November Webinars & Remote Work Resources

November Webinars & Remote Work Resources

by | Nov 4, 2020 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

 


November Edition Sections:



  • Highlighted 

  • Microsoft Teams – IT Admins & Planning

  • Microsoft Teams – End Users & Champions

  • Security & Compliance

  • Blogs & Articles of Interest


 


 


Highlighted


 


Remote Working Federal Training


The Microsoft Federal Customer Success team will be taking a holiday break from trainings. You can watch previous versions on-demand here.


 


Microsoft Teams: Master working from home


Working from home offers the opportunity to maintain your workflow while allowing flexibility in how and where you get your work done. Shifting to a remote worker status can be an adjustment as you look for ways to balance home and work life, maintain focus and be fully productive. Microsoft Teams can help you stay connected to your team while providing access to all of the tools and resources you need to get your work done. Join us to learn tips that can help set you up for success as you transition into a ‘work from home’ scenario. During this session, we’ll share: (1) Guidance for setting up your home environment for work, (2) Best practices for maintaining your workflow while working at home, (3) Tips for staying connected to your team while remote, and (4) Insights for effectively supporting a remote team.



 


 


Microsoft Teams – IT Admins & Planning


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Microsoft Teams: Plan your upgrade (Start here!)


Discover everything you need to facilitate a successful upgrade to Teams. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: (1) Understand why a formal plan is crucial for upgrade success, (2) Identify the steps to the upgrade success framework, (3) Recognize common attributes of successful customers, and (4) Create and implement their own upgrade plan. The audience for this session is All (Business Sponsors, IT Admins, User Readiness/Change Manager, Project Lead).



 


Microsoft Teams: Identify your upgrade approach


Determine the most suitable approach based on your current Skype for Business implementation and upgrade goals. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: (1) Understand common scenarios and upgrade approaches, (2) Visualize the user experience for each approach, and (3) Determine the optimal upgrade approach for your organization.  IT Admins are the primary audience for this session.



 


Microsoft Teams: Implement your upgrade approach


Execute your defined upgrade approach as part of your formal upgrade plan. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: (1) Recognize the upgrade settings in your O365 tenant admin portal, (2) Understand technical tips and considerations for a successful upgrade, and (3) Apply the appropriate settings in the Portal to execute your upgrade. The primary audience for this session is IT Admins.



 


Teams Chalk Talk: Taking charge of AV quality experiences


Are you looking to ensure users have optimal experiences with meetings and voice capabilities in Teams? During this session, we’ll discuss tools, reporting and best practices to help you manage service quality — from establishing a proactive  strategy to resolving common quality issues as they arise. We’ll build upon best practices from Teams experts and make it real with examples of common scenarios that may arise as your organization embraces meetings and voice capabilities in Teams. Join us for an expert-led workshop for guidance on key resources and actionable insights to manage audio and video quality with Microsoft Teams. Your users will thank you for it! After this session, you will be able to: (1) Define key service metrics and user experience factors for quality, (2) Recognize concepts and metrics in core tools and resources that help you assess usage and quality, (3) Identify key indicators of poor experience in common scenarios and relevant actions to address, and (4) Establish a proactive quality management strategy to ensure optimal user experience.



 


Teams Chalk Talk: Apps in Teams Fundamentals


Join Microsoft Teams experts as we review how you can deploy commonly-used applications directly within Teams, enabling your users to work more efficiently and effectively by accessing everything they need in a single interface. This foundational workshop covers basic capabilities across app management and security. With over 400 out-of-the-box applications available (and growing), you’re sure to find an app, or two, that your team can begin using today in Teams. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Identify suitable apps to meet the needs for your organization, (2) Recognize common attributes of successful app deployment, (3) Navigate security and compliance considerations for Teams’ apps, and (4) Determine the next steps to deploy an app to your environment.



