12 11 2024 Meeting

Important:

We are now using 4bbakers repository for both manual and automated here: https://github.com/4bbakers/redcap_rsvc/tree/v14.7.0

A lot of sites who want to use automated testing at their individual sites
We've made a lot of progress, but some nuance to be of aware of with automated testing:
State of Automated Feature Tests - Many folks - Theresa, Mark, Mintoo, Ellis, Adam L., Sumon and others - are working diligently to make Gherkin Feature Tests fully compatible with automated testing environment / RCTF. We do not have full compatibility yet, but we're working towards it.
Strategy for Testing - We are working on figuring out what evidence we can provide to prove that automated testing is a good enough replacement for manual testing. Be aware that most QA specialists will tell you they want the automated testing framework validated in order to prove the tests are working.

Some initial thoughts on evidence:

Validation through Test Coverage: Unit and integration tests being written against the RCTF library - https://aldefouw.github.io/rctf/bb54543/docs/index.html
Verification: One way we verify is that the manual testing provides the same results as automated - built into the current hybrid validation workflow
Evidence: Automated testing with Cypress offers options like video recording and test replay that are, in some ways, superior to manual testing
Traceability: We provide not only version control of Gherkin tests but also artifacts, execution logs, and environment details of test run itself
Repeatability: Automated testing is more easily repeatable than manual in a practical sense
Documentation: We provide evidence of video of test execution in a particular environment in a format like this: https://redcap.vumc.org/surveys/?s=ZsdoxDnWrM3mnXnq

What does support look like? It's going to vary site to site.

Potential ways to help:

Answering technical support questions (Node.js installs, Docker environment considerations, Cypress configuration, etc.)
Reminding collaborators why a feature test might be failing in ATS environment (hybrid validation)
Reminding collaborators of technical considerations and limitations (tested against base install of REDCap, resets database state, etc.)

Make adjustments on your own fork of RCTF
Issue a Pull Request (PR) 
Example PR with Sumon: https://github.com/aldefouw/rctf/pull/7
Another Example Commit: https://github.com/aldefouw/rctf/commit/314cb171cdc0c344ca07c7afea3ab0188fd2a5ea