A test framework is a combination of practices and tools for more efficient testing by QA professionals. It is a set of rules or guidelines for test cases. These guidelines may cover coding standards, data management processes, repositories of objects, storage test results, or information about external resource access.
An automatic test framework improves the speed and effectiveness of a team test, improves test accuracy, and lowers the costs and risks of test maintenance. For effective automated testing, they are essential.
Let us look briefly at the advantages and reasons why testers use open-source automation routes instead of traditional automation frameworks.
1. Inexpensive
An open-source test automation framework costs significantly less than regular testing tools. Open source’s main benefit is low cost and relatively small hardware requirements. In addition, test components are easier to reuse, and their high scalability makes load and performance testing easier to manage. Additionally, organizations can use flexible pricing schemes that enable testing firms to adjust their entire cloud storage to their specific test needs.
2. Customizable
The open-source software can be easily modified to meet a test department’s specific requirements. This easily editable code provides smoother, more complicated, and sometimes even destructive, functionality for closed proprietary software packages.
3. Support and collaboration
There are many online communities in open-source automation frameworks that can overcome barriers by consulting a wide range of web information. Teams at various locations can work together without downloading or downloading several downloads in a constant flow of data transfer via a centralized server.
4. Rapid testing
Usually, open-source test cycles are shorter than traditional tools. Setup and tool deployment is speedy, and no tedious installation is necessary. Updates occur in real-time without affecting productivity, and the overall market time is reduced, giving companies a significant boost in the endless application delivery race.
5. Overall quality
In the automation framework, users and developers play a central role in making these platforms technically better than proprietary packages. A software suite produced by a few developers is less technical than a software suite manufactured around the world by thousands of developers. Many developers and users are continuously working to improve the security of open-source frameworks and equals developers are developing innovations, enhancing and enhancing that lead to an improved package of quality.
7. Virtualization
Virtualization makes it possible for companies to maximize their resources, making testing user-friendly and efficient. Virtualization also facilitates resource sharing with related costs.
8. Freedom and security
Companies can free themselves from the restrictions a particular vendor attaches to them using open source automation tools. In such cases, the priority of the seller is very uncompromising for test teams: the priorities of the supplier, its timetable, its rules of use and several other requirements that limit its entire testing equipment. The decision-making and execution power is entirely in the hands of the user with open source software and a global user and developer community that can support them whenever needed.
Best open source Test Automation Frameworks
Here we have the top 10 open-source test automation frameworks that everyone can use, including website and app testing, mobile apps, or other software.
1. Selenium
Selenium is probably one of the most popular open-source automation test frameworks in web applications. Selenium provides you with the experience of many testing tools.
Features:
- It supports a variety of languages such as Java, PHP, Ruby, C #, and Python.
- It is highly adaptable and compatible with the cross-platform and cross-browser.
- A wide range of APIs and libraries is supported, which can be further altered in order to meet specific business requirements.
- You can write more advanced test scripts to meet various complexity levels.
- Easy to maintain.
- Testers can introduce advanced test scripts to satisfy any complexity.
- It has one of the biggest support networks.
- It offers a Selenium IDE playback tool for testing authors without having to learn a specific scripting language.
2. Carina
Carina is a Java test automation framework based on the most popular open-source solutions (Selenium, Appium, TestNG) that can decrease dependency on a particular stack.
Features:
- It combines all test layers: web, native, hybrid, WEB, REST, databases applications.
- It supports all popular browsers and mobile devices (iOS, Safari, Chrome, Firefox).
- It re-uses IOS / Android test automation code to 70-80 percent.
- It is cross-platform, built in Java. Tests can be performed on Unix or on Windows OS with ease.
- The Framework provides support for various types of databases, be they relational or nonrelational, (MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL).
- API testing is based on the motor template of Freemarker. It allows high flexibility to generate REST requests, and incoming arguments dynamically change responses.
3. Google EarlGrey
EarlGrey is Google’s native user interface automation framework for writing clear, accurate, and easy-to-understand test cases. Google uses this framework to test its iOS apps. YouTube, Gmail, Google Search App, etc. Here are some exciting features of EarlGrey.
Features:
- It has robust built-in UI sync, network requests, animations, different queues, etc. Before further actions, the synchronization with the UI is performed.
- Tests are easy to write and easy to keep.
- Design flexibility.
- All interactions take place on visible elements only.
- Test stability and high repetitiveness.
- Custom schedules can be implemented manually based on the requirements.
- It works in conjunction with the XCTest framework that can be directly executed from Xcode or command line using Xcode’s test navigator.
4. Cucumber
If you’re looking for a tool to write web application acceptance tests, Cucumber is the best choice. Cucumber is a Behavior Driven Development (BDD) tool that allows web applications to write acceptance tests. This is the best tool for anyone with little or no technical knowledge of testing as they don’t have to take the pain to read code they don’t understand.
Features:
- Set up an execution quickly and easily.
- The code can be reused for testing.
- Support for cross-platform.
- It can be integrated with Perl, Groovy,.NET, PHP, Python, and other languages.
