Automatic testing can be simply wonderful and wonderfully simple. In less than four minutes, Jyri writes an easily maintainable test case from scratch, fixes it and runs it twice.
There's discussion going on in several test automation related forums about choosing good tools for testing web applications. Testers use bare Selenium, QTP+Selenium and similar tools. They read huge manuals and watch hours of videos for training. They are required to be programmers if they want to test a simple web application. Why?
I've been working with test automation for six years now. I've improved software development cycles and processes in companies of all sizes by setting up proper continuous integration systems, taking care of the whole DevOps area, coaching and giving trainings on different tools, but also writing acceptance tests by myself. Believe me when I say I've seen quite a few test automation tools, but one of those tools I find being way above the others. I'm talking about Robot Framework. I used Robot Framework for the first time in 2008 when I started writing Python libraries for integrating it to another tool. With years of experience, it's safe to say that Robot really can be used for a ton of different purposes. However, one of its best parts is definitely combining it with Selenium using Selenium2Library. Writing the tests, as well as maintaining them is simply wonderful and wonderfully simple – and free! Of course it's easier to simply record a test using, for example, Selenium IDE or Usetrace, when compared to writing tests with an editor. But what to do when there are hundreds of tests, and one element in the application changes? The test mass will turn into a maintenance nightmare. The key is to write simple, generic, parametrized test cases and keywords, and reuse them in a smart way. Here's a short video tutorial on the power of the Robot Framework and Selenium combo. In less than four minutes, I write an easily maintainable test case from scratch, fix it and run it twice. Enjoy.
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Published: Apr 29, 2014
Updated: Mar 26, 2024
