DEV Community: Vethee Dixit

How To Debug Websites On iPhone?

Vethee Dixit — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 08:47:36 +0000

We all know that the iPhone is one of the most popular smartphones across the globe. According to the latest research, Apple’s current global smartphone market share is 13.9%, which proves the iPhone’s global popularity. The number of active Apple devices has risen to 1.5 billion this year. With the growing user base, Apple strives to ensure optimized performance and impeccable user experience across all iPhone devices. However, developers might encounter various challenges while they endeavor to create responsive designs for websites. Mistakes can be inevitable, no matter how good your testing strategies are. Hence, it becomes impeccable to debug websites on the iPhone before making it live for all the users.

In this post, we’re going to talk about how to debug a website on an iPhone. But before that, we’re going to look at the importance of testing websites on multiple browsers or why cross-browser testing is essential.

Importance of Cross Browser Testing on iOS

Different iPhone devices and versions with varying screen resolutions and features can create an enormous matrix for addressing. But the thing that remains common is user expectations for a hassle-free interface. When you perform cross-browser testing or debug on iPhones, you provide a large user base an easy door to your products or services.

While developing a website, memory leaks, incompatibilities, and vulnerabilities can make the user experience a nightmare. Considering that it’s the second most popular operating system for smartphones, business owners can’t risk losing customers due to a bug-filled site.

Moreover, iOS testing has its share of perks. Unlike Android, Apple provides a closed system, and deciding a testbed is relatively more straightforward for QA. Also, OS and device functionality is pretty simple. It becomes easier for testers to not miss out on ways the app works. In other words, testing complexities are not overwhelming.

Click here to follow the best practices for mobile website testing.

Debugging Websites

iPhone has a fair share of the smartphone market. But debugging on an iPhone can be a challenge. On that note, let’s take a look at different methods available to debug websites on the iPhone.

Method 1: Use Web Inspector to Debug on iPhone Safari

Apple provides a self-explanatory mechanism to debug and inspect web elements for mobile web pages. Let’s take a look at how to debug a website on an iPhone using the Web Inspector. The following steps would guide you through the entire process:

Note: iPhone Safari browser used to have built-in functionality for debugging until the launch of iOS 6. iPhone iOS6 and later has the Web Inspector to find web page defects.

Step 1: Tap the Settings icon on the iPhone.

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Step 2: Select the Safari browser from the list.

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Step 3: Scroll to the bottom of the page and tap the Advanced Menu.

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Step 4: Turn on the Web Inspector by toggling the switch.

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Step 5: Open the web page of your choice to debug on iPhone or preview and then connect your iPhone to the system.

Step 6: Select Preferences …, from the system’s browser menu.

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Note: Ensure that Safari on your Mac and your Device are of the same version.

Step 7: Go to the Advanced section and check the box next to the Show Develop menu in the menu bar to enable the Debug mode.

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Step 8: Click on the Develop menu to see the active URL and the iPhone you’ve connected.

Step 9: When you click on the URL, it opens an inspection window.

Step 10: You can select the Resources section to see the real-time interactions with different web elements on the iPhone.

Method 2: Debug on iPhones Using a Cross Browser Testing Platform

With a wide range of real iOS devices available, it becomes impeccable to perform mobile debugging on various Apple devices and iOS versions. Cross browser testing allows you to quickly test your website on the latest mobile browsers with the iOS mobile OS. You can debug various issues with the help of integrated developer tools in live testing.

Most of the cross-browser testing tools provide the geo-location testing feature to ensure that iPhone users get an ideal UI across different locations. Tools like LambdaTest allow seamless integration with the tool of your choice to manage tasks or fix bugs manually.

LambdaTest is a leading cross-browser testing platform that provides Selenium Test Automation on iOS mobile browsers. It enables you to easily debug on iPhone Safari, the default iPhone browser, and different iOS versions. Moreover, the LT browser provides the mobile view of a site on more than 25 devices. Thus, it helps deliver websites faster due to on-the-go live testing and debugging.

Check how LT Browser can be used for mobile view debugging.

Now, let’s take a look at how you can debug a website on iPhone using LambdaTest developer tools and easy integrations.

Step 1: Launch the LambdaTestplatform.

Step 2: Select Real Time Testing from the left menu bar.

Step 3: Click the icon that looks like a mobile phone on the real-time testing console.

Step 4: Click on the Apple icon to get a list of iOS emulators to choose from, like device type (in this case, iPhone), the device of your choice, OS, and browser.

Step 5: Enter the URL and click on Start.

Step 6: Once you have launched, you will see a mobile device with the configurations of your choice.

Step 7: On the left of the menu bar, there is an option to open developer tools. Click on it to open the dev tools.

Step 8: Once open, you can debug your website or your web app on the iPhone.

The best part is that even in between sessions, you can easily integrate with tools such as GitHub, Slack, JIRA, Trello, Gitlab, Bitbucket, VSTS, Paymo, TeamWork, BugHerd, ClubHouse, Mantis, and so on. After installing a particular integration, you can give the authorization and begin to log bugs.

Eliminate UI Bugs With Thorough Testing on iPhone

Even though you have designed a website full of lucrative features, it doesn’t guarantee a million users on its own. Somehow, if you manage to entice people to visit your site with the sheer number of features, remember, more elements have the likelihood of more bugs.

Merely gaining users isn’t enough if you cannot retain them for conversions and a decent ROI. Website visitors run in opposite directions if they find defects. Do I even need to point out that competitors are lurking around the corner to grab your potential customer base?

Wrap up

The bottom line, debugging websites on the iPhone is challenging. But it’s crucial to provide a seamless and satisfying user experience. And with a correct approach and the right tool, you can easily debug your website on the iPhone.

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out via the comment section below.

14 Best Web Design Tool For Designers While Remote Working

Vethee Dixit — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 09:21:10 +0000

With so many web design tools in the market, it can be hard to make the right choice. It’s quite easy to get overwhelmed by so many choices, while you try to find the best web design tools for your needs. A good web design tool can help you get the best out of your creative efforts and manage the projects effortlessly.

Keeping this in mind, I’ve compiled a list of these tools you might require to create mockups of your website, creating graphics and even managing your web design projects. So, to make the process of finding the tools easier, I have found 14 best web design tools to get the best out of your web design projects. So, let’s get started!

1. InVision Studio

If you are looking for an all-in-one web design tool, packed with a variety of features for web designers, InVision Studio is the ideal pick for you. It facilitates responsive web design, fast prototyping, and it works with different design systems, plus the whole process is collaborative. Enabling you to create interactive and aesthetically pleasing pages effortlessly.

Even though InVision Studio is known for having a wide array of features, prototyping is the part where it excels. It is a great tool if you’re into animation. No matter how complex the transition is, you can easily create imaginative animations. When you are done with the design, you can test it and explore other possibilities on the platform.

InVision Studio’s layout engine adjusts the designs to different screens. So, you don’t have to worry about creating a lot of artboards to ensure responsive web design on different mobile views. This feature is a great time saver. You can also focus on the design elements better when you don’t have to fret over other factors.

2. Google Web Designer

Google Web Designer is a web design tool primarily used in CSS, HTML5, and JavaScript. The main intent is to create interactive content. The GUI is extremely simple and easy to use. It comprises features such as basic shapes, 3D animations, covering text, etc.

The wide array of coloring options in the panel enables the fine-tuning of your design. The web design tool comprises a library that houses various images and videos you can use for the purpose of advertising. Users can switch between the design and code view according to their requirements. You can also view your project on the browser to check out the web preview.

3. Adobe Photoshop

It doesn’t matter whether you are using a Windows or Mac operating system. If you’re on the lookout for an impeccable commercial graphics editor, Adobe Photoshop is the way to go. The creators have kept in mind the innate needs of both photographers as well as designers. It is certainly one of the best web design tools, as it allows you to create beautiful prints and patterns in your web graphics, with endless color options and gradients.

You can even customize the Photoshop interface to suit your designing needs. With several targeted workspace layouts for Graphic and Web, 3d, Video, etc, you can get the maximum depending on the types of web graphics you want to create for your websites. Photoshop comprises all the essential options and tools including Actions, Filters, Scripting, and Brushes. The Revert option and Layer Comps help designers enhance their workflow to a great extent.

4. Adobe Dreamweaver

Adobe Dreamweaver is certainly one of the best web design tools available. It allows you to directly code the design of the website and you don’t need to have extensive knowledge of programming. With Dreamweaver, you can create the whole website by writing the actual code, or come to the code only after you’re done working in WYSIWYG graphic layout.

But, the best part of Dreamweaver is the fact that it enables you to create a responsive web design. With this you can optimize your website for both mobile devices and desktop, giving them a seamless user experience.

Like all the other Adobe applications, it is available for both Mac and Windows, both the versions are virtually identical. Another benefit you get is that it tightly integrates with other Adobe products such as Photoshop.

5. LT Browser – Responsive Testing Tool

LT Browser is the ideal tool to ensure that your website design renders seamlessly across different viewports & devices. You can easily check the responsive web design of a website in the LT browser across more than 25 devices at a time. Not only that, but you can also record the video of all the test sessions. It is certainly one of the best web design tools, with it you can check responsive web design of your web pages

After that, you can visit the Media section to check out the recordings and screenshots of your sessions. It’s like a gallery containing all the videos and images captured while your site was under test using LT Browser. You can also test local or private hosted websites or web apps on 25 mobile resolutions.

