It’s been a long time since I had the time and inclination to update the site. Partly because I’ve been busy working and partly because I was hideously aware that the next stage for the site was complicated and not exactly in my wheelhouse. I can code, clearly, since I automate everything and work as an automation expert internationally. But I’m not a business analyst, a technical architect, a data analyst or a developer. Not really, at least.

So in the background, I’ve been quietly building a database driven application with forms to be completed and output to be produced. This has a number of purposes:

1. It has, and will, give me something to test with all the new automation technologies. To actually use Watir on Ruby, Watin on .Net, Selenium, QTP etc. And to produce articles for the site based on known expectations without hammering some other website.
2. It has meant I’ve also got a grounding in PHP beyond just using wordpress, and that’s not a bad thing. Looks good on the CV and all. Ditto that for Database design.

It’s had an interesting side-effect of re-invigorating me. And I’ve had to learn about sub-domains, web-hosts, password-protection, session id’s etc.

I would say this though, it’s not quite ready. Although ‘Data’ can be entered and ‘Data’ can be retrieved, I haven’t yet added functionality to delete it. I have the template code to do it, it’s just a matter of time.
My ultimate goal in this is to produce initially a test-execution database to store details of tests run primarily with loadrunner. Following that through to conclusion, I’ll need to figure out how to store results via upload, attaching them to an execution, and have them available for viewing and download (ideally as a .zip archive).
Furthermore, since that would be a solution I could provide to my clients, I’ll need to work on sub-sub-domains with limited access to external parties.

It’s meant I’ve had to draw a pretty picture of the site structure:


In addition to all that, and because ultimately this site is the repository of everything in my brain, it’s led to the idea of a blog-within-a-blog. Am struggling to decide whether to add a ‘developer diary’ to the site. This would be an informal brain-dump for ideas, part-solutions, works-in-progress, that kind of thing. If I do decide to do it, I expect it’ll be a subdomain, albeit publicly accessible.

So more to come, and whilst I can’t (won’t) deny that I’ve been neglectful of the site recently, I really am busy beneath the hood trying to add useful functionality.