When it comes to web and app development, JavaScript is the first one that comes to the mind of developers. That’s no surprise since JavaScript provides us with a ton of test automation frameworks. These frameworks run tests against applications that are running in real browsers. They interact with your applications in a way that a user would.
Right now, there are a lot of test automation frameworks to choose from. So, we have decided to make a guide to tell you about which of them are most useful.
This test automation framework can test apps designed for both web and native mobile apps (unlike Selenium WebDriver that only supports testing for apps for browsers). You can add a lot of extensions to this framework. It can automate tests for a large number of applications that run on popular browsers and mobile operating systems.
If you have a wide variety of apps but only want to use a single framework that will test them all, then WebdriverIO is the best choice since it can support a wide set of testing needs.
WebdriverIO has Mocha, Jasmine and Cucumber integrated with it. It will use Puppeteer as soon as you install this test automation framework. And the setup process is very easy. All you need to do is to enter a couple of npm commands.
You should use WebdriverIO if you want to automatically test a lot of programs using a single framework or for testing needs that are beyond basic JavaScript tests.
This test automation framework is one of the most popular frameworks used by developers. More than 3.6 million users use it every day. There are more than 1200 developers who have contributed to this project and have released 135 versions of Jest as of now.
Facebook uses this test automation framework to test all forms of code written in JavaScript, including applications written in React. One of the reasons this framework is popular is the easy setup process. This is because the devs are focused on giving the users a zero-configuration experience.
It comes with a lot of tools to help you with testing out of the box. So, you don’t have to worry about integrating anything.
We mentioned that WebdriverIO comes with Puppeteer out of the box. It is a Node library that contains a high-level API. This API gives us control over headless browsers like Google Chrome or Chromium.
There are a lot of features that come with Puppeteer. It can automate form submission to test UI, keyboard input, etc. You can create an automated testing environment that always remains up to date. This allows you to run your tests in the newer versions of the Chrome browser using the latest JavaScript and browser features. Plus, you can even test extensions designed for Chrome.
Puppeteer is extremely useful when it comes to debugging. You can capture a timeline trace of your site. This will help you diagnose any performance issues and fix them.
The installation process of this framework is very simple as well. All you need to do is to type two npm commands.
If you are a front-end developer, you should have this test automation framework in your arsenal. It is one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks among front-end developers since it is extremely easy to install.
Cypress can not only test front-end codes, but it can also test back-end applications to an extent. This makes Cypress extremely useful if you are using JavaScript or Node for developing both client-side and server-side applications.
However, if you want to test mobile applications, then you better look for some other JavaScript automation framework. You can use it to test mobile apps which are supposed to run natively on a browser. But any other type of app cannot be tested by this framework. Plus, Cypress can only support Chrome, Edge, and Firefox browsers.
If you want a framework that is simple but powerful and meets all standard testing needs, then you can use Cypress. But if you are looking for wide support, there are lots of other frameworks to choose from.
This automation framework is known for testing applications made using AngularJS in web browsers. It is built on top of WebDriverJS.
It is used by both developers and QA testers since it can act as both a testing framework and an end-to-end testing tool.
When using Protractor, Selenium runs in the background while Protractor acts as a layer that sits on top of Selenium. Selenium enables you to insert different types of hooks that are useful to your angular application. So, you can now grab your data bindings and use some of the useful features of AngularJS, like ng-repeats.
You can add to these data bindings, read them, or verify that your page contains the right data by grabbing them by the Angular semantics. Even if you aren’t sitting in front of your computer, this test automation framework will keep on doing this.
The latest version of Protractor was released on Feb 1, 2020. More than 1.7 million developers have been using it since then.
TestCafe is an easy-to-install test automation framework that not only supports JavaScript but also TypeScript for writing testing scripts.
This can be favorable for developers who prefer to write in TypeScript.
It also provides support for all of the major web browsers that we use today, like Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, and Safari. This framework isn’t designed for testing mobile applications, so it has very little support for browser-based mobile apps.
TestCafe is a great framework because of its wide language support. But it has a big drawback – you can only test JavaScript apps that are client-side only. Plus, it can only work well for end-to-end and regression testing. If you are looking for a framework for unit testing and integration testing, then this isn’t the right framework for you.
JavaScript is right now one of the most popular programming languages in the world, and a lot of the newer programming languages are based on JavaScript. Learning to use the proper test automation frameworks is important as it will make your work a whole lot easier and help you become more productive. The frameworks that we mentioned here are some of the most popular and useful ones used by millions of developers. Plus, they are all open-source, so you can always contribute to these frameworks to make them better.
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