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Important strategies to Succeed in End-to-End Testing

End to end testing is a method of software testing where a software application will be tested from start to end with the entire system flows with all dependencies related to the application. The purpose of the end-to-end testing is ensuring that an application is tested from a user perspective by stimulating real world scenarios so every operation will be validated with integration with components and data integrity.

End-to-end testing is one of the most complicated and challenging testing techniques in software quality assurance. End-to-end testing is important to any kind of software application as it ensures a quality user experience in the application which is a key objective of software applications.

The end-to-end testing process needs to be well planned in order to achieve success in the execution of the end-to-end testing. In order to be successful in end-to-end testing, organizations need to follow best practices and strategies.

Maximize Test coverage

Plan what needs to be tested before starting the end-to-end testing. The test coverage should touch upon all the end-user scenarios through the test cases so every feature will be tested through the end-to-end testing process. In order to maximize the test coverage, a detailed analysis of the requirement document and identify important user workflows in the given requirements documents. The focus should be on critical features of the system, the test coverage of the critical features should be higher than the non-critical features. Maintaining a requirement traceability matrix will be helpful to maximize the test coverage.

However, test coverage shouldn’t target only on the requirement itself; it should cover other aspects of the system such as alternative user workflows, how the system should respond during errors, how the system should respond to network failures and how the system is directing the user to use the system. A complete test coverage of the product can make the end to end testing process more useful for organizations. 

Walk in your end user’s shoes

During the test design phase, we should always think in a user perspective towards the application rather than focusing on implementation of the application.  Each user-based workflow should be defined properly in test plan/design flow targeting key features.

When defining the end-to-end testing scope for the application, be mindful about what the end goals of the user are? Are the goals achieved in a user-friendly manner? Are the applications up to the expectations of the user? Answers of these kinds of questions need to be analyzed thoroughly on planning the test plan of the end-to-end testing strategy.

Getting into the user’s mindset is complicated for a software development team. The best techniques to achieve this will be creating a mind map of user workflows and making the maximum use of user stories with personas so a clear understanding of the workflow can be derived through these techniques.

Use an efficient Test environment and meaningful test data

End to end testing needs a stable environment without interruptions in order to execute a successful end to end testing workflow. End to end testing needs an environment which has enough capacity to handle multiple test runs, multiple user stimulations and with zero down times during tests.  In order setup such environments it should be planned ahead considering the depth of the tests and environment

The data used for the testing should be meaningful where it should be generated from a user perspective. Using dummy data for end-to-end testing won’t be effective where those data are not meaningful and if the end user will never input such data for the system. In order to create meaningful data the domain of the application should be considered and it should be prepared based on it.

Organize the tests systemically in the right order

It’s important to find the defects in the system as early as possible where fixing defects in the final stages will be costly. Each type of testing should be planned and executed in the right order and end to testing will take place after unit, system, and integration testing.

The tests in the end-to-end suite need to be arranged based on the system priorities. The teams should decide the order of the tests to be executed in an efficient manner which makes sure that all the critical workflows are tested before mini features are tested. The critical failures can be identified early by setting up the tests in the write order.

The structure and organization of the tests based on the understanding of the system requirements are fundamental to the end-to-end testing process.

Make use of Automation tools

End to end testing is a time consuming task and there are instances where repetitive tasks are involved. Doing end to end testing manually requires lots of time and effort. The modern software systems get complicated day by day and there is a need for frequent releases with new updates based on the market requirements so testing teams need to perform frequent end to end testing multiple times.

In order to overcome such challenges, making use of automation tools can be beneficial.  Automating end-to-end testing through tools will save time and solve repetitive tasks in the process of end-to-end testing.

Automations tools can be selected based on company preferences and there are several tools in the industry to choose from. Automation tools can be categorized into two types: test automation tools require coding and codeless automation tools. The tools that require coding are powerful customizable based on the needs of the end-to-end strategy. However, there is a downside of using coding-based automation tools where it requires separate teams to write the code in a specific programming language and maintain it where manual testers need to be trained to be an automation engineer.

 The codeless automation tools will solve problems such as programming skills in testers, debugging time and dependent on programming languages.  The codeless automation tools are easy to integrate, scripts can be created easily and testing reports can be generated easily.

Testup is a codeless automation tool that can solve many of the end-to-end testing faced by the organization. The tool is easy to set up in minutes and the tool is focused very much on usability aspects. Complex test scenarios can be easily manageable through it and tests will be robust which covers most of the quality aspects of end-to-end testing. Give it a try!

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What is Test-Driven Development and How to Do It?

When building new software, one of the major concerns of developers is how to test the software to make sure that it works fine. There are many ways to test software. Most of the time, you will write some code and then create a few test cases to test the functionality of that code. That’s not a bad system, though. However, what would happen if we flipped that procedure on its head? What if we created tests first and then wrote code to pass those tests?

What is Test-Driven development?

Test-driven development is a practice in software development where you first write test cases to define the functionality of code before implementing the actual code. Simply said, test cases for each functionality are written and tested first, and if any of them fails, new code is written to pass that test.

In TDD, test cases are designed and developed for every single functionality of the software. The concept behind TDD is to correct code to pass the failed tests before writing new code. This approach helps avoid any duplicate code, as in TDD, developers write a small amount of code at a time that is only sufficient for passing the test.