- First implemented in Ruby and extended to Java.
- Code with Selenium, Watir, Capybara, etc. can be used.
- In a single updated document, both the specification and the test documentation are downloaded.
- Functional validation automation in an easily readable and comprehensible format.
- The main focus is on end-user experience.
5. Watir
Watir is one of the most robust open-source framework tools available for web automation testing, based on a family of Ruby libraries.
Features:
- It can imitate user-to-website interaction.
- Easily read and maintain tests.
- Supports cross-browser testing.
- Integrated with BBD instruments such as Cucumber, Test / Unit, etc.
- It supports all web applications regardless of development language.
- Ruby integration manual browsing support.
- Extendable by various APIs.
- It gives you the ability to connect to databases, read data and spreadsheets, export XML, and structure your code as long as it is written in Ruby.
6. Appium
Appium is designed for testing mobile apps. It is based on the idea that you shouldn’t recompile or modify your app to check it. You should not also be locked into a particular language or framework for testing.
Features:
- It has an easy installation process.
- You can test multiple platforms with the same API (iOS, Android, Windows, Mac).
- IOS, Android, and Windows test suites reuse code.
- Supports simulators (iOS) and emulators (Android).
- Native, hybrid, and mobile web and desktop support.
- Customer-server architecture applicable.
- By using the automation frames supplied under the hood by suppliers, no app-specific or third-party codes or frameworks must be compiled for the app. This means you’re testing the same app you’re shipping.
- Any test runner you want will be free to use. Client libraries are simply HTTP clients and can be mixed into your code to manage the test environment you want.
- Element repositories can be created and modified easily.
7. RobotFramework
The RobotFrameworkis popular for acceptance testing and test-driven development (ATDD) and one of the best generic test automation frameworks. It is written in Python, but also supports IronPython (.NET), Jython (JVM) and PyPy.
Features:
- It simplifies the test automation process by using the Keyword-led (KDT) test method, allowing testers to create simple tests.
- Tabular syntax is easy to use and easy to understand.
- The test is simple and legible because they adopt a keyword-driven approach, creating high levels of existing keywords.
- It has a vibrant ecosystem, consisting of various test libraries and tools developed as individual projects.
- It has many APIs making Python and Java libraries highly expandable.
- Native extensions are available for Python and Java-based on your preferences.
- A remote interface also supports other languages.
- Cross-platform support.
- Test reports are clear and understandable.
- Create reusable higher-level keywords from existing ones.
- Easy-to-use tabular test data syntax.
- It offers full log details and easier integration.
8. Apache JMeter
Apache JMeter is specially designed for load testing and can be used for static and dynamic web applications. It simulates a heavy load on a server, network, or object to test its strength, analyze and measure overall performance in different types of load.
Features:
- It can load and test various applications/servers/ protocols: Web, SOAP, FTP, LDAP, TCP, e-mail protocols, shell scripts, Java objects.
- Cross-platform support.
- 100% Java purity and full portability.
- It has dynamic HTML test reports ready to be submitted.
- Analysis/replay of test results by cache and offline.
- Highly expandable core (pluggable, scriptable samplers, load timers).
- Personalization is achieved by analyzing data and visualizing plug-ins.
- Functions can be used to input the test dynamically or to manipulate the data.
- Integration through Maven, Gradle, and Jenkins libraries.
9. Gauge
Gauge is an advanced lightweight tool for cross-platform testing. It comes with a built-in plugin architecture, making it easy to use with your choice of languages, IDEs, or ecosystems.
Features:
- Easy to get started. Only one command can initiate installation and initialization.
- Syntax is simple, flexible, rich.
- Cross-platform support.
- You can write test specifications in Markdown–no specific structure is needed–documentation is available in the format you choose.
- It supports external data sources, leading to data execution.
- Extensive plugin support (like modular architecture).
- It allows requirements to be written in a way everyone involved in a project understands, as it gives the ability to write test cases in business language.
- Support for Ruby, Java, C #, and IntelliJ.
- Easy-to-maintain and understand test cases.
- Cross-team cooperation is possible (requirements can be written in a language that is obvious to all, as it allows test cases to be written in a business language).
- Documentation can be constructed in a format you choose, so no particular structure is required as test specifications can be written in markdowns.
10. Robotium
Robotium is a test automation framework designed to simplify writing robust and robust automatic Android black-box UI testing. This framework allows developers to write function, system, and user-acceptance test scenarios that cover many Android activities.
Features:
- Used to test native and hybrid Android apps.
- It can also be used to test applications with the source code available, and apps with unknown implementation details.
- The high-speed test case can be performed.
- Multi-tasking is possible–because multiple Android activities can be handled automatically.
- Testing can be done without minimal application knowledge.
- Solid test cases can be written easily and quickly.
- Compared to standardized instrumentation testing, the readability of test cases and operating time for UI components is much improved.
- Easy to use for testing applications with available source code and lesser-known implementation details.
- Smooth integration with Maven, Gradle, or Ant for continuous integration testing.
