Stepping down from being a Meetup Organizer of Ministry of Testing - Boston

Today is a hard day. I just stepped down from being a Meetup Organizer of the Ministry of Testing - Boston. Life has been so busy the past year, I haven't even been able to host even a virtual Lunchtime Discussion.

I first encountered Conrad Holloman's Greater Boston QA and Testing Meetup when he hosted a Meetup event back in 2016 when Fitbit - Boston, where I was a budding automation developer. Before I knew it, I was organizing events, volunteering to be on discussion panels, and giving presentations to the group. When Conrad moved the Meetup under the Ministry of Testing banner at the end of that year, he encouraged me to take over as organizer.

As Meetup Organizer, I have had so much fun recruiting speakers such as Angie Jones, Seb Rose, Matt Wynne, Lisa Crispin, Moshe Milman, Eran Kinsbruner. Thank you so much, SmartBear and Mabl for always hosting us!

Everything came to a halt due to Covid. I tried switching to virtual Meetup events in 2022 for this group, but that came to a halt when my kiddo was diagnosed with ADHD + Autism. All of my time and energy from that time forward has went to my family, shuttling my son to new schools and doctor appointments, and it hasn't let up.

I have really enjoyed being a Meetup Organizer! It has been a thrilling ride!

-T.J. Maher

MassMutual Boston, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston

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The Cheezy Internet: Composing tests using Cucumber and Gherkin

This is fourth in a series of blog posts. Care to go back to the beginning?

Following along with Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan's eBook, "Cucumber and Cheese: A Tester's Workshop" (2017), after setting up a development environment, we started creating in Ruby + Watir the basic building blocks for an automated test framework, as we saw in the last Adventures in Automation blog entry. 

Instead of going into great detail testing against the complex test site Jeff uses in Chapter 4: Cucumbers and Puppies of is book, with Sally's Puppy Adoption Agency, we are using the simpler test site, The-Internet https://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login, by Dave Haeffner. 

This blog post will explore scaffolding a site and composing acceptance tests using Cucumber and Gherkin. 

Scaffolding a Site Using TestGen

It's always a challenge for me when creating a new project to figure out where everything should go. What should the folder and file structure be? Luckily, Jeff Morgan created a Ruby gem called "testgen" which solves all of these problems. 

• Change the directory to the src folder in your home directory: cd ~/src
• Pick a name for your project, such as "cheezy_internet"
• Install Jeff Morgan's Ruby gem testgen on your local machine: gem install testgen 
• Use the Ruby gem testgen to create a new file hierarchy: testgen project cheezy_internet 

The Cheezy Internet: Writing Ruby + Watir tests for The-Internet

This is third in a series of blog posts. Care to go back to the beginning?

Last blog entry, based on Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan's LeanPub book, "Cucumbers and Cheese: A Tester's Workshop", we set up our local machine, wrote and executed our first Watir program. 

Based on his book, we are going to attempt to sketch out and write our first test against Dave Haeffner's sample login page on The-Internet at https://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login.

The-Internet / Login Page

Drafting a Test 

A sample test for The-Internet / Login could be:

• Go to https://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login
• Enter tomsmith into the username textbox.
• Enter SuperSecretPassword! into the password textbox. 
• Press the Login button. 
• If the Secure Area page does not show "'Welcome to the Secure Area", fail the test.

The Cheezy Internet: Installing Ruby + Watir + Chromedriver + VS Code on Windows 10

This is second in a series of blog posts. Care to go back to the beginning?

For this exercise, we will be setting up a Windows 10 box for use as a development machine.

Macbooks are amazing machines. I love coding on them. Using the Mac Terminal in Homebrew. Dressing them up with decals, such as the glasses-and-tie decal my wife bought for my very first work laptop back at Fitbit-Boston.

Love dressing up the Apple logo!

I definitely would not recommend using your work machine, if you have one, for anything but work and work-related activities. 

The problem is that when it comes to non-work related programming activities, it can leave for me, well, less glamourous and sparkly alternatives.  

My home computer always has been a Windows Desktop, a big ole workhorse to store the family photos and videos, ancient video games like the original StarCraft, old blog posts, articles, and essays. But they can be so hard to set up sometimes with the toolsets I need to put together an automation framework. 

Based on the information in Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan's LeanPub book, "Cucumbers and Cheese: A Tester's Workshop" (2017), we will start setting up our local machine. 

The Cheezy Internet: Creating a Ruby + Watir + Cucumber automation framework with Jeff Morgan's Page-Object gem

Greenfield projects have been rare in my automation development career. The programming language, the toolsets that help craft the automation frameworks, the methods that interact with the pages of the web  application under test, all have been selected long before I joined the software development team. 

