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Why Your Selenium Tests are so Dang Brittle, and What to Do About It
This document discusses strategies for making Selenium web application GUI tests less brittle. It recommends writing fewer GUI tests and more unit and integration tests. For the GUI tests that are written, it suggests hand coding the tests in Java rather than recording and playback, using object oriented design principles, keeping test framework code dry while allowing test code to be wetter, and using element locators like ID attributes and xpath as a last resort. The document then provides examples of code that implements these strategies.
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Why Your Selenium Tests are so Dang Brittle, and What to Do About It
- 1. Why Your SeTests are So Dang Brittle… …and what to do about it Patrick Wilson-Welsh [email protected]
- 2. Introduction Patrick Welsh Senior Agile Consultant Pillar Technology Group http://pillartechnology.com [email protected] http://patrickwilsonwelsh.com http://coderetreat.ning.com/ mobile: 248 565 6130 twitter: patrickwelsh
- 3. Caveat Lector: This is a technical webinar. To follow, you’ll need to know Selenium, a bit of Java, xpath, HTML, and a bit of Object Oriented Design. And, I will be gentle.
- 4. We‟re here tohelp …
- 5. How hard isit to regression test an entire enterprise web app using any web-app- GUI-black-box testing tool?
- 6.
- 7. Number #1 ReasonSelenium RC, through the web app GUI tests are so brittle?
- 8. Because you arewriting too many of them. Let me put that another way.
- 9. You are committingtoo high a percentage of total test-automation and programming resources to that specific kind of automated testing. Have a plan for outgrowing that pattern. Actually, have a fairy tale:
- 10. 3 kinds ofautomated tests
- 11. GUI end-2-end, integration, story, acceptance unit/micro/isolation
- 12. TCO % of automatedtesting work
- 13. good: least investment/ROI good: most investment/ROI
- 14. least rework &waste; lowest TCO
- 15. But that’s notyour triangle, yet.
- 16. we often starthere
- 17. good: easy to learn bad: hard to learn for good reason!
- 18. bad: high TCO, low ROI good: low TCO, high ROI But again, the price
- 19. So, you’re stuckwith more Se testing than you should be doing. That’s ok. So am I.
- 20. How can weminimize the brittleness of these inherently brittle tests?
- 21. Following are thingsthat help me and my teams.
- 22. Don‟t tell metesting is “not your job”
- 23. Automated testing iseverybody’s job. Se tests are written by testers and programmers together. Period. The whole team shares sufficient testing as part of Definition of Done.
- 24. • Use Seonly for what it‟s good for • Never record and play back tests • Se IDE is just a sandbox. Not an IDE. • Hand-roll your tests (I use Java) • Use a bit of Object Oriented Design • Separate test code from framework code
- 25. • Test classesget common setup • Keep test framework code really DRY • Beware test code that is too DRY • Duplication is built into GUI test code • Test-class page flows: “open-coded” • Don‟t fret so much about encapsulation. • Concentrate on test clarity.
- 26. • Use idor name attributes if you got „em • Use xpath as a last-resort element locator • Use least-brittle xpath patterns • Know the IE xpath pitfalls • Beware of Firebug-Driven Development • Use Singleton Se instance • Use Singleton/static app state, carefully • Consider a PageFlowSequence pattern
- 27. A principle toconsider for Se testing: DRY test framework; “wet” test code.
- 28. Let’s see somecode already.
- 29.
- 30. Our Next Steps •Upcoming Webinars: Please visit pillartechnology.com/events • All of the webinar content is available to your business in a 1-2 day on-site workshop or as a “lunch and learn” format. Please contact us for details. • Visit www.pillartechnology.com/events to access presentation slides and full archived broadcasts of past webinars. • Twitter.com/agilesoftware • Blog: www.pillartechnology.com/blog • LinkedIn: Join the Agile Enthusiast Group on LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/agilegroup • YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PillarTechnology • Phone: (888) 3-pillar • Web: pillartechnology.com • Email: [email protected]