[BUG] Bad, bad object repository

I've been reluctant in the past few weeks to publish this bug, but I decided to do it anyway. I haven't been able to track exactly how to reproduce the issue, but I see it happening on a daily basis. Here it goes:

The famous and extensively used Object Repository (aka OR) has a major series of bugs (already demonstrated in this blog). This feature has a huge play in QTP utilization, and is a crucial feature in this tool. Can't believe it's so buggy.

Inside the OR window, there's a dropdown list where you can select which action you want to edit the containing objects. Turns out that, if you change to another that is different from the current one on QTP window, the OR (or QTP itself - who knows?) doesn't save the changes you make. Fuck! Oh boy!

After following the steps above, all changes you made are not saved.

Workaround: Well, there nothing much to do about it, except to close the OR window, switch to the correct action in QTP and re-open the OR window. By doing so, you guarantee that the objects/checkpoint/etc you edit will be correctly updated and saved.

[BUG] Tab, tab..... CRASH!

What a great day to find yet another shameful bug in QTP 10. And this time a very quick and dirty one.

Let's get to it. Say you have a WebTable checkpoint, and you need to edit one or more table fields content. Well, that's a very common task, right? Applications change and you have to maintain your script with up-to-date system information. If you're like me, this screen is printed in your retina, as we have to visit on a daily-basis.

Turns out that I found a very stupid bug that makes QTP crashes here.

Under "Configure value" area, select "Constant" option and focus the edit field to the right. Now, press Tab key twice and watch QTP stop responding.

Bye, bye QTP. See you again after the Control + Alt + Del.

Workaround: avoid the steps described above.

[BUG] When did an error is actually expeted? (UPDATED!)

Honestly, no errors should be expected in any application, right? Everything should work flawlessly. But in the real world this is not what happens.

Not even with QTP.

Yesterday, I tried to check out an Object Repository (aka OR) from Quality Center which was not checked out to any one, when I came across something unexpected.

Let's be honest. What good does an error message like these ones do? No answer is required.

Well, let me tell you that I tried several different approaches to fix this problem, all in vain. Closed QTP up and restarted it. Didn't work. Closed all programs, restarted my computer. Didn't work.

Turns out that my coworker edited the same OR few minutes before me, and did the check out/check in normally. After the fact, I tried to check it out on my PC and ended up with these error messages.

Solution: **apparently** what happened is that my coworker's QTP silently crashed after editing the OR and didn't freed it up correctly. When closing his QTP down, it displayed a memory leak problem which as probably the main problem.

After making sure his QTP was a 100% dead on his PC, the OR was MAGICALLY available for checkouts as expected.

#facepalm.


UPDATE: a new message (or not) was reported by my coworker, on QTP 11. I swear, this is NOT fake!