No front end project can survive without an effective testing strategy. Why?

Because frontend projects can be as complex as backend projects — but users still expect a flawless experience. And if those users complain to your management… it’s just bad.

So, more and more frontend developers are realizing that they need to bake automated testing into their development process.

But questions remain:

• What testing should you do beyond unit testing?
• How can you find the time to both code and build/run/maintain automated tests?
• How do you maintain tests when requirements and features are constantly changing — and you’re pushing new code into production daily?
• How do you convince your boss that testing isn’t a waste of time?

We want to help you out of this.

Please join us at State of Frontend Testing, a free online event where frontend testing experts share how to quickly build high-quality web and mobile apps in 2019. We’ll cover the testing strategies, tools and frameworks you should be using in 2019.

Who’s presenting?

• Kent C. Dodds, JavaScript engineer at PayPal and creator of TestingJavaScript.com
• Gleb Bahmutov, JavaScript expert and software quality fanatic. VP of Engineering at Cypress.
• Shai Reznik, founder of Hirez; Angular consultant and speaker.
• James Evans, Software QA developer and Microsoft MVP.
•  Kevin Lamping, Front-end Engineer & Tester. Webdriver Fan.
• Rotem Mizrachi-Meidan, Mobile Infrastructure Engineer at Wix.
• Gil Tayar, Senior Architect at Applitools and creator of Applitools Visual Grid
• Tracy Lee, co-founder, ThisDot Labs

Not a bad group, right?

State of Frontend Testing will stream live on Tuesday, December 18th at 10 am PST / 1 pm EST / 6 pm UK. This is a free, online event open to all developers.

Register here to see the event details and join the livestream.

We hope to see you on the 18th!

What will you do upgrade your frontend testing in 2019?

Gil Tayar, Sr. Architect and Evangelist @ Applitools

The future of software testing is autonomy: creating programs that autonomously test applications. So should you fear for your future, or be excited by the opportunities?

Watch this special end-of-year session with Gil Tayar, and learn if AI in software testing is something to look forward to: will it make software testers better? Or obsolete? Read more…

Next week, we’re joining software testing leaders at The 2018 European Software Testing Summit in London, UK!

What is The European Software Testing Summit? Read more…

I’m pleased to announce that Applitools has released Root Cause Analysis, or RCA for short. This new offering allows you to instantly pinpoint the root cause of visual bugs in your front-end code. I’d like to explain why RCA matters to you, and how it’ll help you in your work.

https://dilbert.com/strip/2015-04-24

Well, maybe RCA doesn’t find THE root cause. After all, all software bugs are created by people, as the Dilbert cartoon above points out.

But when you’re fixing visual bugs in your web apps, you need a bit more information than what Dilbert is presenting above.

The myriad challenges of front-end debugging

What we’ve seen in our experience is that, when you find a bug in your front-end UI, you need to answer the question: what has changed?

Read more…

Test Automation University is open for enrollment!

Read more…

I regularly use Jenkins CI and GitHub to help our customers integrate Applitools into their continuous integration workflow. Even though I’m pretty familiar with both tools, there’s one thing that drives me nuts.

Here’s the problem:

I can’t see Jenkins build status in my GitHub repo pull request. Below is a screenshot of a typical GitHub pull request. As you can see, there’s no indication of my Jenkins build status.

This forces me to leave GitHub and go to Jenkins every time I merge, just so I can check the build status.

Doing this once is no big deal. But after doing this for a hundred pull requests, I feel like pulling my hair out. (And that would just look weird.)

Read more…

This week, we’re joining FinTech leaders at the 2018 QA Financial Forum in New York City!

Read more…

Simon Stewart – Selenium Project Lead and Creator of WebDriver

Selenium IDE got a new long overdue overhaul, and Simon Stewart, Selenium Project Lead and Creator of WebDriver, unveiled the new Selenium IDE in a special live session, including capabilities, features, and roadmap — now available on-demand.  Read more…

Next week, we’re joining European software testing leaders at the World Forum The Hague in the Netherlands at EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference 2018!