TDD Vs. Traditional testing

The major difference between traditional testing and test-driven development is that in traditional testing, testing is performed at the end of the coding, whereas in TDD, testing is performed before writing the code.

TDD is basically a specification technique that ensures your code is thoroughly tested at the initial phase of the development. Moreover, TDD ensures that your system fulfills the specified requirements for it and helps to build confidence in your system.

In traditional testing, a successful test will discover one or more bugs, and when a test fails, there’s a process as you know what should be done to pass the test.

TDD focuses on production code that verifies if testing will work properly. On the other hand, traditional testing focuses more on test case design and if the test will indicate proper execution of the software to fulfill the requirements.

With TDD, you can achieve 100% test coverage for your code. Every single line of code will be tested, unlike in traditional testing.

Benefits of Test-Driven development

Improved focus on development.

The nature of TDD is to retain your focus on the specific module you are working on without jumping around other segments of code. This leads to better productivity since it reduces the switching of context. If you do so, it may leave some parts of the code uncompleted, resulting in longer development times and more bugs.

Better quality of code

Testing a piece of code insists a developer define the functionality of that code. Being able to do it easily means that the functionality of that code is clearly defined with high cohesion. If you can perform unit testing on that code, it can easily be integrated with the rest of the project. It has low coupling to other code segments around it. This low coupling and high cohesion are qualities of a well-designed, solid, and maintainable code.

Easy refactoring

Once the tests are passing, they will have your back from then onwards. Whenever you want to make sure that new changes don’t break previous code, you just have to re-run your tests. Simple enough. Isn’t it?

You can also use TDD when working with legacy code or code from another developer. Apply TDD for the new code you are going to write, and if something goes wrong, you can verify that there are issues in your code. That will save a lot of time debugging and trying to find out what has gone wrong.

This way, TDD saves plenty of time and effort for code refactoring.

Up-to-date documentation

Above all, TDD tests can serve as perfect documentation for a developer. If you want to know how a specific class or code works, you can go through the tests and find out. It is possible as when you create the test, you plan and think about how to use that class. Therefore, you can identify all the required inputs, methods, and expected output. This becomes very useful when new members are joining the project.

How to perform TDD

The basic TDD process revolves around five simple steps, which are repeated throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC). The purpose of these steps is to ensure that the code is clean and efficient while fulfilling all the functional requirements of the system.

  1. Write a test
    Since development is driven by tests, it’s obvious that the first step is to write a new test. This test should be concise and simple, testing a very basic component of a large feature.
  2. Verify that the test fails
    After the test is written, the next step is to verify that the test fails. The main goal of TDD is to make you consider the requirement of a feature or a segment of code. By confirming that the test fails prior to implementing the feature, you will be confident that the test is useful and will be needed once you write code to pass the test.
  3. Write code to pass the test
    After verifying that the test fails, you have to write code that enables the test to pass. An important thing to note here is that you should not write any extra code that surpasses the scope of the test. As we focus on writing the simplest test possible in step1, here, you have to write the simplest code possible.
    Code written in this step will seem rough and unstable. However, it’s fine since the TDD cycle encourages constant refactoring of code, signifying that your current code could change numerous times in the future.
  4. Verify that the test passes
    Once the code is written, now you have to confirm that the test passes with that code.
  5. Refactor
    During this final step, even if you have a passing test, the written code may contain some duplications or inconsistencies. That’s quite normal, and it’s important to use the refactoring step to identify those problem areas and simplify the codebase.

This process should also include constant re-running of all the past tests to ensure that you haven’t accidentally brought in any new bugs or altered something that causes a previously passed test to fail.

On top of that, there are a few rules in TDD which will make your life easier. They are as follows,

  1. Not to write any production code unless it is to pass a failing test case.
  2. Not to write any more of a unit test than enough to fail.
  3. Only write sufficient production code to pass a failing unit test.

How TDD is done in TestUp?

TestUp is a new entrance to the test automation field, and it automates the testing of all the test cases in test-driven development. With TestUp, you can design user flows as tags and continue with the development. Then, simply fill the test steps in TestUp and approve the user flow as you wish. This is a small guide on How you can do TDD with TestUp.

Wrapping Up

In the world of software development, TDD is a reliable and accurate development practice developers can use to ensure robust code throughout the entire software. More than that, it’s a way to make sure that the final product is flexible and adaptable up to a point where adding new features and ongoing maintenance can be done without impacting the overall product.

Learning how to implement TDD effectively is not an easy task. It may require time, dedication, and sometimes an entire modification to your programming mindset. However, if you achieve it, you will understand that TDD is really worth all the effort and even more.

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Why is it So Hard to Introduce Automated Testing in Your Development Process

Automated testing is all the rage in agile contexts these days. There’s no wonder since it works great for many types of testing and helps QAs execute complex test cases located on various platforms and involve a lot of data. It also benefits organizations in multiple ways, such as increasing the productivity of the test team, enhancing software quality, and reducing the time to market.

However, organizations have to face a lot of challenges when trying to apply automated testing into their development process. The seven most common challenges that make the transformation from manual testing to automation more difficult are the following:

  1. Not having a clear idea of what to automate
  2. Difficulties in picking up the right automation tool
  3. Lack of communication and collaboration within the team
  4. Difficulties in choosing a testing approach
  5. High upfront costs
  6. Not having skilled resources for automation
  7. Understanding the prospects of stakeholders and end-users

So let’s have a closer look at the challenges.

