In the software testing world, there are two types of testing techniques – manual and automated. Both kinds aim to execute the test case, then compare the actual outcome with the expected result.
To put it simply, manual testing is a testing technique performed by human effort to ensure the software code does anything it is supposed to do. So, what is automation testing? On the contrary, it is the practice of running tests automatically, managing test data, and utilizing results to improve software quality.
If you are familiar with testing, you understand that successive development cycles require the execution of the same test suite repeatedly. This process can be extremely repetitive and time-consuming if you perform it manually. However, by leveraging a test automation tool, it is easier to write the test suite, re-play it as required, mitigating human intervention, and improving testing ROI.
Why you should know about Automation Testing?
Now that we have gone through what automation testing is, it is time to glance at several benefits of automation testing to help you eliminate the ambiguity on whether automation testing is the right choice for your team. The following are highlighted points on why automation testing is so important:
Simplify test execution
With the automated testing tools, test scripts can be reused as often as you need, thus saving both time and effort. Imagine using manual testing, you have to write a single code line for the same test case, over and over again.
Reduce human intervention
Utilizing automation tools, you can run automated tests unattended (overnight) without human intervention. Once written, the tests can be reused and executed unlimited times without additional cost. The tests are also available 24/7, unlike manual testers!
Speed up test
The speed of test execution and test coverage increases, thus shortening the software development cycles.
Increase test coverage on multiple platforms
Automation testing grants you the ability to perform testing on multiple platforms in parallel without creating abundant test cases in different browser versions.
When we should use automation testing?
While QA teams turn their testing strategy towards a more inclusive automation approach to increase efficiency and coverage of the testing process, there are still testers wondering if automation testing is the right choice for them.
Automation is an integral part of a development cycle, so it is essential to determine what you want to achieve with automation before switching into it. A test should meet some criteria in order to be automated – otherwise, it may end up costly investment rather than saving.
Ultimately, it is substantial to remember the goal of automation is to reduce your time, effort, and money. Take below criteria into account before making your own decision:
High Risk – Business Critical test cases
Some test cases may contain severe risks, which will have a negative impact on the business. The negative impact includes costs, customer dissatisfaction, poor user experience. In case the whole testing process is run by a manual tester, even by the most experienced one, there is always a higher possibility of error-prone codes. Running an automated test is considered as a better way under risk-based testing, where higher priority should be put to prevent these unexpected errors.
Repetitive test cases
There is no sense applying automation testing tools for the tests that can only be run one time. Under these circumstances, repeatable tests can be run on-demand, resulting in a reduction of the cost per test run and the time to complete a development cycle.
Functional test cases
Functional testing is also an excellent time to take advantage of automated testing. You can quickly and seamlessly detect the real-time performance of the functional requirements. This approach allows you to achieve accuracy, interoperability, and compliance at ease.
Steps-by-steps to get started with automated testing
Defining the Scope of Automation
The scope of automation means the area of your Application Under Test that will be automated. Make sure you have walked through and know precisely your team’s test state, the amount of test data, also the environment where tests take place. Below are additional clues helping you to determine the scope:
Technical feasibility
The complexity of test cases
The features or functions that are important for the business
The extent to which business components are reused
The ability to use the same test cases for cross-browser testing
Selecting a Testing Tool
After determining your scope, it is now the time for you to pick up a tool for automation testing. Of course, you can select it from a wide range of automation tools available in the market. Yet, it solely depends on the technology on which the application tests are built. Each type of tool or framework may serve different demands, therefore having a thorough understanding of multiple tool types is also a prominent factor in choosing your best tool.
Planning, Designing, and Development
At this stage, you will create an automation strategy and plan. This plan can include the following items:
Your selected automation testing tool
Framework design and its features
A detailed timeline for scripting and executing test cases
In-scope and Out-of-scope items of automation
Goals and deliverables of automation testing process
Executing Test Cases and Build your reports
Once finishing all of the preceding steps, it is time to take action! You can write the scripts, run the test automatically, either by running the code directly or by calling an application’s API or user interface. After your execution, the test report provides a consolidated summary of the testing performed so far for the project.
Maintaining previous test cases
No matter how well you manage the automation testing, test maintenance is unavoidable if you want to expand your collection of reusable test scripts. Once your automated tests have been scripted and running, they still need updating if the application changes the next time.
