Bao's Blog

I just happened to know about Sikuli in this morning. Sikuli is a new automation framework, just like every others, but screenshot-based. The project is developed by MIT UID group. The project interests me enough to pay nearly the whole morning to play with it, and here are a few things I would like to note about this program. Before reading futher: I will only mention about the cons of the application, and you will have to find the pros yourself, check the blog for very cooooool examples of Sikuli first.

The 1st experiment with Sikuli: it's not very easy to write the script. My example is to test 1 + 1 = 2 on Calculator. So what I have to do is: type the script, take the screenshot, type the script, take the screenshot, type the script, take the screenshot, type the screenshot, take the script ... I mean I have to switch between the application and calculator all the time, and it makes me lose focus on what I am doing. And I wish taking the screenshot of the control is faster, i have to select the region of the button or control, why don't they implement in such way that you can select the control just on click ? I knew it's going to be a lot of work, since you will have to use native API to determine the controls, and you will have to maintain the integration between native API and the java application itself , but if we have this feature, thing will be 1000 times easier, or 2,3 times easier. It's just a suggestion.

The next thing is: it is very slow, or maybe I'm using XWGA screens with slow CPU. Or maybe because it's java based. The script is about 10 lines, with 5 pictures, but it takes about 3-5s to finish. Maybe it's the first beta version, we will see more performance improvement in later versions.

The third thing in the list is it's not correct for me sometime. The script halted, and I had to change the parameters to make it recognize the region. It would be better if we can limited the testing image to an application, in that way, we can improve the image recolonization, and the performance too. Right now, Sikuli keeps mistake the input of calculator with the explorer address bar.

Tweeting with Sikuli

And the main problem makes Sikuli is not suitable for application testing is the application itself. Sikuli script is not reusable, once you write the script, it's tighted with the environment of the OS you used to write the script. You won't be able to use the same script to test same application across computers, with different OS, or even just with different configuration. If you write the script for a web application, you will have problem when running the script with different browsers: Chrome and Firefox for example. If you happen to use different theme for your computer, the chance the script won't run is very high (I test it with Classic XP and XP with default theme). It's not all, you won't be able to reuse the script with script with different input, i.e the same script but with different values. You can use functions for repeating steps, but I had a big problem with evaluating the output. Or I have to capture all screenshots for all output ? Or maybe we should implement OCR to read the value from a textbox so we can evaluate the result. But it's not possible to have that right now.

I must say they have done a great job, this is going to be a very promising project, and I really hope to be able to use Sikuli to automate my work, such as logging work. Maybe you will have a better idea ?

DutchLady Vietnam is running Tôi Yêu Cô Gái Hà Lan campaign. I rarely pay attention to Vietnam marketing campaign, but this one is a little bit special to me. There are many things I would like to comment for this campaign.

First, I knew about this campaign via a topic in OpenShare forum. Not talking about ugly design and buggy flash application (I used Flash debug version and errors just popup my screen), there is another bigger problem with the site. Someone managed to upload a nude picture to website (or maybe it's just a photoshop joke from someone). The picture was removed by the time I got the news, but if you check the website, there are many pictures that completely off-the-topic and should never be there, and it just looks like spamming. I guess they don't moderate the content or spend-no-time with the moderation process. This is a very basic flaw for online marketing campaign with user generated content.

The second problem with the website is the content of the website itself. The landing page contains no useful content but a counting clock and two games: 90-secs-with-the-cows and 90-secs-factory-puzzle . They do have some content in other areas, why don't they show these content out ? It will help user to identify content easier, see the interactions of other users and even help user to navigate the website in a better way. And about the games, I think they are just too childish, while the other content is not suitable for children: too many words or too specified. This make me put a question on their target online users for the website, do they identify them, or not ?

And then, later of the day, I saw an ads on my last.fm profile. I think it's another major mistake in this campaign. They chose Google Ads for advertising campaign. Google Ads is not suitable for the advertising channel for their case. It would be better if they advertised the campaign on the websites where their target users often visit. Such as WebTreTho or PhuNuOnline for female and mom users. Google Ads is too general or too big channel for them, they need a specified channel.

I guess this is the first time they run an online campaign. So, how can we make it better ? The first thing is make sure your website is implement correctly, no bug of course. Prepare a good landing page / home page for user. For landing pages users should see what they want when they click the ads, or at least something really useful. For the homepage, make sure you show them the main content, users interactions, and give them a reason to travel around the website, or even come back later someday.

If you are running with user generated content, make sure you moderate the content before publishing them, one user can do it easily or maybe you want to try my company moderation service if you work with user pictures (<== an example of where to place advertising ). And the most important thing is your target users, when you have identified your target users you can prepare your content to make it suitable for the users, identify user sources and choose a good advertising channel.