1. Not Having a Clear Idea of What to Automate

If you believe that 100% automation is possible, you are dreaming. You can’t automate each and every single test case. Some tests will be difficult to automate due to technology constraints. Specifically, in areas such as compatibility, user interface, or recovery, most of the testing needs to be done manually. For example, some testing frameworks will not support test cases that run across several browser sessions or different devices. Therefore, before you start thinking about automation, you have to come up with a list of criteria that test cases must fulfil in order to be automatized.

The ROI on automated tests varies depending on several factors. Thus, you have to decide which test cases are critical and need to be given a high priority when automating. Normally, it’s the areas that are

  • exposed to risk,
  • of importance to clients,
  • or feature complex business logic.

Recognize these application areas and test case specifications to ensure that your automation efforts payback.

It’s a good idea to automate test cases that run in different environments, with different sets of data or large volumes of data. In contrast, you shouldn’t try to automate test cases that needed to be run once or twice like test cases for a rarely used feature. 

2. Difficulties in Picking up the Right Automation Tool

This is a major challenge most development companies go through when introducing automated testing. Test automation requires tools and development teams to find it difficult to choose the right tool for various reasons, as listed below.

  • Testers are lacking the necessary skills to make the most out of a particular automation tool.
  • Selected tools are not offering 100% test coverage.
  • The cost of automation tools exceeding the test budget.
  • Not knowing if the tool they need exists.

Various steps can be followed in order to mitigate these issues. For instance, if your testers don’t know how to use a specific automation tool effectively, you can arrange a training session with its provider, prepare an online course for them, or recruit a consultant who can help your testers to master it. If you’re still searching for the right automation tool, reach out to the testing community.  Forums like Stack Exchange are a valuable source of information.

Among numerous automated testing tools available in the market today, Testup is a new player that stands out of all the rest due to its excellent and unique features. It enables easy setup for users with a high focus on usability and supports complex test scenarios to boost your software quality. 

Testup covers all the essential use cases such as Front-end testing, End-to-End testing, CI/CD, Test-driven development (TDD), Robotic Process Automation(RPA) and many more. Codeless test automation is one most impressive features of Testup that saves enormous time for developers. In the future, Testup is likely to address most of the challenges organizations face when trying to adapt to automated testing.

3. Lack of Communication and Collaboration within the Team

Automated testing usually requires more communication and collaboration between team members than manual testing. You cannot run a successful testing process if the team fails to get involved adequately in setting automation targets and goals. Therefore, the team members need to be actively involved there.

Automation depends on historical test data, experience, and sometimes even proof of concept that can be obtained only through your team. Thus, the entire team should stay on the same page for automated testing to work properly.

Furthermore, you need to gain solid team management support on hand before you start with automated testing. It is also important to build a collaborative working environment where team members can communicate with each other regularly to deliver test results timely with minimum risk.

4. Difficulties in Choosing a Testing Approach

This is another most significant challenge automation engineers face when trying to go ahead with automated testing. They need to find out the right test automation approach to suit their needs. For that, they may need to ask the following questions from themselves:

  • How can we reduce the implementation and maintenance cost of test suites?
  • Will the selected automation tool be able to generate useful test reports?
  • Will these test suites last a long period of time at our company?

The above points are highly important when it comes to an agile development environment where the testing application constantly changes, and test automation should be implemented to identify these changes, helping the team stick into a cost-effective maintenance strategy. Therefore, you should consider embracing an automation solution that automatically detects these changes and updates or re-validates the test.

5. High Upfront Costs

Test automation will involve high costs at its initial phase. These costs associated with setting up a test automation suite hold back many companies from incorporating automated testing into their development process.

Therefore, make sure to analyze and create a test automation framework including elements like libraries of reusable functions before proposing the automation suite to the management. You need to add hardware costs as well as software costs, including licensing costs if you intend to use paid software. Even if you pick an open-source solution, you still have to consider some costs, such as maintaining and providing training. 

Convincing the management that test automation is worth all the effort might be a difficult task. However, the potential ROI is a clever argument there, so prepare an automation strategy along with a complete budget and go for it.

6. Not Having Skilled Resources for Automation

In automated testing, the teams have to design and maintain the necessary test automation frameworks, along with test scripts, build solutions, and many other vital elements. Therefore, the teams need to have a solid understanding of the design and implementation of the automated testing framework to work as expected. That’s the reason why you should build your team with testing resources who possess strong programming skills and test automation skills.

However, with Testup, organizations can eliminate the demand for skilled resources in automated testing since it is a no-code automation tool.

7. Understanding the Prospects of Stakeholders and End-Users

It doesn’t matter how perfect your testing tools or resources are – you have to always bear in mind that testing can’t be conducted in a vacuum. It serves a specific objective which is basically improving your software product.

While automated testing is a great option for automatically checking your software for bugs, humans still need to carry out non-automated testing scenarios. These tests return plenty of useful information to make optimal decisions for improving the system, not in the view of developers but the end-users.

Because of that, it’s important to make sure that the management, your testing team, and other stakeholders all understand and accept the expected results of your test automation strategy before implementing it.

Bottom Line

While test automation can bring plenty of benefits to testing teams and organizations, it can be difficult to implement due to various issues and constraints. Anyway, if you identify the challenges involved in introducing automated testing and prepare well for them, your organization can reap the benefits of it.

