Web Automation

Web Automation is the coding of tests so that they can be played back in an automated fashion. Selenium is the widely accepted standard framework for automating Web Applications. Selenium brings to the table is the ability to test and automate the interaction of the browser window.

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Benefits of Selenium:

• runs on most browsers
• open-source software, meaning that it is free to use
• a lot of different ways to implement the Selenium framework
• supports many different programming languages
• a huge community of users and developers to answer any questions you have

What can’t Selenium do:

• desktop apps
• mobile apps
• SQL testing

You can learn more about Selenium here.

Protractor Framework

Selenium code is built into many popular test frameworks such as Protractor or Nightwatch. By using a framework on top of Selenium, we get all the features of Selenium plus it gives more and makes it easier to use. My framework of choice is the Protractor Framework.

Many people are scared off by Protractor because they find that it is built for Angular. However, just because it was built for Angular doesn’t mean that it only works for Angular. Protractor works well on both Angular and non-Angular sites.

Protractor also uses the Jasmine framework, which is typically used for unit testing in Angular. If you are familiar with Jasmine and you look at the Protractor tests, you will notice the similarities. Tests are written with the same “describe” and “it” syntax that Jasmine uses.

Time to get automated

I will be walking you through the complete process of getting the Protractor framework up and running. You will learn about all the applications that you need to install on your system. We will enable automated coding standards of our code. The fun part comes when you get to write your very first test in Protractor. I recommend that you follow along through each lesson so that you get the most out of the framework. There is a lot to cover, but I am sure you will be proud of what you will accomplish.

You can learn more about the Protractor Framework here.

Check out this short video to see just a little bit of what Protractor can do.

These posts are an introduction to Protractor for Automated Testing. To learn more with a full hands-on guide, grab our course on Udemy for only $9.99 when you use my link. Website Automation for Beginners with Protractor

Lesson 1: Installation