DEV Community: Alan Liew

What do you need to know in order to test using Selenium in Java? (that I wished somebody told me)

Alan Liew — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 17:18:47 +0000

Selenium is an open-source automated testing framework that is widely used for web application testing. It provides a suite of tools and APIs that allow developers to automate interactions with web browsers and test the functionality of web applications. Java is the primary programming language used by Selenium, and in this article, we will discuss the things you need to know in order to learn Selenium in Java.

1. Java Programming Language ( A must !)

To get started with Selenium, you need to have a solid foundation in Java programming language. This includes an understanding of Java syntax, data structures, and OOP concepts. Java is a widely used language that is known for its simplicity, object-oriented structure, and powerful libraries. Having a good understanding of Java will make it easier for you to write, maintain and understand your Selenium code.

2. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Web applications are built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and a basic understanding of these technologies is essential if you want to use Selenium effectively. Understanding how websites are constructed will help you work with Selenium more easily, and you will be able to automate interactions with web applications more effectively.

3. Web Browsers

Selenium allows you to automate interactions with web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Familiarity with these browsers will be useful, as you can use Selenium to test the compatibility of your web application with different browsers.

4. Test Automation Frameworks

Testing frameworks, such as JUnit or TestNG, can be used to structure your Selenium tests. Knowledge of these frameworks will be useful as you can use them to write organized and efficient test code. These frameworks provide features such as test case management, test reporting, and test execution, which can simplify your testing process.

5. Basic Software Testing Concepts

Understanding basic software testing concepts such as unit testing, integration testing, and regression testing is important if you want to effectively use Selenium for testing. These concepts will help you understand how to design and execute effective tests, and how to ensure that your web application is functioning as intended.

In conclusion, learning Selenium in Java requires a solid understanding of Java programming language, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as familiarity with web browsers and test automation frameworks. Basic software testing concepts and practices are also important.

Once you have a good understanding of these concepts, you can start learning Selenium by following online tutorials, reading books and articles, or enrolling in a course. You can also practice by building simple projects and experimenting with different Selenium features and APIs. With time and practice, you will be able to master Selenium and use it to automate your web application testing process.

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Java 101 for software testing (Using fruits and vehicle as example)

Alan Liew — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 16:03:42 +0000

I think many of you might have similar experience like me where I found myself struggle to understand of Java language.

There was a time I try to avoid myself from writing selenium testing script in Java, instead, I'm using Python to code.

And when I decided to learn and write selenium testing script using java but I'm devastated because of the endless of error seem to appear.. I can't understand the error log, the console log and etc. And I knew that was because lack of basic understanding of Java language.

Hence, I strongly recommend you to read this article before you write any selenium test scripts because you must build your foundation right before you write any scripts.

First, we ask WHY ? Why Java ?

**
✅ Java is a programming language that is commonly used in combination with the Selenium web automation tool.

✅ Selenium is a powerful tool for automating web browsers, and it can be used to automate a wide variety of web-based tasks.

✅ When used with Java, Selenium allows developers to write automated tests for web applications using the Java programming language.

✅ This can be useful for a variety of purposes, including functional testing, performance testing, and regression testing. Not only that, selenium has a number of libraries that can be used to extend its functionality or make it easier to use in certain situations.

Next, what is Java ?

✅ Java is an object-oriented programming (OOP) language.

You may wonder what is OOP means ? Don't freak out.

Let me make this simple for you. For example:
Fruits.

There are bananas, cherries, oranges, kiwis, grapes and apples in the picture.

✅ These are called Objects.
✅ And what are they categories as ? Fruits

Hence, Fruits is the Class and bananas, cherries, oranges, kiwis, grapes and apples is the Objects.

Is this sound simple ?

What about this picture ?

We can see trucks , ambulance, bus and car.

And what are they ? Vehicles

So we know Vehicles is Class and trucks , ambulance , bus and car is an Object.

Now, what is the color of the car ? Blue

Blue is the attribute of the Car.

How do we operate the vehicles ? Drive

Drive is the method

We can conclude 4 things from this , we know the class (vehicles), the object (car, bus, trucks, ambulance), attributes (blue, 4 tires , etc) and method (drive).

public class Vehicle { <- this is class = vehicles

String carBrand = honda; <- this is objects and attributes
Int numOfTires = 4; <- this is objects and attributes

void Drive(){ <- this is drive method
System.out.print("Car is driving");
}

public static void main(String[]args){

Car myCar = new Car();

myCar.drive();

This is just a simple java program to show you how the java structure it is. It's OK not to understand everything in the first place. Just get along with me , and I can assure you will have sufficient java knowledge to write your first selenium script with Java.

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What is Agile methodology?

