Switching from manual to automation testing - selenium

Hello Test Automation Experts, Managers,
Seeking advice on how to transit from Manual Testing to automation testing
I have been a manual tester for over 8 years. I wish to switch to automation testing hence I attended training in Selenium web driver and Java ( we used TestNG and Maven ). Though being able to write medium complex automation scripts I am finding it hard to get interviews or seek attention from a hiring manager or recruiter just by saying them I have knowledge in automation.
What should I do to get one step closer so that a hiring manager will show interest in me?
I am very much keen on moving to test automation and willing to spend the required time to make this happen.
Should I write a blog portraying my skills in automation or post my samples in Git hub?
Looking forward to receiving your advice as I am totally lost and frustrated last few months making this attempt switching to automation testing
Thanks in advance

As most of the Technocrats from Selenium, Mozilla, Google Chrome and IE community are active and visits Stack Overflow on regular basis you can try the following ideas to get noticed :
As a beginner go through the required Discussion threads within Frequent TAB on Stack Overflow and start getting your hands dirty with code.
When you gather ample knowledge start Answering questions and become a StackOverflow Volunteer.
Earn Bronze/Silver/Gold badges on Selenium / WebDriver / Java / Python / C# / NodeJS / Ruby / PHP / Perl tags.
Start writing a Technical Blog Site
Prepare Videos on Technical Aspects of Selenium / WebDriver / Java / Python / C# / NodeJS / Ruby / PHP / Perl and publish them.
The best outcome can be, you can turn out to be a Selenium Commiter

My suggestion would be:
To start with, try to write automation script for open web application. Example: Selenium script to login to Amazon, select a specific product, add to basket and go till payments page. Next automate some other sites.
Create a blog where to mention step by step how you achieved your task.
Upload your scripts to Github and provide that link in your block.
Ask and answer questions in stackoverflow. Be active in Facebook selenium/automation groups.
Practice java programming in sites like hackerrank, hackerearth, etc. Upload your solutions in github as well.
Explore deeper and deeper, keep giving interviews and never stop learning.
Update all your works as personal projects in your resume.
All the best.

Related

Moving on from Selenium IDE

I work in a small firm whose product is a relatively simple web-based software. For the last several years we have used Selenium IDE and it's record-and-play functionality. It has delivered 98% of what we need. However, now that Selenium IDE will no longer be working several months from now, we must find an alternative. We considered using Selenium WebDriver, but none of us no know programming and we just don't have the time to all learn it quickly enough to maintain our current testing. So, we are looking for something that has at minimum the following features...
Has record-and-play functionality (as opposed to programming)
Can support multiple web browsers (Firefox, Chrome, IE, Safari)
Can generate reports
Will continue to be supported for years to come
Has either a large user community or good company customer service
Database connect would be nice
Hopefully, we can import our existing Selenium IDE scripts, rather than rewrite them.
We are willing to pay if it's good.
There are literally dozens of options for software and I don't have a clear path to selecting one. Some promising software is...
- Katalon Recorder and Studio. It looks like an excellent replacement for Selenium IDE. But it has small community for help
- QTP - A colleague previously worked with this and recommends it. It looks like an excellent alternative for webdriver, as it allows record and play. But it is very expensive.
Any help is appreciated.
As per your feature requirement here are a couple of viable Selenium IDE alternatives :
Protractor :
Pros :
1. Simple installation. Only a couple of commands needed to install Selenium WebDriver and start testing.
2. Uses JavaScript which is easy to learn with limited programming background.
Cons :
1. Though flexible but still evolving. Setting up the project and the reporting plugins needs a bit of expertise.
2. Requires clear understanding of sync/async behavior.
Katalon Studio :
Pros :
1. No experience required for installation.
2. Unzip the package and ready to go.
3. No additional plug-ins are required.
4. The scripting interface allows an user to switch between the keyword-base table and the code editor.
Cons :
1.Though web automation and mobile automation is achievable API testing module needs more buildup.
Selenium Builder :
Pros :
1. Selenium Builder contains a lot of code from Selenium IDE and Webdriver.
2. The project is getting forked into a modern and a legacy version.
Cons :
1. As of version 40, Firefox requires all extensions to be signed and as it contains code from Selenium IDE and Webdriver it is getting rejected from signing.
2. Getting Selenium Builder into an acceptable state for signing means removing the existing code, which will remove support for Selenium 1.x and support for local playback of Selenium 2.x.
So it's a mix-bag situation and you can always pick one up and drop the other one at your disposal.
QTP I believe has now become UFT (Unified Functional Test) which does have a record option. Unfortunately what you lack in programming, you'll have to make up for in scripting knowledge (VBScript from what I worked with). It's not impossible but would probably take more effort to learn rather than implementing your own free version of Java/Selenium WebDriver. UFT is extremely expensive especially for a small firm which is a per license fee. If I remember right my last job had multiple licenses each $20k a piece.