Conclusion
To sum up, this article provides you with an introduction to automation testing, the benefits of automation testing, and how to start your journey with it. I believe this is the best way to fulfill most of the testing goals with practical resources and time in an Agile world. But be careful before choosing the type of automation that fulfills the requirement of the application because no one can meet the 100% requirement.
API testing remained an essential part of test automation and CI/CD process for QA teams to stay committed to short release cycles and frequent changes. API testing eliminates the need for maintaining scripts following the changes in the application under test’s UI. Read moreAPI testing 101
Postman is a tool for API development, testing, and managing APIs for QA professionals. Postman was first developed as a side project for simplifying API workflow and testing projects. Now it is trusted by 500,000 companies worldwide, with a growing community of developers that have chosen the tool to be their main API testing tool.
How Postman Became the Top Tool of Choice for API Testing
Postman works on all major platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. Individual developers can use Postman’s free version for their basic and simple requirements, and businesses can look for more in their commercial versions. Now identified as a collaboration platform for API development, the tool aims to simplify building an API and streamline team collaboration to make APIs creation better and faster.
The advantages of Postman
Ease of use: A new user to Postman only has to sign up, download the tool, and log in to their account to get started — with no cost for the free version.
Simplified API: Postman users can begin their API journey quickly and effectively using Postman’s comprehensive platform and wide support for all possible HTTP methods.
Robust testing capabilities: Postman supports multiple testing environments, test checkpoints, and scheduling options.
Integration and collaboration powered: Postman Workspace is dedicated to the real-time collaboration between teams with built-in version control. The tool integration ecosystem is growing, with major names constantly being added.
The limitations of testing with Postman
Although Postman has proven its capabilities in providing a holistic experience for developers to perform testing with their web services, it still falls short in several criteria. Most significantly, Postman is ideal for manual testing needs — a fast and simple way to test APIs, while the world is turning their focus more toward continuous testing tools.
Here’s a closer look at Postman’s limitations for automated testing demands:
Postman is not built for automated test validation, making it hard to ensure stability in performance.
It lacks a reporting mechanism — a much-needed feature for today’s Agile teams.
Automated testing with Postman will not be easy to maintain the scripts, increasing the costs and effort of its users to reuse the test cases.
It lacks support for CI/CD integrations and shift-left or Agile processes to meet QA teams’ demand when choosing a testing tool.
It is not built to support team collaboration. With teams that have technical and non-technical members, it is a challenge for those with limited programming skills to continue developing the test scripts.
The Best Postman Alternative Solutions
Katalon Studio
Katalon Studio provides an all-in-one testing platform for any type of project. It supports all web, mobile, API, and desktop applications testing. The tool is constantly improving over time, allowing users to scale up testing projects with its solution confidently.
API testing in Katalon Studio is a well-rounded capability with full support for all types of REST, SOAP/1.1, and SOAP/1.2 requests. With versatile options for testers to work with their API project: Keyword-driven testing or Page Object Model (POM) testing.
Katalon’s out-of-the-box IDE for API automation provides the optimal features for scripting, debugging, and maintaining tests. Testers are equipped with a host of different features, including autocompletion, code inspection, snippets, quick references, debugger, dual interface, and more.
Katalon also makes sure all needs for scaling and growing QA teams and businesses are met with holistic integration capabilities. Requirements for CI or DevOps practices are all covered with Katalon’s native plugins — supporting integration with all popular tools for test projects.
SoapUI
SoapUI is an API testing tool for both SOAP and REST testing. It covers the creation and execution of automated functional, regression, compliance, and load tests on Web API.
Apart from functional testing features, SoapUI also offers security and load testing features. Users can leverage SoapUI’s easy scripting features: drag and drop or point and click.
With a simple and easy-to-use interface, testing with SoapUI is not too much of a challenge for users without a technical background. Testers and businesses can choose to work with the open-source or the pro version depending on their needs.
In comparison with Postman, SoapUI provides a wider range of features for API testing needs, such as SOAP testing, API discovery, automated assertion creation, templated data insertion, and open-source standards. Postman also lacks load testing and security testing capabilities that are available when testing with SoapUI.
3 Best Practices to Level-up API Testing Using Postman Scripts
Develop API scripts with Postman and let the rest handled by Katalon Studio
Postman is a common choice for developers to write their test scripts for API testing. However, incorporating automation into the API scripts is not the best way to test more with less effort. Instead, Postman users can leverage the integration with Katalon Studio to run automated tests with their ready-made Postman scripts.
