APIs: A Better Alternative to Page Objects
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APIs are proposed as an alternative to page objects for reducing repetition, improving maintenance and readability in tests. APIs abstract the test code away from the page structure by making calls to functions that interact with the system under test via its API. While APIs can improve tests, they require close cooperation from developers to implement and do not completely replace page objects due to upfront costs.
APIs: A Better Alternative to Page Objects
- 1. APIs: A Better Alternative to Page Objects Eileen Xie Head of Quality at PBworks #sfse 8/23/11
- 2. Page Objects
- 3. What are they trying to solve?
- 4. What are they trying to solve? • repetition • maintenance • readability
- 5. How well do they solve them?
- 6. How well do they solve them? • repetition: poorly • maintenance: poorly • readability: poorly
- 7. Repetition
- 8. Repetition • still too many steps • some steps repeated over and over homePage = HomePage.load(); loginPage = homePage.getLoginLink().click(); welcomePage = loginPage.login(); newTaskPage = welcomePage.getNewTaskLink().click(); newTaskPage.getTaskNameField().type(“Learn Selenium”);
- 9. Maintenance
- 10. Maintenance • huge overhead • QA needs to maintain and fix • still dependent on page workflow • still dependent on page structure/layout
- 11. Readability
- 13. What can we do instead?
- 14. What can we do instead? • APIs!
- 15. APIs
- 16. What do they look like?
- 17. What do they look like? createNetwork(); createNetworkWorkspace(); addNetworkUser();
- 18. What do they look like under the hood?
- 19. What do they look like under the hood? function createNetworkFolder(name) { curl(“http://pbworks.com/api_v2/op/ CreateNetworkFolder/name/” + name); }
- 20. What? • Where’s all the code? • Why would we do this? • How do the API calls get tested? • How do we start? • Wait a minute...
- 21. Where’s all the code?
- 22. Where’s all the code? • in the product! • really.
- 23. Why would we do this?
- 24. Why would we do this? • less repetition • makes tests clearer • maintained by developers • easier to read • makes software more testable • test execution speed • better than straight SQL insertions
- 25. How do the API calls get tested?
- 26. How do the API calls get tested? • separate tests! • one test does the API stuff through the UI dashboardPage.getNewTaskLink().click(); newTaskPage.getTaskNameField().type(“Learn Selenium”); newTaskPage.getTaskDueDateField().type(“8/31/11”); • every other test calls the API createTask();
- 27. How do we start?
- 28. How do we start? • figure out what the functions are • talk to your devs! • start with new functionality • greenfield projects
- 29. Wait a minute...
- 30. Wait a minute... • requires a ton of cooperation from devs • huge upfront cost • doesn’t actually replace page objects
- 31. Summary • APIs are awesome • ...and a pain in the ass to start using • complimentary to page objects
- 32. More Info • Our API: http://secure.pbworks.com/api_v2/ • Me: eileen.xie@pbworks.com