Because our latest version of our NuBot Platform product is on the verge of being released, I’d like to present a few of the noteworthy new features out in this release.
Enhanced Composite States
Composite states now feature full-fledged encapsulation. In our previous installment, because of the limitations of the transition model, composite states had to be aware of their parent to function properly, greatly limiting the ability to reuse callflow components in some specific cases. Composite states now give more freedom in this regard, thanks to our new transition model, which gives you the ability to break down a transition into two parts, where one part would be defined in the parent, and the other part in the child.
UI Cosmetic Improvement
As part of our effort to offer the best user experience, we have improved a few UI items which should make your life easier. For instance, any section content available from the Results view now features a copy to clipboard button. Also, the Callflow editor now provides the ability to add comments to the layout or move transition labels while offering a more pleasant color scheme. We have also removed some under-used or plainly obtrusive features which did not add any value to the experience.
Callflow Anchor Points and new Transition Model
Our callflow transition model has been refined and now features the ability to break down a given transition into two distinct parts. This characteristic gives you the ability to not only lay out your callflow more easily by routing transitions around states but also enhance your Composite States encapsulation.
Augmented Test Descriptor Editor
We have moved some of the configuration parameters off the Preferences to the Test Descriptor Editor itself, where it makes more sense. All test configuration parameters are now neatly organized into one single location. Such parameters include Call Profile and Call Sampling.
REST Communication Protocol
In order to facilitate both customer firewall and forward proxy traversal, we got rid of the RMI protocol in favor of a friendlier HTTP one. While from a user perspective, this change does not bring much to the table, thanks to a nicely encapsulated communication layer, this protocol overhaul opens the door for a plethora of new integration schemes. For one, you can now use our HTTP API to not only tap into our test call data set but also interact with the platform itself, launching a given test at a specific time from the command line, or PUT/GET test resources on/off the server. The API can also be used to monitor your minutes usage or simply to poll for server status.
# get all scheduled test curl -X GET -H "X-nuecho-access-key: foobar" \ -H "X-nuecho-secret-key: $4$02Y4dYz+$d61BHuJq/GqylW0p6jVzs1/Arxs$" \ 'https://nubot.nuecho.com/api/v0.1/foobar/operations/scheduled' # delete resource bucket curl -X DELETE -H "X-nuecho-access-key: foobar" \ -H "X-nuecho-secret-key: $4$02Y4dYz+$d61BHuJq/GqylW0p6jVzs1/Arxs$" \ 'https://nubot.nuecho.com/api/v0.1/foobar/resources/3868dd95-a81e-4480-aca6-fa05012075ff' # get stats from audio service curl -X GET -H "X-nuecho-access-key: foobar" \ -H "X-nuecho-secret-key: $4$02Y4dYz+$d61BHuJq/GqylW0p6jVzs1/Arxs$" \ 'https://nubot.nuecho.com/api/v0.1/foobar/audio/stats' # launch a test session curl -X PUT -H "X-nuecho-access-key: foobar" \ -H "X-nuecho-secret-key: $4$02Y4dYz+$d61BHuJq/GqylW0p6jVzs1/Arxs$" \ 'https://nubot.nuecho.com/api/v0.1/foobar/operations/launched/3868dd95-a81e-4480-aca6-fa05012075ff?recording=false'
Performance Optimizations
The platform has been re-architectured to handle larger call volumes. Internal services can now be horizontally scaled for high throughput and greater performance. More than ever, you can use our NuBot platform to not only perform regression or functional testing but also to launch much larger load or stress tests.
Conclusion
I hope you are as thrilled as we are about this upcoming release and that you will see benefits from this sneak preview! I intend to present some of those new features in separated posts in the coming weeks.
