Test Automation tools

August 24, 2016

What is test automation and why it is necessary?

Test automation may be defined as the software-driven process which may be implemented to check functionalities of software product. By using test automation, efforts and time required in the regression testing could be saved. As compared to manual testing, test automation requires less resources to manage the complete system.

The basic necessity to use test automation tools is to save both time and efforts of software testing engineers in executing tests and simultaneously increasing the effectiveness, efficiency, productivity and coverage of the tests.. Developers create and design these tools as per the necessity and requirements.

Following tools may be categorized for distinct automated testing purposes in order to refine software products:

Automated Web Testing Tools:

This automated testing is performed on the web based applications, to detect various kinds of flaws, which restricts software to function. These are the list of web testing tools which describes individual working and its use:

Selenium: It is an open-source and portable web testing tool, which performs automated testing across different web browsers to deliver good quality services. It has four components such as Selenium IDE, Selenium RC, Webdriver and Selenium Grid. Selenium also has a support, to devise and improvise user queries.
Watir: It stands for (Web Application Testing in Ruby). It is an open source web testing tool. It is a collection of ruby libraries, to perform automated tests, which enables users to read and write test cases. Watir functions the browsers in the same way as user do and checks accordingly at user’s end.
Windmill: It is also an open source, cross-platform and cross-browser web testing framework which help testers to analyze and debug web applications. This tool written in Python and Javascript, which helps to perform compatibility tests with the related languages.
Ranorex: It is a commercial tool for GUI test automation, which performs testing on web applications, desktop, and mobile applications. It doesn’t have its own scripting language but it uses standard languages such as C#, VB.NET, etc.
SoapUI: An open source cross-platform functional testing tool. It is specially designed for APIs automatic tests to ensure the functionality across different platforms. It provides streamlined service simulation which makes automated tests more reliable.

Automated GUI Testing Tools:

The tools that makes user interface quite effective and robust across all the major platforms, such as Windows and Mac.

Following are some of the tools that are readily available in the market, which may help to perform GUI tests for various operating systems:

Squish: A commercial based GUI testing tool. It works in various platforms such as QT, Windows and Mac applications. Squish enable developers to generate automated tests by using well-known scripting languages such as JavaScript, Ruby, Python and Perl.
TestComplete: A commercial automated testing tool, designed for Windows operating system. It enables user to record, script and perform appropriate GUI tests for major applications. It uses different frameworks and languages, such as C++ and .NET.
eggPlant: A commercial GUI test automation tool which is used by professionals and enterprise teams.

Unit Testing Frameworks:

It may be seen as a well-defined and established structure, to create and execute unit test cases, in an efficient manner. These are some automated unit testing tools for different platforms and various programming languages:

NUnit: An open source tool, originally designed for .NET related languages. Initially, it is imported from JUnit to .NET and redesigned to add more .NET features.
xUnit.net: It is an open-source .NET based tool, invented by NUnit. Mainly designed to perform unit testing for .NET framework. This version is introduced for latest programming languages such as C#, VB.NET, F# and other .NET related frameworks.
PyUnit.net / unittest: An open-source, python based tool. Originally designed for python programming languages. It’s a ‘PyUnit’ version or python version of JUnit.
Junit: It is an open source java based tool, used to perform repetitive tests in java. JUnit is an essential tool to test development phase. It is said to be a ‘standard framework’ for java developers.
TestNG: An open-source tool, initially designed for java based applications which are followed by JUnit and NUnit. It covers numerous categories of tests such as unit test, functional tests, etc.

Automated Testing Cloud Services:

There are some automated cloud based tools which is used to automate web applications and mobile devices in different environment on multiple machines:

Sauce Labs: It is a type of Selenium and a paid tool, which allows users to run tests for web applications and mobile on different browsers with multiple devices in less time and also they can accelerates software development procedure. It is one the largest automated cloud testing tools.
TestingBot: It is a paid and Selenium type of tool, which allows testers to run several tests on hundreds of browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc., by using automated testing tool.
Gridlastic: It is a type of Selenium tool, initially it provides free services and runs on several browsers to achieve results by automated testing. It shows all the required information in just one click. It also increases the reliability and speed of software powered systems and devices.
CircleCI: It's a paid and continuous Integration type of tool, which performs numerous tests and deploy result in a less time. It automatically develops code modules, perform several tests and setup a software product in minutes.
Mailosaur: The tool which is developed for email testing, available free for 14 days as a trial version. It provides a service for integrated emails to check and correct the problems. It works with every languages and frameworks.