A Test Automation Blog

In the  "installation" blogpost , I mentioned that when you install lapis_lazuli, it also installs selenium-webdriver and watir. This blogpost I want to use to explain why I use the lapis_lazuli gem as well as a small comparison between the two to show you this added value. At the moment of writing I'm using lapis_lazuli 2.0.1, watir 6.10.0 and selenium-webdriver 3.7.0 Why I use the lapis_lazuli gem? First a little background info. This gem is developed and maintained by a QA company called spriteCloud (my former employer). This is how I got introduced to this gem. The gem was first introduced on Mar 30th, 2015 . I started to use it around november 2016. And on June 29th, 2017, they posted a blog with the title "Watir, Selenium and Cucumber on steroids" . This explains lapis_lazuli in a nutshell, give it a read. Now we have a basic understanding why lapis_lazuli was created, let's have a look at some of the differences and why I like the lapis_laz...

All installations went well so by now you most likely can't wait to start with test automation. And in the next blog post we will, I promise. But I first want to teach you some handy things, give you some background knowledge to you can do it pretty much correct from the beginning. Editors It is entirely up to you which editor you use. But some have a few nifty tricks. When I started a little more over a year ago with test automation I just went with Notepad ++ . I liked the editor, I knew the editor so it was easy for me to use and to start. A friend of mine has become a fan of RubyMine   which is awesome to use since it's build for this purpose, but not free. Recently I found another editor that is free that looks promising and works very nice, Visual Studio Code . Again, I have my favorite, you might have yours, just use whatever you like most, it really does not matter. IRB If you read my previous blog post you might have noticed we already used it. But why do ...

In the previous blogpos t  I explained the concepts of a test automation framework and which one I particularly like and want to share with you. In this blogpost we'll start to get our hands dirty by installing all necessary software so we can start with the fun. Keep in mind I'm writing this guide while working on a Windows computer, so it might be that you need to do some research for your OS if your following this guide while working on OSX or Linux. Browsers I'm not going to explain how to install a browser. But it's recommended to pre-install Firefox so it does not matter on what kind of OS you're working, you could still follow most of the instructions later on. And I'll start with the Firefox browser in the first test run. Other browsers will be covered later. So you can install them now or when we're getting there, that's up to you. Ruby Let's start with the installation of Ruby. My instructions will be similar if not identical ...

You're most likely already familiar with manual testing and different tools and techniques, but manual testing (especially when done repetitive) becomes a very boring task very quick. Also it might be way more efficient to use test automation for repetitive tasks or the ones that are difficult to perform manually. So you want to look into test automation. What do you do? Where do you start? Scripting/Programming Language There are so many tools and languages to use that it's difficult to choose. Usually you start with what is already available in your company, or something that makes sense to use for your project. But if you can start from scratch and there is nothing available in your company and you have no preference for any programming/scripting language, why not start with Ruby . In my experience it was fairly easy to get used to, without to much programming knowledge. Tools Then there is still the task to choose a tool to script for. For website test automation t...

The past During my time at spriteCloud I got my first experience with Test Automation. A crash course in test automation and some days later, I started to write some Gherkin scenario's and test scripts for my own project. SpriteCloud developed a Ruby gem called lapis_lazuli. If you're not familiar with Ruby, it's a plug-in/add-on/extension. This lapis_lazuli gem makes life easier especially for beginners, but I'll explain more about that in one of the next blog posts. The present These days I work for Mproof  to test their new product called Service-Hub . And I'm no test automation master (yet), but I've gained quiet some experience by now and are quiet familiar with the Ruby + Cucumber combination. Still almost every day I learn something new. So I thought it would be nice to share. For you and for me Since the internet is a bit of a jungle of information. You will easily loose time researching an issue that has already been encountered/resolved be...