Alan Liew — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 16:52:51 +0000

Have you search over the web and realize everyone are talking about agile methodology ? Well, rest assured I will try my best to make things easier to understand, and you will be confident to tell what is agile after this articles.

Why Agile ?

Let's try to understand WHY before we explain what is agile. Why agile is being introduced in the first place?

Now, let's imagine you are the creator of banking app. You have all these basic features, for example: fund transfer, bill payment and etc.

However, there are still lot of features to roll out, lot of minor bugs are still hanging around, and you're on tight timeline now. What would you do ?

Well, you can wait until every features are documented, created , tested and deployed. BUT, keep in mind this will keep adding up. Your product manager want to add one more features, your client want to change the icon of the website, etc etc..

So , when is the end of the cycle ? You can't handle that much of workload when things are keep pilling up and you are way behind the schedule now.

This leads to software development crisis.

In 70s, 80s, and 90s was to create more elaborated plan, more sophisticated processes , longer documentation and tighter contracts.Here is why Agile being introduced.

Agile is an Iterative and Incremental Process.

✅ With agile methodology, we develop, test and release piece of software to the customer with few numbers of features, and eventually we add it up by releases.

✅ We can accommodate change request from the client and can solve the bugs in next releases. Requirement changes are allowed in any stage of development. This is why we can see software are with "version" / "releases" nowadays.

✅ Not only that, duration of the completion of software for client or customers are decrease significantly.

Well, the only disadvantage that Agile methodology was light-weight documentation since we focus on deliver software faster.

What else?

Now, we know agile methodology are so important for software development process. But how are we going to execute it ? Who are responsible to govern the process ?

Now, we will talk about SCRUM..

Scrum is a framework through which we build software product by following Agile Principles.

✅ Scrum involves group of people called scrum team.

✅ A sprint is a whole process of , Plan -> Design -> Develop ->Test -> Deploy ->Review, and this take around 2 weeks / 14 days to complete (usually).

✅ Scrum team consists of Product Owner, Scrum Master, Dev team, and QA team.

Responsibilities:

Product Owner : Define the features of product/software, prioritize features according to market value, adjust features prioritization every sprint. He/She got the rights to accept / reject work results.
Scrum Master : The key person who facilitating and driving the agile process, host for daily stand up for development process, negotiating the workload / task / features that is going to release in next sprint with Product Owner.
Developers and QA : Develop and test the software.

Let's recap :

🚀 Agile is a Iteration and Incremental process.

🚀 Scrum is a framework through which we build software product by agile principles.

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Why Software Testing is necessary in the first place?👀

Alan Liew — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 16:05:52 +0000

Now, why is software testing is needed in the first place and how it is going to contributed to the software success?

👆🏻First and foremost, defects in the software might be able to identify by the software tester , and removal of requirements defects reduces the risk of incorrect and un-testable features being developed. Software testers will usually work closely with the system designers while the system is being designed can increase each party's understanding of the design and how to test it.

Tester will be able to verify and validate the software prior to release can detect failures that might have been missed and support the process of removing the defects that caused the failures.

This increases the likelihood that the software will meet stakeholders / Product Owner (In Scrum) needs and requirements.

Bear in mind that "Software testing is not the same as Quality Assurance, but they are related."

Quality Assurance is focus on adhere the proper processes in order to provide confidence that the appropriate level of quality is achieved.

Software Testing is part of the overall software development and maintenance process.

In simple words, quality is achieved by proper software testing or the overall execution process.

Errors, Defects, Bugs

According to ISTQB glossary, the terms "Errors, defects and bug are tied to different meaning.

Error : A mistake created by a person (Tight timeline, Human fallibility, Inexperienced project participants, Miscommunication between project member, Complexity of the code, misunderstanding about the system requirement, unfamiliar with the new technologies.

Defects: Issue (bug) caused in code because of the error.

Bug : Crash resulting in running code with a defect within it

The Seven Principles of Testing

✅ 1. Testing shows the presence of defects, not their absence.

This means that testing can discover defects are in the software but not that a system is defect-free.

✅ 2. Exhaustive Testing is impossible.

Testing everything is absolutely impossible. Rather than testing exhaustively, test techniques and priorities should be used to focus the testing effort.

✅ 3. Early testing can save money and time.

Both static and dynamic test activities could started as early as possible in the software development life cycle to find defects as soon as possible.

✅ 4. Defects cluster together.

A small number of modules usually contain most of the defects discovered during pre-release testing or is responsible for most of the operational failures.

Predicted defect clusters, and the actual observed defect clusters in test are an important to import into a risk analysis used to focus the testing effort.

✅ 5. Beware the pesticide paradox

If the same tests are repeated over and over again, eventually these tests no longer able to find any new defects. Existing tests and test data may need changing, and new tests may need to be written in order to detect new defects.

