Last Updated on March 21, 2023 by Larious

JavaScript provides immense flexibility for building web applications, which can enhance the functionality and user experience of your website. However, this freedom also has some drawbacks, including the need to test your application for potential bugs thoroughly. To streamline this process and ensure reliability, it’s important to leverage JavaScript automation testing.

Automating the testing process comes with its own set of challenges, such as flakiness, scalability, and reliability. These challenges can sometimes hinder the overall purpose of testing. However, by implementing readable and scalable test code, you can increase test coverage, minimize breakage, and promote better collaboration within your team.

What is JavaScript?

A JavaScript framework is a pre-existing library that provides a variety of functions and tools for front-end or full-stack web development. The primary goal of frameworks is to simplify the process of creating and maintaining complex web applications by providing a foundation for organizing and building code, as well as abstracting the handling of routine tasks and providing solutions to common issues.

Advantages of using JavaScript

JavaScript has several advantages as a programming language, including:

• Versatility: JavaScript is a versatile language that can be used for both front-end and back-end web development, as well as for desktop and mobile applications.
• Ease of Use: It is easy to learn and understand, making it an excellent choice for beginners.
• Wide Range of Libraries and Frameworks: JavaScript has many libraries and frameworks that developers can use to speed up development time, streamline processes, and improve code quality.
• Platform Independence: JavaScript is platform-independent, meaning that it can run on any device or operating system.
• Interactivity: It enables developers to create interactive and engaging user interfaces that respond to user actions in real time.
• Client-Side Validation: It can validate user input on the client side before submitting the data to the server, reducing the amount of data processing required on the server side.
• Performance: JavaScript engines have become much faster in recent years, making it possible to create complex applications that run smoothly and quickly.
• Continuous Development: JavaScript is continuously evolving, with new features and improvements being added regularly, ensuring that it remains relevant and useful in the future.

Selecting the Right Tool:

Selecting the appropriate automation tool is a crucial task since there are numerous automation tools available in the market. JavaScript is one of the most commonly used programming languages, and as a result, there are several automation tools available for testing JavaScript websites and applications.

• It is essential to evaluate the ease of use and learning curve for the selected tool. A tool that is difficult to use or requires extensive training can slow down the testing process and impact productivity.
• Other factors to consider include the level of customization and flexibility offered by the tool, the availability of community support and documentation, and the level of integration with other tools and systems used in the development process.
• It is also important to assess the scalability of the selected tool, as the testing requirements may increase as the application grows and evolves over time.
• Overall, selecting the right automation tool for JavaScript testing can greatly impact the effectiveness and efficiency of the testing process, ultimately contributing to the overall quality and success of the project.

Defining the scope of automation

When implementing test automation, it is crucial to define the scope of automation and determine which test cases are appropriate for automation. To do this, several criteria can be considered.

• One consideration is automating common and frequently used scenarios. These scenarios are the ones that are performed repeatedly, and automating them can save time and increase efficiency. It is also a good idea to prioritize automation for tests that are executed frequently as part of the regression suite.
• Another important factor to consider is including the core business logic in the automation testing process. The business logic represents the essential operations and rules that drive the system’s functionality, and automating these ensures that the system is thoroughly tested
• It is also necessary to encompass all possible paths of a use case in the automation process. For instance, when checking out the cart, different scenarios should be considered based on the user’s login status. If a user is logged in, they should be taken to the checkout view, but if they are not logged in, they should be navigated to the login/signup page.
• To create effective automation tests, quality test data is crucial. The test data should be representative of the system’s expected usage and provide sufficient coverage of all possible scenarios.
• Finally, it is important to avoid automating unstable functionality. Unstable functionality may lead to inconsistent or unreliable results, and automating it can result in wasted time and effort. Therefore, it is recommended to stabilize any unstable functionality before proceeding with test automation.

Giving test cases appropriate names

This is a fundamental aspect of writing robust tests. Meaningful and self-explanatory test case names are beneficial for developers, testers, and other team members.

For instance, if we consider the scenario of clicking the checkout button, a proper test case name should provide clear details about:

• The testing objective — what happens when the user clicks on the checkout button
• The testing conditions — The user is not logged in
• The expected outcome — The user should be directed to the login/signup page

By providing a descriptive test case name, team members can easily understand the purpose and intent of the test without reviewing the test case’s content. This ensures better test case management and helps in identifying and resolving any issues that may arise during the testing process.

Selecting the correct elements in the DOM

• Automated testing for UIs relies heavily on selecting the correct elements in the DOM. When creating automated test cases, it is important to ensure that the correct selectors are used for each element. This reduces the chances of the tests performing actions on the wrong elements and producing false errors.
• In addition to using the correct selectors, the order of the selectors is also important. A well-structured selector hierarchy can help locate the correct element more efficiently, especially when dealing with complex UIs.
• One recommended approach to selecting the appropriate selectors is to utilize data-testid for HTML elements. This method assigns a unique ID to each element, which remains unchanged even if the original class or ID of the element is modified. This way, the automated test cases will continue to target the appropriate element even if its underlying attributes change.
• Using data-testid selectors can be especially useful in cases where a UI is updated frequently and the underlying codebase changes often. By using a unique identifier for each element, developers and testers can easily target the intended elements in their automated tests without worrying about the details of the underlying implementation. This can save time and reduce the likelihood of errors during the testing process.

Estimating Test Coverage  

• Test coverage is an important aspect of software testing that helps to determine how much of the code or functionality is covered by the tests. By measuring test coverage, developers and testers can identify areas of the software that need more attention and create additional test cases to improve coverage.
• There are various tools available to achieve greater test coverage, such as LambdaTest. Developers and testers can get the comprehensive test coverage of their codebases using LambdaTest, a cloud-based, cross browser testing platform that integrates with popular JavaScript testing frameworks like Jest, Mocha, and Jasmine.
• Integrating coverage reports with a continuous integration (CI) system is another effective way to manage and track test coverage. This allows developers and testers to monitor test coverage metrics over time, set goals for coverage, and take action as needed to improve coverage.
• By regularly tracking and improving test coverage, teams can enhance the quality and reliability of their software, identify and fix bugs early in the development process, and reduce the risk of issues in production.
• However, it is important to note that test coverage is not a definitive measure of the quality of testing. Even with high test coverage, there may still be issues that the tests have not caught. Therefore, it is essential to supplement test coverage with other testing strategies, such as exploratory testing and manual testing, to ensure comprehensive testing of the software.

Conclusion

Automating Javascript tests can lead to significant cost and time savings by reducing the need for humans to perform repetitive or complex tasks. However, before embarking on test automation, it is important to consider factors such as budget, available tools, use cases that need to be automated, and the feasibility of automating them. It is also essential to evaluate the required efforts and skill sets for successful test automation.

Fortunately, numerous open-source tools are available on the internet that can be leveraged to create efficient and powerful automation tests. Using these tools can help ensure the quality of the end product or application while minimizing the time and cost required for testing.