First, export your Postman collection to JSON. See the instruction here.
Then in Katalon Studio, create a new API/Web Service project, and click on the Postman icon on the toolbar.
The corresponding test objects will then be imported into the Postman folder in Katalon.
Migrate all your API in Postman to Katalon Studio
If importing test scripts is too much of a job for you or your project, there’s another option of moving all your available artifacts in Postman to Katalon Studio. This solution lets you use only just one tool and ensure consistency throughout the whole project.
Here’s a quick tutorial on how to create your first API test with Katalon Studio.
Step 1: Create a new project Go to File > New > Project and enter a project name and its location to start a new project.
Once the project is confirmed to be created, we will see a folder structure in the Test Explorer. This folder system is responsible for keeping all the test resources and is also the place where we start our first API test.
Step 2: Create the first API test
Step 3: Create a new RESTful endpoint at Object Repository Go to Object Repository > New > Web Service Request
Katalon Studio stores Web service endpoints for testing at Object Repository. At the Create New Web Service Request dialog, you can either create a RESTful or a SOAP request.
The request type is a required field. You need to specify it exactly at this step. In contrast, the URL is not required. You can set this value later in the next step.
Click OK. Your first API test is ready for inputting more details to complete the RESTful test. Please read the full instructions and how to extend your API tests in Katalon Docs.
Migrate your Postman collections to SoapUI
As mentioned above, SoapUI is also a good alternative to Postman for teams that solely focus on API testing. The tool makes sure that it is easy for Postman users to migrate from one tool to another. Most of the time Postman users migrate to SoapUI in need of more testing capabilities than mere functional testing with their APIs.
Here’s how to import your Postman Collection to SoapUI.
Export a Postman Collection
To start working with a Postman collection, you need to save it as a file: In the Postman application in Chrome, select your collection and click Download.
Select the Collection v1 export option. SoapUI does not support v2 collections.
Select where you want to save the collection and click Save.
Import the Postman collection to SoapUI
Select File > Import Postman Collection.
In the Import Postman Collection dialog, click Browse and select the Postman collection to import.
SoapUI will create a new project and import all APIs described in the collection.
Conclusion
API testing will remain relevant in the software testing market. Tools like Postman have great potential for further development with more values for its users. However, it is also important for businesses to pick the right tool that is able to scale up with their projects. We write this article, to sum up the overview of the top API testing tools in the market and help you make the most of API automated testing solutions.
With approximately 3.5 billion smartphone users and 1.35 billion tablet users, it’s no surprise that the mobile application industry is thriving with 204 billion apps downloaded in 2019, and projected to increase by 25% between 2020 and 2022.
Such volumes of demands, in addition to the constant influx of software sophistication and operating systems, give way for automated mobile testing to prosper in popularity. Automated mobile testing tools offers a win-win solution for all parties involved:
For developers, it allows the reproduction of potential issues on various devices and OS in real-time, then viewing logs, data, recording for immediate bugging and adjustment, thus improving test cases and efficiency.
For businesses, mobile app testing tools reduce costs and time-to-market, increasing profit and competitive edges.
For users, it increases quality, thus ensuring a smooth experience.
From there, we can see the importance of choosing the right automated mobile app testing tools for developers and companies. Amid such rising appeal for automation, there are hundreds of mobile testing tools for teams to choose from since technology companies are vying for market shares.
However, such availability of mobile testing tools can confuse organizations when looking for the best fit for their mobile apps. To give testing teams some clarity, I’m using my humble personal experiences in software testing to create this list of 15 best automated mobile testing tools in the industry. Teams can use this list to get some good understanding of all the available software, and compare each software’s distinct features; therefore, determine which tool best caters to their apps.
Top 5 Mobile Testing Tools for 2020
1. Appium
This is a no-brainer when it comes to choosing a testing tool for mobile application projects. As one of the most-searched mobile app testing tools, Appium has long been the leading software in the mobile testing industry.
Highlighted features:
Appium is a free, open-source mobile testing tool that supports a wide range of languages, test frameworks, and OS.
It offers various integrations with third-party tools, enabling cross-platform testing using the same API and tests reusability between iOS, Android, and Windows.
Support all kinds of apps with no modification required, making it among the most robust and flexible mobile testing tools.
