Pre-Sales Questions
Installation Questions
Technical Questions
Miscellaneous Questions
Pre-Sales Questions
What makes SpiraTest better than other quality assurance management systems?
SpiraTest has all the features you would expect in a world-class Quality Assurance (QA) management suite yet is only a fraction of the price of our competitors. You just won't find a more feature-rich QA suite at anywhere near the price of SpiraTest.
What makes SpiraTest better than other bug/issue tracking tools?
SpiraTest provides all the features you'd expect for detecting and tracking bugs/issues, yet for the same price as many standalone
bug/issue tracking systems you also get the tools to manage your project requirements/scope and test plans.
How many times have you wished you could determine which bugs affect the most important requirements, or been able
to prove to a customer that all the requirements have been fully tested, and that all bugs have been fixed.
With SpiraTest you can now manage projects with this level of rigor, using just one integrated application.
What makes SpiraTest better than other test management tools?
SpiraTest provides all the features you'd expect for creating, managing and executing user tests, yet for the same price
as many standalone testing systems you also get the tools to manage your project requirements/scope and track the defects
discovered during the execution of the tests.
How many times have you wished you could prove to a customer that all the requirements have been fully tested, and that all bugs have been fixed.
With SpiraTest you can now manage projects with this level of rigor, using just one integrated application.
Can I pay for the software using a purchase order?
Yes. We gladly accept purchase orders. Please contact us at
sales@inflectra.com for more information.
Do you offer a discount for non-profit, Government and academic institutions?
Yes. We offer a discount off our already low price for non-profit, Government and academic institutions. Please contact us at
sales@inflectra.com for more information.
Can I pay for the software using a wire transfer or ACH payment?
Yes. We gladly accept wire transfers and ACH payments. Please contact us at
sales@inflectra.com for more information.
How will I receive my copy of SpiraTest?
Once your purchase has been confirmed you will be logged into the secure customer
area of the website. This will contain the link to download the software as well
as the license key for the version you purchased.
Should you ever lose your copy of the
installation file or your license key, you can always log back into the secure customer
area to retrieve them. You will automatically be entitled to one year of free upgrades,
which will also be posted to this secure customer area for download.
Do you have a guarantee? What if I'm not happy with SpiraTest?
We are so confident that you will be fully satisfied with our software that we offer an unconditional, 30-day money back guarantee!
How do I know if SpiraTest will run on my web server?
SpiraTest runs on any Windows web server that has Microsoft .NET framework version 1.1 and ASP.NET version 1.1 installed.
To know for sure, just ask your system administrator or ISP if you have a Windows server with ASP.NET version 1.1 installed.
I do not have a web server available. Can you recommend a good web hosting company?
For SpiraTest, the requirements are Windows hosting with Microsoft ASP.NET version 1.1 installed and SQL Server/MSDE 2000 or greater.
We use a great company called CoHost (
http://www.cohost.com).
They are one of the few companies we know of that always answer their phone for technical support. If you go with them,
please mention that we referred you.
How do I install SpiraTest?
Installing SpiraTest is extremely simple, and generally takes less than 10 minutes.
All that is required is to download the application, double-click on the Microsoft Installer (.msi) file, follow the
prompts, enter your license key and database information and the installation wizard will do everything else for you.
In addition, the application comes with a thorough
installation document that explains each step in great detail.
Can I have a demo copy of the application to try on my own computer before I purchase?
We recommend users initially look at our
online demo,
which enables you to try out all of the features of SpiraTest on our hosted environment. However, once you have decided that SpiraTest is a good
fit for your needs, you are encouraged to
download our 30-day trial version which can be installed on your own web-server
and loaded with real project data.
I'm a web developer with ASP.NET experience. Why should I purchase SpiraTest instead
of writing my own bug/issue-tracking and test management software?
With several thousand hours of development time invested in creating SpiraTest, you can purchase our time at pennies per hour.
Plus, you get a proven solution that has been put through our rigorous testing and validation processes.
The alternative would be to start from scratch
or reverse engineer our software. But ask yourself how long it would take you to code an application like this. Then ask yourself how much your time is worth.
We think you'll agree that it's worth more than a few pennies an hour.
Why is SpiraTest licensed by concurrent user rather than per-server?
