Automation tests run actual browsers or devices users use such as a browser via Puppeteer or Chrome. They are generally more expensive as they actually spin up a browser and go through a flow. These tests are generally what QA and product cares about the most as they should test actual User Acceptance Criteria, which would label the test as Acceptance tests or End to End tests.
We distinguish between End to End vs Automation because at DSC, we also run browser smoke tests (i.e. make sure our page loads in Edge) within our E2E suite, though it’s only a portion of it.
We’ll use another tool I’ve built at DSC called @dollarshaveclub/e2e to run our Selenium test.
The setup should be very similar to the monitors.
Let’s install the monitor runner: npm install --save-dev @dollarshaveclub/e2e
and add the script to package.json:
"automation": "dsc-e2e 'tests/automation/**/*.js'"
We’ll then add the test command to our CircleCI config after our monitors:
- run: npm run monitors
- run: npm run automation
Let’s write an E2E test that:
This test has been scaffolded for you: tests/automation/home.js.
driver references a Selenium WebDriver instance,
whereas everything else in the file is based on our test runner, @dollarshaveclub/e2e.
@dollarshaveclub/e2e is a complex tool that solves a lot of problems with automation tests:
Read more on how @dollarshaveclub/e2e solves these problems.
You may also want to look into running your automation tests in different browsers using services like:
Remember, E2E tests are at the top of the testing trophy. Very few should be written!