AscentialTest and Productivity

Test maintenance is a key issue with automated testing. Many tools seem to simplify testing at first, but they are heavier to use in real life and lead to high test maintenance costs.

The productivity of Record & Playback tools deteriorates when the application evolves: they often require to record tests over and over again, for each version of the application. And of course, the application changes all the time.

After all, if applications did not constantly evolve, test automation would be useless!

That's why simplifying test maintenance is a key objective of AscentialTest.

In addition to test maintainability, AscentialTest also introduces innovative features to:

• Accelerate the creation of tests and test data.
• Avoid the development of Test Framework.
• Simplify test management for non-technical people.
• Reduce the learning curve for new testers.

Alternative to Recording

During a demo, recorders may seem easy to use, but problems will soon appear.

AscentialTest offers a more productive approach.

No need to record UIs, or write code:

1. With a few clicks, you create actions to test your application.
2. These actions rely on application objects (that rarely change), not on the user interface (that often changes).
3. Actions can be as sophisticated as needed, for example with conditional and iterative declarations.
4. Actions are grouped into "steps," reusable in multiple tests for higher productivity.

No more Test Framework

It usually takes a lot of time and money to develop and maintain Test frameworks.

Why not invest these resources in managing the tests instead?

With AscentialTest, you no longer need to develop or maintain a framework.

Reusable Steps

AscentialTest introduces the concept of reusable steps:

A step is composed of a series of actions. Each step can be reused in as many tests as you  need, which avoids creating the same test actions multiple times.

When the application evolves, simply update a step, and all the tests that use it will be automatically updated.

This unique approach reduces test maintenance to a minimum and allows testers to focus on testing.

Separate data and Tests

With AscentialTest, creating data-driven testing is fast and easy.

AscentialTest automatically creates tables to store test data and automatically links them to the corresponding test actions. The correct data type is automatically associated with the data field.

This approach separates data and tests:

• the data is not stored with the test,
• A single test can use multiple datasets,
• the number of tests to create and maintain is reduced.

Application objects

AscentialTest uses a repository to list the objects of the application:

• It analyzes the screen and automatically lists the objects composing it.
• Actions are defined by selecting the related objects by drag & drop.
• When developers modify the UI (moving or resizing items, changing labels, etc.) the tests are not impacted.
• If a developer modifies an object, its definition is updated in the repository.

So you do not need to change steps or tests when the GUI is changed.

Support for complex objects

AscentialTest includes an innovative type of action called "selector." It facilitates the manipulation of complex objects (tables, trees, grids,...). With a single instruction, it allows interacting with the elements of these objects, against 10 to 20 lines of code usually (click on a particular line in a table, get a certain value on this line, etc.)

Test data

AscentialTest automatically generates the tables containing the test data, retrieving the test parameters - manual or automated - associated with the data.

The storage of data in AscentialTest allows to keep them in the datatype expected by the test. No need to convert them, as it is often the case with spreadsheets.

Browser independence

A test created on a browser will work with all supported browsers and browser versions.

AscentialTest developers are committed to supporting all new versions of the most popular browsers as they come out (see supported platforms).