UI automation technology is a topic that our test engineers cannot avoid. As long as you mention it, almost all test engineers can tell you.
Some people think it is difficult, some people think it is simple.
People who think it is difficult will tell you that UI automation is very unstable, too difficult, and not very practical. It is difficult to really do well.
People who think it's simple will tell you that UI automation is too simple, you can get started in ten minutes, isn't it just writing scripts, driver.find_element_by_id() is over.
Hot Fan feels that these two views are actually one-sided, and both are misunderstandings caused by not understanding UI automation. Real UI automation needs to be subdivided, because it has different stages, and each stage has its own characteristics.
At the beginning of the article, I will give you a clear view that is generally recognized in the industry: At present, UI automation in the industry has formed four stages. Currently, there are not many UI automations that can be used in domestic Internet companies, and most of them are concentrated in the 1-2 stage. If your company is below stage 2, then you really have to cheer.
The following hot rice will give you a brief summary of these four stages~
1. [Recording and playback]
Maybe when you first came into contact with automation, your senior or teacher told you that ui automation can be recorded. For example, web automation can use firfox browser's selenium ide to record into selenium scripts in various languages, and then execute this script, the browser will execute all the operations you just did.
There are a lot of tools such as loadrunner/badboy/QaRun/SNMP Tester, etc. You will think at this time: the original automated test is easy.
[Advantages]: The difficulty of getting started is low, no code is required, and the automatic script generation is very simple and fast.
[Disadvantages]: This kind of script is too dependent on the environment. If the ui layer changes a little, the whole script becomes invalid. Even the id of the element in many web pages is dynamic (different every time it is opened), which causes this kind of script to fail even once after it is generated. If you want to change it, the cost is even higher than writing a script by yourself. In terms of maintenance costs, this script is a one-time thing and is not worth maintaining.
[Summary]: This method has been eliminated since the author first came into contact with automation. Whether it is a teacher or an industry leader, they all bluntly do not touch recording and playback when doing automation. This is a complete detour. So if your company is like this, then it's time for you to show off your power and advance to the next stage!
2. [Manual script]
At this stage, the company's test team will have a part of testers who specialize in automation. They are responsible for writing scripts manually. I believe everyone is familiar with this stage, because most companies with UI automation are in this stage. Each end has its own engineers who are responsible for automation. The languages and technologies they use may be the same or different. If you want to compare it, the eight immortals cross the sea and each show their magical powers. At this time you will think: Is this the Shaolin Temple's kitchen? It's spectacular, it's a gathering place for great gods!
[Advantages]: The quality of manually written scripts far exceeds the recording scripts of the first stage, and the maintainability is greatly enhanced, and there is a certain resistance to changes in the ui layer. The excellent ones will use nonlinear scripts and integrate data-driven/keyword-driven /page-object and other designs.
[Disadvantages]: The power of the automation giants cannot form a single rope, various wheels are made, technology and language can not be unified, and the level of people is different, resulting in a lot of difference in script quality. In the end, once someone leaves, there is a high probability that the new person can only be overthrown and start over, and everything will be zero.
[Summary]: To put it simply, it’s all about playing different things. Some people are playing too much, some are fishing in troubled waters, some are leading the way, and some are entertaining themselves. It is impossible for leaders to be proficient in the automation of multi-end, multi-technology stacks and multi-language at the same time to understand the mistakes. Therefore, most of the later stages of this stage are in the state of stocking. In the end, there is no quantifiable combat effectiveness and the leaders are disgusted and eliminated. If you are in this stage, please don't be confused by the scene in front of you, be careful and immediately concentrate on practicing, strive for unification of ui automation, and gather the skirmishers to move forward together to the next stage.
…
At last:
In the technology industry, you must improve your technical skills and enrich your practical experience in automation projects. This will be very helpful for your career planning in the next few years and the depth of your testing technology.
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