Even after ensuring the responsive web design of your website, you need to make sure that your website renders perfectly on different browsers versions. Since every browser has its own browser engine, it becomes important to make sure that your design renders seamlessly on all the browsers.

A lot of time legacy browser versions do not support the latest design elements.

This is why it is important to use a cross-browser testing platform like LambdaTest. You can easily perform live interactive browser compatibility testing of websites and web apps on more than 2000+ desktop and mobile browsers. You can also perform automated browser testing on a secure, scalable, and reliable Selenium Grid.

7. Sketch

If you’re looking for one of the most popular and widely used designing platforms, Sketch is likely to be somewhere on the top of the list. This vector-based web design tool is a highly powerful platform that helps in building prototypes and interfaces in collaboration. The tool is made especially for apps and websites. This avoids unnecessary cluttering, unlike some tools with a wide scope.

Making revisions and sorting out various documents is easier on Sketch as compared to some other tools such as Photoshop. Thanks to the fact that it is vector-based, the file size is small. The built-in grid further simplifies the design of the interface. There are several plugins available for designers for smoothening and simplifying their workflow.

8. Squarespace

If you are a beginner and don’t possess adequate coding experience, Squarespace is the best tool for you. The drag-and-drop feature makes it super-easy for a newbie to work with the tool. There are different color customizations as well as themes that can help you design almost any kind of website.

All in all, Squarespace is an excellent website builder with versatile web design tools for web designers. It’s the go-to option for an e-commerce store as it comes with important features such as an SSL encryption. It has a personal as well as a business plan for varying needs.

9. Figma

Even though Figma is relatively new, but it is certainly one of the best web design tools, don’t let it make you think that it’s any less powerful than its counterparts. It has a plethora of features for prototyping and interface design, thus, making it an ideal fit for web designing requirements.

The vector-based and intuitive interface makes it easier to design websites. Its feature set is identical to that of Sketch. But the feature that makes it stand out is the ease of collaboration and a cloud-based approach. Different team members can work easily on the design file at the same time.

Moreover, if the stakeholders wish to leave a review of the current design, they can easily do so. To help designers make a real site out of their intuitive designs, developers can simply copy the code snippets. It offers a free as well as a paid plan according to company requirements. Up to three projects, you can use Figma for free, after that, it’s chargeable.

10. Adobe XD

Adobe XD is one of the best components of the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. If you have been using Adobe for a while, this web design tool won’t have the same look and feel. But the UI is totally worth it once you start using Adobe XD to its fullest.

The web design tool keeps up with all the latest UX trends, for instance, voice prototyping is an excellent addition. Not to mention, the wireframing and vector designing keeps on enhancing. The sharing tools allow providing feedback on different designs along with desktop and mobile previews. Tools for defining non-static interactions along with those for drawing are also a part of Adobe XD.

11. Affinity Designer

Affinity Designer is a complete web design tool which offers web designers with a plethora of features to make their task easier. The non-destructive and adjustable layers enable the adjusting of vectors and images without damaging them.

The 1,000,000% zooming power can come in real handy when you are working with vectors. This feature allows you to carefully focus on the intricacies. Also, thanks to the history and undo features, users can go back up to 8,000 steps.

12. Pattern Lab

The credit for the creation of this pattern-driven web design tool goes to Brad Frost and Dave OIsen. Pattern Lab follows the atomic design concept which suggests you break down your design into small portions like atoms. You can also use them as a combination of reusable components which you can turn into useful templates.

You can also nest different UI patterns inside one another as this web design tool is a language-and tool-agnostic. Designers can also carry out designing using dynamic data. The viewport resizing tools are device-agnostic so that you can ensure responsive web design. The extensibility of the web design toolensures that you can easily meet your requirements in the future.

13. Zeplin

For a company to work flawlessly, it’s vital for the engineers and designers to work in close collaboration. Zeplin is a web design tool that solely focuses on this aspect and helps both by providing them with the necessary resources. There are different plugins for designers to export their designs using a single click.

In March, various product teams exported the designs of Sketch, Adobe XD, Figma, and Photoshop CC to Zeplin. The web design tool’s foundation rests on the concept that a company can build delightful products when the designers collaborate well with the rest of the team.

14. Monday

Even though Monday is not exactly a web design tool, but it is certainly important for the project management of your web design projects.

It’s no secret that the collaboration between developers and designers is a must for a smooth workflow. Monday makes it possible for both designers and developers to be on the same page. You can also invite stakeholders so that they can take a look at the design and make suggestions accordingly.

There are many stages in a workflow the design team has to undergo. It’s not always about “pending,” “in progress,” or “done” work statuses. Evolved workflows include other stages such as backlogs, exploring, analyzing, review, design, complete, etc, and Monday includes them all.

Final Words!

Website designing is becoming more innovative and simpler, thanks to the development of tools and software to aid designers. If you want to accomplish a web-design-related task, there is a tool for almost everything. It can be a feature built-in to a large app or a standalone utility. The above-mentioned list has all the essential tools every remote designer can avail of for enhancing their designs and easing out their work. You can make a choice according to the company requirements and you’re good to go!

Let me know what you think of this list, any suggestions for other web design tools are welcome! Feel free to reach out to us in the comments section down below. Also, don’t forget to share this article with your peers. Every retweet and LinkedIn share brings us closer to the people struggling to find the right tool for web design. That’s all for now.😄

Top 13 Challenges Faced In Agile Testing By Every Tester

Vethee Dixit — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 09:32:33 +0000

Even though we strive for success in whatever journey we undertake, sometimes failure is inevitable. But in most cases, if we just avoid a few blunders and get through major challenges hampering progress, the path to success won’t seem so challenging. The same goes for agile testing teams where the pressure of continuous delivery can be overwhelming.

Now, I’m not telling you to aim for 100% perfection. ‘Figure out everything before leaving the room.’ Doesn’t this approach to sprint planning sound like a hostage situation? Agile testing teams usually try to eliminate the uncertainty factor as much as possible. But don’t you think keeping it short and effective would yield better results?

This was just an example of the hurdles that can actually sabotage a sprint! Speaking of which, in this article, I’m going to take a detailed look into some of the challenges in Agile Testing by every tester. So, let’s begin.

1. Not Keeping Up With Changing Requirements

Coming up with a good Agile testing plan is vital, no doubt about that. But if you believe that your plan is fool-proof and you won’t ever need to make modifications, think again. Most teams waste a lot of time trying to come up with an ideal Agile testing plan.

Now, although how much we’d like to achieve it, the truth is a perfect Agile testing plan does not exist. The complex environment won’t permit it. Sometimes, you have to make changes on an ad hoc basis. Or you might have to remove some processes. All in all, you have to be flexible and adapt to changes in the sprint, of course, keeping in mind that it all aligns with the sprint goal and you’d be ahead of all the challenges in Agile Testing.

2. Not Planning Cross Browser Testing

Most firms cease testing when their site successfully runs on primary browsers such as Google Chrome and the Mozilla Firefox. But do you really think you can have a wide customer base if your site runs well only on a handful of popular browsers?

After all, no customer wants to be restricted to a bunch of browsers. It takes away the versatile nature of business. You also can’t assume that if a web application or website works fine in one browser, the same would be the case for others. This is why it becomes important to ensure that your browser matrix is covered while performing cross browser testing. You can refer to our article on creating browser compatibility matrix to solve any challenges in agile testing due to not targeting the right browser!

Moreover, if you are using cutting edge technology, it’s also important to check whether your site works well in different browser versions. It’s important to note thatcross browser testing provides a consistent behavior across various browsers, devices, and platforms. This increases your chances of having a wide customer base. You can even choose to utilise a Selenium Grid to scale your cross browser testing efforts.

3. Failing To Incorporate Automation

Speaking strictly in business terms, time is money. If you fail to accommodate automation in your testing process, the amount of time to run tests is high, this can be a major cause of challenges in Agile Testing as you’d be spending a lot running these tests. You also have to fix glitches after the release which further takes up a lot of time.

If the company isn’t performing test automation the overall test coverage might be low . But as firms implement test automation, there is a sharp decline in the amount of time testers need for running different tests. Thus, it leads to accelerated outcomes and lowered business expenses. You can even implement automated browser testing to automate your browser testing efforts.

Moreover, you can always reuse automated tests and utilize them via different approaches. Teams can identify defects at an early stage which makes fixing glitches cost-effective.

4. Excessive Focus on Scrum Velocity

Most teams emphasize maximizing their velocity with each sprint. For instance, if a team did 60 Story Points the last time. So, this time, they’ll at least try to do 65. However, what if the team could only do 20 Story Points when the sprint was over?

Did you realize what just happened? Instead of making sure that the flow of work happened on the scrum board seamlessly from left to right, all the team members were concentrating on keeping themselves busy.

Sometimes, committing too much during sprint planning can cause challenges in Agile Testing. With this approach, team members are rarely prepared in case something unexpected occurs.

