Testing web applications with Capture & Replay
There are different approaches for functional testing of web applications (see also functional web testing). Besides the use of automated unit tests, applications are often also tested directly via the graphic user interface (GUI). Here on can again distinguish between:
- testing web applications by coding the user interactions via special interfaces
- testing web applications using a so called Capture & Replay tool
But how does a tool like this work? For testing web applications with C&R the tester has to first carry out the specified test cases manually on the system under test (SUT) while they are being recorded by the test software. In order to do so the C&R tool interconnects between SUT and GUI. Activated event listeners are waiting for occurring events. As soon as the user starts testing web applications the test software begins to record all actions in form of events (type and event data) including all information necessary to identify the respective GUI widget. During recording the user has the option to set checks which are used for testing web applications for baseline values or the correct state of one or more components or of the entire GUI. Additionally all test runs are being logged during the automated testing process.
For the automated testing of web applications, after recording, the test script is being replayed via the GUI and the integrated checks are being carried out (see also automated web testing).
figure 1 testing web applications with Capture & Replay - workflow
While in general it’s being criticized that when testing web applications with C&R tools one has to rerecord test scripts in the case of changing layout, web2test avoids this problem. In order to do so several different heuristics, which allow an intelligent recognition of GUI components, have been implemented and render web2test’s test scripts tolerant to layout changes. This way one can be testing web applications via C&R even if there will be changes to the SUT at a later date.
The implemented heuristics also solve the problem of dynamically generated component IDs (see also Testing dynamic IDs with a web application test tool), which is the case with certain web development frameworks. Hence web2test can be used for testing web applications independent of the underlying frameworks (more information regarding the features of the web2test web testing tool).
The “Testing web applications with Capture & Replay” article in German:
