Stb-tester news, product announcements & testing topics.
Stb-tester v30 includes a new feature: Searching for a reference image that has some transparent pixels. This blog post describes three ways you can use this new feature that makes writing test-scripts much easier than before. Read more...
Version 30 of the stb-tester core Python API is available. stbt.match now
supports transparency: Transparent pixels in the reference image will be
ignored when looking for a match within the video-frame. This is a huge
usability improvement when looking for buttons, selections/highlights, and
similar outlines that have dynamic content or non-rectangular shapes.
Read more...
An end-to-end test for your Alexa integration is easy to automate with Stb-tester. In this short video we issue commands to Alexa by playing pre-recorded audio files (“Alexa, play Mr. Robot”). Then we validate that the command was successful by looking at the video output from the set-top box (in this video, a Fire TV Stick). Read more...
Stb-tester now provides PyCharm integration out of the box, allowing you to run tests against the real set-top-box, right from your IDE: Read more...
The Stb-tester team will be at the IBC tradeshow in Amsterdam 14-18 September 2018. Read more...
Stb-tester has always supported Roku boxes (Roku HD, 2, 3, 4, Express, Express+, Premiere, Premiere+, and Ultra). Now, Stb-tester also supports the Roku Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick+. Read more...
Version 29 of the stb-tester core Python API is now available. This is a significant release with major new APIs for testing audio. Read more...
When you are developing new test scripts (or modifying existing ones) we recommend this workflow: Read more...
Stb-tester supports automated testing on the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. Read more...
The Stb-tester Platform now supports Atlassian's Bamboo Server for Continuous Integration (CI). Many of our customers already use Bamboo for continuous integration, deployment, and delivery. Now, it will only take a few minutes to get your Stb-tester end-to-end tests running from your Bamboo jobs. Read more...
When you are capturing reference images for your test scripts, the Stb-tester Portal now allows you to crop the images directly in your browser. Read more...
Version 28 of the stb-tester core Python API is now available. Read more...
Stb-tester’s cloud-based portal centralizes your test results and dashboards. It allows remote testing and live monitoring from anywhere in the world — your devices can be spread across multiple network locations, and your test team can be remote too. Read more...
Software update v27.4 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. It includes a more convenient configuration system for large test farms, a new REST API for searching past test results, support for controlling Android devices without a USB connection, and more. Read more...
There are several mature open source and proprietary tools for testing the user interface of mobile apps on Android and iOS devices, but there aren’t many solutions for internet service providers or video-on-demand streaming services who want to test video playback on real mobile devices to validate their end-to-end video delivery. In this article I’ll discuss various ways of getting video frames from a mobile device for automated testing, and the advantages and trade-offs of each approach. Read more...
Software update v27.3 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. It adds support for the Sony PlayStation 3 & 4, Android devices, and more! Read more...
To test a PS4 app you need a mechanism to control the PS4 and a way to get feedback to check that your app is behaving as it should. Read more...
The stb-tester camera allows you to test the user interface of devices that don’t have an HDMI output, such as Smart TVs and mobile devices. Read more...
A Serial Terminal Server makes a serial connection available over the network, so that your application can access your devices without a direct serial connection. Typically this is used to establish a bi-directional connection between networked applications and older industrial equipment. In this article we will focus on a much simpler use case: Capturing serial logs, where we only need communication in one direction — a common use case when testing set-top boxes. Read more...
Software update v26.6 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. It contains a JPEG thumbnail alternative to the Flash video in the web interface, and a bugfix for inode exhaustion on the stb-tester ONE’s test-results partition. Read more...
Selenium is a test automation tool for web applications. It tests your web app by looking at the DOM – you can check that your web page contains a particular element like a div or a button, identified by id or css selector or xpath expression; once the element is located, you can check that it contains a particular text or other elements. However you can’t really check what your web app looks like. If you have complex CSS it can be all too easy to introduce unintended defects in your app’s visual appearance. Read more...
The stb-tester team will be at the IBC exhibition in Amsterdam 9-13 September 2016. Read more...
Software update v26.2 for the stb-tester ONE is now available, with new features for managing & monitoring large test farms. Read more...
Stb-tester v26 is now available, with support for frame-accurate performance measurements. Read more...
Updated 17 May 2017 with figures for our new hardware’s accuracy. Read more...
If you have already automated one or more testcases, run them! Ideally run them every time a developer commits a change to the system-under-test. If that isn’t possible, at least run the tests against nightly builds. Run! Your! Tests! Read more...
We have just published an extensive tutorial about our recommended workflow for implementing automated test scripts, using stbt.FrameObject to extract information from the screen, using stbt lint and stbt auto-selftest to test your scripts locally, and using stbt-docker to develop on Mac or Windows. Read more...
Stb-tester v25 is now available, with features that significantly improve the maintenance cost of your test scripts: Read more...
Software update v24.8 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. It fixes a regression introduced in v24.7 that caused the stb-tester ONE’s old USB infrared transmitter to fail for signals longer than 125 milliseconds. Read more...
Software update v24.7 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. Read more...
This is a technical report on our investigation into an intermittent problem with the stb-tester ONE’s infrared transmitter. Read more...
How to create a custom remote control image for the stb-tester ONE’s “manual control” web interface: Read more...
Software update v24.5 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. This release delivers a minor UI improvement, and a bugfix that affects a small number of users. Read more...
