Rise of Automation in Software Testing

Sushil Khati Chhetri — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 10:08:07 +0000

Imagine working on a long-term project where you find yourself repeatedly conducting regression testing in every sprint and performing smoke testing for the same test cases with each change. Consider the amount of time and effort invested in these repetitive tasks, leading to monotony and inefficiency.

Repetitive manual testing can be tedious and may result in testers overlooking certain scenarios in regression and smoke testing. To address these issues, automation can serve as an effective alternative solution.

Automation encompasses more than just writing code; it can involve tasks such as sending bulk data simultaneously and collecting multiple responses. For instance, automating the process of sending a hundred JSON data entries via a .CSV file through tools like Postman qualifies as automation as well.

To execute frequent test cases efficiently, you can maintain automation code using tools like Selenium or Cypress, along with your preferred programming language. The objective is to automate the testing process, where you simply trigger the action and let the machine handle testing across all scenarios, providing comprehensive reports afterward. For instance, running 1000 test cases manually might require 10 employees an entire day, whereas automation could complete the task in just 20 to 30 minutes.This is why many companies nowadays prioritize automation. However, there are limitations to automation, particularly when it comes to testing aspects dependent on system architecture. Nevertheless, automation significantly saves time and provides accurate reports, making it a valuable asset in software testing.

Run the first automation using Selenium and Java

Sushil Khati Chhetri — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 17:41:06 +0000

Selenium is the first thing that comes to mind when one is planning to automate the testing of web applications. Selenium is a beneficial tool because it is not only open source but also a portable software testing framework for web applications that support multiple languages like Java, PHP, C#, Ruby, Python. Choosing the right language depends on the application under test, the supporting community, available test automation frameworks, usability, elegance, and of course, seamless build integration.

IDE/Editor

We can use many IDEs and normal editors, but if we want to use free software, then the eclipse is the best IDE. However, we can write the code in VSCode and other paid software like Intellij IDEA and many more.

Here is the link to download eclipse vscode and Intellij IDEA.

Eclipse: eclipse IDE for Java
Vscode: Vscode
Intellij: Intellij IDEA

Writing the code

In the programming the folder structure is the best thing that all script writers or programmers should follow, that helps to easily understand the code structure and code flow.

Driver

Selenium WebDriver is a web framework that permits you to execute cross-browser tests. This tool is used for automating web-based application testing to verify that it performs expectedly. Selenium WebDriver allows you to choose a programming language to create test scripts.

Here is the link to download firefox(gecko) and chrome driver.
Firefox: gecko driver
Chrome: chrome driver

Create a project

Create a maven project in any IDE (eclipse/intellij)
Inside the pom.xml file copy the following dependencies. After adding these dependencies, the maven helps to download all the dependent packages into the project directory, so we do not have to download and install individually.

pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.test_project</groupId>
    <artifactId>test_project</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <dependencies>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
            <artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>
            <version>3.13.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
            <artifactId>selenium-chrome-driver</artifactId>
            <version>3.13.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>

        <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
        <artifactId>selenium-firefox-driver</artifactId>
        <version>3.13.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
            <artifactId>selenium-server</artifactId>
            <version>3.13.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
            <artifactId>selenium-support</artifactId>
            <version>3.5.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
            <artifactId>selenium-api</artifactId>
            <version>3.13.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
            <version>2.4</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

</project>

Create a Main.java file in the src\main\java directory.

Main.java

public class Main {

    public  static  void main (String args[]) {
        System.out.println("Hello Selenium Project !! ");
}

Import the selenium and driver class in the Main class.

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;

Add the driver functions to run the driver in Main.java

    WebDriver driver;
    //set the firefox driver
    public void setFirefoxDriver() {
        System.setProperty("webdriver.gecko.driver","driverlocation\\ geckodriver.exe");
        this.driver = new FirefoxDriver();
        this.driver.manage().window().maximize();
    }

    //set the chrome driver
    public void setChromeDriver() {
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver","driverlocation\\chromedriver.exe");
        this.driver = new ChromeDriver();
        this.driver.manage().window().maximize();
   }

Write a simple script to automate any site in Main.java.

public void runTheSimpleTest() {
   this.driver.setFirefoxDrier();
   this.driver.get("https://www.w3schools.com");
   System.out.println("Automation run successfully!!"); 
   //close the tab
   this.driver.close();
   //quite the browser 
   this.driver.quite(); 
}

Run the Main.java file.

public class Main {
    public  static  void main (String args[]) {
       System.out.println("Hello Selenium Project !! ");
       runTheSimpleTest();
}
...other code blocks