 


Teams Chalk Talk: Get to Teams – Zero to Production


Microsoft Teams can help your employees stay connected and collaborate with each other, especially in the current unprecedented time where remote work is a reality of employees around the world. Being able to chat, do video meetings and collaborate on Office documents within Teams can help companies stay productive. Whether you are a small business, a non-profit or a large organization, you can get started with Teams within Microsoft 365 or Office 365 suite – even before deploying any other Office app or service. Join Microsoft Teams experts as we review Teams implementation for collaboration, chat and meetings. We’ll share key configurations, considerations, best practices, and resources to get your users up and running quickly. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Recognize key success factors for technical and user readiness, (2) Identify pre-requisites and tenant setup for your environment, (3) Install the Teams clients appropriate for your organization, (4) Configure policies that enable your preferred user experiences, and (5) Leverage collaboration features to enhance remote work scenarios.



 


Teams Chalk Talk: So…you want to make calls with Microsoft Teams?


Are you ready to add PSTN calling capabilities to Microsoft Teams? Join Microsoft Teams Engineering subject-matter-experts as they demystify the options for adding PSTN calling to Teams, provide you with best practices for configuring calling options and show you how to monitor call quality. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Understand the history of voice services in Microsoft products, (2) Identify what calling options in Microsoft Teams are right for you, (3) Configure your calling options in the Teams admin portal, and (4) Monitor and use call quality tools in Teams.



 


Enabling Remote Work with Microsoft Teams: Manage Guest Access in Microsoft Teams


When: Thursday, November 5, 2020 at 9:00am PT | The recent shift to remote, hybrid and on-premise work has IT professionals across every industry looking for more solutions and support for deploying Microsoft Teams. That’s why we’re excited to launch this new live webcast series. In Episode 9, which is one of the most requested episodes, we’ll feature tips, tricks and gotchas on managing guest access in Microsoft Teams. Be sure to add this event to your calendar!


 


Office Hours: Managing Windows 10 Devices & Updates


To support your efforts to deliver and deploy updates to the Windows 10 devices being used by remote, onsite, and hybrid workers across your organization, and manage those devices effectively, we are continuing our series of weekly “office hours” for IT professionals here on Tech Community. During office hours, we will have a broad group of product experts, servicing experts, and engineers representing Windows, Microsoft Endpoint Manager (Microsoft Intune, Configuration Manager), security, FastTrack, and more. They will be monitoring the Windows 10 servicing space and standing by to provide guidance, discuss strategies and tactics, and, of course, answer any specific questions you may have. Office hours are text-based; there is no audio or virtual meeting component. To post a question, you just need to be a member of the Tech Community. Simply visit the Windows 10 servicing space and click Start a new conversation. At the start of office hours, we’ll pin a post outlining the individuals on hand, and their areas of expertise. Can’t attend at the designated time? Again, no problem. Post a question in the Windows 10 servicing space up to 24 hours in advance and we’ll make sure we review it during office hours.



 


Microsoft Teams: Ready your end users


Design a user readiness strategy to help your users love and adopt Teams. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: (1) Recognize factors that influence user acceptance and adoption, (2) Define core value messaging for Teams in your organization, and (3) Outline your awareness, training and support activities. The audience for this session is: User Readiness/Change Manager.



 


 


 


Microsoft Teams – End User & Champions


Get Started with Microsoft Teams


Whether you are switching from Skype for Business or brand new, join us to learn the basics of how to use Teams to chat with your colleagues and collaborate on projects. Through a series of live demonstrations and best practices, you’ll leave this session with everything you need to start using Teams. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Set up your profile and notifications in Microsoft Teams, (2) Use chat and calling for 1:1 and group conversations, sharing and collaboration in Microsoft Teams, (3) Schedule and conduct meetings in Microsoft Teams, and (4) Align your team and teamwork in Microsoft Teams.



 


Microsoft Teams: Master working from home


Working from home offers the opportunity to maintain your workflow while allowing flexibility in how and where you get your work done. Shifting to a remote worker status can be an adjustment as you look for ways to balance home and work life, maintain focus and be fully productive. Microsoft Teams can help you stay connected to your team while providing access to all of the tools and resources you need to get your work done. Join us to learn tips that can help set you up for success as you transition into a ‘work from home’ scenario. During this session, we’ll share: (1) Guidance for setting up your home environment for work, (2) Best practices for maintaining your workflow while working at home, (3) Tips for staying connected to your team while remote, and (4) Insights for effectively supporting a remote team.