One of the missions of Inflectra is to provide high quality software at an affordable
price to individuals, small businesses as well as large corporations. By having different
prices for different levels of usage we are able to provide a solution that is affordable for every budget.
For heavy users, we offer an enterprise license that offers unlimited usage at an unbeatable price.
Installation Questions
When I try to install the application, I get an error message that "IIS" is not installed.
On Windows Server installations, IIS is usually installed as part of the factory configuration,
whereas on Windows XP and 2000 Professional installations, you typically need to manually add
the components to the factory configuration.
To check if you have IIS installed, click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools.
Under the “Administrative Tools folder”, you should see an icon for “Internet Information
Services”. If you don’t see this icon, then it means that you need to add IIS to your computer.
> View the installation documentation for details of how to resolve
When I try to install the application, I get an error message that "MSDTC" is not installed.
There is one common error that has been found with installations where Microsoft SQL Server
was installed after IIS was installed. This typically affects only Windows XP Professional, but
could occur in other situations. What happens is that the SQL Server installation inadvertently
removes the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC) service from the system
during the installation.
> View the installation documentation for details of how to resolve
When I try to install the application, I get an error message that "ASP.NET" is not installed.
If you installed the .NET Framework after IIS then ASP.NET is typically configured for you, but if you
installed IIS afterwards, then further manual steps may be necessary.
To verify that ASP.NET has been correctly configured, click on Start > Settings > Control Panel >
Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services to launch the IIS administrative console.
Expand the name of the web-server (marked as local computer), expand the “Web Sites” folder,
right-click on “Default Web Site” and choose the “Properties” link. This will bring up the IIS
configuration dialog-box. Then click on the 'Configuration' button to bring up the “Application
Configuration” window.
If ASP.NET is correctly configured, you will see entries marked “.aspx”, “.asax” in the “Application
Mappings” portion of the window. If you don’t see those entries, then ASP.NET
needs to be configured for this web site.
> View the installation documentation for details of how to resolve
When I try to access the application, I get a "page cannot be displayed. HTTP 500 - Internal server error" message.
If you receive the dreaded “IIS 500 Internal Error” webpage when you try and access an ASP or
ASP.NET application on the server, there can be a myriad of causes. However a good first place
to look for the cause is inside the Windows Event Viewer, which stores all errors raised in the
system.
For your peace of mind, we offer one year of
FREE Support with all our products,
so if you receive such errors, email the contents of the error log to
support@inflectra.com
and we will work with you to resolve the problem.
When using the application, I get an error message that I have exceeded the number of user licenses.
Since SpiraTest is licensed to organizations for a specific number of concurrent users – unless
they have purchased an unlimited Enterprise license – only a fixed number of users may be
active at the same time. So, for example if an organization has a five (5) concurrent user license
and a sixth user tries to log-in, they will be presented with an error box.
This means that one of the other users who is already logged-in, needs to click the “Log Out”
button so that one of the concurrent licenses is freed for your use. If the user has logged out by
closing the browser, the system may not detect the logout immediately. In this case, you can either
wait 20 minutes for the user's session to expire, or the other user
can log back in, and then click the “Log Out” link to immediately end his session.
When using the application, I get an error message that I am already logged in somewhere else.
The system will prevent you logging on to the system with the same username at the
same time on multiple computers. This is to avoid the system getting confused by a user trying to
make contradictory actions at the same time. If for any reason you do try and log in to the system
when you already have an active session in progress, you will be presented with an error box upon login.
You have two choices: you can either click the “Log Out” link and try logging in as a different user,
or if you want to log-off any other active sessions (e.g. you closed the browser and the session is
still listed as active), simply click the “Sign Off The Other Locations” link, and you will be logged in
to the application.
When I try to access the application, I get a "page cannot be displayed. HTTP 404 - Page Not Found" message.
This error message can get displayed on a Windows 2003 Server application if ASP.NET is not installed or enabled. There are two common solutions to this error message:
Ensure that ASP.NET is installed:
- Click Start, and then click Control Panel
- Click Add or Remove Programs
- Click Add/Remove Windows components
- Double-click Application Server, and then click Details
- If the ASP.NET check-box is not checked, click to select the ASP.NET check box, and then click OK
- Click Next
- Click Finish
Ensure that ASP.NET is enabled:
- Open IIS Manager, expand the master server node (that is, the Servername node), and then select the Web service extensions node
- In the right pane of IIS Manager, right-click the ASP.NET 2.0 extension to enable it if it is not already enabled.
