Review of 5 Modern Automation Test Tools for UI

February 20, 2014By Ravello CommunityIn Ravello Community

Automation test tools are designed to reduce human efforts and increase productivity. But, the extent of success depends on choosing the right testing tools. Let’s consider some of the modern test tools and their purposes.

Selenium

Selenium is the most popular open-source tool for Web UI automation testing. It is efficient and highly recommended for the automated testing of web applications. Selenium requires more basic programming skills, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java/C#/Python, compared to other automation tools. It lets you write tests in your favourite standard languages.

The Selenium components include:

1. Selenium IDE
2. Selenium Client API
3. Selenium RC
4. Selenium WebDriver
5. Selenium Grid

Selenium IDE is used as a record and playback tool. Selenium RC or Remote Control is a server that is expected to be started before test execution. Selenium WebDriver is the successor to Selenium RC that uses browser’s native approach to make direct calls to the browser. WebDriver is purely an Object Oriented API.

In particular, Unit Testing frameworks like TestNG and JUnit for Java Bindings do a great job on reporting and test execution when used with Selenium.

Sikuli

Sikuli is another open-source test automation tool that locates anything from the screen, based on image recognition techniques. Sikuli uses Python as a scripting language and makes use of the screenshots for GUI automation tests over different OS platforms; mainly on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

It can also be integrated with Selenium WebDriver for automating Canvas UI, Browser pop-ups, Flash contents, and Java Applets.

import org.sikuli.script.*;
public static Screen sikuliObject = new Screen();

@Test
public void test01() throws Exception, FindFailed {
driver.get("www.xyz.com");        
try{     
   sikuliObject.click("C:\\workspace\\project\\images\\1.png", 0); //Clicking an image
   sikuliObject.type("C:\\workspace\\project\\images\\search.png", "hello"); //Inserting values into a text field
} catch(FindFailed e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
}

Sikuli’s image-based recognition system provides the simplest way to automate Flash sites. The Sikuli image dictionary, which is a key feature of Sikuli, lets you manage images to drive tests.

AutoIt

AutoIt is a freeware tool that is used to automate Windows GUI-based applications. The automation tests are based on simulated keystrokes, mouse movements and window/control manipulation. Unlike other tools, AutoIt provides real-time mouse movements to select an element.

AutoIt is easy to learn and is capable of automating anything in the Windows environment. It can also be integrated with Selenium WebDriver by adding the following snippet:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("C:\\folder\\test.exe");

Here, test.exe is a test file obtained after compiling recorded scripts. The recorded AutoIt scripts are edited in SciTE editor and then compiled later for test execution.

TestComplete

The product TestComplete is owned by SmartBear. TestComplete is easy to understand and makes it easy to automate tests. It lets you automate tests over:

• Windows Desktop
• Web Applications
• Mobile devices

Performing functional tests on a web application is much easier with TestComplete. It also supports testing:

1. Flash Applications
2. Flex Applications
3. AIR Applications
4. HTML5 Applications
5. Silverlight Applications
6. Cross-browser testing

The web testing functionality is provided by a special web testing plugin that is only included in the Enterprise edition of the TestComplete. It lets you record scripts and maintain control over web elements on Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla Firefox, and so on.

TestStack.White

TestStack.White is a UI automation framework that is accessible only on Microsoft’s Windows Operating System. It lets you automate tests over:

• Windows Desktop/Applications
• Web Applications
• Console Applications
• Web Services
• Embedded Systems

The framework is used to automate rich-client applications based on Win32, WinForms, WPFSilverlight, and SWT platforms. It allows the test scripts to be written in .NET language that supports object-oriented scripting and test frameworks.

It uses the following tools to find the properties of the UI elements:

1. UISpy
2. WinSpector
3. WinID
4. Visual UI Automation Verify

TestStack.White uses property details to automate the application. It is meant to be an active open-source project after all the fixes.

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Review of 5 Modern Automation Test Tools for UI