 


Run Effective Meetings with Microsoft Teams


Have you spent significant time and resources to prepare for a meeting and still felt it wasn’t productive? Have you attended a meeting only to leave feeling like not much was accomplished? Join this class to learn how to make your meetings engaging, productive and effective. Microsoft Teams can help make your meetings worth showing up for. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Use Teams for your entire meeting experience, (2) Record your meeting, making it easy for those who couldn’t attend to get caught up, (3) Keep important meetings at your fingertips by pinning them for easy access, and (4) Assess which audio and video devices are best for your meeting needs.



 


Go Deeper with Microsoft Teams: Leverage pro tips and tricks for Microsoft Teams


Designed for those who are already familiar with Microsoft Teams, our ‘Go Deeper’ sessions offer insights and best practices. Learn how Teams can help organize your workday and make it easier to stay connected with colleagues. Learn tips and tricks for managing and organizing work and communications in Teams. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Leverage formatting best practices to help get your messages noticed (and responded to), (2) Easily find files, chats and projects, (3) Implement strategies to manage and organize your work, and (4) Simplify your workday. Note: This session was previously called ‘Learn tips for taking Microsoft Teams to the next level – Part 2’.



 


Go Deeper with Microsoft Teams: Build collaborative workspaces in Microsoft Teams


Designed for those who are already familiar with Microsoft Teams, our ‘Go Deeper’ sessions offer insights and best practices. Learn how Teams can help organize your workday and make it easier to stay connected with colleagues. Explore ways to determine the best approach for creating workspaces for projects and workgroups. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Determine the best approach for your collaboration needs (chat versus teams & channels), (2) Create workspaces for your team to provide the best teamwork experience​, and (3) Determine best practices in Microsoft Teams​ to enhance productivity. Note: This session was previously called ‘Learn tips for taking Microsoft Teams to the next level – Part 1’.



 


Integrate apps to do more in Microsoft Teams


Do you want to get more done in Teams? Receive targeted and timely updates? Access services directly through Teams? Apps let you complete tasks, receive updates and communicate. This session introduces you to the key activities needed to get started with adding applications, bots and connectors in Microsoft Teams today. Through a series of live demonstrations and best practices, you’ll leave this session with everything you need to start using apps in Teams. After this session, you will be able to: (1) See how applications, bots and connectors can help you be more efficient while working in Teams, (2) Select an application, bot or connector for your workspace, (3) Install an application, bot or connector, and (4) Use an application, bot or connector in your workspace.



 


A practical guide for managing sharing with OneDrive


With today’s reality of remote work and online learning, people need the ability to share content—documents, presentations, photos, videos, lesson plans, you name it—to get work done. And because of this, security around internal and external sharing is more important than ever before. While the ability to share content with colleagues both inside and outside the organization helps people stay productive and connected, you must protect against risks. Accidental sharing of sensitive information or sharing with unintended recipients can pose a threat to the integrity and privacy of your data, people, and devices. OneDrive helps you define secure, virtual perimeters for sharing content, educate people about your policies for secure collaboration, and monitor how people share to discover and address gaps. In this practical guide, you’ll learn about how you can easily manage secure external sharing. | Related: OneDrive Tips for Beginners and Pros


 


 


 


Security & Compliance


 


Microsoft 365 Virtual Training Day: Meeting Organizational Compliance Requirements


Leverage the intelligent and integrated Microsoft solutions to help your organization achieve its compliance goals by joining the Microsoft 365 Virtual Training Day: Meeting Organizational Compliance Requirements free one day online training session. Level 200-300 (Intermediate to Advanced) content. Technology covered: Data classification, labeling, governance, policy violation remediation, eDiscovery, audit, risk assessment. In this session you will: (1) Learn to use intelligence to identify, protect and govern your important data, (2) Learn to intelligently identify and remediate critical insider threats and risks, (3) Learn how to use the latest eDiscovery and audit capabilities to find relevant data and respond efficiently, and (4) Learn how to simplify and automate IT risk assessment.



