The Importance of Automation Testing in Software Development
Software companies conduct tests on their products before release to ensure high quality. This crucial step is divided into two categories: Manual Testing and Automation Testing. Manual testing is done by a person following a manual test case, while automation testing is done using automation tools. Both methods have their own benefits, but automation testing makes the testing process easier, improves efficiency, and reduces risk of human error. However, there are situations where manual testing is necessary. In this article, we will explore what automation means and list the top 15 automation testing tools to make testing a piece of cake.Automation in software testing
Automation in software testing refers to the use of software tools to replace repetitive and monotonous manual testing tasks. This helps in reducing the testing time while improving efficiency in carrying out the testing process.
When to use automation in software testing?
Automation testing can be used under various conditions:
– Testing Frequency
– Number of Test Cases
– Testing in multiple environments
– Testing the same feature using different sets of data
– Regression Testing
Benefits of automation testing:
– Faster testing process
– Improved test coverage
– Reduced effort and cost
– Better accuracy and consistency
Automation testing tools:
There are several automation testing tools available, including Selenium, Appium, TestComplete, and many more. These tools aid in designing, developing, and executing automated test scripts while providing detailed reports on test outcomes.
In conclusion, Automation testing is an essential component of software development, that helps in speeding up the testing process and improving the quality of software delivery. The use of automation testing tools simplifies the process of testing and makes it more efficient.
Top 15 Automation Testing Tools
Automation Testing tools are software that lets users specify and execute software testing activities with minimal human input. Here are some of the top Automation Testing Tools:
1. Selenium
2. Appium
3. Katalon Studio
4. TestComplete
5. UFT (formerly known as QTP)
6. JMeter
7. SoapUI
8. Postman
9. Cucumber
10. Watir
11. Robot Framework
12. Tricentis Tosca
13. Ranorex
14. Telerik Test Studio
15. LoadRunner
It’s important to note that while there are many Automation Testing Tools available, only some of them offer exceptional performance.
What is Selenium IDE?
Selenium IDE is an integrated development environment for web app
developers. It enables them to record, edit, and debug tests by automatically recording their interactions with a browser or website.
Features of Selenium IDE
Selenium IDE offers a broad range of commands for testing UI elements, content, selection lists, form submission, and online application functionality. It allows users to establish breakpoints and startpoints to uncover and correct test case faults. They can save tests in HTML, Ruby scripts, and more.
When using Selenium IDE to create test cases, users can add assert and verify commands for inspecting web page characteristics. The IDE provides various choices for running test cases, including running all test cases in the current suite, pausing and resuming individual test cases, and running a single command.
LambdaTest: A Cloud-Based Cross-Browser Testing Tool
LambdaTest is a cloud-based cross-browser testing tool that enables users to conduct manual and automated browser compatibility testing. Founded in 2017, it offers a wide range of features, including live browser testing, resolution display testing, multiple browser support, and full-page screenshots across multiple devices, browsers, and resolutions.
The tool also provides visual layout testing, integration with bug tracking tools, continuous integration tools, APIs for continuous testing, and automated screenshot testing. Additionally, it allows for geo-targeting and geo-localization across different countries, making it a great option for enterprises with a global reach. With LambdaTest, development teams can identify faults and malfunctions early in the development process and improve the quality of their software testing and patch release procedures.
Appium in Mobile App Automation
Appium is an open-source platform for automating mobile app testing that supports native, hybrid, and mobile web application testing for Android, iOS, or Windows. It offers a detailed reporting structure, multi-language support, and cross-platform compatibility.
Appium uses standard automation APIs on all platforms with concurrent execution of test automation scripts ensuring scalability and reliability while saving significant time for QAs. It allows real-time monitoring and back-end API/database control during the testing process, increasing coverage and giving users the freedom to choose their device and environment.
Overall, Appium provides an extensive set of capabilities for mobile application testing and is the leading choice among developers.
KOBITON: A Mobile Testing Platform for Efficient App Development
Kobiton is a mobile app testing platform with scriptless automation capabilities that speeds up app development and delivery. It simplifies the testing process and provides various features such as manual and automated testing, testing on real mobile devices, cloud testing, and on-premise testing. Kobiton supports manual, automated, and parallel testing using Appium and Selenium for scripting. The platform also offers device lab management, easy access to device logs, and flexible cloud testing facilities. With Kobiton, you can test your mobile apps in real-world scenarios and gain actionable insights based on real user experience. Kobiton provides access to over 350 mobile devices, allowing you to test your apps in a real-world environment. You have complete control over how you test your apps and may use Kobiton in on-premises, cloud, or hybrid testing environments.