In some cases, such as automated regression testing, the pesticide paradox has a beneficial outcome ( to making sure core function are working perfectly), which is a relatively low number of regression defects.

✅ 6. Testing is done differently in different context.

For example, safety critical industry control software is tested completely differently from an e-commerce mobile app. As a further example, testing in an Agile project is also done differently than testing in a Waterfall software development lifecycle project.

✅ 7. Absence of errors is a fallacy.

Some organizations expect the testers can run all possible tests and find all possible defects, but principles two and one respectively, tell us that this is impossible. Further, it is a fallacy to expect that just finding and fixing a large number of defects will ensure the success of a system.

To sound more interesting, for example, thoroughly testing all specified requirements and fixing all defects could still produce a system that is difficult to use, that does not fulfill the user's needs and expectations or that it is inferior compared to other competing systems.

✅ The seven principles of testing cover a wide range of topics. And as part of the ISTQB, it's important to remember these, and their meanings.
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So, what is Software Testing ? 🤔 Software Testing 101

Alan Liew — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 09:25:14 +0000

There is a very common misconception that software testing is the act of using a piece of software and reporting if it works.

What comes to your mind when you first head of “Software Testing” ?

“It is just using that software and see if it’s work”

“Nah, it’s just play around the software and see any “bugs” ?”

“It’s easy ! Just give me the app to use”

There are some of the very common misconception that people have when they first head of software testing, then you should read this articles till the end. I guarantee you will have a high level understanding of What Software testing it is.

Here are some of the “misconception” people may have towards software testing :

1. ✅ Process of Software Testing`

There are many testing process may involved, Test Planning, Test Execution , Analyzing results, Designing and Implementing test, Reporting Test progress and evaluating the system under test.

2. ✅ Difference between Dynamic Testing vs Static Testing

A form of Dynamic Testing can be perform when a system or component is under testing .

And Static Testing could be reading a technical document/description of the system that has not been created and ask question about issues that may introduced to the system.

3. ✅ Software testing is not only Verify , but also Validate the user stories and requirements.

Big big NO is that most software tester are focus entirely on Verifying the requirement that tied to the user stories during the system making. But it also involves Validation.

4. ✅ The common objective of Software Testing is performed

The gist of testing may involve : preventing defects by evaluating requirements, user stories, designs, and code, verifying and to validate if it works as the users and stakeholders expectation, to build confidence in the system under test, to find defects and failures, thus reducing the level of risk of failure or inadequate software.

This part also to make informed decisions regarding the system under test is comply with the contractual, legal, or regulatory requirements or standards.

5. ✅ The difference between debugging and executing test (testing)

Executing test can show failures that are caused by defects in the system whereas Debugging is the activity that finds, analyzes, and fix such defects. This may not limited to testers may involve in both process in some of the agile development and some software testing life cycles.

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ISTQB 🧙🏻‍♀️The software testing Myth, do you need that?

Alan Liew — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 08:52:22 +0000

To have or not to have ISTQB CTFL certification is always a myth to most of the software tester.

The main reason I guess is most software tester are very good at testing the software without realizing “Testing” is only part of the whole software testing life cycle.

Can’t denied that ISTQB is setting the benchmark on the minimal requirement of a software tester need to have, and I think ISTQB is more like a standard for every software tester to have the same definition and understanding of the terminology of software testing, regardless of the person experience level or career background.

For example, this could be achieve when every tester have the same definition, term acceptance criteria , and glossary that may be use to description the situation when finding a problem in the piece of software.

Hence, in my opinion, it’s always good to have ISTQB-Foundation Level Certification in your pocket. This could give you a very good head start in the software testing industry.

To know more about ISTQB, can check out this link

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AWS ! the terms you must know 🤫

Alan Liew — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 17:04:17 +0000

After we understand the basic usage of cloud computing services, it is crucial to know some simple terms that you gonna hear it over and over again !

If you haven't read my previous article, you can read here Link

✅
First, let's start off with register an account in AWS. You will see something called Management Console after you have successfully logged in.

In this Management Console, it will show you an overview of everything that is currently running inside your account, including services type and basic FAQ.

The important point to take note is you must configure your Region and Availability Zone (At the upper right corner) correctly to avoid error in the future.

‼️ Things to take note, some services are not available in certain Region and Availability Zone.

Now ! Give yourself a Big Big Clap before we move into the Services Menu ! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Next , we move on to the Services menu, AWS providing tons of functions and usages.

And then we go to Compute > EC2.

Wait ! You may wonder what is EC2? Why do we select that? 🤔

To put it simpler, you can understand it as Virtual machine. We can create and configure a virtual machine by using AWS EC2 based on our requirement.

Tips ✅ : I like to think Virtual Machine as a Virtual Computer in the server room.

