Tosca TBox Architecture and related Tosca Interview Questions

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Welcome to this Post – “Tosca TBox Architecture and related Tosca Interview Questions”.

This post discusses about the TBox Architecture and framework plus its available tools. And also some frequently asked Tosca TBox interview questions. The complete post is divided into small sections where we are discussing the concepts first and then focusing on the Tosca interview questions. So go ahead and enjoy reading…

The overall discussion will give you idea on the following listed points. These points are important for any automation tester who is using TBox or going to use TBox modules in his project. These points also give you an idea on what all areas you need to cover before moving to TBox usage and at the end you should be able to understand why it is necessary for your project, right? The points in brief are listed below:

1. What is TBox framework?
2. How TBox Architecture is designed?
3. How TBox is different from Classic Framework?
4. What are the technologies which TBox Support?
5. What all tools does it offer?
6. TBox framework related interview questions? And so on.

What is TBox?

There are many frameworks in Tosca which help us to work with identification of controls and TBox is one them. This framework is the basis for steering all engines for both Graphical User Interface tests and non-GUI tests for instance GUI like web and Non-GUI like API.

Another interesting point to note here is it is built on MS .NET technology. If you have worked as a .Net developer, JAVA developer, etc. then you can understand the flexibility and adaptability more than who are not from development background. This doesn’t mean people who are or were manual testers cannot accomplish their task but there will always be certain aspects and concepts open for them to get proper grip.

Most of the time you will find your task can be accomplished by Classic engines and few of your test cases might be focusing on the TBox modules. But in turn, the TBox framework is really very powerful and it offers you additional functionalities in comparison to Classic Engines for instance Business Recovery.

In terms of its availability, the TBox framework is automatically installed during the Tricentis Tosca standard installation so you don’t need to look at buying license for it as it is part of standard package.

With above discussion in hand you get few answers to frequently asked questions:

1. What is TBox ?
2. Does it come with standard installation?
3. Does it only support GUI? No, then describe which all it supports other than GUI?
4. On which technology TBox framework is built upon?
5. Can we extend the TBox framework, somehow say using some programming?
6. What all capabilities does TBox offers?

I hope answers to them is clear to you now.

Now let’s focus on the TBox architecture and how it works?

TBox Architecture:

The architecture of TBox shows 3 layers which communicate to describe a control at one side and on the other side, a technical view to interact with them based on technical information of the target object. The main layer is adapter which communicates between representation and technical to make the technology specific methods available for the control in question.

Let’s discuss them briefly:

1. Representation –

This specifies or layout the general behaviour of Controls. The representation is completely independent of technology and they represent general features associated with them.

An example would be a “textarea” on the representation layer defines that it is possible to set a text. However, it does not define how the text is set in the target technology (which can be different).

 

2. Adapter –

These are main communicators between the control representation and their methods to the technology specific control which is defined in the Technical Layer.

These are technology specific and often are only simple relays for the actions of the representation.

 

3. Technical –

The way we have IP proxies similarly these are proxies for the target application objects.

For simplicity it’s best to leave our discussion here as we have covered the most important parts of the architecture. Well there are other parts also like controllers, TestActions which in itself can’t be covered here on this single post.

After getting the idea of Architecture we can answer few interview questions:

1. 1. How is TBox Architecture designed?
   2. What all layers do? describe briefly.
   3. What are the motives behind this framework?  OR   Why is it necessary to follow such layer structure?

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Advantages over Classic Framework:

Now let us focus on the advantages of Tosca TBox over Classic framework as what all it benefits it is offering in comparison to Classic.

The TBox framework has many advantages over Classic Engines which are discussed below:

1. The controls or options on GUI or Non-GUI environments are being developed on various new evolving technologies for instance say some controls are built on ajax, some are java based, some are Oracle app controls etc. To cop up with all these TBox framework provides a common interface to support all these technologies which in turn you might not find in Classic engines.

 

2. All your effort from modules creation to building up and executing the test cases becomes faster. In comparison to Classic ones it shows higher performance, which is really an important aspect as for ‘say in agile’ environment everything; right from modules to test cases; has to be done as fast as possible to accommodate the new changes and validate the same in much faster pace plus supporting the existing execution list in discussion.

 

3. With TBox framework you also get options to create your modules from XScan or record your complete test case and work on the instances later. The modules which you create from XScan are internally using TBox framework and when you save your module, to be correct XModule is also following TBox framework as it targets framework for recognizing the controls.

 

4. Another interesting fact is that you get a broader range of Actions options that are required to acted upon in a test case.

