Advantages of Powershell for web-ui testing? - testing

I am working on a commercial project which is a web-based app which will be bundled with an app/web server (JBoss), which is deployed, with the web app files, at runtime.
I've seen links about how Powershell can do UI testing. Is there any advantage in Powershell for web-testing as opposed to Selenium or VS2010's coded UI tests? (Selenium has poor documentation, which is in Powershell's favour, but I am interested in more functional reasons).
Thanks

Powershell will give you advantage if you need to manipulate something else than a browser/webpage/webapp. With Powershell you can do something with OS, applications, things outside the browser.
If you don't need to do that, if you want to automate only web based app, than I would suggest using web specific tool. Selenium is nice, tests in MSVS2010 are great. If you prefer coding try WatiN for .net, and WatiJ for java. All of them will run smoothly not only inside IDE, but also on CI server.

Related

Selenium vs Cypress for tests that hit databases, elasticsearch, filesystem, etc

I am getting ready to start a new automation project and have done some reading on Cypress as a Selenium alternative. Given that Cypress apparently runs directly in the browser as opposed to Selenium's approach, is it difficult to perform test steps with Cypress tests that fall outside the browser such as communicating with a data store, interacting with services and interacting with product infrastructure such as remote file systems? With my limited exposure to Cypress, I have only seen browser tests so I was hoping someone could shed some light on this.
When it comes to automated testing for web applications, there are two main contenders: Selenium and Cypress. Both have their pros and cons, but which one is the best?
Selenium has been around for much longer than Cypress and is therefore more widely used. It is also more flexible, allowing for tests to be written in a variety of programming languages. However, Selenium can be slow and unreliable, and it is not as easy to use as Cypress.
Cypress, on the other hand, is a newer tool that is gaining popularity due to its simplicity and reliability. Cypress tests are written in JavaScript, making it easier for front-end developers to get started with automated testing. Cypress is also faster than Selenium and can run tests in parallel, making it more efficient.
So, which one should you use? It depends on your needs. If you need a more flexible tool that can be used with different programming languages, Selenium is a good choice. However, if you want a tool that is easier to use and more reliable, Cypress is the better option.
If you need access to things outside the browser, I would go with selenium. This is what I currently do, I have a webdriver wrapper which has "plugins" loaded so that I can make db statements, query the webserver and additionally issue selenium commands to the browser.
If you're looking for just test 100% within the browser, then cypress may be the way to go.
Alternatively, you could use selenium for workflow tests and cypress or even qunitjs for intra-browser unit tests.
In the app I work on, I actually ship a page which contains a qunit page with all of the in-browser tests. Then in a selenium test, in addition to the rest of the workflow, I browser to the qunit page and report on their status as well.

Cloud-based testing automation tools

I try to find a service which provides a functionality that allow me to create manual tests autmation for web-based applications in simple way with visual constructor without any coding, so it could be
simple in use without any coding on selenium or another framework tool
has option to set testing in schedule mode via the web interface to perform regression testing
has ID's validation and shows possible inconsistencies
The main point is reproduce manual tester's work without using automation scripts and do it in simple way in order to a beginner will be able to work with it.
So could anyone describe his own experience ?
There are two main options I would consider
to find a service which provides a functionality that allow me to create manual tests autmation for web-based applications in simple way
First one is BrowserStack and you can record your Selenium tests using the Selenium IDE extension for FireFox. It can export the recorded steps into your favorite language (C#, Python, ect). You can execute these recorded scripts on BrowserStack by pointing the hub URL to Browserstack's Selenium hub ‘http://hub.browserstack.com/wd/hub’ along with your username and Automate key. Your 'username' and 'automate key' can be found at Account --> Automate1, after you have logged in to your account.
I would suggest, you refer to the comprehensive documentation on BrowserStack Automate. It takes you step-by-step through the product and all its features. You can select the language you are using and get started with BrowserStack Automate. If you have any more questions, feel free to email at support#browserstack.com. They will be happy to help you out.
Second option is SauceLabs and the Selenium Builder. This is the docs that will guide you. Further more you have CI integrations for Jenkins and Bamboo.
You can use Selenium IDE to create your automated tests. With this Firefox plugin, you can record a test in your browser.
Once you're done recording, you can export the test and upload it to TestingBot. There you can specify the browsers you want to run the test on. TestingBot will then run your test across all the browsers you specified.

