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View System Documentation - Query Module Best Practices

Testing

Here's a list of the things to test for each module. When a problem occurs please record the issue in the FAQ and Troubleshooting documentation.
  1. Proper "Tab" indenturing.
    The Aioob tool does this automatically. Open your xml file in Aioob (in the xml window) and save it. Make sure there are no spaces, and that it appears to be using only tabs (if it looks like a tree format, switch over to the xml window).
  2. Make sure all the documents are well formed.
    Most of the tools have this as an option.
  3. Make sure all the module measure selections are hittable.
    Each measure defined within your module needs a selection on the menu or from the "Measure Selection" page so that that module/measure can be navigated to.
  4. Make sure the module measure's navigation path is correct.
    This should specify the menu selections and quick measure selection (if applicable otherwise the advanced selections) needed to get to this module's measure.
  5. Verify that each modules Overview section is correct.
    This should have a paragraph or two of relevant text, then a statement about changing user options, followed by the Getting Started section.
  6. Verify module name element, module and measure titles are correct.
  7. Verify that each modules data notes, sources, and issues are correct.
    Every measure must have at least one data source. Make sure that all data notes and data issues sections make sense with the measure selected.
  8. Verify that all the Steps and selections within those steps are correct. Also check that the group by dimension selections are correct.
  9. Verify that for radio button selection groups, that one and only one answer can be selected for that question.
    If radio buttons are used then all answers MUST use the same name or the user will have the ability to do multiple radio button selections (which is not correct. Checkboxes are the correct user interface control for multi selects).
  10. Verify that all step, question, and answer titles comply with the title standard.
  11. Make sure that each step has a default selection upon entry.
    Every step should have a complete question/answer selected all the way to the very end answer upon entry to that step for the first time. So when a module is first loaded, you should be able to goto any step and fully see the default selection already selected. This is done with the <SELECTED/> element.
  12. Test each and every type of Value for each measure.
    The following is the general procedure:
    1. Open the new module in browser window
    2. For each type of variable (e.g. year, each and every type of year group, gender, each and every type of age group, county, lhd, small area, etc.) do the following steps:
      1. Test the "use all the values" for that variable and visually compare the results to a standard. Do NOT do any special 2d grouping - only group by that variable type.
      2. Repeat the above test but select all the values except one.
      3. Repeat the above but test the one value that was not selected in the previous step.
    This will insure that all the variable's values work. Each one of these possible variables should be documented when tested so you know they've been tested. IF there's a problem with the values then this should be documented in the modules problem document.
  13. Validate each module's measure result XML.
    For each measure within a module do the following:
    1. Submit any query for the module/measure.
    2. On the results page, press the [Show XML] button.
    3. Save the XML to your local hard drive (File/Save As/then enter the path - typically c:\tomcat\webapps\ibisph-view\xml\query\Query.xml).
    4. Open the newly saved XML with the XML editor of your choice that support XML validation.
    5. Insert the XSD statement just below the XML prolog so that the top of the file looks like this:.
      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>.
      <QUERY xmlns:xsi=http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation=" \Tomcat\webapps\ibisph-view\xml\query\module.xsd">.
      .
      NOTE: If you put your newly created XML document in the same directory as the module.xsd file then the above can be:.
      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>.
      <QUERY xmlns:xsi=http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="module.xsd">.
    6. Choose the validate XML option. This is either a button or a menu option and is dependent on the tool being used.
    7. If the validation reports an error then fix the module xml. For expediency, also fix the sample query xml file and proceed with validation so that time is not wasted fixing one problem then having to rerun the entire query, inserting the XSD statement etc.
  14. Test each dimension selection for both row and column group bys for the 2d table.
    Every combination of the possible groupings should be made and checked. Check the values and verify that the titles are displayed correctly.
  15. Test each drill down option on the result's page..
    Pay attention to the area being drilled down on. The new result total should match the item being drilled down on. For example: If you're drilling down on Salt Lake County with a new group by of Year, the current value for Salt Lake County should match the total of all years on the new drilled down results page.
  16. Verify that the values are formatted.
    If the value is a percentage, make sure it's 45.5% and not 0.455. If the value is large make sure that commas are shown e.g. 1000000 should be 1,000,000. If the value is a dollar amount make sure it has a "$" symbol.
  17. Verify that the total's values are displayed and sum correctly.
    Total values should be present on both the 2d table and the list. You don't need to sum each row and column but please check that 1 row and 1 column sums correctly.

VERY IMPORTANT: Please make sure that when you come across problems and solutions that these are documented in the FAQ and Troubleshooting documents.