DEV Community: Jeremy Douglas

Angie Jones released a new Test Automation University Course - Selenium WebDriver with Java

Jeremy Douglas — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 23:01:51 +0000

Last week, Angie Jones released a new online course for Test Automation University to learn introductory to advanced Selenium WebDriver with Java.

Angie is a certified Java Programmer who has been using the language for more than 18 years. In addition to programming in Java at companies such as IBM and Twitter, she has also worked as an adjunct professor teaching Java at the college level. Pretty dope!

According to Angie, Selenium WebDriver is an object-oriented automation API that natively drives a browser just as a user would.

Selenium WebDriver supports multiple programming languages, and in her new course, she focuses mostly on the Java implementation.

It looks like there is a lot to cover in this course, as Angie demos how to use the WebDriver API, but she also uses different examples to explain why certain calls are needed, when they should be used, etc.

There are also some optional independent exercises that you can try on your own to further lock in what you're learning. In general, Angie teaches you:

How to install Selenium WebDriver and the other dependencies needed
How to use the WebDriver API to launch and interact with websites
Various techniques to find elements such as buttons, links, text, dropdowns, and more within a web application
WebDriver API calls to interact with those elements such as clicking, entering and reading text, selecting options, handling popups and alerts, uploading files, working with iframes, and more
Advanced interactions, such as hovering and sending alternative keys like tab, as well as symbols
How to integrate the WebDriver API with a test assertion library, such as TestNG
How to organize our test code using the Page Object Model
Various wait strategies to control the timing of our scripts and avoid flaky tests
How to take screenshots during test executions
How to have our code listen for specific WebDriver events and perform additional actions, like logging our test activity
How to customize the browser used in test execution
How to run headless tests
Advanced topics like navigating multiple open tabs within a browser, as well as cookie management
And for anything you can't do with the core WebDriver API methods, she teaches you how to write custom actions using JavaScript

If you're like me and need to better learn how to program in Java, no worries. Angie has another free course on Test Automation University called Java Programming. I strongly encourage you to take that course before starting this move advanced course.

What's more, is that there is actually a learning pathway on Test Automation University for understanding all the basics for doing Web UI testing with Java. The learning path Web UI Java involves 10 separate classes and includes a little over 17 hours of instruction. And, each course dives into different elements.

Two of these courses apply directly to the Java Language specifically: programming in Java and the Java automation engine. Two more are common among the web UI test path: finding web elements on a page, and how to test visually. The others are part of the common core courses shared among all the testing paths.

I'd be interested in learning about other online tutorials and/or courses to learn more about Java programming in particular. Drop me a note in the comments for places you go to get upskilled!

Lisa Crispin releases a free course on 'Test Automation in DevOps'

Jeremy Douglas — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 16:14:23 +0000

Recently, Lisa Crispin - co-author, with Janet Gregory, of 'More Agile Testing: Learning Journeys for the Whole Team', and 'Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams' - published a new, free course on Test Automation University for learning more about Test Automation in DevOps.

In this course, Lisa provides guidance to learn the different ways a team can use test automation to successfully deliver business value to customers frequently at a sustainable pace. She covers some basic concepts and terminology about DevOps, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment as well as techniques for operability and learning from production use.

Lisa also talks about automation strategy for DevOps, how to use automation - both for testing before and after release - to reduce risk and guide the development process. She also shares some ways to shorten feedback loops for the team itself.

To learn more and dive into the tutorial, head over to https://testautomationu.applitools.com/test-automation-in-devops/

'Test Automation U' Enrollment Up to 20,000 Students in Six Months, Top 100 Students Announced

Jeremy Douglas — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 20:51:30 +0000

If you're not continuously learning, you may be losing to someone else (or a machine) that is...

As someone who is just starting to dabble in coding and how to do software testing, I'm constantly looking for helpful resources.

Last week, the organizers of Test Automation University (Angie Jones and Raja Rao) announced that enrollment into the online learning community has grown to 20,000 students since it went live in January. What's more, is that they've gamified the learning experience with badges, exams, certificates, and a "Test Automation U" Leaderboard of the Top 100 students based on achievements and the scores from their certification exams (https://testautomationu.applitools.com/tau100.html).

According to the announcement, Test Automation University is a free, community-driven collection of educational training resources to help improve test automation skill sets. With initial video courses by test automation experts Angie Jones, Dave Haeffner, Jonathan Lipps, Joe Colantonio, Amber Race, Elisabeth Hocke, Manoj Kumar, Jason Arbon, Raja Rao, and Gil Tayar, 'Test Automation U' is building, identifying, and amplifying emerging practices in test automation. (https://testautomationu.com)

According to Angie Jones, "The talent gap is huge when it comes to test automation initiatives, and many programs get delayed or even fail because of this. What is great about Test Automation U is that we're opening the doors to all schools of thought, capturing the knowledge, and distributing it openly in relevant locations. No matter what role you're playing in the software development process, it's extremely important for everyone to collaborate and work together."

By the looks of it, Test Automation U has expanded its curriculum to 23 courses covering subjects such as:

Setting a Foundation for Successful Test Automation
Exploring Service APIs through Test Automation
Automated Visual Testing
Web Element Locator Strategies
Scaling Tests with Docker
Introduction to Java Programming

It also looks like they've added more instructors to their faculty, which include Alan Richardson, author of books Java for Testers and Automating and Testing a REST API, Aparna Gopalakrishnan, Quality Engineering Consultant at Wipro Limited, Tariq King, Head of Quality at Ultimate Software, Meaghan Lewis, Engineering Manager at GitHub, Jonathan Lipps, Architect of the Appium project and Nikolay Advolodkin, CEO of Ultimate QA.

Seems like a very good place to start for a beginner like me or even an advanced testing pro looking to refresh or learn a [new] skill.

What are some other resources from around the globe that are helpful for people to use to get started learning more about test automation?