Katalon Studio: An Overview of the Automation Tool
Katalon Studio is a powerful automation tool with a Selenium-based engine, developed on top of the open-source automation frameworks of Selenium and Appium. It offers a specific IDE interface for online, API, mobile, and desktop application testing. It allows test artifacts sharing and sending requests using SSL client certificates. Private plugins act as a cherry on top.
Katalon Studio’s primary purpose is to create and reuse automated UI test scripts without coding. It enables automated testing of UI elements like pop-ups, iFrames, and wait times. It supports Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Katalon Studio offers two scripting interfaces to accommodate users with varying programming abilities resulting in its simplicity of deployment and the availability of a broader collection of integrations. It supports local and remote testing, as well as parallel and sequential executions. Groovy (Java) is the scripting language used by Katalon.
This tool provides a pre-defined artefact structure that includes test case, test suite, test object, and report templates. It is simple to set up and comes with pre-installed templates to repeat specific testing patterns. Katalon Studio Enterprise and Katalon Runtime Engine were introduced in October 2019 to offer more feature-rich solutions for varied needs. The basic Katalon Studio remains free to individual users.
TestComplete: Automated Testing Platform
TestComplete by SmartBear Software is an automated testing platform for desktop, web, and mobile applications. Its record and replay features make it easy to build automated UI tests. The software provides GUI object recognition and supports regression, parallel, and keyword-driven testing. TestComplete allows for easy DevOps integration and enables testers to write their own plug-ins to enhance the software. The tool supports behavioral driven development (BDD) natively and is equipped with an AI-powered object recognition engine. It helps quickly and precisely locate dynamic UI elements and offers quick and simple test management, increasing test coverage and releasing high-quality, battle-tested software.
Cucumber: An Overview
Cucumber is a behavior-driven development tool aimed at promoting collaboration between technical and business languages. It allows testing web application acceptance based on the Behavior Driven Development (BDD) framework. Cucumber’s tests are automatically scripted in plain English using Gherkin explanation language. Essentially, Cucumber provides a single specification and test document, supporting code reusability, and end-to-end test frameworks. Cucumber can be combined with different software frameworks such as Selenium and supports several languages like Perl, PHP, Python, and Net.
Eggplant: Automated Testing and Debugging Tool
Eggplant by Keysight offers developers a flexible solution for automated testing and debugging activities on multiple mobile platforms. Its image matching technology enables GUI and application testing, and it interacts with devices just as users do. Plus, with efficient image library management, Eggplant provides easy transcript maintenance across platforms.
Eggplant’s Digital Automation Intelligence Suite uses AI for optimized testing, development, and delivery. Its product suite includes automated functional and usability testing, robotic process automation, performance testing, and monitoring, among others. This tool is utilized by companies worldwide to improve the quality, responsiveness, and performance of their software applications across various platforms, including mobile, IoT, and desktop.
Worksoft Certify: An Overview
Worksoft Certify automates functional testing for various enterprise apps and interfaces, providing code-free and continuous automation on a single platform. It enables business users and IT to share automation assets and integrates with similar solutions such as Agile and DevOps. Certify’s connected automation combines process intelligence and continuous test automation, ensuring faster and more efficient app production while reducing risk. Its model-based object action framework regularly updates automation and is scalable on application landscapes. Certify is utilized to automate functional testing of vital processes on web technologies, mobile apps, hybrid cloud environments, and corporate applications.
Overview of Watir
Watir (Web Application Testing in Ruby) is an open-source Ruby-based family that consists of various lightweight libraries. It is free of charge and allows for headless browser execution, as well as page object design patterns.
Features of Watir
- Supports multiple browsers and platforms, including cloud execution
- Easy integration of APIs to test popup alerts
- Supports any application, regardless of the technology used to create it
- Manipulates browsers in the same way as humans do, allowing for realistic testing
Watir-WebDriver, a newer version of the API that is based on Selenium, can work with a variety of browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera. It can also be used without a head (HTMLUnit).
Ruby, a modern scripting language, can be used to organise the code into libraries that can be reused, as well as connect to databases, read data files, and create spreadsheets. Watir-classic, on the other hand, drives the browser directly via the OLE protocol, making it a useful tool.
IBM Rational Functional Tester (RFT)
IBM Rational Functional Tester is an automated functional and regression testing tool for GUI, data-driven, functional, and regression testing. It uses natural language and rendered screenshots for storyboard testing. RFT enables team collaboration, detects errors early, and supports various web-based and terminal emulator-based applications.