 


Customer Immersion Experience: Protecting Assets and Empowering Your Defenders


Today’s workforce can work from anywhere, on any device, and on any app. Security teams need to understand threat signals from disconnected products and optimize security with minimal complexity. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Safeguard users from malware attacks such as phishing and spoofing with Office 365, (2) Use the Windows Defender ecosystem to proactively monitor and protect your users, (3) Utilize Office 365 ATP to help protect users from bad links and attachments, and (4) Let machine learning and automation protect users from threats. Each session is limited to 12 participants, reserve your seat now.



 


Customer Immersion Experience: Protecting Your Sensitive Information


Data needs to be protected wherever it’s stored and whenever it travels, and you need the tools to monitor policy violations and risky behavior. Join us to explore how to implement a comprehensive and integrated approach across devices, apps, cloud services, and on-premises. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Identify, monitor and automatically protect sensitive information across Office 365, (2) Help classify and protect documents and email, and (3) Use policies to enable BYOD scenarios by protecting data at the app level. Each session is limited to 12 participants, reserve your seat now.



 


Microsoft 365 Virtual Training Day: Securing Your Organization


In this training, you will learn how to protect your organization’s identities, data, applications, and devices across on-premises, cloud, and mobile – end to-end using the latest tools and guidance. This event covers intermediate to advanced content (level 200-300) and includes the following technologies: Threat Protection, Information Protection, Identify and Access Management, Security Management. In this workshop you will: (1) Increase level of understanding on how Microsoft delivers security across Microsoft 365, (2) Increase knowledge of security features and solutions, and (3) Connect with local technical experts and FastTrack resources.



 


 


Blogs & Articles of Interest


 


Public Sector Blog Website | RSS Feed


 


Microsoft Teams Blog Website | RSS Feed



 


Office & Microsoft 365



Enterprise identity, mobility, and security



Microsoft Azure and Development



Windows, Operations, Management, and Deployment



Support and adoption



Misc



 


Thanks for stopping by and reading our monthly resources. Feel free to reach out in the comments below with any comments, questions or ideas on other events to add to the list. Here in Public Sector we want to make sure we are giving you the information and insights to best serve your needs in this community.

Azure speaks your language: the 3 immediate benefits for your organization

Azure speaks your language: the 3 immediate benefits for your organization

by | Nov 4, 2020 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

The last several years brought exciting innovations in the field of Artificial Intelligence, especially when it comes to advancements in speech and language processing. Processing speech and making text and audio information searchable enables a diverse set of innovative applications, including helping researchers in searching for related papers, or building information graphs for predicting the best new drug candidates, or uncovering issues with products and services in near real time. For region like Central and Eastern Europe, which includes 30+ countries, most speaking their own language, support for local languages is a critical condition for implementing innovation. That’s why the recent (September 2020) Azure Speech services update has opened a whole new area of opportunity for our region.


 


With updated language support, most of the EU languages are now supported in Azure Speech services. For region which I am covering in my current role, it means that we now have support for all of our CEE EU languages (Polish, Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Maltese) and Russian in Azure Speech and Translator services. Additionally, our speech generation models have also been updated, now leveraging the Neural TTS – a powerful speech synthesis capability, which enables to convert text to lifelike speech which is close to human-parity. Below you will find 3 benefits, how this might help you advance your products and services today.


 


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Automatic generation of medical summary from spoken conversations between doctors and patients


 


First, analyzing speech data or generating speech enables you to extract insights from audio or video information, which otherwise would be unreachable for analytical systems. This might include data like customer support conversations or employee speech in videos or transcribing speech for field employees or doctors. Communicating with your customers with natural-sounding generated speech in your own language is another area of innovation, which enables scenarios from voice announcements to supporting people with visual impairments to building voice assistants. Is information the new currency? If you answer “yes” to this — why then would you have terabytes of currency sitting without you getting use of it? Now you can turn it into tangible cash-flow.


 


Azure Speech services are a sub-set of pre-built (but customizable) APIs for working with Speech. This includes transcribing spoken language into text for further analysis (Speech-to-Text) and generating naturally sounding speech form text input (Text-to-Speech). Azure Translator is another piece in the puzzle, which has also received major update for the languages, now translating text between 70+ languages.


