Methods to develop remote applications with built in feedback ability for use in a distributed test framework

A system for launching remote test execution requests in a distributed test framework, comprising:

• a first agent process executing on a first computer system, wherein the first agent process includes an agent launcher interface;
• and
• a first test execution request having a call interface that provides a reference to the first agent process such that the first test execution request and the first agent process communicate with each other during execution of the first test execution request, wherein the first test execution request is capable of sending a launch request to the agent launcher interface of the first agent process using the reference to the first agent process, the launch request specifying a second test execution request to be launched and defining required attributes of a second computer system upon which the second test execution request is to be executed without specifically identifying the second computer system,
• wherein each of the first and second test execution requests includes commands defined to initiate a number of functional aspects of a software product to be tested when executed on a computer system.

A computer readable storage medium encoded with program instructions for launching remote test execution requests in a distributed test framework, comprising:

• a code segment that receives a reference to a first agent process, wherein the reference can be utilized to access the first agent process during execution;
• a code segment that receives initialization parameters for a first test execution request, wherein the initialization parameters can be used to set initial values for specific parameters of the first test execution request;
• and
• a code segment that calls an agent launcher interface of the agent process using the reference, wherein a request to launch a second test execution request is sent to the agent launcher interface, and wherein required attributes of an unidentified computer system necessary to execute the second test execution request are passed to the agent launcher process,
• wherein each of the first and second test execution requests includes commands defined to initiate a number of functional aspects of a software product to be tested when executed on a computer system.