Under-committing can provide more room for learning and leaves more mind space to improve on present tasks. As a result, the collaboration between testers and developers gets better and they can get more work done in shorter time spans.

This approach also increases flexibility in the sprint backlog. In case, time permits, you can add more tasks later on. When you are under-committing, you also reduce the chances of carrying over the leftover work to the next sprint.

5. Lack of a Strategic Agile Testing Plan

Too much planning can cause challenges in Agile testing but that doesn’t mean you don’t plan at all! The lack of a strategic plan helps teams focus in the direction they are headed to. After all, can we even dream about delivering a project or pushing a release with no plan at all?

Benjamin Franklin has rightly said, “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. Having a basic guide to reach a goal or a vision assists team members in overcoming challenging situations. Therefore, after setting a goal, don’t forget to define the metrics necessary to reach your goal.

For instance, you can divide your plan into different phases. It’s a wise move to arrange meetings from time to time to review the progress and clear doubts. Some things to discuss during the meetings include sprint velocity, task estimation, and stretch goals.

The plan should be rigid enough to provide a direction to the team on how to work and instill confidence in team members. At the same time, it has to be flexible enough to incorporate changes and work on the feedback.

6. Considering Agile a Process Instead of a Framework

Even experienced developers or testers who have been in this for a while tend to think of Agile as just any other process . They fail to realize that it’s a framework that defines the entire development process. It also helps various teams in matching their requirements with preset guidelines.

Agile is about fine-tuning the process and making the required adjustments by using empirical data from shorter cycles of development and release. The team members should put their heads together in every sprint to improve with the aim of making each sprint more effective.

7. Micromanaging Agile Testing Teams

In a waterfall model, the management is responsible for setting a schedule and the pace for teams involved. This model has been in existence for a long time, thus making the management stick to previous practices and habits.

But in an Agile project, if the management closely observes and tries to control what the employees are doing all the time, failure in a sprint becomes inevitable. Agile testing teams are self-organizing. They are cross-functional and work together to achieve successful sprints.

Teams comprise motivated individuals who can make decisions and are flexible enough to adapt during times of change. Everyone is equally empowered working towards a common goal. But when you micromanage Agile testing teams, the constant interference can negatively affect the ability of employees to accomplish the goal in their own way.

If you take ownership and empowerment away from the team, there is no point in adopting an Agile framework.

8. Incoherency in Defining ‘Done’

My work here is done! Sounds so relieving, right? But when a person says this, what do they really mean by done? A developer can just check in the code and say that they’re done. On the other hand, some other developer can say this only when they are done with checking in, running tests and static analysis, etc.

Every person on the team has a different definition when they say ‘done’. But an incorrect interpretation about the same can put both employees and the management in a pickle. It can lead to incompletion of various tasks which can cause a lot of trouble, especially, at the end of a sprint.

Therefore, it’s important for everyone to be on the same page. When someone says that they have completed their tasks, they should maintain clarity and reveal the specifics.

9. Aiming for Perfection By Detailing an Agile Testing Plan

As discussed earlier, there is nothing worse than aiming for perfection and detailing out the Agile testing plan too much. It’s important to note that you can’t have all the information readily available at the beginning of the sprint.

The best thing to do is to settle for an Agile testing plan that’s good enough. This way, you won’t spend all your precious time planning. When you have more information, add to the Agile testing plan and make it better. Did you just end up with a killer Agile testing plan without wasting time planning it out? Well, that’s the beauty of Agile.

10. Mishandling of Carry Over Work

Now, no matter how much you try to be on time when it comes to accomplishing tasks of the sprint goal, you can’t completely avoid some carry over work. There is always going to be something left over when the sprint ends.

It’s tough to estimate the time the leftover tasks will take. Even if you are done with 75% of the task, the remaining 25% can take up a lot of time. To be safe, never underestimate the amount of work that is remaining. In this case, remember, overestimating won’t harm you.

Even if you end up overestimating the work, you can always add more if time permits later. But if you tend to underestimate, there are chances that there can be a tonne of leftover work when the sprint ends.

11. Lacking Skills and Experience With Agile Methods

Agile and scrum are relatively new in the tech industry. So, it’s understandable why people are not so experienced. It’s not possible to get your company to a flying start with sudden implementation of a new framework.

While the lack of experience itself is not a big issue, if you fail to address this in the short term, it’s going to cost you for the long haul. There is a risk of your employees falling back into the same old comfortable pattern of work.

The more you delay, the harder it gets to make your employees relinquish their comfort zone. So, to analyze the experience of different team members, hold meetings and conduct a thorough gap analysis. After that, when you get a vague idea, start educating them on the basics and work your way up to the more intricate parts.

12. Technical Debt

Procrastination is one of the biggest challenges in Agile Testing due to its quick-paced nature. This attitude can pile up to a mountain of technical debt that’s harder to pay off than one might think. It’s tough to pay off the technical debt with the workload of an ongoing task. It also affects what you are currently working on in the case when you get too caught up in clearing the debt.

When you pick up something you put off earlier, the entire sprint will suffer. Sometimes, when the new tasks suffer due to extremely high technical debt, the sprint can even fail. This is one of the main reasons why you should avoid technical debts and overcome the associated challenges in Agile testing.

13. Compromised Estimation

The biggest mistake some teams do is that they start to treat estimations as accurate statistics. It’s important to note that the nature of estimations is vague! They can’t be accurate all the time. But in most cases, bad estimations are a result of the agile testing team failing to see the complexity or the depth of the user story or a task.

For instance, the developer can uncover dependencies in the user story in further stages of the sprint. This leads to unexpected delays by the implementation team. Now, in an agile framework, you can be prepared for minor delays. But what if 10-hours estimation turns to 20?

The team sometimes has to deal with such circumstances. But if compromised estimations occur on a frequent basis, the sprint format is likely to take a big hit. Therefore, you should be extra careful while making estimations so as to avoid inaccuracies as much as possible.

Final Words!

Always keep in mind, the holy grail of a sprint in the agile is flexibility. There are always going to be times when a particular step does not deliver the expected results. But agile is far from the ‘plan and execute’ approach. You have to be flexible and adaptive.

A deviation in the Agile testing plan or the occurrence of an obstacle is not the core issue here. Instead, how you eliminate as many challenges in agile testing as possible and deal with the existing ones determine the success of your sprint.

To sum up, I would like to say that if you stay mindful of the above challenges in agile testing, the chances of success increases substantially. So, the next time you plan a sprint, keep in mind the challenges in agile testing stated above. Try to overcome as many as possible and you’ll definitely notice a positive impact.

I hope you liked the article, and you’re ready to tackle these challenges when and where they occur. Share your challenges with us in the comment section down below. Also, don’t forget to share this article with your peers. Any retweet or share is always welcomed. That’s all for now! Happy Testing!!! 😊

11 Best CSS Frameworks To Look Forward In 2020

Vethee Dixit — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 10:04:33 +0000

For any front end developer, there are two major concerns. The first one is time & efficiency and the other is browser compatibility testing issues. To address both concerns, it’s important to adopt a web design methodology that helps one save time and improve efficiency besides enhancing user experience. Speaking of which, CSS proves to be a win-win for both users and web designers.

Cascading Style Sheets or simply CSS are web design tools that separate document content from document presentation. This results in a dramatic decrease in the file transfer size. Once you apply a change to the site’s CSS style sheet, it can automatically reflect on all the pages alike. CSS offers great design consistency and offers a wide array of formatting options.

Now that we know how beneficial CSS is for both developers and users, the big question still remains, Which CSS framework do I choose? Considering that we have a plethora of CSS frameworks at our disposal, each with their own advantage, making the right choice can be daunting!

So, to ease out your nerves, I have compiled a list of the 11 Best CSS frameworks in 2020 based on the State of CSS report for 2019. In this article, I’d explain more about these 11 Best CSS frameworks and answer your questions, such as why to choose that framework, what is missing, and who is using the framework.

1. Bootstrap

Bootstrap, being the most popular one, holds the first position in our list for best CSS frameworks 2020. Among web developers, it has emerged as the leading Front-end framework. Of course, that’s the main reason behind the recent rise in the popularity of the framework. To enable web developers in building different user interface components, Bootstrap is a blend of CSS, Javascript, and HTML code.

Bootstrap 4 is the latest version of the framework, it comes with new components, better stylesheet, and enables your web pages to be more responsive. Also, Bootstrap 4, supports both LESS and SASS

The credit for the development of Bootstrap goes to the makers of Twitter. Originally, Bootstrap was called ‘Twitter Blueprint’. The name Bootstrap came into existence in 2011. Apart from offering a superb grid system, Bootstrap also features some common HTML elements in the form of reusable components. Some of them include navigation bars, dropdowns, pagination, labels, etc. You can easily incorporate them into web design. So, do you realize what the best part is? You don’t have to start from scratch while building a website!

Usage Statistics Of Bootstrap CSS Framework

Ranked 1st, in the category of, best CSS frameworks in 2020, for being most popular by the State Of CSS survey.
45% of the CSS developers have used it and would like to use it again.
Github- 140k stars, 68.7k forks, and 1,115 contributors.