My job as an automation developer is to get up to speed on the automation framework as fast as possible. To climb the steep learning curves quickly, I have been creating little toy projects, ever since my first automation development job at Fitbit-Boston back in 2015. Doing this, I get explore the tools and technologies used for automated testing, using similar source material testing against a simple test site.

Our source material for this current exercise will be Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan's LeanPub book, "Cucumbers and Cheese: A Tester's Workshop". Even though "Cucumbers and Cheese" was written in 2012 and last updated in 2017, it contains a treasure trove of information for beginning automation developers, walking the reader through building an automation framework in Ruby + Cucumber + Watir + Jeff's page-object Ruby gem. Jeff's application under test is a mock site, the Puppy Adoption Agency at http://puppies.herokuapp.com/

Our application under test for this project will be an old favorite of mine: The-Internet at https://the-internet.herokuapp.com/, created by Dave Haeffner. Dave Haeffner is the author of the SeleniumGuidebook.com -- which comes in C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, and Ruby editions -- and the very helpful blog ElementalSelenium.com.

Next week, we will start using the information in "Cucumbers and Cheese" to start building an automation framework, starting with setting up a test environment. 

NEXT -> Setting up a development environment on Windows 10

Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston

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Just purchased a new automation development book, Cucumbers and Cheese: A Tester's Workshop

This morning, I just purchased Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan's LeanPub book, "Cucumbers and Cheese: A Tester's Workshop" https://leanpub.com/cucumber_and_cheese . 

Although this book came out in 2012 and was last updated in 2017, the Gherkin + Ruby + Watir + Page-Object Ruby Gem framework described was the basis of the initial framework my workplace uses. 

Related Links: 

• Jeff Morgan's GitHub: https://github.com/cheezy
• cheezy/page-object: https://github.com/cheezy/page-object

... Can't wait to read it! 

About the Book:

"In Cucumber and Cheese, Cheezy shares the concepts that help teams succeed with ATDD (aka

BDD, story test-driven development, specification by example, business-facing tests that guide

development, take your pick). And he does this the best possible way - with examples. You can

work the examples along with Cheezy, who makes them accessible even to people with not-so-much

coding experience.

"Cucumber and Cheese isn’t just for web developers. The book works through examples for web

services, mobile apps, XML, native windows apps. You’ll even learn how to create test data by

example.

"The book includes essential seekrits such as how to handle Ajax and that pesky waiting for events

to occur. Cucumber and Cheese is soup to nuts, from general principles like page objects and Don’t

Repeat Yourself, to specifics for Rails developers on RSpec matchers and ActiveRecord reference

material.

"Cheezy has a gift for making you enjoy yourself so much, you might forget you’re learning

something you thought would be hard. Lots of examples! And puppies!"

- Foreward, by Lisa Crispin, Coauthor of Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams

About the Author: 

https://www.industriallogic.com/people/cheezy/

"Jeff “Cheezy” Morgan has been teaching classes and coaching teams on agile and lean techniques since early 2004. Most of his work has focused on the engineering practices used by developers and testers. For the past few years, he has experienced great success and recognition for his work in the area of Continuous Delivery.

"He is based out of Toronto and focused on bringing Industrial Logic’s passion for technical excellence, modern agile, and lean product management to the Canadian market. He is the author of Cucumber and Cheese, A Testers Workshop.

"You can meet him at most of the conferences around North America during the year or follow him on Twitter @chzy".

Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston

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Long time no hear!

Hey there! It's been a while. How have you been? 

It's been a rough year, hasn't it? 

Since we last talked, a global pandemic started, I lost a job, found a new job, found a new house, moved into the new house, got vaccinated for COVID-19, helped my in-laws move in, found out the new job wasn't really an automation development job, quit that job, the family caught mild cases of COVID-19, and started a brand new job last week.

There just hasn't been any mental energy left over to blog. 

When my three year old son has been in daycare, I am in work-mode. 

When my son is home, I have been in Dad-mode. 

I just haven't been in blogger mode ...

... Until now. 

I think life is more settled now. 

I think I can start blogging again, now that I have an automation development position to blog about.

See you online! Feel free to ping me on Twitter at @tjmaher1.

And, as always .... Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston

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Exploring WebdriverIO - Installation

Over the past five years, I've constructed many automation test frameworks, both tinkering here at home and creating ones on-the-job. 