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Comprehensive List of No-code Test Automation Tools (2021)

Logo applitools www.applitools.com

Applitools is the next generation test automation platform powered by Visual AI

What’s the user interface of the tool?Web
Desktop
What’s the system under test?Website
Desktop
Android
IOS
Are visual checks possible?Yes
What’s the price range?
Is there a free trial?Yes

Logo Applause www.applause.com

Applause’s vision is to help clients deliver flawless digital experiences to their customers.

What’s the user interface of the tool?Web

What’s the system under test?Android
iOS
Web applications
Are visual checks possible?
What’s the price range?
Is there a free trial?Yes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIgRNGux_Vg

Logo Autify www.autify.com

Autify is a no-code automation testing tool for agile teams. It has an AI-powered test automation platform that is used to record tests. 

What’s the user interface of the tool?Chrome extension
What’s the system under test?Web Applications
Are visual checks possible?Yes
What’s the price range?500 USD p.m.
Is there a free trial?Yes

Logo BlazeMeter www.blazemeter.com

Blazemeter is an open source, enterprise ready platform for automation testing.

What’s the user interface of the tool?Desktop
What’s the system under test?Android
iOS
Web Applications
API
Are visual checks possible?No
What’s the price range?149 USD – 649 USD p.m.
Is there a free trial?Yes

Logo CloudQA www.cloudqa.io

CloudQA is a test automation testing tool that is used for web testing without writing any code.

What’s the user interface of the tool?Web
What’s the system under test?Web Applications
Are visual checks possible?Yes
What’s the price range?99 USD – 499 USD p.m.
Is there a free trial?Yes

Logo eureQA www.sayeureqa.com

eureQa is a complete automation platform for testing digital applications.

What’s the user interface of the tool?Web
What’s the system under test?Android application
iOS applications
Web applications
Are visual checks possible?Yes
What’s the price range?1,500 USD p.m.
Is there a free trial?Yes

Logo Leapwork www.leapwork.com

Leapwork is a no-code test automation tool for regression testing. This tool helps testers to run tests fast and accurately.


What’s the user interface of the tool?

Desktop
What’s the system under test?Windows application
Web applications


Are visual checks possible?



Yes

What’s the price range?
Is there a free trial?Yes
hierarchy and flows
Screenshot Leapwork
Overview video Leapwork

Logo eureQA www.machnation.com

MachNation is a fact-based IOT automation platform.

What’s the user interface of the tool?Web
What’s the system under test?IoT platforms
Are visual checks possible?Yes
What’s the price range?
Is there a free trial?No

Logo eureQA www.qadeputy.com

QADeputy is a test automation platform for managing test cases, test suites, test runs, and reporting.

What’s the user interface of the tool?Web
What’s the system under test?Web applications
Are visual checks possible?Yes
What’s the price range?0 USD – 18 USD p.m.
Is there a free trial?Yes

Logo rainforest www.rainforestqa.com

Rainforest is a testing tool that is used to run automation tests without writing any code. It combines both manual testing and automation testing.

What’s the user interface of the tool?Web
What’s the system under test?Webs application
Android
iOS
Are visual checks possible?Yes
What’s the price range?200 USD – 4800 USD p.m.
Is there a free trial?Yes

Logo Reflect www.reflect.run

Reflect is a no-code automation tool that is used for regression tests.

What’s the user interface of the tool?Mobile
What’s the system under test?Android application
Are visual checks possible?Yes
What’s the price range?0 USD – 300 USD p.m.
Is there a free trial?Yes

Logo Saucelabs www.saucelabs.com

Saucelabs is a test platform for automated and continuous testing for web & mobile apps.

What’s the user interface of the tool?Web
What’s the system under test?Web applications
Android
iOS
Are visual checks possible?Yes
What’s the price range?19 USD – 399 USD p.m.
Is there a free trial?Yes

Logo Test Craft www.testcraft.io

TestCraft is an automation testing tool that is used for regression testing, continuous testing and monitoring web applications. Testers can perform Selenium-based automation testing using TestCraft.

What’s the user interface of the tool?Web
What’s the system under test?Android application
Are visual checks possible?No
What’s the price range?Varies
Is there a free trial?Yes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdV9S2ayUvY

Logo Test Modeller www.testmodeller.io

Test Modeller is a model-based test automation platform.

what’s the user interface of the tool?Browser extension
What’s the system under test?Web applications
Desktop applications
Android
iOS
Are visual checks possible?Yes
What’s the price range?
Is there a free trial?Yes

Logo Usetrace www.usetrace.com

Usetrace is a testing tool that is used for UI test automation from cloud.

What’s the user interface of the tool?Web
What’s the system under test?Web applications
Are visual checks possible?Yes
What’s the price range?
Is there a free trial?Yes

Logo Usetrace www.zebrunner.com

Zebrunner is an automation testing platform with embedded reporting and real-time analytics.

What’s the user interface of the tool?Web
What’s the system under test?Android application
Are visual checks possible?Yes
What’s the price range?188 USD – 823 USD p.m.
Is there a free trial?Yes

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Test Faster, Better and Automatically

Did you hear about automated testing? If no, you have come to the right place. In this article, we are going to discuss software testing, automated testing and a specific automated testing tool called “Testup”.

Let’s begin!

What is software testing

Software testing is the process of verifying whether the actual results of the software meet the expected ones. The actual result is the software as it is developed by developers, and the expected result is the requirements of the client. It does not only mean that the software is running properly but also that the software is displayed correctly. Further, software testing helps testers to identify errors, missing requirements, and unexpected results.

