Windows 7 - Hopper for Windows Mobile 6.5 Released!

  For those of you who have been waiting for this, I won’t make you read any further. You can download these bits for the Hopper Test Tool. The current version is compatible with Windows Mobile 6.0, 6.1, and 6.5. The previous version of Hopper is not supported for Windows Mobile 6.5.

Hopper is a software test tool that simulates input stress on Windows Mobile powered devices. Hopper will stress all applications that are available through the menu system by rapidly sending keystrokes and screen taps in a random fashion. By sending a large number of user inputs very rapidly, Hopper can quickly isolate troublesome scenarios and find bugs in your applications.

It is very important to begin Hopper testing early in your development cycle, as application defects found early in the development cycle are easier to fix and provide a stable base to build the rest of your application. Sometimes, bugs found by Hopper are very difficult to find and fix, but their value should not be underestimated. Hopper will help you find system and application scenarios that you may not have thought of.

The power of Hopper lies in its ability to very rapidly send random inputs to the system. This ability is also what makes Hopper debugging challenging, since it is often difficult to find simple user reproductions.

The Hopper Test is required for Windows Marketplace for Mobile application certification. The application must complete two hours of the Hopper test without exhibiting unpredictable behavior, hanging or crashing. As of this blog date there is currently a typo in the Application Submission Guidelines document, which states that Hopper version 2.0.24.7025 is required. The corrected text should refer to version 2.0.24.2359.

Also of note in the guidelines is that a focus application will need to be customized and deployed to the device prior to running Hopper. This will ensure that Hopper's main focus is on the target application. More information on how to create a focus application is available here.