CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascripttestingbrowseruser-interfaceautomated-tests
PhD
PhD

Reputation: 11334

Tools and techniques for UX-centric Regression testing of a web application?

The application that I'm currently working on is a simple 3-tier web application (whatever simple means :) However, the application is very UX/UI intensive i.e. the user-interface forms the crux of application. Every structural change to the page or refactoring javascript/jquery/backbone code, we need to ensure that the UI is behaving as expected.

For example, if div's are disappearing on deleting the object, or if items are being successful 'posted' and displayed in a different div etc.

I'm relatively new to the domain of UX/UI-based testing and not sure how to attack this problem. As of now it's quite a manual overhead to ensure it looks and works right. We do have 'one layer below' tests where we send HTTP messages and all seems to work fine with the return codes etc. But UI focused testing is what we lack.

I've heard about Selenium, Jasmine and a few Javascript frameworks but am not sure if they serve my needs. As of now the solution I see is to custom code javascript tests that would 'autorun' these tests from a browser and check if things are happening the way they should (probably with a human just 'staring' at the screen :) This itself will be quite a task and I thought of asking the community on suggestions before we reinvent the wheel.

Question: What tools/techniques are best suited for this type of a job?

PS: It's a Java/Restlet based web-application

Upvotes: 3

Views: 356

Answers (1)

stirno
stirno

Reputation: 598

Selenium can definitely do what you need if you're looking to build 'real' automation tests, meaning code-based testing in something like Java, .NET or any of the other supported 'server-side' languages.

This would be far more likely to help detect regression than javascript-based tests where you have sometimes have limited ability to properly replicate user-interactions if it wasn't designed to allow it. Some things you would find are nearly impossible to test with just javascript.

Its worth the effort and Selenium is supported very well across many languages. Its essentially the industry standard and you'll find lots of documentation and helpful frameworks to get you started.

Upvotes: 2

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