Now Luc, tell me, why should I buy the 2nd edition of your book?

Various times I have been asked what the differences are between the 1st and 2nd edition of my book Automated Testing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Or in other words: Luc, tell me, why should I buy the 2nd edition of your book?

So, I made a quick overview of this as we are nearing the completion of the book.

Currently, we are reviewing our a** off this week trying to find any failure in the content, in the layout, the index, and in whatever else. This has been a more rigorous project than the 1st edition. Did I already tell you that this has been more worthwhile and more enjoyable also? Thanx to Nithya, Richa, Ruvika, Deeksha, Ananya, Prajakta, Rosal, Reshma, Subalakshmi, Manju, Tejal, Pradeep, Aaron and probably more to mention. IMHO Packt, as an organization, has made a major leap to getting things better done and to being closer to the author. Still – honesty commanding – it could be sometimes nerve wracking, though. And of course I should not fail to mention the three tremendously engaged reviewers that we got hooked into this project: Daniel, Maarten and Xavi.

Long-story-short: these are the differences between the two version:

Overall

The book has been updated to BC19, including a main part of the feedback from 10 interviewees (including the introduction of coloring the ATDD keywords). So, it’s fully extension based, where the 1st edition was on BC14 and thus partly still C/SIDE based.

Next to BC19 update 4 new chapters got added. See below.

1 Introduction to Automated Testing

Mainly the original chapter 1 with some rewrite/rework.

2 Test Automation and Test-Driven Development – New

New chapter, based on the former Appendix A, but extended tremendously giving TDD a explicit role in the 2nd edition.

red-green-refactor mantra

3 The Testability Framework

Mainly the original chapter 2 with some rewrite/rework.

MyFourthTestCodeunit results

4 The Test Tools, Standard Tests and Standard Test Libraries

Major rework of the former chapter 3 reflecting the current state with respect of the test tool, standard tests and test libraries being all AL based.

Select test codeunits in AL Test Tool

5 Test Plan and Test Design

Substantial rework of the former chapter 4 based on recent experiences and making an explicit split between test plan and test design.

Test Plan using Excel

6 From Customer Wish to Test Automation – The Basics

Rework of the former chapter 5 incorporating the notion of test plan and test design as discussed in the new chapter 5 and how to set them up.

Lookup Value case ER diagram

7 From Customer Wish to Test Automation – Next Level

Former chapter 6 with some rework.

Test Example 6 – Error

8 From Customer Wish to Test Automation – the TDD way

Major rework of the former chapter 7 approaching test automation examples the TDD way, next to introducing two new examples on refactoring and testing with permission. The former test example 8 was moved out into the new chapter 11.

Report

9 How to integrate Test Automation in Daily Development Practice

Major rework of the former chapter 8 including various new things like tools to enhance your daily development practice and a more extensive discussion on pipelines.

Pipeline Flowchart

10 Getting Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Standard Tests Working on Your Code

Major rework of the former chapter 9 related to the fact that standard tests are also extensions and that running the ever growing collection of standard tests has some new challenges.

Tacking Results of Standard Tests

11 How to Construct Complex Scenarios – New

New chapter which, based on the former test example 8 in the former chapter 7, addresses the challenge of constructing complex scenarios and coding them.

Test Run Average Duration

12 Writing Testable Code – New

New chapter.

VAT Registration No. Validation for New EU Customer

13 Testing Outgoing and Incoming Calls – New

New chapter.

Incoming Call Test Flowchart

Appendix

Former Appendix B, extended with a section on how to setup your BC environment to allow it to run automated tests.

So ..

… enough reasons to buy it I hope.

If you have any queries feel free to add them as a comment below. I will be more then pleased to respond to them.

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