Why You Should Choose The Bootstrap CSS Framework?

1. Time Saver

You don’t need to be a pro coder to start developing websites using Bootstrap. The frontend framework has amazing documentation on each component. With the built in ready to use components, you can develop the websites much faster! Also, thanks to the simplicity of use, you don’t have to waste time figuring out complexities.

2. Prevent Any Browser Compatibility Testing Issues

Cross browser testing is vital for a site to work on all browsers and devices to validate your website’s performance across multiple browsers. The latest version, i.e. Bootstrap 4.0, is compatible with all the latest browsers, ensuring that your elements don’t have any browser compatibility testing issues.

3. Well-maintained Codebase

The maintenance team constantly updates Bootstrap, thanks to its growing popularity. They also continuously test it against various technologies and browsers.

4. Better Consistency and Teamwork

Since the Bootstrap end result looks the same on all browsers and platforms, it eliminates inconsistencies between designers and developers. If a new individual joins the team, the tutorial documents make it easy to learn everything about the frontend framework. This instigates better teamwork in a firm.

5. Low Learning Curve

Bootstrap is really one of the best CSS frameworks in 2020 when it comes to it’s learning curve. With a lot of documentation available, it helps in the learning process for any beginner. With a lot of documentation and tutorials available, you know where to go when you are stuck!

Where Does The Bootstrap CSS Framework Can Do Better?

1. Battery Drains and Slower Loading Time

Bootstrap generates files with massive size, which can affect the loading speed and time of a website. To fix this issue, you have to delete some stuff manually.

2. All Websites Look The Same

WIth ease of working, Bootstrap takes away the uniqueness of a website unless you perform style customizations.

Who Is Using The Bootstrap CSS Framework?

Twitter, Spotify, Intel, Walmart, Udemy, Mint

2. Foundation

ZURB designed the Foundation in September 2011. In comparison to other best CSS frameworks in 2020, Foundation flaunts an advanced and sophisticated interface. One of its most prized possessions is the responsive menu and compatibility on various devices and browsers. You can also easily style the menu according to your requirements using the CSS framework.

The best thing about the Foundation is that it gives a lot of room for designers to show their creativity. Thanks to the super-responsive CSS framework, designers can follow a design-the-site-yourself approach which gives them a sense of control over a project.

Usage Statistics Of The Foundation CSS Framework

Ranked 2nd in the category of, best CSS frameworks in 2020, for being most popular by the State Of CSS survey.
14.1% of the CSS developers have used it and would like to use it again.
Github- 28.6k stars, 5.8k forks, and 984 contributors.

Why To Choose The Foundation CSS Framework?

1. More Uniqueness

Foundation CSS Framework, enables you to customize your site in a manner such that it doesn’t look the same as other sites using Foundation.

2. Less CSS Bloat

Thanks to the built-in base CSS appearances, the CSS bloat in HTML won’t be as much.

3. Better Flexibility In Grids

You can easily remove gutters and collapse columns, with the help of a ‘collapse’ class. You can also create columns of equal size with the help of a block-sized grid. Together, these features constitute a flexible grid.

4. Widgets

Foundation offers easy placement of website navigation on the side to hide it. You also get an HTML5 form validation library, a table showing subscription-based product prices, and options to customize user experience according to different devices.

Where Can The Foundation CSS Framework Can Do Better?

1. Time-Consuming

Beginners would find it difficult to learn how to use the Foundation CSS Framework and the learning process can be a bit time-consuming.

2. Compromised Support

Community support, QA sites, and forums provide the necessary support to developers. But in the case of the frontend framework, they are lacking to a great extent. One reason might be the extreme popularity of Bootstrap that has better community support.

3. Complexity In Customization

Developers are likely to find customizing a website more complex than many other CSS frameworks.

4. Prominent Clients

EA, Amazon, eBay, Adobe, and Mozilla

3. Materialize CSS

Materialize is basic by Google, Materialize is a blend of clever CSS and top-notch design aesthetics. ally a library featuring a combination of various components of JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. It boasts responsiveness and less browser compatibility testing issues as the two primary design principles. Developed by Google, Materialize is a blend of clever CSS and top-notch design aesthetics.

If you are looking forward to building a classy UI, Materialize contains a plethora of custom CSS to help you accomplish a unique website design. On top of it, Materialize features a wide variety of color schemes that further create a one-of-a-kind website.

Usage Statistics Of Materialize CSS Framework

Ranked 3rd in the category of, best CSS frameworks in 2020, for being most popular by the State Of CSS survey.
17.1% of the CSS developers have used it and would like to use it again.
Github- 37.4k stars, 4.8k forks, and 250 contributors.

Why To Choose The Materialize CSS Framework?

1. Variety of Built-in Features

Materialize is one of the best CSS frameworks in 2020, it offers a wide array of built-in features. Some of them include modern support, features that are simple to use, parallax elements, cards, flow texts, hoverable items as well as objects.

2. Reduces Coding Time

Since most of the vital features are readily available for use, Materialize reduces the coding time to a great extent.

3. Great Plugin Selections

Collapsible, Dialogs, Drop-downs, Media, Modals, and Parallax are some of the free JavaScript plugins that Materialize includes. You can easily use them to improve the user interface of your site.

4. Ease Of Use

Unlike some frontend frameworks that takes a lot of time to get used to, Materialize comes with clear documentation. The specific code instances can be of further help to increase your understanding of the frontend framework.

Where Can The Materialize CSS Framework Do Better?

1. Complex JavaScript Components

If you are a beginner, the JavaScript components of Materialize CSS framework might seem a bit critical. You can’t play with different components conveniently if you are a newbie.

2. Less Support

Since Materialize is not as popular as the other best CSS frameworks in 2020, you won’t get full-fledged community support. In other words, support might not be readily available.

Who Is Using The Materialize CSS Framework?

WPArena, Digital Services, GameRaven, DroneDeploy

4. Semantic UI

Semantic UI is one of the best CSS frameworks in 2020, developed by Jack Lukic. He is a full-stack developer who used the Natural language principles to create the Semantic UI framework. Powered by jQuery and LESS, Semantic UI flaunts a sleek, flat, and subtle look. This contributes to the lightweight user experience.

It has a comparatively small community. But the members are enthusiastic and loyal. The goal here is to create a language to share UI and empower developers and designers alike. The Semantic UI community has already made about 3000+ themes.

Usage Statistics Of The Semantic UI CSS Framework

Ranked 4th in the category of, best CSS frameworks in 2020, for being most popular by the State Of CSS survey.
9.2% of the CSS developers have used it and would like to use it again.
Github- 47.8k stars, 5k forks, and 190 contributors.

Why To Choose The Semantic UI CSS Framework?

1. Simple To Use

The best perk about Semantic UI is that it’s super easy to use. Just type what you want and you can easily incorporate it into the website design.

2. Availability Of A Plethora Of Themes

The layout variety is one of the strongest points of Semantic UI. With a wide variety of themes, you can easily find something for all kinds of projects.

3. Designing A Page Is Less Time Consuming

Since Semantic UI classes have meaningful names, it makes the learning curve shorter. This also makes project development faster and more intuitive.

Where Can The Semantic UI CSS Framework Do Better?

1. Browser Compatibility Testing Issues

Since Semantic UI doesn’t support Internet Explorer 7, we can say that the browser compatibility is not ideal. Perhaps the gaps in the browser compatibility testing are responsible for this shortcoming.

2. Fewer Updates

There was no update in Semantic UI for over a year. We’re talking about the time from 2018-2019. This can be a cause of concern since most other frontend frameworks undergo frequent updates.

3. Compromised Responsiveness

Considering that there are a variety of devices a website has to run smoothly on, lack of responsiveness is a cause of concern.

Who Is Using The Semantic UI CSS Framework?

Snapchat, Accenture, Kmong, Samsviran, Ristoranti

5. Bulma

Bulma is a Flexbox-based open-source and one of the best CSS frameworks in 2020. More than 200,000 developers use it all over the world. It helps developers understand how they can codify a component. Even if you need a visual component, Bulma is here to your rescue.

The frontend framework uses various techniques for providing front-end developers with a cohesive interface. Moreover, thanks to the responsive templates, we can focus better on the content rather than fretting over the code the entire time.

Usage Statistics Of Bulma CSS Framework

Ranked 5th in the category of, best CSS frameworks in 2020, for being most popular by the State Of CSS survey.
10% of the CSS developers have used it and would like to use it again.
Github- 39.5k stars, 3.3k forks, 303 contributors.

Why To Choose The Bulma CSS Framework?

1. Innovative and Easier Designing

Bulma makes the creation and customization of applications super easy for developers. The integrated Flexbox responsiveness enables front-end developers to build next-level and unique designs.

2. Thorough Documentation

Bulma comes with clear documentation. This helps developers to easily carry on their projects and have a backup for support.

3. Versatile

Bulma comes with typography, forms, buttons, tables, and much more. This contributes to a solid foundation and high versatility of the framework. On top of it, it’s packed with components such as a solution for vertical alignment, layouts, and different media objects.

Where Can The Bulma CSS Framework Do Better?

