A testing framework is an automated application that allows for the easy creation, execution and maintenance of test cases. Test automation frameworks are very important for effective testing processes and are used by a variety of organizations.
Test automation frameworks provide test case management, report generation, defect tracking, scheduling and more, making it quicker and easier to carry out regression tests. This helps to ensure greater software quality and efficiency across the entire automated testing process.
A range of factors need to be addressed when choosing a test automation framework and each organization will have its own unique set of requirements. These requirements can include budget, resources and operational complexity. The best way to find the right framework is to first carry out a thorough analysis of your organization's needs and then compare different solutions against this criteria.
This blog is
an introduction to test automation frameworks and how they can be implemented
to maintain code quality. Here, we will cover the basic framework components,
considerations for choosing an automation framework for your site, and finally
a list of some well known open source automation frameworks.
What is a Test Automation Framework?
If you want to take advantage of any concept, you have to follow its protocol and guidelines completely. Similarly, a framework is also a set of standards and rules for creating and designing test cases.
Test automation in the IT field means testing the application through various automation tools to know how the applications respond to various actions. Thus it is important to understand the need for the best framework for automation testing based on your application type. Indeed websites and apps are complex systems, and at any cost we need to be able to identify the best test automation framework otherwise our complexity can turn into a complex solution.
It is important to understand that there can never be a perfect tool and you need to benefit from honest experience of testing frameworks.
We have created this article so that you
can feel empowered to make the right decision. Smart choice is very important
in focusing properly, lest you can sit with everything at once.
Components of Test Automation Frameworks
Test data management and test libraries fall within the core components of the test automation framework.
Strategic test data management is needed for automation efforts to be successful. Your framework should be equipped with libraries or plugins as well as simulation tools to create the data lucid and to further make test data management much easier. If you've harnessed the data and you have all the useful information, you've solved the biggest hassle. Because the availability of data is the major problem during testing.
A test library allows you to create and
store test cases. Testing libraries include end-to-end testing,unit testing,
integration, and behavior-driven development.
As you get a good grasp of the test automation framework and its components, you can better understand the different types of testing frameworks out there. Let's point out the most common types of testing frameworks.
- Linear Scripting (record-and-playback framework, No need to
write code. Steps are there in sequential order and the tester can record
each step such as user input etc. and then can play back the script
automatically).
- The Test Library Architecture
Framework (These kinds of frameworks identify
similar tasks within the test script. A library will sort all the similar
functions across different parts of the application).
- The Data-Driven Testing Framework (These types of frameworks will first split
the test scripts and test data and then store the data externally for the
purpose of creating reusable test scripts so that different data sets can
be tested).
- The Keyword-Driven or Table-Driven
Testing Framework(Such a
framework would separate the script logic from the test data. This will
store the data externally and also the keywords in a separate location. A
keyword is related to an object or an action. This makes it reusable as
testers can use the same keyword in different test scripts).
- The Hybrid Test Automation Framework (A hybrid testing framework supports different testing frameworks by mitigating their weaknesses. It does this by mixing parts of different frameworks and aggregating the benefits. Eg. Selenium, Appium)
Cypress
The
JavaScript market is growing day by day and so are the front end developers who
are familiar with JavaScript. Cypress is a JavaScript testing framework and
thus can be easily used by front-end developers. It is easy to set up.
Features:
●
Time Travel: Cypress uses its own window and takes snapshots during
testing. You can hover over the command in the command log to check the
response at each step.
●
Debuggability: It allows debugging from Developer Tools. On the other
hand, readable errors and stack traces give fast and efficient debugging.
●
Automatic Waiting: As a tester, you are not required to provide
explicit waits. Cypress will wait for commands and assertions before
proceeding. Thus it avoids the async hell.
●
Spies, Stubs, and Clocks: With
this feature, you can control the behaviour of functions, timers, or server
responses.
●
Network Traffic Control: This feature allows control, stub, and test
edge cases and without the server. As per requirement, it stubs network
traffic.
●
Cross-browser Testing: Cypress supports running tests within New Edge,
Chrome-family browsers, and Firefox.
What
makes it more popular is that it can cover both front-end and back-end(to a
certain extent). In contrast, its support for mobile apps is limited. It can
only target mobile apps that run natively in the browser, and excludes all
other variants.
Cypress github repository:
●
Stars: 34.3k
●
Forks: 2k
●
Used By: 291K
●
Releases: 250
Cypress
is wonderful when you are trying to figure out a JavaScript test automation
framework that should meet most of the standard testing requirements.
Its
response time (20 MS) is so short that it will only speed up the
implementation. This is because it automatically waits for DOM animation,
loading, elements, and more. You are not required to demonstrate implicit or
explicit weights. It will wait for DOM elements, animations or loading, XHR and
AJAX calls to be finished, and much more.
In
Cypress, there is no need to manually activate any subsequent test. It is smart
enough to know if the page is overloaded and when the Information will send
events. Cypress synchronizes each and every step in the app.
Unlike
many other browsers, it does not run outside the browser. Test code is executed
inside the browser and thus enables the language of the website to be compiled
with JavaScript.
