Mobile app and web automation testing are becoming more critical than ever before. A mobile app is application software that is designed to run on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Mobile apps are designed according to the requirements of the target audience using technologies including native applications, web applications wrapped in native shell, and mobile sites.
Web applications are network-accessible applications that can be accessed via web browsers. They can be accessed over different devices such as PCs, Smartphones, and Tablets. Some of the examples of web applications are Email services, Google Docs, and Online banking portals.
Why is Automation Testing Important   Â
Automation testing is an important part of building a high quality, bug-free software application. Automation testing can be used for Unit Tests, Integration Tests, Regression Tests, and GUI Tests.
Automated software testing has many advantages over manual testing. The main reason to use automation testing is the ability to run thousands of test cases in a short period of time. This allows you to find bugs in your code quickly after making changes. Other benefits include:
- Faster feedback loop – Find problems faster to allow developers to fix them as soon as possible which reduces the cost of fixing bugs later in development or production.
- Increased test coverage – Automation tools give you more opportunities to test more scenarios and user flows with less effort than manual tests.
- Consistent results – Automated tests are easier to run consistently because they are not subject to human error when running them. This also means that there is less work required from the QA team.
Tools to Automate the Testing Process
Automation testing is nothing but using an automation tool to execute your test case. The automation software can also enter test data into the System Under Test, compare expected and actual results, and generate detailed test reports.
There are two types of automated testing tools available in the market: Commercial and Open Source. Open source tools are free to use and are a good option for organizations that require a low budget for test automation. Commercial tools are bought from the vendor, so they usually have better technical support, training, and documentation. There are many different types of automation tools available in the market today. We will discuss some of the most popular ones below:
Web AutomationTools
Automation itself comes with a lot of benefits you can say it’s a life-changer testing process. But in selecting the best automation testing tool it is to consider that it is feature-packed and easy to use so that it helps you to create your test cases in no time. Some of them are discussed here that will surely meet most of your criteria.
Selenium
Selenium is a suite of tools for browser automation. It provides the following tools:
- Selenium IDE: Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is the simplest framework in the Selenium Suite and is the easiest one to learn. It can be used for recording, managing, and running test cases. However, it cannot be used for testing on mobile devices and complicated scenarios.
- Selenium WebDriver: Selenium WebDriver is an API to perform operations on web applications with a wide range of browsers. It supports parallel testing and offers better reporting features than Selenium 1.
- Selenium Grid: This tool allows you to run tests on different machines against different browsers in parallel.
Mabl
Mabl is a no-code, self-service test automation tool that helps you build & maintain automated tests on modern web applications. It has been designed to help automate the testing of both web applications and mobile web applications using a single product offering.
It is the ideal solution for non-technical users such as Business Analysts, Product Managers, and QA Testers. In addition, technical users such as Developers and QA Engineers will also find it to be extremely helpful in automating their UI test cases across web applications.
It also provides an intuitive interface that enables users to create functional tests with ease. There is no need for programming knowledge or coding skills – simply sign up for an account and get started with creating automated tests within minutes.
Unified Functional Testing(UFT)
UFT is a functional and regression test automation tool that helps in automating functional and regression testing to deliver a quality product at a faster pace.
It supports keyword and scripting interfaces and features a graphical user interface. UFT is licensed software, with license fees determined by the number of virtual users required for load testing. Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing (UFT) software, formerly known as HP QuickTest Professional (QTP) provides functional and regression test automation for software applications and environments. UFT can be used for enterprise quality assurance.
UFT (formerly known as QTP) has two parts: The GUI Map and the Code. The GUI Map is like the “skeleton” of your application. It identifies all objects in your AUT and creates properties for them (referred to as “smart identification”). These properties, in turn, are used to identify objects during tests run on your AUT.
The code is what executes when you run a script. This is where you store your actions, checkpoints, and other functions that you use during script execution.
The GUI Map is static but the code can change. If an object in your AUT changes, you can update its properties in the GUI map without having to touch the code itself (provided that it still maps to the same object).
Mobile Automation Tools
Productive mobile app testing is hard to think without automation. Automated tests have become the most important requirement for deployment and faster time to market. Some of the great mobile testing tools that will help you to generate faster and more effective test scripts are discussed below-
Appium
Appium is a free and open-source cloud high-qualityperiodbased testing framework for mobile automation. It allows you to test all three types of mobile applications: native, hybrid, and mobile web. Appium allows native, hybrid, and web application testing and supports automation tests on physical devices as well as on emulators or simulators both.
Appium is a widely used automation tool for Mobile Applications and this support cross platform applications i.e. single API works for both Android and iOS platform test scripts
Robotium
Robotium is an open-source test automation framework for Android. It is used for functional testing of hybrid and native Android applications.
It supports both native and hybrid Android apps, offering a simple API to write functional UI tests with minimal knowledge about the app’s structure or implementation. The tests are written in Java and compiled into a single test suite (APK). Robotium can interact with multiple Android activities at the same time.
Robotium can be used both on real devices and on emulators and has full support for Activities, Dialogs, Toasts, Menus, and Context Menus.
Tests can be run automatically from Eclipse ADT or the command line using Ant. Test results are collected in HTML reports generated by Robotium Recorder.
SelendroidÂ
Selendroid is a test automation framework that drives off the UI of Android native and hybrid applications (apps) and the mobile web. Tests are written using the Selenium 2 client API – that’s it.
It can be used on emulators and real devices and can be integrated as a node into the Selenium Grid for scaling and parallel testing.
Selendroid supports hot plugging of hardware devices. As soon as a device is plugged in, it is recognized by Selendroid. Besides other things, this feature makes testing with Android wearables possible.
Conclusion
Automating your testing processes will save you both time and money. Analyzing the code for defects to see if it has any flaws or security vulnerabilities is a time-consuming part of the process, both for developers and testers. Automated testing frees you to focus on more important tasks at hand, such as testing functionality or adding additional features.cross-platform
Cloud based automation testing tools help further ease down the process of automation of the application be it web or Android. Cross-browser testing tools like LambdaTest integrate well with popular Web and mobile automation frameworks.
It allows you to test your website and web apps over 3000+ browser and operating system combinations. LambdaTest is the most comprehensive cross-browser testing platform, with the widest coverage of browsers, platforms, and devices. It helps you test faster, cover more browsers and devices, improve your site’s quality, boost user experience and increase your website’s conversion rate.