How to write test cases and test steps in redmine

I am working at a company that uses Redmine as the issue tracking tool and for user stories.
I need to design the QA for them. However I didn't find a section where someone can tie a user story or an issue with a test case. I've used to have this functionality on Rally.
Is there a free tool that integrates with Redmine or something like a plugin?
I want the following (or the more the better!)
Description
test steps (input-output)
Status (pass-fail)
Suite name (the suite the test is part of)
Attached issues
Version of SW under test
Thanks in advance
There is a "test case management" section in the Redmine Third Party tools documentation.
thanks for the support.A former colleague brought this to my attention:
https://bitbucket.org/bugzinga/redcase/wiki/Home
One thing I often see is people trying to adapt tools to do things that they were not originally designed for. Redmine is a good tool for issue tracking and is designed mainly to be a project management tool, although it is possible to adapt redmine, I would suggest in this case looking for a dedicated test management tool that has been designed to do that specific job.
I would suggest looking at TestLodge test management tool which I have worked on and is a designed to help you manage and execute your tests but at the same time integrates with Redmine and does things like automatically create tickets whenever a test fails.
By doing this, you are going to benefit from a range of things such as an interface designed for testing that will make you and your team a lot more productive along with a series of reports that will allow you to spot trends within your testing.

Selenium Learning step by step

I am new to selenium web testing. Could you tell me how to learn it step by step, and what the technologies are that I need to study?
I suggest you download Selenium IDE or Se Builder, which are user interfaces for recording Selenium tests in-browser. Both let you record and then export tests to a bunch of different languages.
One important thing to note is that there's two Seleniums: original Selenium 1, where tests are comprised of a list of steps to execute in order, and Selenium 2 / Webdriver, which is an API for programming tests.
(Full disclosure: I'm the main developer on Se Builder, so I'm totally biased towards it. I do think it's probably less intimidating for a newcomer, but Selenium IDE is as of time of writing the more established and standard IDE. :) )
UPDATED: Additional resources listed below
The record and playback tools Zarkonnen called out are good starts. You also need to understand the fundamentals of Selenium itself. There's good information on writing tests in code on Selenium HQ's documentation pages.
Three things I think important to get correct from the start:
Learn about locators on pages, learn how to store them in one location (read up on the Page Object Pattern and be careful about record/playback tools which may not help you in that approach)
Learn how to deal with dynamic content (AJAX) with implicit and explicit waits
Learn about modular tests. Write small, reusable components.
If you're working in Ruby then I'd really recommend having a look at Cheezy's page_object gem.
Also, have a look at the various intro pages on the Google WebDriver project page.
Update: You should also consider having a look at Dave Haeffner's Elemental Selenium and his Selenium Guidebook. Both are great resources for real-world stuff people struggle with, not facile, shallow examples.

Planning to adopt Watir for our UI testing needs - Is it the right tool?