- Click to select the Allow check box
When I try to access the application, I get a Compiler Error Message: CS0016: Could not write to output file
'c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files...'
There are many reasons for this error, however the following two links outlines the most common causes and solutions:
How do I setup the system administrator (SA) account in SQL Server 2005 so that I can install SpiraTest?
What you need to do is setup the built-in SA account on SQL Server. This also means that the SQL Server needs to be setup for mixed-mode authentication where it allows both SQL Server and Windows logins. To do this, follow these steps:
- In SQL Server Management Studio Object Explorer, right-click the server, and then click Properties.
- On the Security page, under Server authentication, select 'SQL Server and Windows Authentication Mode', and then click OK.
- In the SQL Server Management Studio dialog box, click OK, to acknowledge the need to restart SQL Server.
- In Object Explorer, right-click your server, and then click Restart. If SQL Server Agent is running, it must also be restarted.
- In Object Explorer, expand Security, expand Logins, right-click sa, and then click Properties.
- On the General page, you may have to create and confirm a password for the sa login.
- On the Status page, in the Login section, click Enabled, and then click OK.
When I try to access the application, I get the error message "Parser Error Message: Unrecognized attribute 'enableEventValidation'."
This error means that your IIS web server is currently configured to run a version of ASP.NET earlier than v2.0 (which is required
by SpiraTest). To switch IIS to ASP.NET to version 2.0, please follow these steps:
- Open up the IIS Administration Console on the server
- Expand the Web Sites folder and right-click on Default Website
- Select the ASP.NET tab and change the ASP.NET version to v2.0
- Click OK and close the Administration Console. You should now be able to access SpiraTest.
Technical Questions
When emails are sent via the application, how come I never receive the emails?
The most likely cause of this problem is that the SMTP on the web server hosting the application is not configured correctly.
Read the
SpiraTest Administration Guide which includes an appendix containing detailed instructions for configuring
SpiraTest to send email notifications.
What databases can be used with the application?
SpiraTest can be run using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or later, or Microsoft Desktop Engine (MSDE) 2000 or later. For either database, the SpiraTest installer automatically detects the database and executes the appropriate installation scripts.
In addition, future versions of SpiraTest will support additional database options such as Oracle, MySQL, Sybase and DB2.
Where can I get a copy of Microsoft SQL Server?
You can buy the standard, workgroup or enterprise editions from either Microsoft or through your local Microsoft reseller.
However if you are planning on using SQL Server just to run SpiraTest, you can now download Microsoft's
FREE
lightweight edition of SQL Server 2005 called
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition.
> Download a copy of SQL Server 2005 Express Edition...
How do I migrate data from a trial installation of SpiraTest to the production one?
This is a common need, since you may have installed SpiraTest on a workstation to evaluate its capabilities and now need to install it on a production
server for real use, but you don't want to lose all your existing data.
To migrate your installation and not lose your data,
please follow these steps:
- First backup the live data on your demo instance of SpiraTest via SQL Server Mgt Studio (SQL Server 2005) or SQL Server Enterprise Manager (SQL Server 2000)
- Next make a copy of the Attachments folder that is used to store document attachments.
- Now install a clean version of the same version of SpiraTest onto your production instance. When you log in it will have just the sample data.
- Now delete the 'SpiraTest' database on your live server. This is the one with just the sample data
- Now restore the backup from the demo box onto the live server with the database name 'SpiraTest'.
- Now copy the attachments that you backed-up in step (2) to the Attachments folder on the new server.
- Finally run the following SQL command to relink the SpiraTest SQL Server login with the SQL Server user (otherwise the DB will throw an error):
USE SpiraTest
GO
EXEC sp_change_users_login 'Update_One', 'SpiraTest', 'SpiraTest'
GO
Some of my users are receiving 'Invalid Viewstate' errors. How do I resolve this?
Ask the user to clear out their browser's cache of cookies and stored internet pages/content. After they
do this and then close and reopen their browser, the issue should be resolved.
Miscellaneous Questions
Can I change the look and feel of the entire application to match my corporate identity?
Yes. All look and feel related information for the entire application is stored in set of style sheets (one per type of browser). By modifying this style sheet, you can modify the look and feel of the entire application.