Without proper software testing, the software may be no longer valid and may cause lots of problems to the end-user, he might get annoyed and switch to a different application. Therefore, it is necessary to test the software thoroughly.

Software testing divides into two main groups named manual testing and automated testing. As the name suggested, manual testing executes test cases by a human tester without using any automation while automated testing executes test cases using automation tools.

Further, software testing methods can be grouped based on the “box” approach:

  • Black-box testing – that means that the tester does not have any knowledge of the internal implementation and also does not see the source code of the software. For black-box testing, testers do not need to have programming knowledge. As a result, clients are also involved in this type of testing.
  • White-box testing – that means that the tester has some knowledge of the internal implementation and also sees the source code of the software. For white-box testing, testers need to have programming knowledge.

Why automated testing

There are some limitations of manual testing compared to automated testing such as

  • a high amount of time to complete a test,
  • consumes a lot of human resources, as a tester always need to be present,
  • the scope of the test is limited,
  • no support for performance testing and
  • the possibility of less accurate test results as it may involve human error.

Therefore, automated testing was introduced to overcome the above limitations of manual testing.

What is Testup

Testup is a visual test automation tool to test web applications, and it is one of the easiest test automation tools on the web. It is developed and maintained by Thetaris GmbH, a group of software professionals. Further, Testup is a no-code automation testing tool. Hence, you do not need to write any code to test the software.

Why do we need to use Testup

Testup testing helps to reduce the amount of time required for manual testing dramatically. It also provides an easy transition from a manual test to an automated test using the visual test editor. 

Some automated testing tools require from the users advanced knowledge and experience of test automation. This is one of the biggest advantages of Testup. To use Testup there is no advanced knowledge or experience of test automation required. Learning Testup is easy and intuitive. If needed, a lot of learning resources can be found on the official website of Testup.

Testup can capture more bugs than with manual effort and also capture more bugs before they hit their users. It is also easy to set-up the test environment and takes just a few minutes as Testup is one of the best user-friendly testing tools.

Further, the ability to test complex test scenarios with ease, unlimited interactive test executions and high accuracy of test results are some other benefits of using Testup.

Testup uses the black-box testing approach. Therefore, a user without any coding knowledge can use this testing tool for software testing.

Many WordPress developers face a problem of website crashes after a plugin update. Testup provides an excellent solution for this problem by running a test to see if the website is still working as earlier after a plugin update. Further, if you are a blog owner who is not a web developer, then you can update your website and verify with Testup, if it is working correctly without the help of the developer or agency.

Considering all the above facts, Testup is an ideal automated testing tool for a user who has little or no experience with test automation.

How to perform a Testup testing

Testup has introduced two plans named “standard” plan and “enterprise” plan. The standard plan is a monthly subscription. But the user can subscribe for the 7-day-free-trial first in order to get to know the tool. To get started free with Testup, the user can just sign up here. After that, he can start testing by creating projects and tests.

Conclusion

Testup is an excellent test automation tool for users who have never done test automation. Its wide variety of features enables the user to test the software with ease and obtain accurate test results.

We hope you enjoy this article. Happy Testing!

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Testup – The Developers choice for Software Testing

Unlike manual testing, automated testing executes test cases using automated tools such as Selenium. However, using automated tools is not always easy and can be a challenge for a single developer due to many reasons.

If you are a developer who has struggled with automated testing tools like Selenium, then you have come to the right place. In this article, we are going to introduce a simple automated testing tool called Testup that helps you to perform test automation with ease.

Let’s begin by finding out the reasons why developers struggled with Selenium!

Why do some developers struggle with Selenium

Even though Selenium is very popular as an automated testing tool in the IT industry, there are several drawbacks involved in the Selenium testing tool. As a result, some users struggled with Selenium. 

The following list below shows some of the drawbacks of Selenium.

  1. The complexity of Selenium
    Selenium is not just a single tool but a suite of software which consists of Selenium IDE, Selenium RC, Selenium Web Driver and Selenium Grid. As a result, using Selenium can be difficult if you don’t understand the tool properly before starting testing using Selenium. 
  2. Lack of coding skills
    Like many other automated testing tools, Selenium also requires some advanced programming skills. Therefore, the tester needs to be familiar with at least one of the supported programming languages for Selenium such as Java, Python, PHP, etc. to write test scripts. 
  3. Not easy to learn
    For a beginner, Selenium is one of the hard testing tools to learn. It requires lots of time, programming knowledge and coding skills and also great resources to learn Selenium. 
  4. Difficult setup
    Setting up the Selenium testing environment is not easy. 
  5. Time consuming
    The amount of time required to prepare test cases is high.
  6. Weak image testing
    Selenium provides less support for image testing.

What is Testup 

Testup is a visible test automated tool to test web applications, and it was developed and maintained by Thetaris GmbH, a group of software professionals. Further, it does not need any coding for testing as it is a no-code automated testing tool. 

Why Testup

The Testup automated testing tool helps to overcome the complexity involved in automated testing. The following list below shows some of the benefits of Testup when compared to other automated testing tools such as Selenium.