1. Slow on IE

Even though the browser compatibility testing issues are not nil, this CSS framework tends to run very slow on Internet Explorer browsers.

2. Small Community

Since Bulma is a relatively new framework, the community base is not as wide as popular frameworks such as Bootstrap.

Who Is Using The Bulma CSS Framework?

Django, Rubrik, XICA magellan, Tam Development, Awesome Stacks, WordPress Setup.

6. UIKit

UIKit is a modular and lightweight front-end CSS framework. If you are aiming to develop powerful and fast web interfaces, UIKit is one way to go. It features a comprehensive collection of CSS, HTML, and JS components. This makes the frontend framework extendible, simple to customize, and easy to use.

It’s one of the most widely used frontend frameworks for the development of iOS applications. UIKit defines the core components such as buttons, labels, navigation controllers, and table views. Basically, UIKit is the future of developing apps on Apple’s platforms.

Usage Statistics Of The UIKit CSS Framework

Ranked 6th in the category of, best CSS frameworks in 2020, for being most popular by the State Of CSS survey.
3.27% of the CSS developers have used it and would like to use it again.
Github- 15.k stars, 2.2k forks, 28 contributors.

Why To Choose The UIKit CSS Framework?

1. Clear architecture

UIKit has clearly defined conventions and clean code which contributes to a clear architecture.

2. Availability of ready-to-use themes

You can choose the theme of your choice from the drop-down menu of the website by downloading its LESS CSS, or SASS file. There is a wide variety of ready-to-use themes to select from.

3. Modular

The designing of every aspect of UIKit is done in such a way that designers can easily select different components for adding it to their stylesheet. Thanks to the frontend framework being extremely modular, they don’t have to worry about damaging the overall style of the site.

4. Highly customizable

Designers can create entirely new looks easily, thanks to the high customizability of UIKit. The built-in animation features add to the creativity of a site.

Where Can The UIKit Framework Do Better?

1. Lack Of Learning Resources

Since the frontend framework lacks extreme popularity, it can be tough to find extra learning resources. All developers have is the official documentation.

2. Closed And Slow Development

The development cycles are long and fixing bugs is selective and time-consuming as well. The development takes place in-house and is not available publically.

3. Complicated Code Classes

The nested classes can be tough to read and it can cause difficulties in gaining the desired outcome.

Who Is Using The UIKit CSS Framework?

LiteTube, AskNicely, Crunchyroll, SolarWinds, Nedwave

7. PureCSS

PureCSS features a set of CSS modules that are ideal for different kinds of projects. Even though the modules are small, they are responsive. As a result, you can easily create websites that are responsive, faster, and aesthetically pleasing. The credit for the development of this CSS framework goes to Yahoo.

Some of the salient features of the platform include a built-in design with high responsiveness and Standard CSS having a minimal footprint. The best thing about PureCSS is that it’s absolutely free to use!

Usage Statistics Of Pure CSS Framework

Ranked 7th in the category of, best CSS frameworks in 2020, for being most popular by the State Of CSS survey.
5.44% of the CSS developers have used it and would like to use it again.
Github- 20.8k stars, 2.1k forks, 59 contributors.

Why To Choose The Pure CSS Framework?

1. Simple Customizations

The frontend framework provides designers with a foundation to customize accordingly and build the design of their choice.

2. Browser Compatibility Testing

The base of Pure CSS relies on Normalize.css. The frontend framework does not have many browser compatibility testing issues, as the compatibility issues undergo frequent fixing.

3. Extensible

There is no need for overwriting existing CSS rules since the designers can easily add new ones. This way, you can customize the appearance according to your projects.

4. Lightweight and responsive

The 4.5KB minified + gzip file size makes the frontend framework lightweight. If you create a website using PureCSS, it will redesign itself according to the device the user views it on. PureCSS has a mobile-first fluid grid with 12 columns that offers support for responsive classes for different screen sizes.

Where Can The Pure CSS Framework Do Better?

1. Not That Great For Beginners

Pure CSS doesn’t feature a wide array of unique styles. So, you do need some level of customization. This makes it a bit unsuitable for beginners.

Who Is Using The Pure CSS Framework?

SkyQuest Tech Stack, Hacktoolkit, PodcastParty, Wizters, Choobs Ltd.

8. Tailwind

Tailwind is a utility-first framework you can use for the rapid building of UIs. It’s a CSS library that is utility-based that prefers practicality and speed over a semantic and lean markup. All you need to determine thoroughly is the scope of your project. Based on that, it’s easy to create an entire website without having to write your own CSS.

Tailwind does not come with a default theme. You also won’t find any UI components that are built-in. But there is a predesigned widgets menu you can work with for building a website.

Usage Statistics Of The Tailwind CSS Framework

Ranked 8th in the category of, best CSS frameworks in 2020, for being most popular by the State Of CSS survey.
4.9% of the CSS developers have used it and would like to use it again.
Github- 69 stars, 13 forks, 2 contributors.

Why To Choose The Tailwind CSS Framework?

1. Site Unaffected By Individual Changes

If you make a change to one element, you don’t have to worry about its impact on other tangentially-related elements.

2. Ease Of Use

Once you are familiar with the syntax, Tailwind is extremely simple to use. You also don’t have to tab back and forth between your stylesheets and HTML.

3. Highly Customizable

Tailwind has a plethora of customization options. Besides, unlike the other best CSS frameworks 2020, Tailwind doesn’t tell you what your website should look like.

4. Greater Development Speed

Since tailwind almost eliminates the big step of having to write CSS, the development speed increases by manifold.

Where Can The Tailwind CSS Framework Do Better?

1. Insignificant For The Experts

The frontend framework is beneficial for developers who are beginners in writing CSS or don’t want to do it at all. However, those who are experts in writing CSS might not find Tailwind as appealing.

2. Doesn’t Support Grid Layout

Tailwind doesn’t support a grid layout even though it rocks the 12-column layout.

Who Is Using The Tailwind CSS Framework?

BlaBlaCar, otto-now, Website, Clarisights, JetThoughts, EXR

9. Ant Design

Ant Design is a components library for the Javascript library ReactJS. The credit for creating this frontend framework goes to an Alibaba group owned Chinese company “Ant Design.” The grid divides the screen area into 24 columns which increases the customizability of the area visible to you. The wide array of filled and outlined icons are meant to fulfill different app requirements.

Usage Statistics of the Ant Design CSS Framework

Ranked 9th in the category of, best CSS frameworks in 2020, for being most popular by the State Of CSS survey.
4.39% of the CSS developers have used it and would like to use it again.
Github- 59.1k stars, 21.7k forks, and 1,085 contributors.

Why To Choose The Ant Design CSS Framework?

1. Support For The Form Component

Developers can use TextArea, Input, Radio, Checkbox, or Date/TimePicker for your FormItems.

2. Great Feedback Components

And Notification provides instant notifications to user actions.

3. Polished Look

The main reason behind developers opting for Ant design is the enterprisey and polished look and feel it provides.

4. Accessibility

Keyboard handling, meeting ARIA compliance, and tabbing requires a lot of effort. Ant Design easily handles these tasks for you.

5. Saves Time

Since Ant Design makes prototyping much faster, it saves a lot of time.

Where Can The Ant Design CSS Framework Do Better?

1. Lack of proper documentation

Some Ant Design documentation is not available in languages other than Chinese. However, the community has done a good job with the translation.

Who Is Using The Ant Design CSS Framework?

Ant Financial, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Koubei, Meituan

10. Tachyons

Tachyons is one of the growing CSS frameworks in 2020. Unlike another popular frontend frameworks like Foundation and Bootstrap, you don’t get pre-built UI components. On the contrary, it aims to break CSS rules into manageable, small, as well as reusable parts.

Cutting down the need to write CSS lines, Tachyons help developers build amazing websites. In other words, Tachyons help in creating highly readable, fast loading, and super responsive interfaces without heavy CSS.

Usage Statistics Of The Tachyons CSS Framework

Ranked 10th in the category of, best CSS frameworks in 2020, for being most popular by the State Of CSS survey.
4.13% of the CSS developers have used it and would like to use it again.
Github- 9.7k stars, 611 forks, and 64 contributors.

Why To Choose The Tachyons CSS Framework?

1. Easy To Learn

Tachyons don’t have a steep learning curve and even beginners can easily learn and implement it.

2. Fully customizable

A wide array of customizable CSS modules goes into the creation of Tachyons. Since there are no complex dependencies within the modules, it’s easy to customize.

3. No Compulsion For Adhering To Default Styles

Different classes have variants across different screen sizes. This provides the developers with control over the layout. Also, they don’t have to fret over adhering to any default style.

4. Great For Prototyping

Since Tachyons can make a site look great with minimal design work, it’s great for prototyping.

5. Well-documented

Developers have availability to impeccable documentation to get acquainted with Tachyons. It’s organized and simple to understand.

Where Can The Tachyons CSS Framework Do Better?

1. Lack Of Creativity

Tachyons lack creativity as you might end up with a website that is not unique. The defaults are not sufficient to impart a unique look to our site.

2. Compromised Speed

If you have not memorized the class name and structure properly, using Tachyons will just drag you down in terms of working speed.

Who Is Using The Tachyons CSS Framework?

