AscentialTest vs Recorders

Recorder tools

For recorders, a test is composed of a recording of a series of UI manipulations.

• When something changes in a screen (a text label, the position of a control...), you have to create all the related tests again.

For each version of the application, you must record again lots of tests, which defeats the purposes of automated testing

AscentialTest

With AscentialTest a test is composed of a series of actions, applied to application objects.

• As long as the application objects are present, you can change anything on the screen without impacting the tests.
• For each version of the application, you just update a few test components.

Recorder tools

Tests frequently share common manipulations (logging in the application for instance).

You must record them again, every time a test is using them.

AscentialTest

With AscentialTest, you define blocks of actions called "Steps“, and assemble them to create a test.

• No need to define common manipulations multiple times, just reuse the corresponding steps, for as many tests as you need.
• When the application changes, update the few steps impacted, and all the tests are automatically updated!

Recorder tools

Some tools use xPath to identify objects. If the hierarchy of a page changes in the target application, the object definitions fall apart.

AscentialTest

AscentialTest ignores the object hierarchy. It uses object attributes to define objects.

• If the target application changes, AscentialTest highlights the objects that can no longer be found.

Users simply select a new attribute to identify objects that have changed.

Recorder tools

Recording-based solutions are limited in their ability to verify application components.
While they can validate the state of standard objects, they lack support for custom, image-based and non-GUI components.

AscentialTest

AscentialTest offers broad support for all application components.

• AscentialTest supports application images and rendered text.
• AscentialTest supports ODBC (database), xml, text files, .ini files and PDF.

Recorder Tools

Extending beyond basic recordings requires the development of a testing framework.

This requires a lot of coding by a consultant or staff member with programming experience.

AscentialTest

AscentialTest requires no framework.

The testing project is built up gradually as users capture objects and create steps in a drag and drop interface.

• AscentialTest automatically builds test data tables and links them to test parameters.

There are no keywords or external Excel tables to deal with.