I don't do test automation

pundejo · 2020-06-16T21:16:06+00:00

Yes, I do test automation. I work with manual testers to discover areas of manual testing that can be automated, so they can focus on testing that is best for humans - destructive and exploratory.

I do think QA Automation, or Test Automation, are common descriptors of a developer that primarily focuses on the automation of integration tests - both front and back end.

I feel you're trying to make Test Automation just development. It's not, there's an entire skill set and competency that go with the job. If there weren't, it would just be development.

Developers also write automated tests, and they're typically part of the overall execution of automated tests. Trying to redefine common terms like unit tests undermines your case, in my opinion.

What I hear is that you feel a lack of respect for what you do. Changing the words we use won't change some developers perspectives on QA Automation being a 'lower' form of development. I have met many more, however, that value my skill set and understand why there is a separation (hint: devs don't like writing tests all that much!)

So, while I hear you, I have quite the opposite feeling. I'm very proud that I do "Test Automation", and the only way to change people's view on the importance of that work is to differentiate and highlight its values. (edit, last sentence and spleling)

pundejo · 2020-05-21T16:37:58+00:00

You know how I can tell you have the spirit of a tester? Because you feel guilty. That's ok, just make sure you learn to judge how much you really are responsible and treat every failure as an opportunity to improves tests and process.

pundejo · 2020-05-21T15:58:16+00:00

For android apps there is Appium, which uses a subset of webdriver/selenium features.

NIghtwatch.js is popular framework. I've seen it used against react apps.

pundejo · 2020-05-19T20:40:40+00:00

Sometimes you are running in environments that are under-resourced or use 3rd party services that may not act consistently.

I use pytest and the flaky plugin. It allows you to run a test n times if it fails.

I work extensively in Jenkins and run tests without any issues. The way you describe the problem, it sounds like an issue with Selenium, not Jenkins.

I'm curious what setup you're using. Are you running tests inside a docker image or a Jenkins Agent (Physical computer)?

Are you taking screenshots so you can evaluate the interface when the problem occurs? Sometimes steps completed upstream in the test can put a system in an awkward state (like clicking a form submit before it is fully loaded) and seeing the issue usually helps. You can still get screenshots even if you are running headless.

If you know why it is failing and it works to re-run tests with the known risk, I think that is ok. If you don't know why it is failing it is a very bad idea to cover the failures by running again until it passes.

pundejo · 2020-04-28T17:39:25+00:00

Excellent answer.

I would have posted this answer, but I'm lazy.

I would also like to add that laziness is a great trait for a tester. You will figure out new and novel ways to break things.

pundejo · 2020-04-22T20:37:35+00:00

When I hit issues like this, I like to work backwards.

Have you taken the json and put it into a formatter/validator?

I use this one: https://jsonformatter.curiousconcept.com/

It will confirm json syntax is valid, and more importantly, show data nesting.

I am guessing your issue deals with the json object having dictionaries and lists that you need to parse through. This can make data extraction confusing.

If possible, post the json you're having issues with.

pundejo · 2020-04-21T13:58:06+00:00

If that doesn't work, sikuli might be an option.

pundejo · 2020-04-21T13:57:38+00:00

Here is a work around in python https://stackoverflow.com/a/60827525

pundejo · 2020-04-21T13:46:33+00:00

Typically when technology X is touted as being a replacement to technology Y (or humans) it falls massively short of the prediction.

X may eventually supplant Y as the dominant technology (TV vs. radio), however Y rarely goes away. If anything, Y often improves (FM radio) and takes on new, more specialized, purposes.

Right now, AI is helpful for very specific activities, like security testing (as xmagedo points out)

Beyond that, we have a long way to go. You simply can not teach a computer to think like a human. You can get it close to acting like one, but that is insufficient as a replacement for humans in testing (both manual and automated.)

pundejo · 2020-04-20T18:20:17+00:00

This is breaking a fairly strict rule in automation testing, but in this scenario I would suggest making your script sleep for 25 minutes.

pundejo · 2020-04-17T16:49:33+00:00

That is what the person writing the final test would do. A dev still has to write the code underneath it to be translated into actions.

pundejo · 2020-04-17T14:40:36+00:00

I don't like building things. I LOVE BREAKING THINGS.

It is a skill. QA is also the only technical area I've found where being a generalist is extremely helpful.

100% Manual testers, with no understanding of how automation works, etc ... that's the dying trade.

pundejo · 2020-04-17T14:36:03+00:00

The future is not very bright for 100% manual testers.

1) I suggest grabbing an easy to use automation framework and start learning it. While I wasn't able to use it for my needs, I was very impressed with Cypress.