  1. Simplicity
    Tesup can be considered as one of the simple automated testing tools in the IT industry. Further, it is a useful tool for someone new to test automation.
  2. Easy use
    Easy to set-up the test environment as Testup is a user-friendly testing tool.
  3. Fast test recording
    The time required to record a test can be dramatically reduced by using the no-code editor of Testup.
  4. No coding required
    The ability to perform testing without writing any programming code. Therefore, the lack of programming knowledge is not a barrier to using Testup.
  5. Easy to learn
    Learning Testup is easy, and it requires less amount of time and resources. Further, all learning materials can be found on the Testup website.
  6. Handles complex test cases
    Testup allows the tester to test complex test scenarios with ease.
  7. Speeds up the workflows
    The visual editor helps to refactor a broken test in a few seconds. Further, it allows unprecedented speed-ups in the complete development workflow.
  8. Easy understandable tests
    Readability of tests is unique due to the visual editor of Testup.
  9. Creates robust tests
    The unique anchor image technology allows the user to create robust tests.

Considering all the above facts, Testup is an ideal automated testing tool even for a user who has struggled with automated testing tools such as Selenium.  

How to perform a Testup testing

Before creating a project, you need to get a licence. You can start with the professional licence, that costs only 1€ for the first month. The registration process is simple and straightforward.

After completing the registration process, the user can create a new project and a new test.

Next, the user can record a test to test the software. Recording a test may involve steps such as selecting an anchor area, mouse-clicking, entering text to search input fields or swiping.

Finally, the tester can exit the editor by pressing the “Done” button and click on the “Run” button to run the test.

If the test passes, Congratulations! Otherwise, try to fix the test by editing it. There is a vier, too, that helps you to find the problem.

Visit Testup documentation if you need help.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, Testup is an excellent automated testing tool for a user who has struggled with automated testing tools like Selenium. Its wide variety of features enable the user to test the software with ease and obtain accurate test results.

We hope this article has helped to overcome the barriers of test automation. Happy Testing!

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Why Testup is the Best tool for a QA Team

In this article, we are going to discuss an automated testing tool called Testup. If you have a team for automated testing and dedicated QA engineers and testers, this tool will be much easier to use.

Let’s begin!

Introduction

There are several automated testing tools available in the market such as Selenium, Appium, QMetry Automation Studio, etc. But to use some of the automated testing tools, the user needs some advanced knowledge and experience in automation testing. However, Testup is different from most of the other automated testing tools. 

What is Testup 

Testup is a visual test automated tool to test web applications, and it is one of the easy test automated tools on the web. It was developed and maintained by Thetaris GmbH, a group of software professionals. 

Furthermore Testup automated testing tool uses the black-box testing approach that means the user does not have any knowledge of the internal implementation and also does not see the source code of the software. In short: Testup is an easy to use no-code test automation tool!

Advantages of Testup

Testup automated testing tool helps to overcome the complexity involved in automated testing. Further, it has lots of advantages compared to other automated testing tools. 

Testup can be considered as one of the simple automated testing tools in the IT industry. Testup test environment is easy to set-up and it takes just a few minutes as it is one of the best user-friendly testing tools. The ability to perform testing without writing any programming code helps someone who lacks programming knowledge also to use Testup. 

The visual approach of Testup enables manual testers to step into the role of a QA automation engineer. Learning Testup is easy, and all the required learning resources can be found on the official website of Testup. The visual editor helps to refactor a broken test in a few seconds, and it allows unprecedented speed-ups in the complete development workflow. Further, the readability of tests is unique due to the visual editor of Testup.

Testup can manage hundreds of tests and capture more bugs than possible with manual effort and also capture more bugs before they hit their users. Unlimited interactive test executions, the ability to test complex test scenarios with ease are some other benefits of using Testup.

The unique anchor image technology allows the user to create robust tests. Testup testing helps to reduce the amount of time and human resources required for manual testing dramatically. Accuracy of test results is also high as there is no or little possibility of human error.

Many WordPress developers face a problem of website crashes after a plugin update. Testup provides an excellent solution for this problem by running a test to see if the website is still working as earlier after a plugin update. If the test passes, the developer can update the plugin with confidence. Further, if you are a blog owner who is not a web developer, then you can update your website and verify it is working correctly with Testup without the help of the developer or agency.

Testup is not only beneficial for the individual tester but the team also. It makes communication between team members much easier. Further, all members of the team can easily understand the Testup concept, and there are different aspects of Testup for different roles of the team members. It makes the testing task easy while increasing efficiency and effectiveness of testing.

Considering all the above facts, Testup is an ideal automated testing tool for any type of user who is interested in test automation. 

How to perform a Testup testing

Before creating a project, you need to get a licence. The professional licence costs only 1€ for the first month. Enough time to get to know the software.

After completing the registration process, the user can create a new project and a new test.

Next, the user can record a test to test the software. Recording a test may involve steps such as selecting an anchor area, mouse-clicking, entering text to search input fields or swiping.

Finally, the tester can exit the editor by pressing the “Done” button and click on the “Run” button to run the test.

If the test passes, Congratulations! Otherwise, try to fix the test by editing it. There is a vier, too, that helps you to find the problem.

Visit Testup documentation if you need help.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, Testup is an excellent automated testing tool for any type of tester, from a beginner to an expert. Its wide range of features such as simplicity, user-friendliness and ability to test without coding enables the user to test the software with ease and obtain accurate test results.

We hope you enjoy this article.

Happy Testing!

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Your WordPress Update failed – What can you do?

