Successful Automated Testing
Nowadays, lots of software applications are developed as web-based software applications to be run on an internet browser. Due to that situation, companies and organizations are looking for software test automation to make quality assurance more dynamic and effective in an exploratory environment testing.
Select an Integrated Development Environment
For starters, we should select an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) or a software development tool in charge to fulfill the objectives, like errors detection, and for carrying out an effective code management that needs to be developed.
Eclipse is an open source people community that builds tools based on Java and infrastructure to help solve problems. Thus, Eclipse IDE is a generic tools platform that supports a wide range of tools for languages and systems in Java, C, Python and web technologies for handling the date reports.
Choose a framework oriented to Testing
Once we get a development environment, it's necessary to choose the framework which we will be working on. So that in this case, we will use one oriented with automation tests. Selenium is one of the most common frameworks that lets developers and testers develop functional tests for browser handling.
Due to Selenium counts with different focus according to presented needs, Selenium Web Driver is an Application Programming Interface that helps to automate browser. Therefore, it’s essential to add libraries and tools for test development.
Find a framework to output test reports
Mixing two or more frameworks takes you to a better control and reliability for getting better results in each test, so TestNG aids report outputs based on test results.
TestNG allows having multiple test classes and test running configurations. In each running test configuration, we can select running one or more test classes in an XML file.
Select a coding Model
After an appropriate development environment configuration with different applied frameworks, it is important to choose a coding type for an organized and efficient code structure. It is necessary to use Page-Object Model.
Page-Object Model is a tool and a softawre development framework that encapsulates skeptical web page details inside a class, behind more methods focused on a specific business. In addition, this makes implementation more readable and it also facilitates maintenance.
Choose a software development tool for getting element directions
By using Firefox browser and its compatibility with many programming languages, it is possible to install additional tools on the seeker that gives access to elements from different perspectives. This helps to achieve a better control between platforms for testing and those that will be implemented.
Firebug is one of the more popular and powerful web development tools. It is a free software web development tool and open source available as a Mozilla Firefox extension, which helps in detecting errors, editing and monitoring any CSS, HTML, DOM and JavaScript web site. It will also analyze web site performance and contains a JavaScript console for registering bugs, looking for values and analyzing stack structure reports.
Use a specific language for directions
Firebug helps us to detect existing elements in a web page and this tool contains many forms to provide code directions. Thus we use XPATH, because of its compatibility with frameworks and its containment of HTML algorithms. Therefore, it is possible to maintain a better control on development automated tests that ensure page quality.
Web pages are created using hypertext markup language or the acronym HTML. This is the authorized language used to create documents for the wide world web. HTML uses a set of special instructions called tags or markups to define the structure and the web document plan and to specify how a page is deployed in a browser.
Choose a language for handling directions
In addition to XPATH directions from each element, it is required to use a base language in charge that can join different parts that composes the automated tests code. Hence, we use Java because of its flexibility.
Java is well established as one of the major programming languages in the world which is used in all desktop applications, web applications and business systems. Java can run on a virtual machine that runs the platform for applications that can be built. Thu, it also stands on related languages family including Scala, Groovy, Ruby and Python specialized versions, etc.
Select a language for storing static values
While it is necessary to be efficient and accurate in tests automation, XML is used to store static values because it contains the characteristic of being flexible in relation with Java language.
XML or eXtensible Markup Language is a specification for storing information. Also, it is a specification for describing the information structure. While XML is a markup language as HTML is, XML doesn’t have its own tags.
Final Thoughts
For achieving an efficient exploratory automated testing, it's necessary to use the software development tools and languages that are accurate and reliable in each executed test. Although it requires dedication by the development team, it reduces the time and effort used by the people in the company.
About the Technical Author
Juan Pablo Santiago is a recent IT Technician and a current IT Engineering student with experience in Software and mobile app testing.
References
Burns, D. (2012). Selenium 2 Testing Tools: Beginner's Guide. Birmingham: Packt Publishing.
Gundecha, U. (2013). Instant Selenium Testing Tools Starter. Birmingham: Packt Publishing.
Luthra, C. (2013). Instant Firebug Starter. Birmingham: Packt Publishing.
McAffer, J., Lemieux, J.-M., & Aniszczyk, C. (2010). Eclipse Rich Client Platform. Crawsfordsville: Pearson Education.
Parsons, D. (2012). Foundational Java: Key Elements and Practical Programming. London: Springer Verlag.
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