For this next series of blog entries, I will be exploring Webdriver IO Version 6, which uses JavaScript, Node Js, and the Node Package Manager (NPM). The only problem? I last used this particular toolset back when I was working on a Nightwatch JS project four years ago. So, here it goes! 

The WebdriverIO robot

Related Links: 

• Official Site: https://webdriver.io/
• Github site: https://github.com/webdriverio/
• TestAutomation University course,  UI Automation with WebdriverIO by Julia Pottinger
• YouTube: Learn WebDriverIO by Kevin Lamping

First up: Installing WebdriverIO!

The next step in my automation development journey

Although I received my offer letter back on June 3rd, for a Software Test Engineer position at Verily (formerly Google Life Science) it was still thrilling to see in my Inbox:

"Welcome to Google: Hi Thomas Maher, We're so excited for you to join us at Google/ Alphabet".

"Email: Onboarding at Google"

My automation journey started, as I mentioned a few years ago, when I was I picked up the book "How Google Tests Software (2012)".

Hello, Verily! Can't wait until June 15th!

Starting June 15th, I will be a Software Test Engineer for Verily Life Sciences!

Verily.com

"Verily's mission is to make the world’s health data useful so that people enjoy longer and healthier lives. The company was launched in 2015 and is a subsidiary of Alphabet.

"Verily develops tools and devices to collect, organize and activate health data, and creates interventions to prevent and manage disease. The company partners with leading life sciences, medical device and government organizations, using deep hardware, software, scientific, and healthcare expertise to enable faster development, meaningful advances, and deployment at scale".

This is so exciting. I can hardly wait!!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston

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Why hire me as an SDET? Some recommendations.

As you may have seen in my last post, the workplace I have loved had a reduction in force. I made a lot of friends at Threat Stack, people I loved working with and hanging out with. I am really going to miss them.

I am now looking for a new full-time perm SDET role in the Boston role. Why hire me as an SDET as your company? Here are a few recommendations from the people I worked for, worked with, and trained:

SDET looking for full-time opportunities in Downtown Boston

Anyone know of any SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) positions in Downtown Boston? I am now looking for new employment.

I now have five years experience in the automation development space. I am familiar with:

• Creating and demoing automation framework proof-of-concepts
• Interviewing stakeholders to validate business needs are met
• Leading discussions on what makes up a high value test
• Setting up code reviews with developers
• Iterating through development stages
• Customizing reporting and logging
• Configuring tests to be run continuously
• Training fellow automation developers on how to add to the finished framework. 
• See samples of Programming Projects I have done

I have experience as a:

• Writer & Speaker. 
• Instructor: TestAutomationU.com’s Introduction to Capybara. 
• Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing – Boston. 

I have been a QA Engineer since 1996. Seeking full-time employment in Boston, MBTA accessible.

And here's my GitHub and my LinkedIn Profile!

Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston

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New article on the Threat Stack blog: How to Write an Automated Test Framework in a Million Little Steps

A new article of mine was just published on the Threat Stack blog, dealing with all the research, requirements gathering, and analysis I performed when I was drafting the first version of an automation framework testing our web application, the Threat Stack Cloud Security Platform.

The article is called: How to Write an Automated Test Framework in a Million Little Steps. Enjoy!

So far, I have written for Threat Stack:

• Testing Tool Profile: Why Threat Stack Uses ThoughtWorks Gauge 
• 10 Automated Testing Tools That Threat Stack Uses -- and Why 
• Five Tips How Testers Can Collaborate With Software Developers 

... And I was interviewed for the article, Current Trends in Automated Software Testing. Now you know why I haven't had a chance to post to this blog in a while. Work has kept me busy, busy, busy!

Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston

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November MOTB Lightning Talks are now on YouTube!

Miss the Lightning Talks on Wednesday for the Ministry of Testing - Boston? 

Have no fear! They were recorded and are now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsiNNDAR76piGnQ0pHSUdftFiMa8U1FDm

Thank you Bertold Kolics, Event Organizer for the November Meetup, for handling all video recordings! 

• Robot Framework Is Not Just For GUI, by Meredith Courtney
• Seven Excuses Software Testers Need to Stop Making, by Kristin Jackvony
• Serverless Preview Environments to the Rescue, by Joe Lust
• Shift your Load Testing Left with BrowserUp, by Eric Beland
• Improve Quality Culture Using Visualization, by Bertold Kolics

Next Meetup on December 11th at Mabl:

• Paul Bruce will be presenting a talk: "Put That In Your Pipeline and Smoke Test It!" https://www.meetup.com/ministry-of-testing-boston/events/266465853/

See you there! Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston

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Wed Nov 11, 2019: Come visit Mabl's new office tomorrow for an evening of lightning talks!