Everlane, CrewFire, Agema, guac. live

11. Primer

Primer is basically a basecoat of the world’s largest community of developers, that is, Github. The credit for the creation of this open-source tool goes to some masterminds who share a passion for CSS and HTML. Primer boasts a systematic approach that ensures consistency in styles such as typography, spacing, and color.

The simplicity of the framework is one of the main reasons behind it’s steadily growing popularity. Plus, the fact that Github maintains it adds to the credibility of the Primer. It is a system meant for building consistent and positive user experiences.

Usage Statistics Of The Primer CSS Framework

Ranked 11th in the category of, best CSS frameworks in 2020, for being most popular by the State Of CSS survey.
0.62% of the CSS developers have used it and would like to use it again.
Github- 92.5k stars, 15.9k forks, and 77 contributors.

Why To Choose The Prime CSS Framework?

1. Customizable Typography

Primer offers font styles in a wide variety of sizes and weights. This enables developers to create styles that enhance the readability of a site and make it look appealing.

2. Great Color Scheme

Primer offers a great color scheme to add to the clarity of the content. Color utilities and variables also offer developers thematic styling options without having to be tied with a specific structure.

3. Composable Spacing Scale

The highly composable base-8 spacing scale works well with Github’s content density. Padding spacers and margins provide consistency to the horizontal and vertical rhythm.

Where Can The Prime CSS Framework Do Better?

1. Lack Of Popularity And Reviews

Primer is not as popular as its counterparts. Since very few users have used this CSS framework, there are not enough reviews that can help you decide whether to give it a shot or not.

2. Compromised Community Support

Since Primer has a slim user base, the community support is not as readily available.

Who Is Using The Primer CSS Framework?

My Stack, timelog, g59 Ranking, Complete Toolset

Summing It Up

It’s safe to assume that CSS for web design is here to last. All frameworks that I’ve mentioned above have their own set of pros and cons. Of course, your business circumstances have a major impact on which one you end up choosing. Depending on the requirement of your project, you can select the CSS framework accordingly. Also, you need to make sure that you perform thorough cross browser testing on this different frontend framework to make sure that there are no browser compatibility testing issues.

So, do you agree with this list of the best CSS frameworks in 2020? Do let us know your opinion in the comment section down below. Help us to reach out with your peers looking for the best CSS frameworks, by sharing this article with them and feel free to retweet us. That’s all for now! Happy Testing!!! ☺

Top 27 Best Practices For Selenium Test Automation

Vethee Dixit — Mon, 25 May 2020 10:38:39 +0000

In recent years, you’d hardly see an organization who had not transitioned to Selenium test automation. After all, with quick feedback on new features, who’d want to miss out on automated browser testing. Even then, a few testers complain of the automation tests being unstable and unreliable. Trust me, that’s not true! A lot of the time the reason for your unstable tests is not following the right practices for Selenium test automation.

Although there are no hard and fast rules for writing Selenium test automation scripts, there are certain tips you can follow to write better test scripts.

Speaking of which, in this article, I’ll share 27 best practices for Selenium test automation, which will help you get the most value out of automation testing efforts. So, let’s dive right in.

1. Test Early and Test Often

One of the best practices for Selenium test automation is to test early and often. As organizations moved away from the waterfall model, it became important for testers to be more involved in the development, in contrast to keeping it as a one-off activity, as it had major implications on project deadlines, as well as cost.

This gave rise to the concept of shift left testing, this means to involve testers right from the requirement gathering phase. That way, they are able to come up with test cases in advance by understanding the expectations of the end-users. The primary idea here is to avoid encountering bugs after the development is done. Testers can provide their valuable input and help developers develop the product in a way that improves the user experience. Also, to help developers avoid any development practice which isn’t recommended for the product. For example, imagine your developer leveraging CSS Subgrid in a pricing page table of a subscription-based model. The cross browser compatibility of CSS Subgrid:

If your testing team is already aware of your developer using a CSS Subgrid, then they can go ahead and prompt the developer in advance before the development is complete. That way, you are saving time for both developers and testers. Not to mention, you are also saving yourself from a potential outage.

This is why you should start automated browser testing as soon as possible, and do it as frequently as needed. The earlier you start testing, the sooner you find bugs and bugs found earlier can help you save both time & resources in your SDLC(Software Development Life Cycle)..

2. Consider Using a BDD Framework

BDD or Behavior Driven Development, is a popular development approach while performing Selenium Test Automation. BDD enables testers to write Selenium test automation cases in simple English which can be understood by anyone without coding knowledge. This further helps in creating a bridge between the business and technical team to understand what’s really happening in the project, overall creating better collaboration.

By writing your Selenium test automation scripts with BDD, you create specifications, which will help your team to understand the test and requirements in a much better way. This allows you to save time, as you won’t have to explain the test to any stakeholder as they are self-explanatory now.

As the business team has more insights into the tests, they might be able to give some input on the basis of business benefits.

3. Use Selenium Wait Commands Instead Of Thread.sleep()

It’s quite often that your web application takes some time to load due to the network speed, server issues or various other reasons. To tackle this, you need to pause your scripts to wait for all the elements to load. This is a good way to ensure that all your web elements are there while you run your tests on them.

One way to pause your script is by using the Thread.sleep() function, it pauses your test script for the specified time. But there is a major flaw with this function, let’s say you want to open a web page, and you’ve chosen the time to wait to be 6s, in cases where your website loads much faster, you would’ve wasted a lot of time.

In the faster scenarios, you might have lost a lot of extra time running Selenium test automation, and in the slower ones, you’d get the result as a failure. So in order to avoid such situations, you need to incorporate implicit waits or explicit waits.

To know more about Implicit wait commands or Explicit wait commands you can visit our previous article on Selenium Waits.

4. Set Up Selenium test automation Reports

“You can’t improve, what you can’t measure.” This stands true for Selenium test automation as well, you can’t ensure better Selenium test automation results if you don’t keep a track of how your tests are performing. The automation testing report helps in improving the readability of test results and helps to minimize the time spent in maintaining the test data. In a previous blog, we’ve covered the importance of Selenium Reports, also you can learn more about how to generate Selenium test automation reports using pytest.

Selenium test automation report generation can do wonders for you, as you save precious time as you manage your test data in an organized manner. Due to this, you have better control over tests, as using this data you can analyze when the test scripts are failing.

You can keep a tab on your test scripts with the LambdaTest Platform. With LambdaTest, you can run your Selenium testing scripts over a cloud-based Selenium Grid of 2000+ desktop and mobile browsers.

5. Use Page Object Model

As the UI for a web application changes, so do the locators associated with it, with it all the tests need to be written again. But, there is a solution to this, by using Page Object Model, you don’t need to make changes to all your test scripts, again and again.

With POM you only need to change the page objects, as all the locators are in one central repository. In POM, every webpage has a separate page class, to find web elements on it as well as the page methods for these web elements. This makes the project more reliable as, the developer doesn’t need to scan the whole code and test scripts, just to incorporate a few UI changes.

6. Take Automated Screenshots For Failure Investigation

Your Selenium test automation script is bound to face some bugs, failures, somewhere down the road. In such cases, it is recommended to collect automated screenshots of your test script execution through a Selenium Grid.

If you’re running your Selenium test automation using our online Selenium Grid then you won’t have to worry about it. All you need to do is pass a simple capability through your Desired Capabilities class i.e. set the capability of the visual flag to true.

You can even refer to our Desired Capabilities Generator to turn on the button for generating step by step screenshots of your Selenium test script execution.

The Desired Capabilities Generator will provide you with the class in various programming languages as you turn on the toggle for Screenshot under the Advanced configurations.

7. Designing Tests Prior To Automating Them

Before you begin to automate tests, creating scenarios and test cases in advance is a good practice. Diving straight into automation without a proper test design can prove to be dangerous. This is why a test design along with strategy and planning is necessary for Selenium test automation success. You need to develop test architecture describing the structure of the test program and how the test program will be managed.

Automating tests without adequate design, indicates that you are only interested in ensuring that the script works. It’s important to think about different possible scenarios that can help you perform foolproof testing. After all, reducing the testing scope just to make sure that the test passes is not a wise move! Selenium test automation enables testers to create test scripts using multiple programming languages.

8. Not Completely Relying On An Automation Tool

Automation tools are vital components of different testing activities such as automated browser testing. But you should know that they don’t solve everything! We know that using the correct tools is an essential part of switching to an automated browser testing framework. But that’s just the beginning!

However, some managers live under a big misconception that if they choose the right tool, automating anything is possible. Well, no tool offers you everything. Even though they simplify the entire process, you can’t carry out testing without skilled resources.

Sometimes, when you try to use automation tools without any human intervention, they can get stuck while recognizing complex objects on software or application. But if you have skilled resources, they can make the tool move past complications and use them to the benefit of the company.

9. Identifying Which Tests To Automate

One of the best practices for automation testing is knowing what to automate. Before you head out to implement automated browser testing, it’s important to know what to automate first. The main reason behind automation is avoiding repetitive and mundane tasks. So, it makes sense to stick to the goals and know what kinds of tests you should automate.