We have just published three videos showcasing the stb-tester ONE, including a detailed guide for measuring channel change times on a set-top box: Read more...
Software update v24.4 for the stb-tester ONE is now available, with the ability to run tests from any git branch, and several bugfixes. Read more...
Software update v24.3 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. This includes better feedback when you have errors in your infrared configuration file, and other small usability improvements & bugfixes. Read more...
Stb-tester v24 is now available, with many small Python API improvements and fixes. Read more...
Software update v23.7 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. This includes a new test-results interface with much better search capabilities, plus some minor fixes & updates. Read more...
In November 2015 YouView launched on a range of Sony Bravia televisions across the UK. The biggest technical challenges of the project were in the integration, with frequent releases from YouView, Sony, MediaTek, and Google. Read more...
Software update v23.6 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. This is a bugfix release. Read more...
Stb-tester.com is pleased to announce that DTVKit will be using our stb-tester tool as part of their test automation strategy, and we will be providing our expertise and support as a Partner Member of DTVKit. Read more...
Software update v23.5 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. It has a technology preview of upcoming improvements to the results viewer, as well as bugfixes. Read more...
In the previous blog post we discussed the frame object pattern and how it could lead to greater agility and lower maintenance costs thanks to improved self-testability. This blog post discusses a technique to get the maximum value from this testability at near-zero cost. Read more...
In the previous blog post we discussed the Page Object pattern and how it could be used to improve the readability of your test scripts. In this blog post we introduce the Frame Object pattern, a specialisation of the Page Object pattern that can be especially effective in stb-tester’s style of black-box UI testing1. Frame Objects can reduce the maintenance cost of your test-packs, particularly when the UI-under-test changes.
Often you will hear us recommend that you should structure your test-packs as a set of library functions, plus test-cases that use those library functions. In this blog post we attempt to make this recommendation more concrete by demonstrating how to apply the “page object” pattern when writing stb-tester test-cases. Read more...
In this blog post we use the OpenCV cv2.floodFill
function to improve the robustness of test helper functions for dynamic UIs.
Read more...
Stb-tester v23 is now available, with a new option to run your testcases in random order, aiming to spend approximately the same amount of time in each testcase. Read more...
v22.5 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. It provides a REST API to retrieve detailed test results and artifacts, intended for integrating the stb-tester ONE with external reporting systems. Read more...
v22.4 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. Read more...
v22.2 for the stb-tester ONE is now available. Read more...
Up until now, stb-tester testcases were Python scripts with one testcase per file, and you referred to your testcases by the filename. Read more...
We have overhauled the stb-tester Python API reference documentation, with more examples, introductory material, a categorised index, and a search function. Read more...
stbt batch run works really well for stress-testing and soak-testing, but
it’s lacking a few features that would be useful for functional acceptance
testing: Run each test once, then re-run each failing test; run the tests in a
random order or specify ordering dependencies between tests; update an external
bug database with the results. Or for a continuous integration service, only
run the fast tests and don’t fail the build if a test fails due to a known
defect. The list goes on.
Read more...
Stb-tester’s wait_for_match function works well enough, but what if you want
to wait for a UI element to disappear? Or when you want to check that 2
different UI elements are present in the same frame? Or when you just want to
know if the element is present or not, without raising an exception? An
addition to stb-tester’s Python API, due in stb-tester 0.21, will make this
much easier.
Read more...
Do you wish that your stb-tester test farm was as easy to set up as
Travis CI? Want a neat way of specifying your test script’s dependencies? Or
maybe you want to run stb-tester from your Windows PC? The upcoming stbt
service command solves these problems.
Read more...
Stb-tester.com Ltd is currently working with a global TV manufacturer to provide testing services for their latest development project. To support this work we have developed a lot of exciting new features in stb-tester. Read more...
stb-tester.com
irrecord can be used to create them by recording IR
signals but can have difficulty sometimes. In those cases you can provide
additional information to make recording succeed which can be determined
from the output of mode2 and xmode2 and by consulting the lirc config
file documentation.stb-tester 0.20 has been released. The key new developments are: Read more...
A Continuous Integration (CI) system, which runs your automated tests against every change made to your source code, is an important part of every Agile development process. With stb-tester your CI system can run integration tests on the real target device. As a demonstration we have set up stb-tester CI for a simple “Hello World” Android app at this git repo. Read more...
stbt.ocr’s misreadings aren’t due to it not being familiar with your
fonts. The root cause is that the OCR system we use (tesseract) is
intended for reading the printed word. With this new understanding we’ve
made improvements to OCR resulting in a 12× reduction of errors. This will
be in the next stb-tester release.stb-tester 0.19.1 has been released. The only change since 0.19 is a fix to the Fedora packages to make them installable on Fedora 19. See the release notes for (not much) more information.
stb-tester 0.19 has been released. This is a beta release intended to allow for wider testing rather than production use. Read more...
stb-tester 0.18 has been released with support for OCR and enhancements to the test runner - now called stbt batch.
Read more...
stb-tester 0.17 has been released. Among other improvementes image matching is now 2-6x faster. Read more...
stb-tester maintainer and original author David Röthlisberger gave a presentation on stb-tester at the GStreamer conference in Edinburgh in October. It includes: Read more...
stb-tester maintainer and original author David Röthlisberger gave a presentation on how stb-tester was built and an overview of some of the things you can achieve with stb-tester. See the video on YouTube. Read more...