Come visit Mabl's new office tomorrow for an evening of ten-minute lightning talks! Come mingle starting at 6:00 pm, and help yourself to some refreshments, provided by Mabl.com, our host and sponsor for the evening. Thank you, Lisa Crispin and Bertold Kolics of Mabl, our group's newest Event Organizer, for setting this event up for us!

• Location: Mabl, 101 Arch Street, Floor 16, Boston, MA
• Time: Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Want to attend? Sign up here! https://www.meetup.com/ministry-of-testing-boston/events/265871045/

Five Tips On How Testers Can Collaborate With Software Developers

Previously Published August 27, 2019 on the Threat Stack blog, based on the TestingGuild.com talk I gave back in June 2018, How to Work With Developers.

Whenever I join a new team, my first task is fostering and nurturing a good working relationship with the developers. Why? If there is good chemistry between testers and developers, the quality of work improves as the quality of communication increases.

The relationship between developer and tester shouldn’t be one of artist and art critic. Rather, it should be like the relationship between a writer and a copy editor, where each contributes to the quality of the final product.

Developing a good working relationship with developers can be tricky. I am really fortunate working here at Threat Stack where my work is valued and my ideas are appreciated, but in my career — like many of you — I have had my struggles.

With that in mind, here are five tips that I’ve found helpful in nurturing and developing relationships with my developer teammates.

10 Automated Testing Tools That Threat Stack Uses — and Why

Previously published on the Threat Stack Blog, September 19, 2019, co-author Laura Haiduck. 

All software development projects, whether they’re large or small, can benefit from well-planned and well-executed testing. It’s your way to ensure that the software you’re developing performs as expected and delivers value to the customer. More important — given the nature of our current cyber landscape — well-executed testing is your way to ensure that your software doesn’t ship with errors or vulnerabilities that could compromise its integrity. In a word, good testing lets you pass on performance value to customers — while also providing them with underlying security.

At Threat Stack, we have a complex, full stack development environment that requires a great deal of planning and decision making within the Test Engineering Team to make sure that all the functional areas of our platform are being tested effectively and efficiently. This includes decisions about what testing tools to use, since the right ones allow us to introduce automation as well as speed, repeatability, consistency, and accuracy of results.

Are you sure the buses are still listed? Interacting with APIs with Ruby + NET::HTTP + Gauge

This is Part 2 of 2 of a blog series. Care to go back to the beginning? 

There are many different Ruby libraries that allow you to interact with an API:

• Net/Http: The HTTP client built into Ruby standard library. 
• Httparty: Built on top of Net/Http by John Nunemaker, you can GET the HTTP Response HTTP Code, Response Message, and the HTTP Headers with one call. The Google Group was last active in 2017. 
• Faraday: Also allows you to get the status, headers, and body, allowing you a bit more to customize the HTTP request. 
• Rest-Client: a "simple HTTP and REST client for Ruby, inspired by the Sinatra’s microframework style of specifying actions: get, put, post, delete".

For this sample project, where we are simply getting data from the MBTA API, we will use:

• Net/HTTP to get data from the API
• The JSON library to parse the data
• The test/unit library to assert that the expected values and the actual values match up
• ThoughtWorks Gauge as the test framework. 

Are you sure the buses are still listed? Setting up data-driven API tests with Ruby + NET::HTTP + Gauge

The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) operates a series of bus lines, whose information is accessible through their API, https://api-v3.mbta.com/. How could you test that a sampling of these bus lines are still listed?

• Route 210  | Quincy Center - Fields Corner           
• Route 212  | Quincy Center - North Quincy           
• Route 220  | Hingham Depot - Quincy Center         
• Route 222  | East Weymouth - Quincy Center         
• Route 230  | Montello Commuter Rail Station - Quincy   
• Route 236  | South Shore Plaza - Quincy Center

Sure, you could go to the MBTA website and search for the bus route at https://www.mbta.com/schedules/bus but, as we saw in our project Are You Sure The Bus Line Is Still Listed?, what is best for humans is not best when creating an automated test. 

With this project, we are going to use the built-in Ruby Library NET::HTTP to interact with the API, and Thoughtworks Gauge to set up the test framework, and we are going to make the tests data-driven, putting the information we need to verify in a table.

