Live Testing an Application

Description

Live Test lets you run your app on the Development Server or Alpha Cloud, allowing you to test all or part of your app as if it were published to an Application Server.

Discussion

Live and Working Preview can be used to test a component within the development environment, however some Alpha Anywhere features such as the Security Framework do not run in the Preview environment. To test an app with Security -- such as login form or Administrator interface -- the app needs to run on the Application Server.

Live Test is a tool that publish all or part of your application to the Development Server, IIS, or a temporary Alpha Cloud deployment, allowing you to fully test your app as if it were deployed to an Application Server.

Live Test can be found on the Web Projects Control Panel.

LiveTest button
LiveTest button

When you click the LiveTest button, the LiveTest dialog is shown.

LiveTest dialog
LiveTest dialog

When configuring the Live Test, you can choose the server where the Live Test should be performed (the Live Test Server):

Live Test Server
Description
Development server

The Live Test is run on the Development Server. If the Development Server is not running, you will be prompted to start the server.

IIS

The Live Test is run on the Application Server for IIS

The IIS option is only displayed if you have the Alpha Anywhere Server for IIS installed on your machine. You do not need to have a license for this server to use it in test mode. You can install the Alpha Anywhere Server for IIS using the Universal Installer.

Live Testing on the Application Server for IIS is not supported in Community Edition.

Alpha Cloud

The Live Test is run on Alpha Cloud using a temporary deployment. Requires an Alpha Cloud subscription.

In addition to selecting the Live Test Server, you also need to specify the .a5w page to Live Test. An .a5w page is required. See How to Live Test an Application below for more information.

When an application is published for Live Testing, the following happens:

  • You will be prompted to start the Development Server if testing on the Development Server and the server is not running.
  • The Security Framework will optionally be turned on if it is not already enabled (if your Web Project uses the Security Framework)
  • Alpha Anywhere will prompt for the name of your site's default page. (It will default to the page set in Project Properties.)
  • Your project will be published to a special test folder in the Web Root if published to the Development Server or a special Deployment if published to Alpha Cloud.
  • The default browser will open and your default page will be loaded.

If your application uses the Security Framework, the Seed Users and Groups will be published to the Live Test Server. If users and groups already exist on the Live Test Server, they will be replaced. Any changes to users and groups on the Live Test Server are not propagated back to the development environment. See Seed Users and Groups for more information.

How to Live Test an Application

Before you can Live Test your application, you need to create at least one .a5w page that contains the component(s) that compose your application. You can easily create an .a5w page for your app using the Save Page button in the UX or Grid builder. Tabbed UI components automatically generate an .a5w page when created.

Once you've created an .a5w page, you can Live Test your app:

  1. On the Web Projects Control Panel, click the LiveTest button.

  2. Select the server where you want to test your app.

  3. Select the .a5w page that contains your app or the portion of your app you want to test.

  4. Click OK to run the Live Test.

  5. If prompted to start the Development Server, select Yes and click OK.

  6. Your default web browser will open automatically when the Live Test is ready.