Practical Web Test Automation

This long-awaited revision of a bestseller provides a practical discussion of the nature and aims of software testing. You'll find the latest methodologies for the design of effective test cases, including information on psychological and economic principles, managerial aspects, test tools, high-order testing, code inspections, and debugging. Accessible, comprehensive, and always practical, this edition provides the key information you need to test successfully, whether a novice or a working programmer. Buy your copy today and end up with fewer bugs tomorrow. Table of Contents 4 Preface 9 Who should read this book? 10 How to read this book? 11 What’s inside the book? 11 Test scripts, Screencasts and other resources 12 Send me feedback 12 Acknowledgements 13 What is Web Test Automation? 14 Test automation benefits 14 Reality check 15 Reasons for test automation failures 16 Successful web test automation 18 Learning approach 19 Next action 19 First Automated Test 20 Test Design 20 Installing TestWise (about 2 minutes) 21 Create test 22 Create a test case from recorded test steps 25 Run test in browser 26 If no Chrome browser launched ... 28 Running on macOS 29 When a test failed... 30 Wrap up 31 How Automated Testing works 33 Web test drivers 34 Automated testing rhythm 35 Test frameworks 37 Run tests from the command line 42 TestWise - Functional Testing IDE 44 Philosophy of TestWise 44 TestWise project structure 45 Test execution 46 Keyboard navigation 47 Snippets 48 Script library 48 Test refactoring 49 Wrap up 49 Case Study 50 Test site 50 Preparation 50 Create a test project 51 Test Suite: Sign in 52 Test Suite: Select Flights 56 Enter passenger details 61 Book confirmation after payment 63 Run all tests 65 Wrap up 66 Maintainable Functional Test Design 67 Record/Playback leads to unmaintainable test scripts 67 Success criteria 68 Maintainable automated test design 70 Maintain with ease 72 Case Study: refine test scripts 73 Wrap Up 79 Test Automation Characteristics 80 Specific 80 Clean 81 Independent 83 Frequent 85 Focused 86 Programmable 88 Creative 91 Sustainable 92 Wrap up 93 Functional Test Refactoring 94 Code refactoring 94 Functional test refactoring 94 Tool support 95 Case study 95 Summary 104 Review 106 Syntax errors 106 Set up source control 108 GUI Object Map 110 Custom libraries 111 Debugging 112 Cross-browser functional testing 113 Data-Driven Test 114 What is the best learning method? 115 Collaboration 119 Pre-requisite 119 Scenario 1: ``It worked on my machine'' 120 Scenario 2: Synergy 122 Scenario 3: Acceptance Test-Driven Development 125 Wrap up 129 Continuous Integration with Functional Tests 130 Long feedback loop 130 Continuous Integration 132 Continuous Integration and Testing 132 CI build steps 132 Functional UI testing build step with Rake 134 Set up a continuous testing server: BuildWise 136 Create a Build Project 138 Trigger test execution manually 139 Feedback while test execution in progress 140 Build finished 141 Exercise: Set up CT for your own project 143 Review 145 Test Reporting 146 Reporting automated test results 146 Defect tracking 148 Requirement traceability 149 WebDriver Backed variants 155 Watir 155 RWebSpec 156 Capybara 157 Test design with Watir, RWebSpec and Capybara 158 Review 167 Cucumber 168 Cucumber framework 168 Comparison: RSpec and Cucumber 178 RSpec and Cucumber co-exist 179 Adopting Test Automation 180 Seek executive sponsorship 180 Choose test framework 181 Select test tool 183 Find a mentor 184 Manage expectation 184 Solo test automation 185 Common mistakes 186 Wrap up 192 Debugging Test Automation Process 193 Definition of Success: Web Test Automation 193 Common Failures - technical factors 194 Wrong choice of test automation tool 195 Test script in non-script language 195 Common Failures - human factors 197 Appendix 1 Functional Test Refactoring Catalog 200 Move Test Scripts 200 Extract Function 204 Extract to Page Class 209 Introduce Page Object 212 Rename 213 Appendix 2 Case Study: Test Automation in ClinicWise project 216 Build Stats 217 Stage 1: Write automated tests on the first day 219 Stage 2: Set up CI server within the first week 219 Stage 3: Release to production early 219 Stage 4: Release often (daily) 220 Stage 5: Set up parallel test execution in CI 221 Questions and Answers 222 Resources 224 Books 224 Web Sites 225 Tools 225 References 226 "In addition to all the major software testing topics - such as higher-order testing, white- and black-box testing, debugging, code inspections, and walkthroughs - this fully updated Second Edition features up-to-date information on testing twenty-first-century software projects, including Internet-based e-commerce applications, as well as details on Extreme Testing, which supports the widely used Extreme Programming development methodology." "Just like the first edition, this revision fills the gaps in the professional literature and provides a practical, rather than theoretical, discussion of the purpose, nature, and principles of proper testing. While the book focuses on methodologies for the design of effective test cases, it also covers the psychological and economic issues that are essential to a full understanding of program testing." "Many programming students enter the work-force without the proper understanding of software testing. This book covers all the essential topics for those students, but also provides all the detail and precision that working programmers might need during the testing phase. Appropriate for programmers and students at any level, The Art of Software Testing, Second Edition presents all the latest new ideas and techniques - many illustrated with helpful examples. This guide includes code-inspection checklists, a self-assessment test, and other resources programmers need for effective testing - and fewer bugs."--BOOK JACKET. At the time this book was first published, in 1979, it was a well-known rule of thumb that in a typical programming project approximately 50 percent of the elapsed time and more than 50 percent of the total cost were expended in testing the program or system being developed.