For the last few years, test automation has been used to develop, specify, and run tests using an automation framework. However, not every firm has access to engineers who can quickly construct these automated tests. Furthermore, when applications and products develop, there is a significant maintenance expense, resulting in poorer automation ROI and coverage.
This is where scriptless test automation comes into the picture. Businesses today may utilize Scriptless Test Automation to automate test cases without having to worry about the complexities of coding. It speeds up the time to learn and build code, resulting in a shorter time to market, a greater return on investment, and increased coverage with little maintenance.
In this article, we will discuss scriptless testing in-depth, how scriptless test automation benefits your organization and how you can utilize scriptless testing tools to streamline software development.
What is Scriptless Test Automation?
Scriptless or codeless testing, as the name implies, is a way of automating tests by using tools rather than writing test scripts. The tools are often built on test automation frameworks such as Selenium.
A scriptless testing tool can record a tester’s activities as they navigate through features on application screens. By collecting these actions, the tool will generate the same test steps for which one can typically create a test script.
As a result, scriptless testing is restricted to interacting with UI components. A tester, on the other hand, may validate end-to-end testing scenarios and guarantee crucial components are error-free.
Scriptless testing is constrained by the same constraints as the test framework it employs. As a result, it may not test things like captcha, barcodes, and so on.
Scriptless Test Automation Workflow:
Scriptless testing is accomplished through the use of record and playback. Simply said, it implies recording the activities on screen and replaying them as a test.
Consider the following e-commerce workflow:
Register or Login >> Search the Product Catalog >> Adding Item(s) to Cart >> Add Shipping and Billing Information >> Checkout & Payment >> Create a Receipt and Order Details
This complete scenario includes several features, data inputs, and third-party connectors. As a result, numerous things might go wrong as features are regularly upgraded. However, one can simply explore as if they were a user, record tests, and automate them.
Cross-browser and parallel testing are also features of several scriptless testing solutions. That is, tests can be run on many browsers at the same time.
General Features
● Traditionally, Automated Testing necessitates complicated script creation, which frequently necessitates strong engineering skill sets. Furthermore, these test scripts are “brittle,” meaning they break as the app changes or as the app runs on multiple devices.
● Test scripts may be developed in a simple “no-code” fashion.
● This is why scriptless automation tools are appealing. They provide enterprises with a low-complexity and cost-effective way to leverage the benefits of Automated Testing without the complexity or cost of script creation.
● They provide businesses a simple and cost-effective solution to take advantage of the benefits of Automated Testing without the hassle or expense of writing scripts. As a result, it is critical to guarantee the following when selecting a mobile Scriptless Automation platform:
● The test scripts can run on a wide range of devices and operating systems without causing problems.
● Test scripts might be exported in an open standard format to avoid vendor lock-in.
Benefits of Scriptless Test Automation
The Advantages of Scriptless Test Automation are as follows.
● Less coding experience -
It is not required for testers to have programming or scripting expertise.
● Catalyst between business analysts and technical experts -
Aside from testers (who are the primary users of Scriptless automation), the framework may also be extended to Product Owners (in the Agile era) and Business Analysts for setting up and conducting User Acceptance Tests (UAT).
● Reduced time to automation -
Automated tests that are more quickly developed and properly integrated into the Agile approach.
● Agile -
It provides versatility for both novice and experienced users.
● Quicker development -
There would be fewer ‘test’-related issues because the underlying scriptless framework would have been fully tested. As a result, the time spent troubleshooting and addressing test-related errors is reduced.
● Easy maintenance -
Maintenance of the complete automation suite is simplified.
Challenges with Traditional Automation Testing
● Maintenance issues: As the AUT changes, automation components must transform on a regular basis, update scripts, and so forth.
● Change of focus: the testing team’s goal has shifted from testing the application’s functionality to technical development and script execution.
● Less coverage of automation tests: Due to the maintenance overhead and human coding, automation tests have lower coverage.
● Poor testing procedures: If testing approaches aren’t up to standards, such as poorly organized tests, inconsistent documentation, and tests that aren’t particularly successful at discovering defects, automation isn’t always the best solution.
● False feeling of security: Just because the test suites don’t uncover any flaws in the program doesn’t mean there aren’t any. This is critical because if the tests themselves have flaws, the results will be erroneous. Those erroneous findings will be saved indefinitely by the automated test.
Best Scriptless Test Automation Tools based on different approaches
When selecting an automated testing tool, seek one that is versatile and supports a wide range of applications and languages. This will allow your team to participate in your testing efforts regardless of their experience or skill level. These frameworks have evolved significantly throughout the years. Let’s look at some of these tools based on different approaches:
1. Keyword-driven approach: It is a functional automation testing framework that is sometimes referred to as table-driven testing or action word-based testing. In keyword-driven testing, we set keywords or action words for each function that we want to perform in a table format, generally a spreadsheet.
Ex: — Robot Framework
This is an open-source automation framework tool that is well-known for Acceptance Test Driven Automation, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and Acceptance Testing.
Features:
● This tool employs the keyword-driven testing technique with simple tabular test syntax.
2. Model-based approach: It rapidly scans the application’s UI or APIs to create a business-readable automation model. That makes it 4X faster than coding. This approach follows the strategy of developing or specifying an application or platform that is based on the use of software models.
Ex: — Tosca
Tosca is a software testing tool for automating end-to-end testing of software applications. To test GUIs and APIs from a business standpoint, Tricentis Tosca integrates many components of software testing.
Features:
● It creates codeless, robust automated tests using a novel technique that isolates an application’s technical knowledge from the automation model.
● It allows you to increase automation rates to 90 percent or higher, decrease maintenance costs, and enhance productivity.
3. AI-powered object recognition engine approach: This approach is concerned with AI systems’ ability to distinguish various items and entities. Object identification enables AI algorithms to recognize and extract items from inputs such as video and still camera photos. These tests can be recorded, scripted or manually created with keyword-driven operations and native support for BDD (Behavior-driven development).
Ex: — TestComplete
TestComplete enables testers to write automated tests for Microsoft Windows, Web, Android, and iOS apps.
Features:
● TestComplete may perform many automated tests on different workstations.
● It records the important activities required to rerun the test and eliminates those that are unnecessary.
4. Behavior-driven test creation approach: This is a testing methodology that adheres to the concept of specification by example. The goal is to explain how the program should act in a very basic user/business language. It writes tests in plain English language from the end-user perspective.
Ex: — TestRigor
TestRigor leverages AI to assist its customers reduce test maintenance by 200X, accelerate test creation by 20X, and enable human QA to design tests in plain English as an executable language. In addition, end-user analytics is utilized to develop tests that match the most commonly used end-to-end scenarios from production.
Features:
● In less than 15 minutes, one may complete a full retest.
5. GUI Test approach: is defined as the process of confirming the appropriate operation of a particular application’s graphical user interface (GUI) and ensuring that it corresponds to its specified standards.
Ex: — Squish
Squish is a market leader in graphical user interface testing. It has a number of excellent features. It is cross-platform and extremely versatile, capable of automating Windows, web, Android, iOS, and Java.
Features:
● It supports a number of programming languages such as Ruby, JavaScript, Python, and Perl.
Conclusion
Scriptless testing might be a viable alternative for organizations facing difficulty automating tests. It has several advantages over traditional test automation approaches. With applications getting more complicated, scriptless test automation is emerging as a cost-effective solution.
Like other businesses, if you too are looking to develop scriptless test automation solutions, Mindfire Solutions can be your partner of choice. We have a team of highly skilled and certified software professionals, who have developed many custom solutions for our global clients over the years.
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