Key features include:
- Automated functional, regression, user interface, and data-driven testing on a wide range of web-based apps
- Recorded activities saved as a Java program for scripts
- ‘Checkpoint’ for comparing expected vs. actual results
- Visual storyboard format for easy understanding of the test flow
- Keyword-associated scripts increasing efficiency
- Powerful debugging capabilities with automated coding of test scripts in Java using Eclipse
TestProject
TestProject is a free end-to-end automation solution for web, API, and mobile applications, based on Selenium and Appium, that offers a collaborative testing repository with easy DevOps integration and report analysis. Its scriptless test recorder allows cross-platform functionality and endless customization via a gallery of add-ons.
Features include support for a wide range of platforms, scheduling tests on any browser or device, out-of-the-box integrations with CI/CD tools, an SDK and REST API, community Add-Ons and comprehensive analytics. TestProject simplifies installation and management of drivers for all devices, allowing you to record, execute, debug, and develop your test with a single application. This platform empowers both technical and non-technical users, ensuring effortless communication and sharing of test artefacts, particularly for agile teams.
Subject7: A cloud-based automation platform
Subject7 is a cloud-based automation platform designed for testers and automation engineers who can create end-to-end automated tests more quickly without technical expertise. It has a web interface to access test automation capabilities and supports a variety of testing, including online, desktop, native mobile, database, web services, load testing, security testing, 508/accessibility testing, manual testing, and more.
Subject7 enables parameterization, data-driven testing, video recording of test reporting, and archiving across parallel testing platforms. It supports browser, mobile app, and API testing through modularization of test steps, and provides a test repository for automated and manual test cases. It can easily integrate with DevOps platforms and uses a REST API for integration to custom pipelines.
Subject7 Player is a tool available for debugging and authoring on PCs and executing automation commands for testing. It can be used for cloud-based parallel execution and a load-generating engine. It supports uniform automation across multiple platforms and can interface with defect-tracking systems and continuous integration technologies.
Ranorex Studio: A Comprehensive Test Automation Tool
Ranorex Studio is a complete automation tool for testing desktop, web, and mobile applications. It enables you to create and run tests on various platforms with ease. It provides parallel testing capabilities, allowing you to complete the testing process faster and with fewer errors. It also offers a user-friendly and intuitive interface for script creation, regardless of your level of expertise.
Moreover, Ranorex Studio allows you to monitor the status of your projects in real-time, thanks to its robust reporting features. You can quickly pinpoint the area of the code causing trouble and reduce troubleshooting time. You can run maintenance mode while the test is still ongoing and repair scripts on-the-fly.
This tool offers reliable object identification and has codeless automation and an IDE. Its flexible test suite and shareable object repository make it ideal for cross-functional DevOps teams. Finally, its customizable test reports and reusable code structure are exceptional features that you will surely appreciate.
QAWolf: The End-to-End Testing Tool
QAWolf is an end-to-end testing tool that allows easy integration into software development. Its parameterized testing makes it easy to maintain tests. Debugging is a breeze with videos, logs, and code failure timeline. Run individual lines of code or the code under scrutiny.
QAWolf keeps tracks of failures, shows recorded videos and highlighted code. Rerun and fix tests on your browser without the need for a CI build. QAWolf supports parallel execution and Unicode. Supports integrations for alert messages on test results. It’s a simple, fast, and free end-to-end testing tool for teams.
Build and execute tests on Netlify and Vercel deployments in parallel, and get test results in minutes. Share test links and invite team members to the testing dashboard. Work together on test maintenance and creation.
Conclusion
No software in the world is entirely bug-free. Despite this, software errors can be tested and corrected. Many tools can assist us in this regard. The top 15 automation tools have been discussed, and there are numerous others available with excellent features. Selecting the best automation tool that fits your requirements can be challenging, but understanding their features can assist you in making the best decision.
FAQs: Test Automation Tool Selection
Choosing the right test automation tool depends on your requirements. Start by recognizing the tests needing automation, define your budget, and make a list of tools that fit it. Then, select two tools from the list, run a pilot, and choose one.
The correct automation tool is crucial because each tool has specific features, some of which are free, open sourced, scripted, or scriptless. Choosing the wrong tool can lead to project failure.
Some key factors to consider while selecting an automation tool are cost of licensing, platform support, cost of training, hardware/software requirements, and tool updation and support policies.
Automation tools are not easy or difficult; it depends on the user’s skillset. For beginners, codeless automation testing tools like Ranorex are easy to understand. Selenium is currently the most in-demand automation testing tool, but trends keep fluctuating.
Software Testing Resources
Find valuable resources for improving your software testing skills:
- Testing Tools
- Manual Testing Tools
- API Testing Tools
- Performance Testing Tools
- Automation Testing Interview Questions
- Mobile App Testing Interview Questions
- Software Testing Interview Questions
- Principles of Software Testing
- Difference Between Testing and Debugging
- Difference Between Alpha and Beta Testing
- Smoke vs Sanity Testing