For instance, it’s a good idea to automate tests that involve visual scenarios including fonts, colors, and layout structure. You can also automate testing of static content such as logo, title, policy, and terms. Of course, we know that they rarely change and thus, you can easily automate them.

10. Automating Most Frequent and Predictable Test Cases

Building on the gist of the previous point, there are some specific test cases that go really well with automation. So, what should be the next big step? You can choose the test cases with frequent occurrences and which are predictable.

For instance, when you click on a tab, an app starts to launch. This is a generic test with a condition. In other words, when we know that an event is sure to occur, the result is predictable. So, to avoid the repetition of executions, you can automate these test cases.

11. Choosing The Correct Selenium test automation Too

While switching to automated browser testing, every company has different factors to think about. Even though there is a wide array of Selenium test automation tools available in the market, choosing a tool is not a one-fit-for-all approach. You have to select the correct Selenium test automation tool according to the needs of your company.

For instance, check whether the tool supports the platform your firm works on. Some other questions to ask include the following. Do you need the tool to perform mobile application testing? What are the operating systems you work with? Do the tool support record and playback testing? Can you manually create automated tests?

12. Removing Uncertainty From Selenium Test Automation

As testers, what do you need the most from a Selenium test automation tool? I’m sure the most obvious answer is consistent results. Sometimes, tests fail even when nothing is wrong. On the other hand, a test might pass when there is something wrong. Now, you can imagine how dangerous both of these situations can be!

When there are any inconsistencies or false positives, it increases the amount of time we take to analyze results. Therefore, when it comes to regression packs, never hesitate to eliminate unstable tests. After all, you have got to keep reliable and consistent results as goals!

13. Hiring a Dedicated Team of Experts

A successful testing team comprises both manual and automation testers. Now, the biggest mistake companies make is think that a single entity can perform both tasks. However, automation testing is a full-time job in itself. The same goes for manual testing. It’s unreasonable to expect manual testers to carry out Selenium test automation.

But if you are hesitant to hire new staff for automating and leave the task to your experienced manual testers, first free them of manual testing and related responsibilities. They shouldn’t be automating with half of their focus on something else.

Or else, hire an automation engineer to do the job. Now, suppose your firm operates on a large scale. In that case, I suggest you appoint an automation architect. Then, hire automation engineers whom the architect can supervise. The number of engineers you hire can be according to your company’s production requirement.

14. Ensure Collective Selenium test automation Ownership

Sometimes, appointing a single automation engineer can prove to be a mistake. Mostly, in this situation, the rest of the team doesn’t really know what’s going on. But if the team’s collective knowledge in this area is up to date, the chances for success in implementing Selenium test automation increase.

Keep the involvement of all the team members equal for integrating automation in your workplace. This way, the automation testers also get a chance to impart their knowledge to the rest of the team. Hence, when everyone is aware of what’s going on, they can all contribute to the success of the company.

15. Dividing Efforts During Automation Testing

As we have already discussed, automated browser testing is a team-based task. Depending on the skill level of different employees, you have to divide automation related tasks. For example, a person who is an expert in scripting languages should write automated test scripts. On the other hand, the team members who are not well-versed with scripting languages might do well with writing test cases.

Even the non-technical staff can use keyword tests to create powerful and robust automated tests. Thus, when everyone in the team contributes according to their skills, finding defects becomes a lot easier.

16. Reviewing The Validity Factor For Selenium test automation

Sometimes, a team fails to plan well before implementing automation. This can cause a negative impact on the entire software. There are times when automated tests are not able to check for some verifications. The main reason behind that is those verifications might be outdated.

Therefore, it’s vital that you review validity for all automated tests. In other words, all the time, you need to ensure that the tests are up to date. It’s best to keep someone in charge of the validity and sanity of automated tests.

17. Selecting Automation Tools That Hold Familiarity With Company Resources

Suppose, your company resources hold the familiarity with a particular programing language. Let’s just say that the language is C#. Therefore, it makes sense to develop the application you are about to test in C#. In this case, if you select a tool that doesn’t support writing scripts in C#, it doesn’t really make sense. We understand that learning a new language calls for a lot of effort and is time-consuming. But you can totally avoid the learning curve if you opt for a tool compatible with your company resources.

18. Using Test Techniques

Using test techniques is one of the best practices for automated browser testing. If you are a tester, there must have been a time in your life when all your focus was on learning test techniques. Of course, manual testing is the field in which you can really apply those. But don’t let yourself believe that the valuable knowledge you have will go in vain with Selenium test automation. After all, test techniques are not merely for manual testing!

For instance, four test techniques, in particular, have a lot of benefits to offer if testers use them in test automation. The are Boundary Value Analysis, State Transition Testing, Equivalence Partitioning, Pairwise Testing.

19. Good Automation Equals Great Manual Test Case

There are some test cases that are easy to automate. But when it comes to finding defects, it turns out to be weak. In other words, if you don’t have a good design or manual test cases, automation won’t give you as much value as you might want. So, one of the best practices is to write manual test cases beforehand. Jot down the steps clearly and mention the expected outcome from each.

Also, keep the objective of each test case clear. Make sure that it doesn’t depend too much on other test cases. I suggest automation engineers run test cases manually at least one time. This will help them decide the navigation flow and which objects need identification. Another upside to this practice is that sometimes, you can even identify bugs before writing the automation script. Don’t you think it’s better to catch bugs in the development phase instead of in execution?

20. Not Automating Unstable Functionalities

It is common for things to go wrong during the development of new functionality. Sometimes, using the feature may no longer appear to be necessary just because the business owners changed their minds! Suppose you started automating during the development phase of a functionality. In that case, you need to update the tests many times. After all, the functionality is likely to keep on evolving!

We can say that keeping up with so many unexpected changes is quite exhausting. Moreover, if you can no longer apply a functionality, all that effort goes in vain! Therefore, a wise move is to automate a function only when it’s not subject to many changes and is stable.

21. Creating High-Quality Test Data

You can take data-driven automated browser testing to a whole new level by creating high-quality test data. A good automation tool has a good understanding of the data file content. Usually, testers can manually create test data and store it to the location the company prefers. However, some tools provide test data generators that enable users to create excel sheets and table variables to save test data.

It’s a good idea to invest significant time and effort into creating high-quality test data. This makes the writing of automated tests much simpler. This practice also helps in extending the existing automated tests and pacing up the application development process.

22. Creating Test Resistant To Changes In The User Interface

Changes in the UI can greatly affect test results, especially, during the initial phases of an application. When the application version upgrades, it can create obstacles in the way in which automated tests work. For example, some scripts find objects using location coordinates. But what if there is a change in the location?

If you run automation tests in such cases, the test will fail as test scripts won’t be able to find the object. To ensure the success of a test, you can add new names to replace the old ones. If names for the controls are unique, the changes in the user interface won’t impact test results.

23. Identifying Automation Opportunities

When you have a manual test case in hand, think about how you can expand its scope. Think of the different automation opportunities so that you don’t end up automating as it is. For instance, the most common test case is to log in to an application. You can make this particular test case data-driven if you expand it.

The login function has different possible scenarios. For example, invalid password, invalid username, blank username, invalid email, etc. List them out with the outcomes expected in an excel file. Use this as a source of data for your test case. So, when you automate this manual test, you can check different scenarios in a single go.

24. Avoiding GUI Automation If There Is Another Option

If we take a look at different automated tests, GUI automation is the toughest. But does that mean you completely say no to it? Of course not. But a wise move is to avoid GUI automation as much as possible, especially in cases when there is another alternative present. Skilled automation engineers can determine the necessary tests for the UI layer.

You should also know that it’s okay if you have to stop automating the GUI. Sometimes, when GUI is concerned, automation just stops making sense at some point. Too much GUI automation when unnecessary can make a really bad mess almost impossible to untangle.

25. Understanding The Context

Unit, Service, API, and GUI layers have different purposes for automated browser testing. Before automating, it’s important to understand the context of each test. For instance, unit tests involve testing of individual software methods or functions. API tests determining whether a set of classes or functions are able to work together. It also ensures that you can pass data to and from different classes. GUI testing checks screens, controls, windows, dialog boxes, etc. All in all, it ensures that the entire system works well according to common use cases and user scenarios.

26. Not Considering Automation As a Replacement For Manual Testing

Automated browser testing is not a replacement for manual testing. The technology is here to complement manual testing and make the task of testers easier. It’s important to understand that automation means having to run fewer tests. For instance, regression tests can take a long time to complete. You might also need to perform them often to ensure all the existing functionalities of an app work well. So, automating them makes sense.

But the newly added functionalities can interfere with the working of existing ones. So, blindly automating end-to-end testing won’t do you any good. Test automation can’t capture unforeseen circumstances. In this case, you might want to perform exploratory testing. Here, the testers have to use their own creativity. To sum up, automation is to prevent manual testers from doing repetitive work and focus on finding bugs and more test scenarios.

27. Targeting Quick Feedback

Quick feedback helps in spotting and fixing errors quickly. The whole purpose of automated browser testing is to pace up testing procedures while maintaining high-quality. Shorter release cycles results in a quicker time to market. This makes continuous feedback possible and leads to constant improvement.