Related Documentation: 

• Documentation for the MBTA API  V3 is at https://www.mbta.com/developers/v3-api
• MBTA V3 API Developer Portal: https://api-v3.mbta.com

Come see Angie Jones, fresh from her world tour at the Ministry of Testing - Boston Meetup on September 23, 2019

Angie Jones, International Keynote Speaker, blogger at angiejones.tech, Director of TestAutomationU.com is on a world tour for her latest talk Visual Validation for Test Automation:

• August 12-14: CAST, Cocoa Beach, Florida
• September 4-6: Full Stack Fest, Barcelona
• September 23: STPCon: Angie is giving the Keynote: A Tale of Testing the Untestable
• September 23: Ministry of Testing - Boston Meetup
• September 30: StarWest, Anaheim, California
• October 14-16: PNSQC, Portland, Oregon
• October 24: TestBash Australia, a Ministry of Testing conference, Sydney, Australia
• November 20-22: ConTEST, NYC

Live or work in Boston? Come meet Angie Jones in person on Monday, September 23rd, 2019!

Angie Jones

Sign up, here!

• https://www.meetup.com/ministry-of-testing-boston/events/263810657/

Thank you, http://Applitools.com for having Angie speak to us!
Thank you, http://SmartBear.com for hosting!


Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston

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My free course "Introduction to Capybara" is now online!

I remember being so impressed when I first heard about Test Automation University, the latest project by Angie Jones. A free online university, sponsored by Applitools, where subject matter experts in the software testing field created tutorials? Yes, please! Finding up-to-date information on automated testing can be an exercise in frustration.

Imagine my surprise when a few weeks after TAU was launched, Angie Jones got in touch with me back in February: Did I want to create a course for Test Automation University?

I decided my topic would be on Capybara, the Selenium WebDriver wrapper I used to put together the UI Automation framework at work last year. It took a lot of time, effort, and sleepless nights, but after a month of effort, I was able to beat the deadline.

I hope you like it!

Introduction to Capybara
 https://youtu.be/hZjsvTYJIL8

• Register for the course: https://testautomationu.applitools.com/capybara-ruby/

Thank you so much, Angie, for giving me this opportunity! 

I cannot believe all the effort Angie Jones puts into reaching out to the software testing community. She is always on the go, giving lectures, running webinars, and speaking at conferences. 

Angie has been a guest speaker at my Ministry of Testing - Boston Meetup twice:

•  Q & A on "The Build That Cried Broken" lecture, 2017 
•  Stop Compromising Quality: Setting Automation Up for Success, 2018

... I can't wait to see what Angie has in store for the Meetup this fall!



Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston

Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles

New to coding? Learn Java through Angie Jones' TestAutomationU

Are you a software tester who is new to coding? Don't know where to start?

Angie Jones has released a new Java Programming course on her Test Automation University.

https://youtu.be/Fo2U0o64oVI

• Java Programming: https://testautomationu.applitools.com/java-programming-course/

The Java course uses the OpenJDK General Availability release of Java 11.

The OpenJDK, the Open Java Development Kit is a free and open-source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE). (Get the OpenJDK FAQ).

Since I am using Windows, how I installed it:

• Download from JDK.Java.Net/Archive/ Java version 11.0.2 LTS version.
• Extract the Zip File to C:\Program Files\Java, creating a jdk-11 folder. 
• Set the PATH and JAVA_HOME according to this StackOverflow answer. 
• Downloaded and Installed IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition, setting it up with Java 11.0.2. 

I am loving the course! Angie sprinkled her fun and her energy throughout the course.

Here are a few tips taking the course:

• Expand the course to cover the left side of your monitor, with your IDE covering the right hand side of your monitor. 
• When Angie goes over code, type what she types, and execute when she executes.
• Do the outside exercises Angie recommends. 

Passively watching Angie type code will not allow you to learn. Only through you practicing the material will allow things to sink in. 

Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston

Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles

Five Tips How Software Testers Can Collaborate With Software Developers

Whenever I join a new team, my first task is fostering and nurturing a good working relationship with the developers. Why? If there is good chemistry between testers and developers, the quality of work increases as the quality of communication increases.

The relationship between tester and developer shouldn’t be one of artist and art critic. Rather, it should be one between writer and copy-editor, each contributing to the quality of the product.

Developing a good working relationship with developers can be tricky. Here are five tips for nurturing and developing relationships with your developer teammates.

Notes: Selenium 4 With Simon Stewart

Simon Stewart, the Selenium product lead, the creator of WebDriver gave a brief preview on what is coming up with Selenium 4.

Selenium, Simon says, is a family: Selenium WebDriver, Selenium Grid, and now Selenium IDE.


https://youtu.be/6iHdvOYdJk8