 


Second, there are new scenarios enabled now by these pre-built AI models. Do you have that innovative idea for analysing customer conversations or augmenting your service with spoken messages in your local language? Often, these ideas were not realized due to the associated challenges like finding the right skilled people within your organization and investing into a project with unknown development cycle and returns. Now it is possible to build a realistic prototype app quickly to extract insights from your speech data, by calling the service through the API — in days, if not hours.


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Analysing customer support conversations brings insights from priceless data, which is untapped without applying Speech processing


 


Third, this is one of those cloud services, which may work without sending your data to the cloud! Many of Azure Cognitive Services today may be deployed right within your own data center as containers. This means, that none of the actual data will be sent to the cloud, as even processing will happen locally. In this case, only billing information will be exchanged with Azure.


 


Interested enough to give it a try? If you are interested in learning more, you may request detailed information or virtual session on Azure Cognitive Services from our sales representatives (please specify whether you are looking for the session on Azure Cognitive services, or details of your specific projects where Speech services may be used). To read more or test Azure Speech services capabilities in your language, please refer to our Azure Speech Services Documentation.


 


Looking forward to the exciting results you will achieve in your business with the updated Azure Speech Services!

Adobe Releases Security Updates for Acrobat and Reader

by | Nov 4, 2020 | Security, Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Original release date: November 4, 2020

Adobe has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat and Reader. An attacker could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) encourages users and administrators to review Adobe Security Bulletin APSB20-67 and apply the necessary updates.

This product is provided subject to this Notification and this Privacy & Use policy.

Test Automation and EasyRepro: 02 – Designing and Debugging Unit Tests

Test Automation and EasyRepro: 02 – Designing and Debugging Unit Tests

by | Nov 4, 2020 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

The following is the second on a series of articles by @Ali Youssefi that we will be cross-posting into this Test Community Blog. These articles were first published by Ali in the Dynamics community but since the topic is very related with Testing it makes sense to publish here as well.


 


If you didn’t get a chance to catch the first one of the series, please have a look here: Test Automation and EasyRepro: 01 – Overview and Getting Started


 


Otherwise, please read ahead!


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Summary


EasyRepro is an open source framework built upon Selenium allowing automated UI tests to be performed on a specific Dynamics 365 organization. This article will focus on designing and debugging unit tests. It will follow up on the first post’s sample unit test in depth as well as provide design and troubleshooting ideas.


 


Getting Started


If you haven’t already, you may want to clone the project that we used on the first article on this series (link above) from GitHub to DevOps then build locally and review any dependencies and/or test settings to run a simple test.


 


Reviewing the Open Account Sample Unit Test in depth


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When working with the sample unit tests you’ll soon find that while extremely helpful you’ll need to modify or extend these tests to work with your customizations of the platform. The sample unit tests provide a great starting off point and can help us better understand how to work with the EasyRepro framework. Let’s review the UCITestOpenActiveAccount unit test line by line.


 


WebClient and XrmApp objects


The WebClient is derived from the BrowserPage class and injected into the XrmApp object. The WebClient contains mainly internal methods used by the XrmApp and platform element references such as OnlineLogin, Navigation, Grid, etc as shown in the unit tests above. Typically you will not be interacting with this object until you need to extend the framework.


 


The XrmApp is the primary way of navigating and commanding the platform. When opened you’ll see the WebClient passed into each object used in the unit tests. Review this object to better understand each of the area of the platform you can work with in your unit tests.


 


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As you can see, each of the commands in the Open Account unit test are represented by elements related to Dynamics. These elements include commands related to the object such as working with entity forms and navigating around the platform. Each element can be explored to determine what functionality can be achieved from the framework natively.


 


Commands


Let’s review each one of the commands in the Open Account unit test to better understand what they are doing and where we may need to modify to better meet our requirements.


 


 


Login


 


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The Login method typically involves two paths: One using the standard Microsoft Office login and one that redirects to your organization’s sign in page.


 


The first line shows passing in the URI of the organization, the username and password. How to set these values is covered in the first post in this series Test Automation and EasyRepro: 01 – Overview and Getting Started.


 


The second shows how to incorporate your organization’s sign in page. Each sign in page is unique and will require understanding how to work with Selenium and the DOM of the page to input and submit these credentials. This will be covered in the Designing Tests towards Customization section.