Continuous feedback from stakeholders, functional Experts, Testers, and QA Analysts, ensures an error-free and speedy release. Feedback includes necessary information as well as actions to keep fixing issues as they come.

Summing It Up

That’s all for the best practices for Selenium Test Automation. There’s a lot that can be done to improve test automation efforts and I hope these practices would certainly help you improve. Finding bugs early in the development, that can do wonders while performing test automation. Also, it’s always to play smart and think over the test design and strategy before you start writing Selenium test automation scripts.

Liked the tips, or you have another to share, feel free to share them with us in the comment section down below. Meanwhile, share the article with your fellow automation testers! Happy testing.

The Perfect Way To Maintain Your Selenium Test Automation

Vethee Dixit — Wed, 13 May 2020 11:22:39 +0000

Without a doubt, automated browser testing has transformed the way software development works. If it wasn’t for Selenium, we wouldn’t be able to use such a wide array of bug-free web apps as we do. But sometimes, even the IT sector misunderstands the term automation.

Most people assume that the computer is going to accomplish all the testing for them! They also end up thinking that they can automate the entire product. Well, I’m not saying they can’t, but with complete automation comes to the responsibility of its maintenance. After all, it’s not always a forget-it-after-setting-it approach! Automation generates maintenance costs that you can’t easily overlook.

So, what’s the biggest nightmare of any Selenium test automation engineer? Now we know that it’s automation test maintenance. Even a minor change in the UI has the potential to break tests. This calls for an ideal maintenance process for Selenium test automation. On that note, we will talk about the perfect approach to maintain your Selenium test automation in this article.

What Are The Different Types Of Test Maintenance?

Test maintenance comprises two main categories of processes. First is when the tests that are already working might begin to fail. Another category is change in dependencies of lifeline tools. Let’s take a look at both of these cases separately.

When Tests Fail

What should be the first reaction to a failed test? Of course, determine the reason behind the failure. Sometimes there can be defects in the software. Other reasons can be unforeseen side effects and changes in behavior. In this case, fixing the code or updating the tests can help. Sometimes, the team might have to do both.

Change In Dependencies Of LifeLine Tools

Selenium Test automation tools running in production require support. When a firm changes reporting tools or APIs, it can call for the need to make changes in some elements of these tools. This enables its functioning as a part of a toolset. This category of test automation maintenance also includes training developers on tools if the need for updating the tool infrastructure arises.

What Are The Issues With Automation Test Maintenance?

When you talk about test automation, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Well, for me, it’s Selenium. It won’t be an overstatement to say that Selenium test automation rules the world of test automation. But the issue is that it uses JavaScript. And since JavaScript relies on locators, as the page element moves so would the locator,the result being that the wrong locator gets selected.

While creating a script, it’s vital to identify the selector of the element you plan on interacting with. You can find this selector on the page while running the test script. This is when the team takes appropriate action. But as UI undergo developments and changes, page elements can move.

Now imagine different tests interacting with those elements. To prevent test failures, it’s important to update those tests. Sometimes, it’s not possible to identify the real error until after a few steps. Now, since you have to go back a few steps to trace what went wrong, it makes the process even harder.

Selenium test automation maintenance is an ongoing need. Fixing problems in the existing tests can hog up the testers’ precious time. After all, they can create new tests, refine test suites, and accomplish much more during this time! So, how do we make things easier? Let’s take a look.

How Developers In An Agile Environment Can Support Test Automation Maintenance?

Selenium test automation teams already feel burdened with the responsibility of keeping the tools and scripts updated. Thus, as the number of Selenium automated tests for checking particular elements increases, the teams can become more and more overwhelmed with work.

In the case of a traditional waterfall framework, external teams handle the maintenance of test scripts. Thus, they relieve the developers from doing the same.

However, an agile framework eliminates the need for external teams. The agile methodology comprises a cross-functional team of developers and an agile tester. If a check fails, it’s the responsibility of the development team. They can build, perform automated browser testing, fix, and retest, in other words, experience the feedback cycle as a whole. The best part is that they don’t have to sit around waiting for input from some external team.

The resulting feedback cycle in agile companies is tighter than those with siloed development and testing teams. The agile tester is aware of what requires an update. They also know various bug fixes and what’s causing an issue. They can also question programmers about a change in the code that’s affecting the test. This way, test information becomes available immediately. Thus, you can easily act on it as soon as you receive it, instead of keeping the info in a queue.

Keeping Up With Demands Of Maintaining Selenium Test Automation

As soon as you encounter a test failure, it’s important to start looking for remedial measures. This calls for the development team to make a plan for Selenium test automation maintenance. This includes figuring out who would do what and allotting tasks accordingly.

In case there is no plan, the entire workload might fall on someone incompetent. Even if it falls in the hands of a skilled worker, the company risks overburdening a diligent employee. This increases the risk of burnout which is an enemy in the entire Selenium test automation maintenance process. Worst case scenario, you lose a valuable asset because of burnout.

Best Practices For Minimizing Test Automation Maintenance

Automated testing tools call for maintenance. If you fail to keep up with maintenance-related demands, it can cost you later. Here are some best practices to reduce maintenance in automated browser testing.

1. Keep Your Automation Designs Simple, Yet Strategic

Keeping things simple is the key to ease the test maintenance process. Now, I know you might be thinking that what I’m saying is easier said than done. But you should try to use simple Selenium test automation scripts as much as possible. The reason is that you can execute low-level tests quickly. Moreover, they are also easy to maintain as they decrease maintenance efforts.

Complicating your test suites unnecessarily can increase the chance of a breakdown.

But sometimes, complex scenarios can be inevitable. In that case, the best solution is to create tests that are reusable.

2. Inspire Developers For Keeping Testing In Mind

Updated UI is a vital process to provide the end-users a pleasant experience. But usually, UI/UX developers don’t keep testing in their mind while writing code. In this situation, developing a naming convention for each object can help. When you have a stable QA id, The Selenium test automation scripts will keep recognizing the objects as different aspects of the code and UI/UX design change.

3. Establish Process For Keeping Automation Updated

Do you have a system that checks and updates Selenium test automation scripts? If not, it’s time to establish a process that keeps Selenium test automation updated. I’m sure that your team must be striving to deliver features that continuously improve the application. But are your test scripts following the suite? Well, it’s important that they do! Having an established strategy for ensuring the same will save a lot of work in the long run.

4. Establish A Smart Test Execution Strategy

Every company appreciates hard work. But do you know what can make a firm thrive? Smart work! Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t work hard. It’s just that running a complete test cycle every single time the team deploys a new code is not necessary. After all, there is no harm in saving extra efforts and diverting them elsewhere.

Nightly automated browser testing that covers all major test cases is the way to go here. By test cases, I don’t mean the super critical ones. You can cover the regular maintenance tests in this strategy. The outcomes of the automated testing cycle will help you identify or address issues in the nightly automated test.

5. Identify Flaky Tests And Work On Reducing Them

Before identifying and trying to reduce flaky tests, let’s take a look at what they are. Suppose you are running tests under identical parameters. But they still give inconsistent results. They are called flaky tests. In other words, a flaky test is a failed test that passes when testers run it again. Usually, this prevails in User Interface Testing.

Flakiness is likely to occur in the automated browser testing setup, not the development code. Unfortunately, you might not be able to completely avoid them, it’s important to identify flaky tests and respond to them quickly. Thus, reducing flaky tests will help you easily maintain the test suite.

6. Focus Automation Efforts On High Value And Unstable Features

Which automation tests would be easiest to maintain? The one which was never written. Selenium test automation is not easy. Writing new tests certainly takes a significant amount of time. So in order to minimize our test automation maintenance efforts , you need to consider which features you are writing tests for. Thereby, it is advisable to focus automation efforts on high value and unstable features. Automate tests around critical business value cases, not around shiny look and-feel aspects of your Web application.

7. Automate Test Reports

If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. That being said, it is vital to keep monitoring your test results in order to identify what are the areas that need improvement and what features are stable. Also, the test results with vital information would need to be maintained for any future references.

To automate your test reports, you can utilize frameworks like pytest along with Selenium to minimise test automation maintenance efforts.This way the test results generated can be more insightful by combining reporting with automated browser testing.

8. Implement Cloud Selenium Grid

Performing tests on your local Selenium Grid can be quite tedious as it might require you to manage and set up your local infrastructure. There are several scalability issues that come with a local Selenium Grid, as your local infrastructure might not cover all the major OS, browser and their different versions. Thereby it is advisable to use a cloud based Selenium Grid. You can utilise LambdaTest cloud Selenium Grid to perform parallel testing across your browser matrix.

With a cloud Selenium Grid there is no need to setup and maintain virtual machines and browsers. By utilising LambaTest Selenium Grid you can run your tests on over 2000+ real browsers and their different versions. This would not only help you save your infrastructure costs but also help you to scale your testing efforts and leave you ample time to focus on important tasks.

Summing It Up

Now, if you are thinking that it’s way too much effort, trust me, it’s all worth it. We already know how beneficial test automation is. So, why let the maintenance efforts deter you from availing all the mind-blowing benefits of automation testing? All you need to do is have a test management strategy plan and stick to it. The rest will all fall in place automatically.

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