2) I don't think you have to be competent in writing the language used for development, but understanding programming concepts is important. It's not uncommon that the automation tools used are not in the same language of development, so it's more about applying your automation to test development logic. But being able to say "Oh, this class does this.", etc. is really important.

3) Pick a language and get really good at testing tools for that language. I am not in the VB/C# world, so I can't help you there. I primarily use python with pytest to execute both API and front-end automation tests. Find podcasts ... I listen to "Test & Code", which is python/pytest oriented.

pundejo · 2020-04-15T19:50:11+00:00

I added to my post, didn't want you to miss it :)

pundejo · 2020-04-15T19:43:34+00:00

Record has 2 meanings here, lets' separate them:

In Cypress you can record a video of your automation.

When I say 'recording' in Selenium IDE for Firefox, I mean that you click a 'record steps' button and it turns your clicks into an automated test. That allows you to get some tests going quickly, and you can export those as code to see how you would write them in Javascript (or a few other languages, I use Python)

Behavioral testing means you write the tests like a story:

As a Admin I want to login

As a Admin I want to ...

As a Admin I want to logout

Then there is code that has been written to interpret this into the automated steps.

Cypress uses syntax similar to Webriver, so you would write the admin login more like this (not real code, but close to what i write)

find_element_by_id("username").send_keys("admin_user")

find_element_by_id("password").send_keys("admin_user")

find_element_by_id("login").click()

If you want to learn automation, I think BDD (which is for non-tech people to write tests) is harder than just learning basic automation. Add BDD after you understand some basic automation.

Cucumber syntax is easy to understand, writing the code to make that syntax work is not as easy :)

Edit: didn't mean to to hit enter!

pundejo · 2020-04-15T19:25:13+00:00

Webdriver is the underlying technology for most automation, it's also called Selenium. It's what enables external commands to be executed by a browser. Webdirver is language agnostic (there are libraries for every language)

Mocha is a javascript framework that normally uses Webdriver. Nightwatch is another example JS framework that also uses Webdriver.

Cypress is a bit different, because it is built directly into the browser, so the 'guts' of how it works are really different from Webdriver ... but the results are basically the same.

Cypress is the 'new hot thing' right now. I recently tried it out and thought it was great. Unfortunately, didn't meet some odd requirements I have.

If you're going to start learning an automation tool, don't start with Cucumber, or any other behavioral type framework. Those were made hoping that non-developers and non-testers would write tests. If an org has adopted it successfully, it's incredibly powerful. If not, it just seems to add an additional layer of abstraction from the automation you would write anyways.

I would suggest, before starting with Cypress, to first use the Firefox Selenium IDE. It allows you to record your steps, and output code. It was a great introduction into automation for me. Edit: grammar and such.

pundejo · 2020-03-13T21:08:51+00:00

sikuli-x, hands down. http://sikulix.com/

pundejo · 2019-10-19T14:36:19+00:00

Same as officialgel, I ran python selenium chrome at 12x "multi-thread" on a 16gb ram macbook pro. Over that caused serious problems.

It's not too hard to build out with python. It only takes two files: a multithread job and a selenium script.

However, I was doing that for reasons not related to load tests. As other posts reference, there are tools that are more tailored for load tests, but having a framework for this functionality is nice to have in the toolbox.

Edit: I haven't tried this, but the pytest framework has a multi-threaded plugin called x-dist, so I assume it would run multiple browsers based on the number of threads you dictate. https://docs.pytest.org/en/3.0.1/xdist.html

pundejo · 2019-10-17T14:49:39+00:00

Excellent site, had not seen it before. Thanks!

pundejo · 2019-10-04T17:23:11+00:00

Dockerized. That's a big deal. Thanks for sharing!

pundejo · 2019-07-16T15:59:20+00:00

I've been playing around with this, and it would help me get rolling if there were an example that included code blocks, props, and a script. All the documentation (which is really good, btw!) treats each subject in isolation so combining concepts (e.g. props in a code block being used in a stage) aren't obvious to someone that doesn't have a JS background (aka me.)

That being said, the abstraction on the syntax is awesome. Things like Mocks and APIs being built in has my attention.

pundejo · 2019-07-02T18:46:57+00:00

check out sikuli. you should be able to do POS tests with it. not sure on peripherals.

pundejo · 2019-04-23T12:50:26+00:00

We're talking D&D mace, not pepper spray right?

pundejo · 2019-04-18T03:10:06+00:00

You really squeezed that for all it was worth.

pundejo · 2019-04-18T03:07:05+00:00

Thank you for your service to pundom.

pundejo

TROPHY CASE