 

5. The other interesting fact in this TBox framework is that you can specify similar dynamic expressions across all the engines available in the version. This means your expression which is going to be evaluated later point of time or at runtime can be used across the technologies, the framework understands the expression and will use it accordingly.

The above are main points and strictly focusing on the efforts of the automation specialist, don’t you think so?

From above points we can infer few answers to the following questions:

1. What is the difference between TBox and Classic Framework?
2. What are the benefits of the TBox?
3. How TBox is improving the performance of creation and execution of Tests?
4. Which expressions can be followed throughout the TBox framework? Give some examples on it.
5. What all actions are available as part of TBox?
6. Can all Classic framework test cases be converted to TBox?

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TBox Automation Tools

There are various tools or should we say modules which are part of the TBox package. These modules offer in hand solution to your very frequent needs or problems in your project. Tricentis have designed these modules and offered as part of the standard subset thinking which all scenarios you might be facing on the daily basis while developing your test cases. Let’s see the list of these modules in the below section.

Below is the list of many tools which are being offered as part of the TBox automation tools:

 

1. Basic Windows Operations

There are four modules available in this:

1. TBox Take Screenshot
2. TBox Clipboard
3. TBox Send Keys
4. TBox Window Operation

know more ==> Working with TBox Basic Windows Modules

2. Buffer Operations

There are four modules available in this:

1. TBox Set Buffer
2. TBox Name To Buffer
3. TBox Partial Buffer
4. TBox Delete Buffer

know more ==> Working with TBox Buffer Operations

3. Expression Evaluation

There is only one modules available in this:

1. TBox Evaluation Tool.

know more ==> Working with TBox Expression Evaluation Modules

4. File Operations

There are six modules available in this:

1. TBox Image Compare
2. TBox File Existence
3. TBox File Compare
4. TBox Copy File
5. TBox Delete File
6. TBox Read/Create File

      know more ==> Working with TBox File Operations

5. Numeric Operations

There is only one modules available in this:

1. TBox Convert Decimal

  know more ==> Working with TBox Numeric Operations

6. Process Operations

There is only one modules available in this:

1. TBox Start Program

know more ==> Working with TBox Process Operations

7. Resource Handling

There is only one modules available in this:

1. TBox Delete Resource

know more ==> Working with TBox Resource Operations

8. Selenium

There are two modules available in this:

1. Start Selenium Server
2. Run Selenium Scripts

know more ==> Working with TBox Selenium

9. Timing

There are three modules available in this:

1. TBox Start Timer
2. TBox Stop Timer
3. TBox Wait

know more ==> Working with TBox Timing Modules

10. Migrating Exchange Portal Modules

 

With this you get an opportunity to replace your Classic Tosca Exchange Portal Modules with TBox Automation Tools or modules. But of course, only if the classic Modules have a corresponding TBox Module.

There are two conditions you should check before migration of your testcases and its dependencies:

 

1. Identify whether your testcases contain classic teststeps only?

–  You can proceed if this condition is true.

2. Identify whether your testcases contain both classic TestSteps and TBox TestSteps i.e. your test case is mixed?

–  You can proceed if this condition is true.

 

So, the interview questions that we have usually related to TBox modules are:

1. What all modules are available in TBox?
2. Does it require for you to import standard.tce to get all these modules?
3. What all modules you will require mostly to work with web application? Can you name some.
4. In terms of migration what points should you remember?

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Conclusion

Let’s conclude over the interview questions once again but as a single long list so that you can focus on those and go through once again if required to check the answers:

1. What is Tosca TBox ?
2. Does it come with standard installation?
3. Does it only support GUI? No, then describe which all it supports other than GUI?
4. On which technology Tosca TBox framework is built upon?
5. Can we extend the Tosca TBox framework, somehow say using some programming?
6. What all capabilities does Tosca TBox offers?
7. How is Tosca TBox Architecture designed?
8. What are the motives behind this framework? Or Why is it necessary to follow such layer structure?
9. What all layers do? describe briefly.
10. What is the difference between Tosca TBox and Classic Framework?
11. What are the benefits of the Tosca TBox?
12. How TBox is improving the performance of creation and execution of Tests?
13. Which expressions can be followed throughout the Tosca TBox framework? Give some examples on it.
14. What all actions are available as part of Tosca TBox?
15. Can all Classic framework test cases be converted to Tosca TBox?
16. What all modules are available in Tosca TBox?
17. Does it require for you to import standard.tce to get all these modules?
18. What all modules you will require mostly to work with web application? Can you name some.
19. In terms of migration what points should you remember?

Huff!!! That was really long discussion. You also think same right. Well, this brings me to the end of the discussion where we have discussed some concepts as well as interview questions. I really hope you must have enjoyed reading and if you have some questions please put in the comments below.

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