Increase the Efficiency of Low-Code Application Development With Automated Testing

Development teams with professional developers and citizen developers alike have adopted low-code platforms and application development to save time, decrease costs, and increase innovation. The all too common tasks of writing repetitive code are reduced while minimizing the risk of human error.

That speed and functionality allow organizations to offer a better user experience and realize rapid deployment, which creates a wealth of opportunities for any organization—from the small, local business to startups and through to the enterprise.

Why Use Low-Code Development Platforms?

Low-code tools are popular because they offer the ability to separate business logic from implementation. The amount of original code writing is minimized because the platforms offer pre-built engineering features and reusable components. It’s the future of app development and automation.

For example, accessibility standards and requirements are a necessity for any web application development, but it takes time to code and test. This essential coding is already incorporated into low-code platforms so developers can devote more time and energy to defining the business logic.

How Do I Choose the Right Low-Code Platform?

There are several low-code platforms out there and the list continues to grow. Some questions to consider when choosing a low-code platform are:

• What are the business needs?
• What is my vision for how my organization will use and benefit from a web app developed on a low-code platform? What do I want low code to do?
• What are the business applications?
• Who will use the platform? Citizen developers or experienced engineers and developers?
• What are the features I need to prevent redundancies?
• How do different platforms compare?
• Are there vendor fees? Is there vendor support?
• What kind of internal and external security is available?

Low-code automation has clear benefits for improving the workflow for developers, but for QA engineers it can create some challenges. With speed to market as a priority, building and testing high-quality software is vital. Automated testing is agile and faster, so it augments the efficiency of low-code application development. That means automated low-code testing is yet another key factor in determining which platform is right for you.

Salesforce and Guidewire, two of the largest low-code platforms, have emerged as two of the most popular with our customers here at Parasoft.

What Should I Know About Automated Low-Code Testing?

Selenium, which is a free and open source traditional automated testing tool, has become one of the most widely used to test the UIs for web applications. It requires coding experts that can handle the complexities of scripting and maintaining tests.

Platforms like Salesforce and Guidewire update their platforms throughout the year which makes automated testing tricky. Test automation tools like Selenium aren’t designed for low-code platforms that change so frequently. Tests must have the ability to uncover any breakdowns when updates occur. Compatibility with any changes to the platform as a result of the frequent updating must also be tested.

Some low-code platforms, including Salesforce, simply don’t provide a lot of support for testing and the HTML used on these platforms makes testing a challenge. Salesforce enterprise apps are notoriously difficult to test with open source automation frameworks like Selenium. The user interface test automation can be problematic and QA engineers can often struggle to automate some of the other critical testing processes. For example, writing tests that are stable in playback can be complicated when element IDs change dynamically.

What Are Some Opportunities With Low-Code Testing?

Writing code for UI tests that repeatedly succeed with Selenium is difficult and time-consuming. Parasoft Selenic was created to work with Selenium by leveraging artificial intelligence and software test automation to make the automated software development testing tool smarter and easier. This starts with creating new Java-based UI tests using the Page Object Model after recording a session in a browser.

Record-and-play test authoring expands the number of people who can build and maintain automated tests. Also, Selenic doesn’t limit the use of those tests to a specific tool once the test code has been created. It can run through any Selenium open-source testing lab.

How Does Parasoft Selenic Work?

QA engineers aren’t required to do any coding with Parasoft Selenic because they can simply start recording and get a robust auto-generated test suite that can run anywhere.

Interaction with websites can be recorded with Selenic. It then creates an on-page test from the engagement that can be replayed on any browser. Additionally, it recommends ways to update tests to make them more stable if the test has trouble running after an application update. It also ensures that previously validated workflows will work with any changes to the low-code business logic.

Selenic for Salesforce

Selenic is compatible with Salesforce and Guidewire although testing can be done on other platforms. Salesforce and Guidewire use more dynamic HTML so locators are always different.

Selenic for Salesforce is designed to know which pieces of the markup on the webpage will change and which won’t so testing isn’t happening with non-changes each time. It builds the test in such a way that it can handle the different HTML code changes when a page is loaded even though it may look the same.

When the application is in the Salesforce sandbox and is not completed or if the layout looks off and requires attention, the QA engineer can simply click through the application and report back to the business analyst or the developer. This can ensure that the business applications remain intact.

Best practices and code organization in the algorithms are always deployed when the test code is created. As Selenic continues to test and something isn’t as it should be, it will offer suggestions and recommendations about any changes that may have occurred. The user can then choose the right correction for the test. Selenic even provides the option of automatically healing the test to continue on the fly without any human intervention.

Sounds Good, but Does Selenic Work in the Real World?

Regulated industries, such as banking and healthcare, have strict compliance testing requirements. Glitches cannot happen and privacy must be maintained. IT departments in both industries have realized success and efficiency with Selenic.

A hotel brand can be severely damaged in the hospitality industry if they don’t get the customer experience right for their guests every time. Caesars Entertainment, a global leader in gaming and hospitality, was looking for an automated testing solution for its enterprise applications that would modernize and expand its customer-focused loyalty program.

They integrated Salesforce as the foundation for their systems. Test automation is a critical factor in delivering high-quality end-user experiences. Parasoft provided a successful proof of concept for implementing test automation that has given Caesars a significant year-over-year cost avoidance ROI using test automation practices. Read the Caesars Entertainment use case.

Low-code automated testing can be reliable and efficient. Leverage it to deliver an easy-to-navigate, high-quality compliant web app.