We are using Qtp as a testing tool, and currently planning to move to an open source testing tool. We have zeroed in on Watir and Selenium as two potential tools for this purpose. We have done some study of these two products and have liked Watir for its neat and powerful API and ease of use. We are only looking at testing on IE; hence cross-browser support provided by Selenium is probably not so important.
But, as my research on Watir progressed, there is one thing about Watir that is disturbing me a little. That is the losing momentum that I see about the product. Most of the articles, success stories and quotes are pretty old - say earlier to 2009. Hardly anything exciting being written about Watir in 2010. To add to this, I hear this story about Webdriver going to replace Watir. Though i couldn't find many articles on Watir-Webdriver, i saw this article on watir that is somewhat of a concern to me as it says watir is DEAD.
http://www.natontesting.com/2010/04/14/explaining-watir-selenium-and-webdriver/
We do not want to start with a product that is probably already dead, or dying.
Can any one please tell me what exactly is happening in Watir and what is the roadmap ahead?
Thanks,
Babitha
You can also check out the source code and it's history directly from GitHub https://github.com/bret/watir/commits/master/ to see if there's any activity.
But it's true that Watir had some longer period of inactivity in terms of releasing new versions http://rubygems.org/gems/watir/versions
As you can see then the time between 1.6.5 and 1.6.6 was almost a year. But nevertheless Watir is not dead nor planning to die. Also, you have got that right about Watir-Webdriver being Watir 2.0 in the future, but i'd not recommend it just yet for IE due to it's early alpha state and some pretty critical bugs. It's repo is here https://github.com/jarib/watir-webdriver
If you have any questions or problems related with Watir, don't be afraid to ask them in here or in Google groups at http://groups.google.com/group/watir-general
Watir is alive. Take a look at watir.com, you will find all information there. If you have further questions, ask.
In the same blog (that the page on natontesting.com mentions), Alister has discussed the impact of web driver on the future of WATIR.
He says:
If you’re a Watir user, it doesn’t really make that much difference. If you think of automated web testing as a car, Watir is the steering wheel and dashboard, which interact with the engine. Allowing Watir users to use WebDriver is like providing an additional engine choice, but keeping the steering wheel and dash the same.
Ultimately, I think that Watir will remain a very popular automated web testing tool, one that has been designed by testers for testers. I can see the usage of WatiN and Watij reducing as more developers move to Selenium 2.0/WebDriver which will offer the same functionality as Watir using a different API and multiple programming languages. If WebDriver can focus on the detail of controlling browsers, ultimately Watir will be a better tool as more effort can be spent on improving the Watir API, upgrading the steering wheel and dash, so to speak.
The point of that article is that both Selenium 2.0 and Watir 2.0 are incorporating Webdriver technology. Watir just put out a new release last month, Watir users are sharing tips everyday on the Watir General mailing list.
If I started a new framework today, I would be most likely to use Watir. I always keep an open mind, so I cannot guarantee what I would use. Maybe the project involves flex so I would try FunFX, or java developers want to be involved so I would consider webdriver with junit. But I would have no concern about using Watir into the future. I have used it for the past three years. I have known people who used it even before that. The community is too strong to die.
We used Watir for a while but ran into problems maintaining our Ruby environment. We're not a Ruby shop, so when we updated our version of Ruby and Watir stopped working we weren't fit to really understand why the breaks were occurring.
The lack of a good recorder was also a problem for us.
So we switched to Selenium, which has great recording capability and runs right in an NUnit test (we're onthe .Net platform), but Selenium doesn't execute successfully every single time. We had to write retry wrappers around the calls since they would work sometimes and not others.
Our quest to find something easily recordable that runs reliably continues. I've seen a lot on the forum about WebDriver and Sahi so I'll look into those. As long as we can spit out XML so we can integrate with CC, we're good.
As you already read, the WATIR community is alive and kicking! I just started the Automated Regression initiative at my company and one of the requirements was to utilize an open source tool (or a group of them). I came across WATIR and since its FOSS, Easy to use, and uses Ruby, I couldn't help but suggest the tool to Management.
Here's a tip (if you want it or not!):
WATIR is great stand-alone, but when bundled with CruiseControl (another FOSS tool that is a CI [Continuous Integration] Server), you can run your regression scripts all day long and get the xUnit reports from it (remember to utilize Ruby's built in Test Unit framework). Makes it real useful for the higher ups and your devs.
WATIR is alive and kicking and just recently came out with an update (1.67). The wiki is killer (http://wiki.openqa.org/display/WTR/) so go there first for your Q&As.
Have Fun with WATIR. Beats the pants outta silly old QTP any day of the week!
Hit me up if you have questions since this is still fresh in my head :)