In conjunction with its advanced features, Appium requires extensive coding experience to create tests, which can be problematic when users need training before use. There’s no official support but rather a community of users sharing information.
There’s a reason why over 65,000 companies worldwide adopted Katalon Studio as their testing solution. Utilizing the robust Appium and Selenium frameworks as its foundation, Katalon Studio is an all-in-one testing solution for companies and teams at any scale. It offers codeless testing for all testing needs (Mobile testing, Web testing,Desktop application testing, API testing) without the steep learning curves of Appium and Selenium. For mobile testing specifically, Katalon supports iOS and Android testing platforms and extends other OSs like Windows and Linux.
Highlighted features:
Supports most testing capabilities offered by Appium, but easier: simple setup; effortless test script creation using keywords, images, objects; test execution locally and remotely on real devices, simulators or custom cloud-based devices, and flexible test reusability across mobile platforms, API, and Web.
Offers powerful utilities to accelerate the automation process: Mobile Object Spy to quickly populate the project’s object repository and Mobile Recorder to generate automation scripts from recorded actions with built-in modifications and actions when recording tests.
Integration with all the commonly used third-party tools (Jira, Git, Jenkins, etc.) and mobile platforms (Sauces Lab, Lambda Test, etc. )
Comprehensive documents, tutorials, and official support from both the Katalon teams and the community.
Formally TestPlant, Eggplant is an AI-powered software test automation for desktop, web, and mobile apps. For mobile testing projects, Eggplant supports all standard platforms: Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Symbian. Although the community for Eggplant isn’t as prominent as other mobile testing tools, its recent merge with Keysight Technology hints a promising expansion may be on the horizon for Eggplant.
Highlighted features:
Test cases can run from the command line without supervision.
AI-powered tools to ensure the continuity of tests while you’re doing remoted works on Cloud.
Eggplant’s Digital Automation Intelligence platform can test any technology on any device, operating system, or browser at any layer, from the user interface (UI) to application programming interfaces (APIs) to the database.
TestComplete is an AI-integrated automated testing tool for UI tests in web, desktop, and mobile applications. Aside from some difficulties in updating test cases, this tool is flexible and easy-to-use with the options of both script and scriptless test generation.
Highlighted features:
Supports multiple programming languages (Python, JScript, VBScript, or JavaScript), multiple mobile platforms (iOS, Android), and third-party tools (Jenkins, GIT, etc. ).
For mobile app testing, TestComplete allows testing on both native and hybrid mobile apps on emulators, real devices, or virtual machines.
User-friendly UI with supportive documents and customer services.
Striving to be an all-in-one testing solution, Ranorex promises to deliver high-quality desktop, mobile, and web applications testing. It’s a natural choice for beginners with a codeless click-and-go interface, helpful wizards, and influential automation experts with a full IDE.
Highlighted features:
Support iOS and Android testing, including native mobile apps and mobile web apps with detailed summary reports.
Run cross-device tests in parallel or use Appium WebDriver for mobile web tests.
Support limited languages but does offer powerful integration.
Another new player in the field, Kobiton, markets itself as a mobile experience platform. From building device labs, instant health-check to run manual and automated tests on native, web and hybrid Android/iOS apps with real devices, Kobiton strives to deliver seamless access to testing regardless of testers’ needs.
Highlighted features:
Built on top of the Appium open-source framework, Kobiton opens for integration with all frameworks (Appium, XCUI, Espresso, etc.)
Pioneering Intelligent Test Automation and Appium Anywhere technology allows for a codeless mobile testing experience based on one manual test script and a seamless text script adaptation across devices.
Providing the latest real, cloud-based devices, centralized testing history, and data logs to support extensive collaboration between teams.
Monkey Talk, another open-source mobile testing tool, is a user-friendly tool that doesn’t require jailbreaking. It automates functional, real interactive tests for both Android and iOS — catering from necessary smoke tests to data-driven test suites.
Highlighted features:
Testers can generate XML and HTML reports with this mobile testing tool.
Automatically take screenshots when error or failure happens.
For continuous integration needs, Monkey Talk also has inbuilt support for Jenkins and Hudson.
Created as an extension of the Android framework, Robotium is an open-source Android-only mobile testing tool that supplies robust automatic black-box test cases for Android applications.
Highlighted features:
Unlike many other Android testing tools, Robotium also allows the automation of multiple Android activities and creates solid test cases in minimal time.
