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Proof of Concept: Using CodeceptJS Instead of Python

Motivation and Setup Guide
See Documentations on Google Docs

Motivation

While writing tests with the Python unittest library is awesome, writing tests in CodeceptJS is super simple and much more intuitive.

Code

Python Login Example

driver.get(url)
elem = driver.find_element_by_name("login")
elem.send_keys(username)
elem = driver.find_element_by_name("password")
elem.send_keys(password)
elem.submit()

CodeceptJS Login Example

I.amOnPage(‘/’);
I.fillField(‘login’, username);
I.fillField(‘password’, password);
I.click(‘Submit’)

Assertions

Even more importantly, while assertions in Python may sometimes be a source of confusion (we need to find the actual result we’re getting and compare it with the result we expected to see), in CodeceptJS we just use I.see(something) or I.dontSee(something) to check for the expected results. Being the language much more similar to the way we would express the same requirements in English, the code is much less prone to mistakes.

Searching for Elements

In Python, we need to decide whether we want to search for an element by id, by name, by css selector, or by xpath, while in CodeceptJS, we just provide an element and the element is automatically searched by id, name, css selector, and xpath, and will return an error only if the element cannot be found by any means.

Works with WebDriverIO by Default (but also with Selenium WebDriver, Protractor, and NightmareJS)

The instructions I provided below are setting up the environment to work with WebDriverIO, but other test runner libraries can be used as well (such as Selenium WebDriver, Protractor, and NightmareJS).

Works with Travis CI and Sauce Labs (but also with BrowserStack and TestingBot)

Basically, CodeceptJS can work with the setup we already have in place (see Setup Sauce Labs for instructions on how to setup Sauce Labs). However, we can also substitute Sauce Labs with BrowserStack or with TestingBot, if desired.

PageObjects and Helpers are Easy to Setup

PageObjects and Helpers are also very intuitive and easy to setup.

Interactive Shell

CodeceptJS provides an interactive shell, that allows to insert a pause() call within any test, and test any instance of the I object interactively (i.e., on a test that fails, we may insert a pause() call, and then try various tests, such as I.doubleClick(this) or I.click(that), etc. and see immediately what that command would do if it were to be included in the test).

Test Call Flexibility

We can run all tests simply by typing codeceptjs run and one test only (for instance, a test called login_test.js) by typing codeceptjs run . login_test.js. However, we can also run only tests that contain the word “login” by typing codeceptjs run --grep "login". Even more handy is the easiness with which we can run our tests on a different browser, by just typing codeceptjs run --override '{ "helpers": {"WebDriverIO": {"browser": "chrome"}}}'. This way, instead of having to change our configuration, we can just override it momentarily.

Conclusion

The features outlined above make of CodeceptJS an ideal environment to write tests, especially for virtual interns, who would have the opportunity to learn how to conduct automated testing, abstracting the complications derived by using a complex framework such as Selenium. There would be many more reasons that may make CodeceptJS a quite attractive alternative to Python unittest library, not last the consideration of having an environment entirely based on JavaScript, instead of developing in JavaScript and testing in Python.

In conclusion, CodeceptJS deserves a more complete and thorough evaluation, since its introduction in the work-flow may be considered an advantage in term of easiness of adoption and shorter developing times.

Setting Up a Testing Development Environment

Install Firefox

The Firefox web browser is recommended for used in automated testing. Firefox should be updated to version 54.0.1 or newer.

Install Visual Studio Code

(This is not mandatory, but will make writing your code much easier and faster - if you are used to another text editor, that would be fine as well). Go to https://code.visualstudio.com/ and install the appropriate version for your OS.

Install Node JS

Go to https://nodejs.org/en/ and install the appropriate version for your OS.

Install Geckodriver

Go to https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver/releases and install the appropriate version for your OS. Extract geckodriver and add it to the path.

Install Selenium Server

Download version 3.0.1 from http://www.seleniumhq.org/download/.
On the command line, type java -jar selenium-server-standalone-3.0.1.jar to start the server.

Install CodeceptJS

On the command line, type npm install -g codeceptjs or, if needed, sudo npm install -g codecept.js

Fork the new repo from https://github.com/aberdean-ole-vi/BeLL-Apps and clone it on your computer (this is temporary, until you troubleshoot the challenges outlined at the end of the file, then the tests can be merged into ole-vi/BeLL-Apps).

Go in the tests folder within your repo: cd BeLL-Apps/tests

Initialize CodeceptJS

On the command line, type codeceptjs init. Follow these configuration steps:

  • Installing to
    • You will see ./*_test.js - leave it and just press Enter
    • Select WebDriverIO and press Enter
    • You will see (./output) - type ./output and press Enter
    • You will see (Y/n) - type Y and press Enter
    • You will see English (no localization) - just press Enter
    • You will see (./steps_file.js) - type ./steps_file.js and press Enter
  • Configure helpers.
    • You will see (http://localhost) - type http://127.0.0.1:5981/apps/_design/bell/MyApp/index.html and press Enter
    • You will see (firefox) - type firefox and press Enter

At this point, you’ll see a confirmation message listing all the files that were created, and telling you how to create your first test. More importantly, though, you will see Please install dependent packages globally: [sudo] - type sudo npm install -g webdriverio

Create New Test

Type codeceptjs gt

  • You will see Creating a new test…
  • Type the name of the test you want to create and press Enter
  • You will see the name you entered above within parentheses and with an uppercase initial - type what you see in parentheses and press Enter Example
  • To create a login test, when you see Creating a new test… - type login
  • When you see (Login) - type Login and press Enter

That's it! Open your test file and write your test.

If you installed Visual Studio Code (or you use another IDE), type codeceptjs def to get auto-completion, which would make writing your tests super easy!

You’re now all set to start writing your tests.

To run your tests, just type codeceptjs run --steps

Awesome!

Current Challenges

While CodeceptJS works awesomely for most websites, it presents some problems to work with BeLL-Apps. Specifically, when trying to load the homepage, the Selenium Server throws an error stating that jQuery is not loaded, and then it goes on throwing many more errors stating ReferenceError: $ is not defined.

Most likely, this depends on the BeLL-Apps codebase and it is not related to CodeceptJS, so it would probably be worth investigating further to find out the root cause of the error.

Another problem is that testing takes a long time in running with Bell-Apps. This leads to some test cases failing because of loading time problems.

Common Bugs

If you experience some errors, this may be because of the following reasons:

  1. Selenium, Firefox, Node JS, geckodriver are not updated to the appropriate version.
  2. Bell-Apps take a long time to load.
  3. Selenium, or Firefox, or Node JS, or geckodriver are not running in the system yet.

If you face any errors, please contact other interns through discord server.