Read more…

Next week, we’re joining agile and test automation leaders at the Dorint Sanssouci Berlin/Potsdam in Potsdam, Germany at Agile Testing Days 2018!

Read more…

This week, we’re joining agile, DevOps and other software delivery practitioners at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld® in Orlando, Florida at Agile + DevOps East 2018!

Read more…

On September 9, 1947, Grace Hopper recorded the first computer bug ever in the Harvard Mark II computer’s logbook. The bug in question? Believe it or not, an actual bug – a moth – flew into the relay contacts in the computer and got stuck. Hopper duly taped the moth into the logbook. Then she added the explanation: “First actual case of bug being found.” (This might be the most famous moth in history.)

Grace Hopper’s original notebook entry

If only things were this simple today. As software continuously grows in complexity, so does the process of testing and debugging. Nowadays, the lifecycle of a bug in software can be lengthy, costly, and frustrating.Read more…

This interview originally appeared on the Blazemeter blog. We like it so much we’re cross-posting it here.

Blazemeter sat down recently to learn from Gil Tayar, who is both a senior software architect and an evangelist on the software engineering team at Applitools in Israel. He joined Applitools in 2017, and already has made some great contributions, having led the development of the visual grid of hundreds of browsers on our cloud, enabling customers to capture screenshots of their application UIs on multiple types of browsers and screen resolutions, and find more bugs in less time.

Read more…

Listen to Gil Tayar’s webinar on the new Applitools SDKs for Cypress and Storybook, which enable developers to test the visual appearance of their apps across all responsive web platforms, including React, Vue, and Angular.  Read more…

A few weeks back, Applitools made the trip just up the road from our headquarters to take part in DevOps World | Jenkins World San Francisco. The event is an international event that provides opportunities to learn, explore, network and help shape the future of DevOps and CI with Jenkins. It’s always an exciting and energizing event and this year proved no different as we were able to network and engage with leading minds in the world of software development.

While we were there, James Lamberti, our Chief Marketing Officer, had the honor of sitting down with Jayne Groll, CEO of the DevOps Institute, to talk shop and explore some of the ways Applitools has changed how organizations are able to use visual testing to deliver better UI/UX for their customers. Here are some of the highlights of that conversation. Read more…

Next week, we’re joining renowned software testing professionals and the community at the Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel in Arlington, Virginia at STPCon Fall 2018!  Read more…

This week, we’re joining our software testing friends down under at TestBash Australia at the Aerial Function Centre in Sydney, Australia.

Read more…

There’s a new claim to the throne of functional test automation tools: Cypress.io. Is Cypress fast? Yes. Is Cypress interactive? Yep. Is Cypress reliable? You bet. And best of all… it’s cool!

But is Cypress an alternative to Selenium WebDriver? Does Selenium, the current king of web automation and testing frameworks, cringe in fear for its position, or is it smiling benevolently at the supposed usurper, knowing full well that, well, it’s just a kid!

Is Cypress better than Selenium WebDriver? I get asked this a lot. And frankly, the easiest path of a “this vs that” article is to try and find out which is “best”. But I will not take that path. Instead, I will try and explain how is Cypress different from Selenium WebDriver.

Read more…

Later this week, Applitools’ Sr. Architect and Evangelist Gil Tayar will be joining software testing and quality assurance (QA) leaders and practitioners at the Hyatt Regency Toronto Hotel in Ontario, Canada for StarCanada 2018.

Read more…

Later this week, we’re joining test automation and Selenium experts and practitioners for SeleniumConf Chicago 2018, which will take place at the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza River North. Read more…

Next week, we’re joining test automation and agile software development leaders at the 2018 Agile and Automation Days Poland located at Park Inn by Radisson Krakow in Krakow, Poland. Read more…

React is, first and foremost, a library for creating reusable components. But until React Storybook came along, reusability of components between applications was very limited. While a library of common components could be created, it was very difficult to use, as there was no useful way of documenting it.

Yes, documenting the common components via a Readme file is possible, even useful. But a component is, in its essence, something visual. A Readme file just doesn’t cut it, neither for a developer and definitely not for a designer that wants to browse a library of shared components and choose the one that fits their purpose.

