GUI Testing tools

• Rational Robot - Commercial tool for GUI and performance testing (works on Windows). The tool is not so hard to learn and use. The thing we didn't like about that tool is the editor for writing the test scripts - it is like an ordinary notepad. The inspector tool (it is a tool that locates objects on the screen and gives their recognition strings) is also very instable when there are too many windows open. We recommend to have only the SUT windows when using that tool)
• Rational Functional Tester - Another commercial tool for testing Java®, .NET®, and Web-based applications. You can use Java or Visual Basic .Net for writing the test scripts. Of course the tool provides record/playback options for creating tests but we don't recommend the tests to be created only in this way . Good thing is that the tool integrates with Eclipse® (for Java based test scripts) or Visual Studio .NET (for Visual Basic test scripts). We found little difficulties when using the tool against .NET desktop application - the tool did not manage to find the objects that are reachable when using a scroll bar.
• WATIR - Web Application Testng in Ruby - This is a usefull and free Open Source tool for testing web applications. You can use it with Internet Explorer on Windows platform. [We haven't played with the tool yet. If you have any comments - feel free to contact us]. For the fans of Java there is another tool that is Java based - Watij Once again, we remind you that these tools automate Internet Explorer only, so they can be used for testing web applications on Windows.

Web Services testing tools

• SOATest - Nice tool for testing Java Web services. Not working for .NET web services, though. The tool cannot manage with the complex types. We haven't found analogous tool for automated testing .Net web services. [the tool is commercial]
• .NET Webservice Studio 2.0 - This tool can help you test .NET web services, however it has limited functionality. [the tool is free for use]
• wsChess - Web Services Assessment and Defense Toolkit. A set of tools written C# for the .Net platform. The set contains: wsPawn - Web services footprinting, discovery, search & domain footprinting tools and wsKnight - Web services profiling, proxy and audit tool. [If you have used the tools and have any comments - please contact us.]
• TestMaker - a free open-source utility and framework, that software developers, QA technicians, and IT managers use to check Web-enabled applications for functionality, scalability, and performance. [Still haven't played with that tool yet. We will update this content when examine more of the tool].

Performance Testing tools

• Microsoft Web Application Stress Test Tool - Simple tool for performance testing web applications. It runs multiple users, sending multiple requests against given web server. The tool does not have analysis module. You should use Windows performance monitor (Administrative tools->Performance) to collect information about the server status. [If you want to stress test your server and examine the performance by only looking at the Task manager - you can use this tool . However, if you need to make detailed performance analysis and locate the bottlenecks - you should use something more complex]
• The tool mentioned above evolved into Microsoft Application Center Test which comes with Visual Studio .NET 2003. You can create scripts with Visual Basic Scripting language from scratch or you can use the tool recorder.

Security Testing Tools

• Top 100 Network Security Tools - http://sectools.org/
• Fiddler - HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data. If you are a JAVA fan - you can use Paros instead .
• N-Stalker Web Application Security Scanner Also on the site you can find a free edition of the tool to play with.