 


Once the Login method has completed we will redirected to our default application in the organization. The next command details moving to another UCI application.


 


 


Open UCI App


 


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The OpenApp method uses the UCIAppName class to navigate to a specific UCI app. The standard platform applications such as Sales Hub and Customer Service Hub, as well as others, are available in the class. I’ll cover how to extend to a custom UCI app in the Designing Tests towards Customization section.


 


 


Open Sub Area


 


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OpenSubArea introduces the first navigation into the sitemap of the Unified Interface. This method expects two parameters, the first identifying which area to open and the second which subarea to click. These string values are case sensitive.


 


 


Search


 


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The Search method is used on the Grid object to search using the Quick Find view. Wildcard characters can be added here to simulate a user looking for values like or starting with specific characters if desired. For our unit test as long as we have the sample data in the organization we should pull up the Adventure Works (sample) record in the result set.


 


 


Open Record


 


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The final navigation command in the unit test is to open the first record in the Grid using OpenRecord. As long as we pulled up the Adventure Works (sample) in our results this will open the first record based on the index of the rows in the view. If the index is outside of the bounds an exception will be thrown.


 


 


Think Time


 


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Finally we have reached the end of the unit test. The final command here is a method called ThinkTime. This is used to simulate a user waiting for a period of time, in this case 3 seconds. This is a useful method to allow elements to render for use with the framework.


 


 


Designing Tests towards Customization


Adding custom UCI applications


In our sample unit test we are navigating to the Sales Hub Unified Interface but there maybe times where you will need to navigate to a specific custom application. A simple way to do so, assuming the UCI app shows in the user’s drop down when logged in, is to add to the UCIAppName class.


 


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In the example above a new string has been added to the class called ‘PfeCustomApp’. The OpenApp method will search for an UCI app with called ‘PFE Custom App’. This can then be used in single or many unit tests.


 


Searching and reviewing results in a Grid


In our sample unit test we knew what to expect due to sample data in our organization. However when implementing your own unit tests you may want perform additional tasks like counting the number of results are returned, sort the records in the view, switch the view, etc.


 


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Above is an image from the Object Browser showcasing the native EasyRepro functionality for the Grid object. To Search use the Search method. For reviewing results look to the GetGridItems method to extract the grid items which we can iterate through.


 


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Changing Forms and Referencing Fields


Going back to the UCITestOpenActiveAccount unit test as described above we searched for the Adventure Works (sample) record in clicked on the first record in the Quick Find view. We just touched on actions that can be performed on the view, now let’s look at what can be done once we are inside the record.


 


When the Adventure Works (sample) record is opened we now can shift gears to working with the Entity object. The Entity object includes functionality such as but not limited to:


 


·        Assigning the record to another user or team


·        Working with field values


·        Working with Sub Grids


·        Switching Forms


·        Switching Processes


 


For now let’s stick with changing forms and working with field values.


 


 


Switching Forms


 


Start by navigating to the OpenRecord method and adding a new line. Here we will add SelectForm(“<name of your form>”). This works with the form selector and allows us to change the form based on the name.


 


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Working with Field Values


 


When working with most fields on the form the actions a user will perform are to clear out a value, read a value or update a value. In the below image I’ve added a line using the GetValue method. This returns me the current value which can be used for validation or other concerns. When referencing a field it is important to reference by its schema name and not display name. For instance on Account instead of using ‘Account Name’ I’m using ‘name’.


 


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To clear out a value you simply have to use ClearValue and pass in the schema name.


 


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Finally to set a value you use the SetValue method passing in the schema name of the control (unless working with a complex type field).


 


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Debugging Tests


When you begin to extend and debug the sample unit tests towards your customization you may run questions regarding how the test is running, who its running as, how to handle unforeseen issues, etc. For this section we will talk through some common scenarios that come up and how to address them.


 


My Unit Test is performing unexpected actions, what can I do?


One of the key benefits of browser automation is that we can watch the unit test in action, halt the execution, and examine the current state of the platform. One of the first steps in doing this is to run the unit test in what’s called Non Headless Mode.


