Introduction to Automation Testing Tools
Automation Testing is usually applied on the software application which needs to be periodically validated for the same set of test cases, by making use of the reusability property of Automation testing scripts. The tools used to execute the Automation test scripts should be selected after careful consideration on few factors such as the platform on which the application is built, the budget set for the automation process, the resources available to work on it and the client’s preference. It is equally important to compare all the tools currently available in market while selecting the tool.
Automation testing tools
The following are the top automation testing tools which we can use –
- Selenium
- Katalon Studio
- UFT
- Test Complete
- SoapUI
- Postman
- IBM Rational Functional Tester
- Apache JMeter
Let us see them each in more detail.
1. Selenium
Selenium is the most ubiquitous open source automation testing tool which might be used by almost 8 out of 10 test engineers. This is treated as the industry standard for testing the user interface of web applications. Selenium offers support to use multiple languages like Java, Groovy, Python, C#, PHP, Ruby and Perl and also to run on multiple platforms like Linux, Windows and MacOS and multiple browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.
The test engineers and the developers who wish to use this selenium tool need to be good at their programming skills and need to spend enough time building their automation framework or automation test suite. This is one of the disadvantages of Selenium.
You can find selenium at – https://www.selenium.dev/
2. Katalon Studio
This tool addresses the disadvantages of Selenium and comes with much more advanced features. This tool is a very powerful and comprehensive tool for testing REST APIs, SOAP, web and mobile applications. Just like Selenium, this also supports multiple platforms and environments.
The following are the advantages of Katalon Studio
- Supports both REST and SOAP protocols.
- To create test cases this has hundreds of keywords that comes in-built.
- One can do both exploratory and automation testing.
- This can be employed by both professional programmers and also non-techies.
You can find Katalon Studio at – https://www.katalon.com/
3. UFT
UFT is a testing tool owned by a company called MicroFocus and UFT stands for Unified Functional Testing Tool. This is used widely for function, regression and service testing of the software. The following are the advantages of UFT –
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- This comes with a good set of capabilities to test APIs.
- This also has abilities of object detection, detection, and correction.
- This has a very good user interface for creating and executing the test case and also for logging and generating test run reports.
- Also provides visualizations of tests’ actions, parameters, and activities.
You can find UFT at – https://www.microfocus.com/en-us/products/uft-one/overview
4. Test Complete
This product of SmartBear is one of the most powerful testing tools to test mobile, web and desktop applications. The test engineer can use VBScript, JavaScript, Python, and C++ to develop their test suite. Like the above UFT, this also has the object detection ability with which one can identify the right component on the user interface. This engine is very useful especially when the user interface changes dynamically. This tools also gives provision to test and record & log the test runs just like Katalon Studio.
You can find Test Complete at – https://smartbear.com/product/testcomplete/overview/
5. SOAP UI
This is a tool for API testing. This supports both SOAP and REST protocols. This is ready to use a tool by SmartBear with the following advantages –
- The test case generation is as easy to use as that with the drag and drop feature.
- The tests can be driven using data files and databases.
- Asynchronous testing.
- One can simulate dummy REST API services too with RESTful mocking.
A competitor of this tool for API testing is Postman.
You can find SOAP UI at – https://www.soapui.org/
6. Postman
Initially started as a Google Chrome browser plugin and then turned into a full-fledged application, Postman forms a very powerful API testing tool especially for those who don’t want to code the test suites using the same language as that which developers have used.
Following are the advantages of Postman –
- User-friendly REST client.
- Can be used for both exploratory and automated testing.
- Supports multiple platforms like Windows, MacOS, etc.
- This also integrates with Swagger and RAML formats.
- This also has logging and monitoring abilities.
You can find Postman at – https://www.postman.com/
7. IBM Rational Functional Tester (RFT)
If your application is built using.Net, Java, Visual Basic, Adobe Flex, SAP, PowerBuilder, etc. kind of technologies then IBM Rational Functional Tester is something you must employ. This is also a data-driven platform for testing for regression and functional testing.
With a feature of RFT called as the ‘storyboard testing’ one can visualize and edit the tests using Natural Language, Colloquial statements and application screenshots. As an IBM’s application this tool integrates well with other IBM products.
8. Apache JMeter
This was primarily designed for test loading and performance measurement. Nevertheless, the tool can also be extended to test API performance. This is the 3rd most popular tool for test automation as per the Test Automation Challenges survey.
Advantages of this tool are –
- Lightweight and easy to use.
- Supports data-driven testing.
- Supports integration with CI tools such as Jenkins.
You can get this Apache JMeter at – https://jmeter.apache.org/
Conclusion
Well, that was a long list of automation test tools but it is not exhaustive. There are a lot more powerful tools that can be used for this purpose. You need to be wise enough to choose the right tool which will serve your purpose along with other constraints such as budget, time and skills. One good thing to keep in mind while choosing the automation tool is that it must be flexible, trending and also flexible enough to adapt to the changes in the future. With this, you can ensure ‘quality with speed’ for your software development cycles.
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