript person leaves the company, it will be much harder for the other members of the team to modify/update those tests.”



    Thanks to the engineer, and also to Robert for his early reply!