Another prominent open-source tool on this list, iOS Driver, is a Selenium-integrated mobile testing tool for iOS native, hybrid and mobile applications using Selenium/WebDriver API. This tool runs efficiently on an emulator rather than devices, some of its recent versions run on devices but are comparatively slower than on the emulator. As it’s built upon two different frameworks from Apple, testers should check the system requirements for compatibility.
Highlighted features:
Once compatible, testers can utilize some features of the Apple-developed X-code.
iOS Driver makes it easy for testers as they don’t need to jailbreak, change any app code, or load any additional app for testing the app on devices.
iOS Driver can be used as a Selenium Grid Node; thus, tests can be run parallel on the same architecture as the web, decreasing the feedback time for the GUI test.
Test IO is a leading SaaS platform for software crowd testing: the continuous testing of web and mobile applications by skilled human testers using real devices. To test your software, you need to upload your mobile app or share the website URL with test IO, then the team at test IO will securely distribute across the interested testers all over the globe. You will get the initial test results within one hour after starting the test run.
Highlighted Features:
From waterfall to continuous delivery, test IO tests when you need to: from prototype to UAT, regression, and even production.
Remove QA bottleneck with on-demand, flexible testing that scales up to your needs.
Selendroid is among the leading testing tools for Android-based hybrid and native mobile apps. It addresses most setbacks presented by other Android mobile testing apps with its powerful integration of WebDriver API and Selenium System.
Highlighted features:
An open-source framework for Android that can simultaneously interact with multiple devices, emulators, and simulators.
Powerful recording features, UI testing, and flexibility with hardware devices.
Testers are not required to alter their AUT for automation.
Recognized by Forrester Wave as a 2020 strong performer, Perfecto is cloud-based testing software that supports mobile and web testing. It delivers a hassle-free testing experience, made possible by the pervasive platforms and testing devices through which teams can perform tests on. Although the speed on mobile testing is reported to be relatively slower than the web, it boasts a reputation for its collaborative capabilities with screen-sharing options for teams while testing.
Highlighted features:
Support real user simulators and large-scale remote testing.
Extensive test failure analysis with dashboard and detailed artifacts (images, videos, crash logs, vitals, etc).
The wide availability of framework and testing platforms integrations.
Testdroid is a cloud-based software for mobile app testing that helps developers save development costs, eliminate the unpredictable operational cost, and improve time-to-market. Now Testdroid is under development at SmartBear, a leading provider of automation solutions.
Highlighted features:
One of the best platforms to test your iOS and Android devices with different screen resolutions, OS versions, and HW platforms.
Limit the risks of testing with real devices and agile practice.
Allows remote access to more than 300 genuine gadgets running in Android.
Developed by Xamarin, Calabash is an open-sourced mobile app testing tool for iOS and Android. Although it lacks a recording function, it makes up for being one of the few mobile testing tools that support Cucumber, the foundation that enables writing codes in English.
Highlighted features:
Using Xamarin Test Cloud, testers can run test cases on more than 1000 devices with real-time feedback and validation across many different form factors, OS versions, OEM customizations, and hardware specs.
Aside from essential integration with CI/CD tool integrations, Calabash also has separate libraries for iOS and Android that allows testers to interact with native and hybrid apps programmatically.
Supports Ruby, Java, and C# as programming languages.
21 is a self-learning test building and analytics platform for iOS and Android apps. Incorporating major tech innovations like AI, 21 promises an almost full implementation of automation into your testing plan.
Highlighted features:
Fast and intelligent authoring for users to create automated functional and UI tests in minutes.
Automating test maintenance to ensure test reliability across all testing platforms, reduce flaky tests.
Fully SaaS requires no installation or devices to create or execute tests.
Price: Free demo, contact Sales for more information.
By combining the two booming industries of mobile apps and automation testing, there is no doubt that the automated mobile testing industry has a bright future ahead. These 15 tools represent the most innovative, the most flexible products in the industry. With such collections of powerful distinctions and features, it’s no doubt that a few of these apps would be great candidates for your projects and companies.
With that being said, the definition of the best mobile testing tool depends on your product and team. Your testing tool choice should be a software that fits into your team, not software for your team to fit in. Remember to consider your budget, expertise, and needs, then combine with the potential development trends of your app and the mobile application industry to optimize long-term financial gain from the chosen mobile testing tool.