Selenium or Rational Functional Tester [closed]

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What do you recommend for testing purposes in Java environment (Selenium or Rational Functional Tester)? Could you write some pros and cons? I heard about MicroFocus TestPartner, do you have experience with it?
Both automated test tools offer some of the basic capabilities of automation. However there is a massive difference between Rational Functional Tester (RFT) and Selenium. IF your aim is basic testing, where the outcome is short term -1-3 months and you don't mind that the scripts will need a high level of maintenance, then Selenium is fine. RFT provides a number of critical differences from Selenium that impact your ability to have a long term automation solution. These are:
RFT uses an object map between the script and the application under test. This means that as the application changes you don’t need to find and replace object properties in the scripts. This will save you a lot of time
RFT uses datapools for driving large datasets into a test. this allows permutations and combinations to be created.
RFT has very powerful connectors to multiple application styles like SAP, Siebel, Oracle, VB, PowerBuilder, various web and terminal server functions. This means one tool for every situation where selenium provides only one solution.
RFT works with RQM for full end to end test management.
The net result of all this is time and longevity of the automation. I would not choose Selenium for a long term solution because RFT will cost substantially less in maintenance than RFT ever will - even for a novice.
Please clarify 'Java environment'.
If Java environment == a web based application delivered through a browser, then you have tons of choices at your disposal, not just Selenium, Rational Functional Tester and TestPartner. There are a number of open source and commercial tools for testing web apps.
If, however, Java environment == standalone Java application, that runs on your desktop, then your choices are more limited. Selenium will not work, as Selenium only supports browser-based web apps. Functional Tester and TestPartner are both good tools, I have worked extensively with both, and both support the Java platform. There are other tools, such as HP QuickTest Pro, and there are probably some Java-specific open source tools.
I'd recommend mixing the two: When there are things that you cannot do in RFT, you can get help from Selenium, which is simply a Java API which can be used in RFT. Writing cross-browser script can be a good point to use this mixed approach.
One more point to consider is: Selenium is a free and open source tool.
Another point is: Selenium has a much more activity in its discussion forums. Its is more likely to get a faster answer from other users of Selenium.
Since you mentioned TestPartner which is a commercial tool.
QTP and TestPartner have a comparable pricing level. So you should consider other important factors: integrity of the tool, learning curve, level and quality of commercial support, level of community support.
You may also want to look at TestComplete, which is also very powerful, and incorporates support for Load Testing, and Unit Testing, but has significantly lower price.
Generally, I would say, automation success is much more dependant on automation skills of a person rather than on capacities of a specific tool.
Thank you,
Albert Gareev
http://automation-beyond.com/
Take a look at TestMaker by PushToTest.com . It's written in Java and runs Java and Selenium scripts as well as soapUI, Groovy, Ruby, Python, PHP, VB and .Net. TestMaker allows you to take the Selenium scripts and run them as automated regression tests, load or performance tests and production SLA monitoring scripts without having to write the tests in multiple languages or for multiple tools. You can also run them in clouds such as EC2, GoGrid, Rackspace and CollabNet.
There is a free community version and a commercial Enterprise Version. When you purchase the Enterprise version, you get support for the tools including support on Selenium. You can download TestMaker from the website.
If you're not sure, there are free webinars several times a month on how to get the most out of the latest proven Open Source Testing tools. Definitely worth checking out.
If you are targeting only web based application with UI having HTML , we can use selenium.
If you want to use commerical tool you can go ahead with RFT and it supports different UI interfaces when compared to selenium