Writing Autotests Effectively - Subcutaneous tests

The essence of the problem

• UI tests are slow. There is no escape from this. They can be run in parallel, filed and done a little faster, but they will remain slow.
• UI tests are unstable. Partly because they are slow. And also because the Web browser and user interface were not created to be controlled by a computer (this trend is currently changing, but not the fact that this is good).
• UI- — . . ( , , , «» - , ).
• , , , UI- . . ID XPath . , «» - - . , , — - , .
• Someone will say that some functionality simply cannot be tested otherwise. I will say that if there is functionality that can be tested only by UI tests (with the exception of the UI logic itself), this can be a good sign of architectural problems in the product.

Alternative solution

public class LoginFormTest {

    SelenideMainPage sut = SelenideMainPage.INSTANCE;
    private static final String APPLICATION_URL = "http://localhost:4567/index";

    @BeforeClass
    public static void setUpClass() {
        final String[] args = {};
        Main.main(args);
        Configuration.browser = "firefox";
    }

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
        open(APPLICATION_URL);
    }

    @After
    public void tearDown() {
        close();
    }

    @Test
    public void shouldBeAbleToAddNewUser() {
        sut.setUserName("MyCoolNewUser");
        sut.clickSubmit();
        Assert.assertEquals("Status: user MyCoolNewUser was created", sut.getStatus());
        Assert.assertTrue(sut.getUsers().contains("Name: MyCoolNewUser"));
    }

    @Test
    public void shouldNotBeAbleToAddEmptyUseName() {
        final int numberOfUsersBeforeTheTest = sut.getUsers().size();
        sut.clickSubmit();
        Assert.assertEquals("Status: Login cannot be empty", sut.getStatus());
        Assert.assertEquals(numberOfUsersBeforeTheTest, sut.getUsers().size());
    }
}

public class UserApplication {

    private static IUserRepository repository = new InMemoryUserRepository();
    private static UserService service = new UserService(); {
        service.setUserRepository(repository);
    }

    public Map<String, Object> getUsersList() {
        return getUsersList("N/A");
    }

    public Map<String, Object> addUser(final String username) {
        final String status = service.addUser(username);
        final Map<String, Object> model = getUsersList(status);
        return model;
    }

    private Map<String, Object> getUsersList(String status) {
        final Map<String, Object> model = new HashMap<>();
        model.put("status", status);
        model.put("users", service.getUserInfoList());
        return model;
    }
}

public class UserApplicationTest {

    private UserApplication sut;

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
       sut = new UserApplication();
    }

    @Test
    public void shouldBeAbleToAddNewUser() {
        final Map<String, Object> myCoolNewUser = sut.addUser("MyCoolNewUser");
        Assert.assertEquals("user MyCoolNewUser was created", myCoolNewUser.get("status"));
        Assert.assertTrue(((List) myCoolNewUser.get("users")).contains("Name: MyCoolNewUser"));
    }

    @Test
    public void shouldNotBeAbleToAddEmptyUseName() {
        final Map<String, Object> usersBeforeTest = sut.getUsersList();
        final int numberOfUsersBeforeTheTest = ((List) usersBeforeTest.get("users")).size();
        final Map<String, Object> myCoolNewUser = sut.addUser("");
        Assert.assertEquals("Login cannot be empty", myCoolNewUser.get("status"));
        Assert.assertEquals(numberOfUsersBeforeTheTest, ((List) myCoolNewUser.get("users")).size());
    }
}

git checkout subctests

We lost a little coverage, but the speed of tests increased 600 times !!!

• Add one UI test to check the glue code, or
• If we do not expect frequent changes to the glue code - leave it without autotests, or
• If we have some kind of “manual” testing, there is a great chance that problems with the glue code will be noticed by the tester, or
• Come up with something else (same Canary deployment)

Eventually

• Functional autotests are not required to be written at the UI or REST / SOAP API level. The use of “Subcutaneous tests” in many situations will test the same functionality with greater speed and stability.
• One of the disadvantages of the approach is a certain loss of coverage.
• One way to avoid losing coverage is the “ Feature Tests Model ”
• But even with the loss of coverage, the increase in speed and stability is significant.