After getting into EC2 page, you will see a button called "Launch Instance".

Hence, the next terms we gonna learn is EC2 Instance, EC2 instance is equivalent to a virtual machine. Similar to docker, they called it Image.

RECAP : EC2 -> ELASTIC CLOUD COMPUTING , INSTANCE -> A COMPUTER/VIRTUAL MACHINE YOU'RE CONFIGURING

Another terms we can see here is called "AMI" , Amazon Machine Image. This is very similar concept to Docker. This is a example like a OS Configuration (Win10) , then only can launch instance.

Only thing you need to take note is that you can either create one or many instance with one AMI. Or you can create few AMIs to launch instances when you need different configurations. ( Something like AMI with same setting, you can reuse to create instance, or create many AMIs to create different instances.)

After that you will be able to choose EC2 instance type. It includes tons of selection, t2.nano, t2.micro, t2.medium and etc.

Next, we move to Amazon EBS ( Amazon Elastic Block Store) - Configure the services that provides storage volumes that can be attached to running instances.

Next, you will have to configure which Security Groups - Contains set of firewall rules which can be associate with instances.

🏆🏆🏆 And we are close to last steps of AWS EC2 instance configuration,

We will have to create EC2 key pairs , this is for you to connect your AWS with VM in your local machine. You will have to download remote desktop with key pairs in .pem file format. Then connect the VM via local machine to AWS instance.

*EC2 Key Pairs *- Amazon EC2 uses public-key cryptography to encrypt and decrypt login information.

And done ! AWS EC2 instances is launched. Do take note there are some steps are not showing in this article in order to making it more easier to be understand.

Recap :

Management Console
Service Menu
EC2 (Elastic Cloud Computing)
EC2 Instance
EC2 Instance type
Amazon EBS (Amazon Elastic Book Store)
Security Groups
EC2 Key Pairs

Do share with me what's your thought ?

or connect with me in LinkedIn to discuss more !

Cloud Computing , let's talk about it [Part 2]

Alan Liew — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 16:34:36 +0000

Alright ! After knowing what and why cloud computing is implemented and being used , now let's get into Part 2 !

If you haven't read my previous article, you can read here Link

Now, Let's talk about basics of cloud computing. 🚀

There are 4 Types of Cloud:

Public Cloud 🚌
Private Cloud 🏡
Community Cloud 👯‍♀️
Hybrid Cloud 🏢

Cloud Services Models:

SaaS(Software as a Service) Example : BigCommerce, Google Apps, Salesforce, Dropbox, MailChimp, ZenDesk, DocuSign, Slack, Hubspot.
PaaS(Platform as a Service) Example : AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, Windows Azure
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) Example: AWS EC2, Rackspace, Google Compute Engine (GCE), Digital Ocean

The Advantages and Disadvantage of Cloud

Lower software cost 💰
Improve Performance 🚀
Fewer maintenance 🔨
Instant Software update 🆙
Data safety 🧯

Disadvantages

Reliable on strong and consistent internet connections

Share me your thoughts about cloud too in the comment below !

to connect, you can add me at Linkedin !

Cloud Computing , let's talk about it [Part 1]

Alan Liew — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 16:22:55 +0000

Does cloud computing sound complicated to you?

Most of the answer I got from people are Yes ! It seems like everyone is talking about cloud and cloud computing but no one ever explain it in a simple way.

First of all, we have to understand why cloud computing is being used in the first place. Let's put it this way.

Imagine a client came to your IT solutions company and order to make them an applications. They offered you a budget and timeline. You accepted it.

Well you guess it right. Then, you will have to start to develop the applications.

And to make this even more easier to understand, let's make this simple cycle.

Development → Testing → Deployment → Production → End User

So, this is a typical Software Development process and infrastructure where a company is needed in order to deliver the product and services. You will need certain server, platform, storage and tools for each of the step in the cycle.

And after you have completed the process , all the infrastructures are left behind. You will never use it anytime soon if there is no new projects coming in. Or you will most probably need different configurations , platform, software for next project.

Hence, all the server , equipment, platform , storage are costing you money. Purchasing expensive systems and equipment for your business just to carry out one project development.

Now, let's imagine we can have it all , the Software, Infrastructure, Platform and Storage , just for our current project and we can stop anytime when we do not need it , does it sound good ?

Ta-da, and this is why cloud computing is exists. We can use cloud computing for their ready to use software, infrastructures and platforms, what we do is we only need to configure it to the way we want it to be.

In fact, we only need to pay minimal amount of cost acquiring it on the cloud comparable to physically have it in your office, in order to done the development.

Now, have you got the idea what is cloud computing is ? and why cloud computing is being used?

Share with me what is your special experience with cloud computing at the comment below !

Thanks

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