This limited the usefulness of React’s component reusability.

And then React Storybook came along. React Storybook has changed the way many companies approach React by allowing them to create a library of components that can be visually browsed so as to be able to pick and choose the component they want:

React Storybook

Read more…

Test Automation thought leaders gathered for a round-table discussion about the upcoming trends, best practices, tools, and ideas that will shape your Dev/Test environment in 2019.

Joe Colantonio hosted this all-star expert panel, including: Angie Jones, Dave Haeffner, and Gil Tayar – as they shared their thoughts and insights on the hottest topics in test automation and software quality, including:

Read more…

This week, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) Managing Research Director, Torsten Volk, released a new research report featuring Applitools entitled, “Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Optimizing DevOps, IT Operations, and Business: EMA Top 3 Report and Decision Guide for Enterprise“.
We were selected based on our AI-powered ability to solve for the complex problem of Automated Visual Testing in DevOps.

Download your free copy of the EMA Top 3 Report here.

To view their report and gather a bunch more information on the research methodology, visit the EMA Top 3 web portal. This research provides guidance for enterprises seeking to optimally leverage today’s AI/ML capabilities, depending on their individual situation and priorities.

Read more…

On Monday, October 8, we’re joining international software testing practitioners and thought leaders at the 2018 Australian Testing Days Melbourne conference located at The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Read more…

This week, we’re joining international software testing and quality assurance (QA) thought leaders at the 2018 Quest for Quality Conference located at The Marker Hotel on Grand Canal Square in Dublin, Ireland.  

What is Quest for Quality Conference? Quest for Quality (@Quest_4_Qaulity,  #Q4Q2018 ), now in its third year, is a two-day event dedicated to advancing the software testing and quality practices featuring thought leaders addressing challenges and new technologies including AI, machine learning and agile practices. This year’s conference is taking place in Dublin, Ireland from October 3-4.

Read more…

Next week, we’re joining software testing and quality assurance (QA) leaders and practitioners at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California for STARWEST 2018.

Applitools very own Sr. Architect and Evangelist Gil Tayar will be giving his brand new talk: “Frontend Testing: Stepping in and Collaborating with Developers” at STARWEST 2018. Read more…

Next week, we’re joining systems architects, application developers, and DevOps practitioners at the O’Reilly Velocity Conference New York (@velocityconf) at the New York Hilton Midtown.

We will be holding our Spot The Difference iPad Game at our booth (#13) — can you spot UI diffs faster than our AI algorithm? Let’s find out — stop by our booth, play the game, and get a chance to win a mini-drone! Read more…

This week, TestBash Manchester 2018 kicks off, where software testing thought leaders and community members will gather at The Lowry Theatre in Manchester UK for a full week packed of amazing testing talks, workshops, meetups, and parties.

What is TestBash Manchester? TestBash Manchester (#TestBash) is dedicated to software testing practices, and is just one of the many TestBash events held around the world hosted by our friends at the Ministry of Testing. TestBash Manchester 2018 is taking place September 24 – 29.

In addition to the regular TestBash 1-day conference, which takes place on Thursday Sept 27, this marks the first-ever Test.bash();  targeted software testing conference focussing on technical testing and automation, taking place on Friday September 28.

Read more…

Angie Jones – Senior Developer Advocate @ Applitools

When done right, test automation is an excellent source of fast feedback for teams. When development check-ins are made, the automated tests are able to verify that the system is still working as expected.
However, for many teams, what is supposed to be this reliable feedback mechanism is nothing more than unstable spaghetti code that requires constant maintenance.

A big reason for the instability of automation code is the lack of good design and architecture. Automation code should be written with the same care and consideration as production code if the team truly wants to see a return on their investment. However, because it is different than production development, it’s not always obvious how to accomplish this.

In this advanced session, Angie Jones discusses the four pillars of object-oriented programming and how to utilize these concepts within test automation development, in order to achieve robust, reliable and maintainable automation code.

Here are some of the talking points Angie covers: Read more…