Keeping your WordPress website up to date can be quite a challenge. However, what is more so is getting an error after an update. This is a considerable problem faced by many. Let’s have a look at how we recover from errors.

What are the errors you can get while updating your site?

These are some of the main types of errors that can be caused by update failures. However, there can be many others.

No access to the Admin area

This is a somewhat rare error, however, it can be caused by a faulty update or plugin.

Follow these steps to deactivate a faulty plugin and restore your site:

  1. Manually deactivate the plugin via FTP.
    Once you connect to your WordPress website via FTP, navigate to the “httpdocs > wp-content > plugins” folder and find the plugin(s) that were recently installed or updated.
    Right-click on the folder(s) and rename them as “disabled.[pluginname]”. This will stop WordPress from accessing the plugin(s) and allow your website to work correctly. Once this is done, you will need to permanently remove the plugin if it continues to malfunction.
  2. Deactivate the plugin via phpMyAdmin
    Open your WordPress website’s database via phpMyAdmin. Now view the records in the “options” table.
    Edit the “active_plugins” record and remove any content related to the plugin(s) that is causing the error. This should restore the website.
  3. Restore the website to an earlier state. We’ll look at more details on how this can be done later in this article.

Design / Functionality breaks

Broken plugins can cause your website to look different or functionality to break. In the example below, the WooCommerce – PayPal plugin malfunctioned and displayed additional payment methods that were not configured.

Apply one of the following fixes to the broken plugin:

  1. Use WP-Rollback to revert the plugin(s) to a previous stable version
    WP-Rollback is a WordPress plugin that allows you to easily revert plugins and themes to older versions.
  2. If that doesn’t help, restore the entire website to an earlier state.

How to avoid these errors in the future

Prevention is always better than a cure, so let’s see how you can prevent such errors.

Backup your website regularly

The WordPress Plugin directory lists close to a thousand plugins related to backups. You can use almost any of them to back up your site and be ready for potential disasters. Consider one of the following plugins which are the top 3 plugins on the directory:

  1. UpdraftPlus (2.0 million+ installs | 4.8 out of 5 stars | 3,500+ reviews)

  2. BackWPup (600,000+ installs | 4.4 out of 5 stars | 950+ reviews)

  3. Jetpack (5.0 million+ installs | 3.9 out of 5 stars | 1,500+ reviews)

Use a Staging Server

You can verify updates by applying them to a similar server. Many WordPress hosting services offer a Staging server for free, or at a small fee. It is worth having a Staging server if you regularly update your website.

A Staging server will be identical to your production website in terms of specifications, WordPress, and plugins. So you will be able to foresee any potential errors before they happen on your website. You can update changes to your website once you have ensured that they are safe. You don’t need to worry about having to repeat your changes as many service providers allow you to quickly migrate changes from your staging site to production.

Those were some quick tips about how to recover from WordPress update errors and how to be prepared for them.

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Test Like A Genius!

Do you know automated testing, but still find it difficult? If yes, you have come to the right place as we are going to discuss why some users find automated testing hard and a specific automated testing tool called “Testup” which makes automated testing easy.

Let’s begin!

Why some people find automated testing hard

Most of the time, good programming knowledge is essential to perform automated testing as it requires to write programming codes. If the tester has no or little programming knowledge, then he or she will find it hard to write required codes. As a result, automated testing becomes hard for them.

However, there are some automated testing tools such as Testup that helps to perform automated testing without writing any programming codes, and it is beneficial for many users who have no or little confidence with coding.

Testing frameworks like Selenium is very complex, and that makes it harder to perform test automation for a beginner. Further, the tester needs to choose the most suitable testing tool for his or her testing task.

What is Testup

Testup is a visual test automation tool to test web applications and it is one of the easy test automation tools on the web. It was developed and maintained by Thetaris GmbH, a group of software professionals. Further, Testup is a no-code automation testing tool. Hence, there is no need to write any code to test the software.

Why do we need to use Testup

There are several automated testing tools available in the industry. But, to use some of the automated testing tools, the user needs to have some advanced knowledge and experience in test automation. However, Testup is different compared with most of the automated testing tools, and it is simple and straightforward to use. Learning Testup is easy, and learning resources can be found on the official website of Testup.

Unlike automated testing tools like Selenium, Testup’s visual approach allows the user to carry out test automation without coding. The time required for recording a test can be reduced by the no-code editor of Testup.

Testup can capture more bugs than with manual effort and also capture more bugs before they hit their users. It is also easy to set-up the test environment and takes just a few minutes as Testup is one of the best user-friendly testing tools.

The accuracy of Testup results is high as there is no or little human error involved. Further, the ability to test complex test scenarios with ease and unlimited interactive testing are some other benefits of Testup.

Many WordPress developers face a problem of website crashes after a plugin update. Testup provides an excellent solution for this problem by running a test to see if the website is still working as earlier after a plugin update. If the test passes, the developer can update the plugin with confidence. Further, if you are a blog owner who is not a web developer, then you can update your website and verify with Testup that it is working correctly without the help of a developer or agency.

Testup provides a 100% satisfaction guarantee to meet the expectation of their customers. If you are unsatisfied and want your money back, then they will refund you the last two months.

Considering all the above facts, Testup is an ideal automated testing tool for a user who has struggled with automated testing.