It
does not require any remote commands and uses the same run loop as the
application.
The built-in node.js server that comes with Cypress allows for controlling web traffic along with operations on the network layer of tests running in the browser.
Source: https://www.cypress.io/how-it-works/
Thus, Cypress is able to alter the code when there is a possibility that the code may interact with its ability to automate the browser.
Apart from this, the browsers it supports are Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Electron browsers, and Brave.
But if the full application is the demand and the browser coverage, in that case it will not be a prerequisite.
TestCafe
TestCafe can be deployed as easily as Cypress. Not only is it easy to set up, but it also lets you write your own test scripts in a matter of minutes. Neither web drivers nor additional drivers are required to get things running.
Both JavaScript and TypeScript are used to write its test scripts. TypeScript is used for large codebases and when developers prefer and are accustomed to a strongly typed language.
It has a tendency to detect all browsers and run tests on them. This means you don't even need to manage and maintain web drivers and web versions. As a result, a lot of time is saved. Testers and developers also get rid of writing tests.
It supports all major desktop browsers like Internet Explorer, Edge, Safari and Chrome. It offers limited support for browser-based mobile apps and isn't generally designed for mobile testing.
It has a disadvantage that it will only support client-side apps. Mainly, it supports end-to-end and regression testing frameworks. You might not be able to get it to work well for unit testing or integration testing.
It is a great choice for testing any desktop or mobile JavaScript apps if I can summarize. And only if they are client side. For server-side testing support or mobile testing, you will need to explore some other solution.
TestCafe comes with exceptionally good debugging methods that come in handy in certain scenarios such as the need to create UI functional tests. In such a case, exact elements are required to interact with. Therefore it becomes necessary to run the test multiple times until a reliable test moment is obtained.
Playwright
This open source was released by Microsoft in 2020. It also happens to be the latest JavaScript-based test automation framework. It supports JavaScript as well as other languages like C#, .NET, Java, and Python. Many developers know multiple languages, so this keeps them in good spirits.
As such it is quite handy and supports almost all modern browsers, but removes Internet Explorer from the list. Being relatively new it is not able to compete with more mature frameworks, although it supports both mobile and desktop testing.
Not only does it remove Internet Explorer, it also relies on a custom browser that needs to be downloaded during each test run. This can add to a downside as it is eating up time during the testing routines. Like Puppeteer, it also gets manual integration with testing frameworks like Jasmine, Mocha or Jest.
This new JavaScript-based open-source cross-browser automation library for end-to-end testing provides testers with a single API to be able to automate their web applications in the three major major browsers.
●
Chromium
●
Firefox
● WebKit
Playwright was explicitly built for the web automation space. Playwright JS introduces intelligence defaults to create an out-of-the-box approach. It is very easy to set up with being fully capable of handling advanced scenarios.
During the creation of the playwright script, it goes through a bunch of checklists to ensure that the UI is ready for testing to execute actions.
Playwright JS supported capabilities:
●
Scenarios for multiple pages, iframes, domains.
●
Auto-wait for elements before the execution of actions such as click
and fill, is time saving.
●
It gives APIs to monitor network traffic; you can intercept the network
activity for mocking and stubbing network requests.
●
Emulation of mobile devices, permissions, geolocation.
●
Support for web components via shadow-piercing selectors
●
For mouse and keyboard, you can tap into native input events.
● It can download and upload files, headless execution, and cross-browser web automation.
Many languages and JavaScript in and of itself make Playwright more attractive. When IE is involved in the project, a different framework has to be discovered to meet the requirement. It is working on rapidly changing APIs to become more mature.
Puppeteer
If the maturity of the Playwright is a concern then you should not hesitate to choose Puppeteer which has been stable since 2018. It is similar to Playwright because the former major developers of Playwright participated in the creation of the framework.
Another attractive Google product that allows controlling headless instances of Chrome using node scripts. In fact, it was introduced as a node library when many more JavaScript frameworks were coming together and taking a toll on testers.
One Chrome browser that lacks UI is Headless Chrome. A headless browser is more powerful as it allows programmers to write automation scripts that have up-to-date rendering and, on the other hand, can also target device emulation, network throttling and code coverage. You can use the command line to launch headless Chrome.
Puppeteer Architecture
Source: https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer/blob/main/docs/api.md
Puppeteer uses the DevTools protocol to communicate with the browser. A browser instance can have more number of browser contexts. The BrowserContext instance defines a session and can contain multiple pages.
The page consists of a main-frame and can also be other frames created by frame tags or iframes. The frame also comes with at least one execution context. This is where JavaScript is executed.
Associated with extensions, a frame may come with additional execution contexts. The Worker that owns a single execution context enables interaction with WebWorkers.
This framework has zero set-up effort with the Chromium version being the best with it. And Puppeteer’s event-driven architecture removes many potential synchronization issues.
Puppeteer offers nice debugging options: you have to flip the "headless" bit to false and use "slowMo" to get a feel for how the browser is behaving. Inspect the test environment using Chrome DevTools by which you can crawl Single-Page applications and also generate pre-rendered content (ie "SSR" - Server-Side Rendering). With Puppeteer, automation becomes very easy such as input from keyboard, user interface testing, form submission etc.