Web apps with selenium test suit

I am looking for web applications with selenium test cases. Does anybody know any of these web applications?
I'm not really sure what you are asking, but Selenium is used to create test cases FOR web applications. It is not a feature of web apps.
If you are looking for a simple way to test a web app, you could try the IDE: http://seleniumhq.org/projects/ide/
This tool is something that beginners could use.
If you want a page that can give a demo of Selenium tests in action I am not aware of one. The best is to either, try Selenium IDE (as Blaine has suggested +1), or, if you have some coding experience you could try Selenium WebDriver (also referred to as Selenium 2) which is easy to code and allows for a bit more control when writing tests.
A simple search will also provide you with many Selenium tutorials as it is a fairly popular testing package.

GUI Testing tools forBusiness analaysts

I have been looking around stackoverflow for automated GUI tools for testing our web app gui from a Business analyst point of view, so that means strictly requirements-record-playback kind of testing since we are not really programmers.
We have used selenium in the past but unfortunately it is no longer compatible with Firefox 4.
Is there a similar tool to selenium that allows recording and playback of GUI tests that does not require a lot or any scripting on a windows platform? thanks
You can use the FireFox add on compatibility reporter to get Selenium working on FF4
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-on-compatibility-reporter/
Or alternatively drop down to FireFox 3.x and use that just for your testing!
For the server component Selenium-RC (necessary to execute tests), You must run Selenium-RC 2.0b3 (or higher if it become) to be compatible with Firefox 4. I have used it succesfully with FF4.
Selenium IDE, the recording tool, for firefox is indeed not available as a plugin for FF4 (but I speculate it will be coming soon).
I think that you can benefit from AutoIt (http://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/) I`d been using it to test Windows based GUI, but to the best of knowledge there are lot of scripts to test/play on-line games, thus it is applicable to Web Sites.
It does not require deep technical knowledge, but of course it will be much better and frequently mandatory to optimize the generated code. I`ve started my experience with this tool, and I was doing my work flawlessly.
At one company, I was developing automated tests for web app by means of TestPartner (Compuware company) it was one of the best tools Ive ever worked with, it generates VB code quite 'intelligently' and supports user with administration features. But Im not sure whether it is possible to use it without paying.
Good luck !

Can i use my WatiN tests to stresstest?

In my current project we are testing our ASP.NET GUI using WatiN and Mbunit.
When I was writing the tests I realized that it would be great if we also could use all of these for stresstesting. Currently we are using Grinder to stresstest but then we have to script our cases all over again which for many reasons isent that good.
I have been trying to find a tool that can use my existing tests to create load on the site and record stats, but so far i have found noting. Is there such a tool or is there an easy way to create one?
We have issues on our build server when running WatiN tests as it often throws timeouts trying to access the Internet Explorer COM component. It seems to hang randomly while waiting for the total page to load.
Given this, I would not recommend it for stress testing as the results will be inaccurate and the tests are likely to be slow.
I would recommend JMeter for making threaded calls to the HTTP requests that your GUI is making
For load testing there is a tool which looks promising - LoadStorm. Free for 25 users. It has zero deployment needs as this is a cloud based service.
You could build a load controller for your stress testing. It could take your watin tests and run them in a multithreaded/multiprocessed way.
If you are comfortable using Selenium instead of WatiN, check out BrowserMob for browser-based load testing. I'm one of the Selenium RC authors and started BrowserMob to provide a new way to load test. By using real browsers, rather than simulated traffic, tests end up being much easier to script and maintain.