How to perform a Testup testing

Before you can start testing, you have to register with Testup. It is a straightforward and easy process. Testup has introduced two plans named “standard” plan and “enterprise” plan. The standard plan is a monthly subscription. But the user can subscribe for the 7-day-free-trial first in order to get to know the tool. To get started free with Testup, the user can just sign up here. After that, he can start testing by creating projects and tests.

Testup testing has two alternating phases:

  • Phase 1 – Check whether the website has the correct state.
  • Phase 2 – Make inputs through clicks, swipes and keys. 

A restart of Phase 1 – Check whether the inputs were successful. If yes, can proceed with the next step.

Conclusion

Testup is an excellent automated testing tool for users that know about automated testing but found it too hard. Various features of Testup enable the user to test the software with ease and obtain accurate test results.

We hope you enjoy this article. Happy Testing!

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A Guide to Automated Testing and Testup for Absolute Beginners

Have you never heard about automated testing? If no, you have come to the right place. In this article, we are going to discuss automated testing and a specific automated testing tool called Testup that we have built.

Let’s begin!

Introduction to Automated Testing

Software testing is the process of verifying whether the actual results of the software meet expected results. Software testing divides into two groups named manual testing and automated testing. As the name suggests, manual testing executes test cases by a human tester without using any automation while automated testing executes test cases using automation tools. 

There are some limitations of manual testing compared to automated testing, and some of them are listed below. 

  1. It consumes a high amount of time to complete a test.
  2. It consumes a lot of human resources.
  3. Possibility of less accurate results as it may involve human error.

Automated testing is introduced to overcome those limitations, and it has the following advantages.

  1. It consumes less amount of time to complete a test.
  2. It consumes less amount of human resources.
  3. Accuracy of test results is high.

Use of Automated Testing Tools during Development and Maintenance of Software

Automated testing tools can be used during the development of software to ensure that the development progressed in the right direction. Errors may occur during the maintenance of software. Hence, software testing is required, and the automation tools such as Testup can be used for testing during the maintenance.

What is Testup

Testup is a visible test automation tool to test web applications, and it was developed and maintained by Thetaris GmbH, a group of software professionals. Further, you do not need to have any coding skills as Testup is a no-code automation testing tool. 

The following list shows some of the advantages of Testup.

  1. Easy set-up of the test environment as Testup is a very user friendly testing tool.
  2. Ability to test complex test scenarios with ease.
  3. Ability to test without writing any code.
  4. Requires less amount of time and resources to learn Testup. 

Hence, Testup is an ideal automated testing tool for a user who has little or no experience with automated testing.

Registration Process

Before creating a project, you need to Register with Testup. The registration process is simple and straightforward, as shown below.

Visit this URL to go to the Testup website. Next, click on the Get started free button, and it will redirect you to the registration page.

Then, enter your email address and click on the Register button to create a new free account.

Creating a New Project

After completing the registration process, click on the Go to App button and it will redirect you to a new browser window where you can create a new project.

Next, create a new project by clicking the Create project link. To rename the project, click on the edit icon and rename.

Creating a New Test

Click on the Create Test link to create a new test and fill the parameters such as URL, etc. as per the requirement. To rename the project, click on the edit icon and rename.

For the demonstration purpose, we have used the iPhone 6/7/8 dimensions. Then click the Edit button, and it will redirect you to the Testup editor.

Recording a Test

Testup Editor

Before recording a test, you need to understand the Testup editor. There are three parts of the editor, as shown below.

  1. The left side of the editor – It contains the browser window of the website you want to test.
  2. The right side of the editor – It consists of the list of checks and inputs.
  3. The top of the editor – It is the control centre which contains all the executable commands.

Check with an Anchor Area

Selecting an anchor area helps the editor to verify that the website is correctly loaded and ready to perform the next action.

In this example, we are going to check three anchor areas, as shown below.

Check if the brand name “Testup Merchandize” is visible

Select the anchor area of the brand name (Testup Merchandize) with the mouse, as shown in the above screenshot. Next, click on the Play It button to execute the action.

Check if hamburger menu is visible

Select the anchor area of the hamburger menu with the mouse, as shown in the above screenshot. Next, click on the Play It button to execute the action.

Check if the welcome image is visible

Select the anchor area of the welcome image with the mouse, as shown in the above screenshot. Next, click on the Play It button to execute the action.

Clicking

Select the anchor area of the search icon with the mouse, as shown in the above screenshot. Next, click into the search icon. Then, click the Play It button to execute the action, and you’ll see a search input field appear above the search icon.

Text Input for a Search Function

Select the anchor area of the search input with the mouse, as shown in the above screenshot and click into the search input. Next, click on the Play It button to execute the action. 

Then click on the press key link.

A search input field will appear. Next, type the text “Beanie” and click on the PLAYING NEXT button. 

Then, press the enter key on the control centre to start the search, and the search result will display, as shown in the below screenshot.

Swiping

You can see the image of the first item in full by scrolling. To perform this action, first, select the anchor area “Search Results: Beanie” with the mouse and then swipe on the browser screen as shown in the above screenshot. Next, click on the Play It button to execute the action. It will verify that the image of the first item is visible in full.

Next, we are going to check whether the Beanie with the logo is visible with the price. Select the anchor area of the item, as shown in the below screenshot and click on the Play It button to execute the action. It will verify that the Beanie with logo is visible with the price.

Conclusion

Exit the editor by pressing the Done button. Click on the Run button to run the test. If the test passes, Congratulations! Otherwise, try to fix the test by editing it. Visit our documentation if you need help.