This is excellent if the project targets Chrome and Chromium otherwise it will not meet the complete criteria for a cross-browser testing solution. It is compatible with Firefox nightly builds and is in collaboration with Mozilla. Work on support for the stable version of Firefox is in process.
WebdriverIO
It supports both browser and native testing. Its name is similar to Selenium WebDriver but it supports only browser testing. Its best part is that it can cover a wide variety of apps that run in mainstream browsers or mobile OS.
Its automation is not only based on the WebDriver protocol, but it also leverages native browser APIs to integrate with tools such as Chrome DevTools or Google Lighthouse.
It is highly extensible. If you deal with multiple types of apps, this single framework will definitely come in handy. WebdriverIO targets a broad set of testing. Also it is easily integrated with Mocha, Cucumber, and Jasmine using few npm commands.
With WebdriverIO, you can automate any application that is written using modern web frameworks such as React, Angular, Polymer or Vue.js.
WebdriverIOTestRunner will give you a command line interface by which you will create your config file within a minute. Plus you get an overview of the many available third party packages such as Reporter and Services, and framework adaptations.
WebdriverIO is built on top of NodeJS which is another open source project that helps in running the JavaScript runtime environment. And above that script is written in JavaScript by the user with the help of WebdriverIO library.
The popularity of this JavaScript framework can be easily gauged by looking at the overall stats for WebDriverIO on GitHub. Star 7k and fork 2k are visible when I am going to publish this article, and the latest version is v7.15.0.
Overall, this is a great framework for an extensive need. And another important point is that it goes beyond JavaScript tests as well.
Selenium
Selenium is the most widely-known open-source automation testing framework for testing web applications. It was released under the Apache License 2.0 and was developed by Jason Hugging in 2004. The great thing about it is that it operates on multiple browsers and platforms.
It deals with many programming languages. You can write tests in Java, Python, Scala, C#, Ruby, Groovy, Perl, and PHP. Regression testing is often done with Selenium. Whatever language you choose, it will convert it to Selenium compatible code. This means you don't need to force yourself to know ‘Selenium only languages’.
You will get a dedicated framework for each Selenium supported language so that you can easily write test scripts for Selenium test automation. No worries about language and framework support!
It provides you a playback tool so that you can playback and record the regression test. You can also call Selenium a suite of software, in which many other tools are available such as:
- Selenium IDE
- Selenium WebDriver
- Selenium Remote Control
- Selenium Grid
- Selenium client API
Selenium
IDE
Selenium IDE is basically an add-on extension for Firefox and Chrome, which provides the functionality of record and playback. There is no need to learn test scripting language for any functional test.
You will need expertise in any programming language when working with Selenium RC. The main components of Selenium RC are the server and client libraries. Its architecture is complex and has its own limitations.
Selenium
WebDriver
Selenium RC is an enhanced version of Selenium WebDriver. Whatever the limitations were in Selenium RC, those limitations were removed in Selenium WebDriver. You can also call it an upgraded version of RC. The architecture of WebDriver is different from that of RC and it supports multiple programming platforms just like RC.
Selenium
Grid
The purpose of Selenium Grid is to perform concurrent execution of test cases. These executables run simultaneously on different browsers, operating systems and machines. Cross-browser compatibility testing is genuinely much easier with this tool.
Each of these tools is useful for a specific development task and together they set up a complete web application test automation.
The reason why Selenium is most popular is that it is open source. It's free, it's publicly available and there's no upfront cost.
It is open source so you can customize and manage your code and extend functionality as and when required.
The Selenium community is always active with its developers and engineers, and continues to automate features and functionalities.
A Selenium script has the ability to target all browsers such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge browser and Opera. Just a single script! The Selenium community also keeps improving it exceptionally well.
How to use Selenium?
Selenium supports all major browsers as discussed above. Along with the browser, you will decide on which platform to test. Selenium supports Mac, Linux, Android, Windows and iOS. You will choose the language in which you are convenient.
It's better to choose a lightweight one like a unit test or lower level approach. Before expensive functional testing or UI testing, you need to think about your decision properly. And only then your choice is finalized and you are ready with the Selenium environment. There are three steps to automate your testing.
- set up data
- discrete set of actions
- evaluate the results
Once we compare it with other automation tools like QTP, SilkTest, UFT, it will require less hardware as compared to these mentioned tools.
Final Words (How to choose the right test automation framework)
Finally, I would like to redefine my words that a framework is a blend of guidelines which includes processes, project hierarchy, practises, modularity, coding standards, reporting mechanisms, concepts, test data injection, etc.
Test automation makes your code reusable. You can also maintain it to make it more stable. It provides complete protection to your business from costly defects. Even small bugs can be dangerous to any ongoing project.
Thus, It is only after following these guidelines that one gets to know what benefits can be found and how productive the results can be. Benefits can also come in various forms such as scalability, comprehension, modularity, process definition, cost, reusability, maintainability, ease of scripting etc.
You start reaping the benefits, when you have used one or two test automation frameworks well. Also keep doing more research about different frameworks.