 


Running Unit Tests in Non Headless Mode


Headless Mode is what tells the unit test if we want to run the test with a GUI or not. Simply stated this will allow us to watch the browser launch and perform the actions or simply run in the background.


 


In the first post in this series we touched on the TestSettings object and how it tells our unit test how we want it to run. In this object is the class called BrowserOptions and within this is a property called Headless. To turn headless mode on or off, set this value to true (on) or false (off).


 


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My Unit Test needs to run as a specific user, what can I do?


By default to run our EasyRepro unit tests (at least for the online platform) we must provide some credentials that determine who we run our tests as. This helps us identify and troubleshoot issues related to authentication and authorization. However sometimes due to your organization’s setup you may have pass through authentication which will attempt to run the unit tests as the user you are logged into your machine with.


 


Running Unit Tests in Incognito Mode


Going back to the TestSettings object and inside of BrowserOptions we find a property called PrivateMode. By setting this property to true we can run in “Incognito” or “InPrivate” or whateevr terminology your browser of choice uses. This helps us ensure we are using the credentials we provided as well as not assuming any cached settings are applied.


 


My Unit Test needs to check form or grid values, what can I do?


If you have worked with the Visual Studio Unit Testing tools in the past you are probably familiar with the Assert class. This class allows a test designer to add assertions to ensure the actions performed are accurate. EasyRepro provides us the ability to check for form or grid values and elements which can then be used to with the Assert class.


 


Using the Assert class


Below is an example of checking if the number of results from our search is not equal to a single result. This could be helpful to determine if duplicates exist as well as other scenarios.


 


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Reference:


microsoft.visualstudio.testtools.unittesting.assert


 


Next Steps


Exploring the Sample Unit Tests


At this point you should have enough experience to begin exploring the other sample unit tests available in the Microsoft.Dynamics365.UIAutomation.Sample project. These tests show how to interact with popular elements like Business Process Flows, Quick Create forms and Command Bar actions.


 


Each element has its own unique capabilities and should cover most of what you will need to automate testing in the platform. However you may come across a need to extend EasyRepro to account for specific use cases which we will cover in the next post in the series Extending and Working with XPath.


 


Conclusion


This article focuses on a specific unit tests and exploring line by line what each command does. While this covers a significant amount of interaction with the EasyRepro framework it really is only one test case. Take time to review as many of the sample unit tests as possible. Some test I find beneficial are:


 


·        UCITestCreateCase


·        SharedTestUploadTelemetry


·        UCITestBusinessProcessFlowNextStage


·        UCITestAccountAddNote


·        UCITestRetrieveCommandBarValues


·        UCITestUpdateClearFields


 


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We hope you guys are enjoying this series of articles on EasyRepro, please don’t hesitate to leave any comments below!

Reconnect Series: Vicente Gerardo Guzman Lucio

Reconnect Series: Vicente Gerardo Guzman Lucio

by | Nov 4, 2020 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Reconnect is back, and this week we are joined by none other than four-time MVP titleholder Vicente Gerardo Guzman Lucio! Hailing from Guanajuato, Mexico, Vicente describes himself as a Xamarin lover, project leader, and tech consultant. 

 

Most recently, the former Developer Technologies MVP has been working on a project which links two mobile applications developed in Xamarin.Forms. The idea behind the project, Vicente says, is to reflect actions carried out between two applications in order for users to continue smoothly with their workflow. 

 

First awarded in 2014, Vicente looks back fondly at his time as an MVP. Events like the MVP Summit, he says, brought together tech experts from all over the world and enabled training directly from product developers and creators. Now, Reconnect continues to motivate Vicente to grow as a professional and a person.

 

“[Being a Reconnect member] means being able to meet people who are experts in certain technological areas that I still don’t know, it means being able to learn from each one of them and, more importantly, it means being able to grow as a professional thanks to them,” Vicente says.

 

Moving forward, Vicente is developing a free course for developers focused on Blazor technology. He hopes to complete the course and “bring it to light” before the end of the year. 

 

To newcomers in the MVP program, Vicente has these words of encouragement: “Never give up. If you have a goal in mind, it will always have obstacles, but perseverance is what makes things happen.”

 

For more on Vicente, check out his blog and Twitter @LucioMSP

 

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