LISA Features: Web Apps

The first automated testing tool that is as dynamic as your web applications

LISA offers an ideal test tool for todays Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and Web 2.0 types of applications such as SaaS, where dynamic functionality is being delivered into the browser. LISA's point-and-click, no-code testing allows developers and QA teams to deeply invoke, then verify that the behaviors you see on the screen are being reflected in the back end. For native browser functional and load testing of rich web app features beyond HTML, including HTTP, DOM and Javascript, AJAX, Swing, AWT, applets and REST models, LISA provides a comprehensive tool that is easy for both developers and QA teams to use.

The widespread acceptance of the web browser as a medium for delivering complex business functionality has led to an explosion in the number of web-based applications in the marketplace.

Since virtually anyone with a browser and an Internet connection can use web apps, without having to download or own proprietary software, enterprises are delivering more and more critical applications to their customers and partners through this method. Since errors or delays in web apps can be extremely costly to the business, the need for quality and reliability has never been greater.

LISA provides a true automation environment that was specifically built for testing complex and dynamic Internet-deployed web applications. When your web interfaces need to change, LISA will gracefully support your testing efforts every step of the way.

Your tests aren't broken. Maybe your paradigm is.

Manual developer/QA testing or "user acceptance" testing can only be useful to a limited extent. Here's why:

1. it can only test for the use conditions or error conditions the manual tester expects to encounter by using the web app;
2. the test can only happen after the user interface is completed or deployed (as a test interface or finished interface), meaning errors are caught later in development cycles when they are the costliest to fix; and
3. End users can find an error through testing, but the on-screen error provides little or no context as to why the error has happened, so the tester can usually only report that the site is "broken"

Many web testing tools focus on a "capture the clicks" paradigm of imitating the user's mouse clicks and keystrokes, and verifying that specific items are placed in specific locations on a given page. For certain web sites, that can be useful.

But for dynamic web applications, the resulting data in any given session can be totally different. For instance, an e-commerce site might show 3 rows of catalog items, or it might show 7 rows. If the testing tool is not able to understand the properties of a dynamic page, it will inevitably break every time a change happens on screen.

If on day one, you're off to a great start capturing test cases with a point-and-click tool, and on day two, you find yourself maintaining broken sets of test scripts, you need to find a better way to test. LISA is different. Instead of imitating the browser on your screen, LISA becomes the browser, and innately understands the entire conversation between the user's client and the web servers that deliver the user interface.

Features

• No test coding or scripting. Ever. (We cannot stress this enough.) LISA does not generate fragile test scripts or test code that you must maintain later.
• Point-and-click capture and reuse of a test case against any web application using any browser type (within LISA's native browser, or using an external browser)
• Truly test dynamic websites with changing on-screen data and layout by using our "paint the screen" declarative model of testing the logic, and not just the layout
• Deeper support for client-side scripts: HTTP, DOM, JavaScript, and Swing
• When your website changes, your test cases won't automatically break
• Allows QA and customer/client support teams to capture detailed test cases and test runs, to verify business requirements, and communicate issues directly to development with far less translation time.
• Compelling developer testing functionality for XP or Test-Driven Development of web applications, with less coding and no new proprietary scripting language to learn.
• "Live Interaction" lets you adjust the test you are authoring, and continue to execute any step the test without recompiling, meaning a true iterative test development process
• Since LISA test cases and test runs are saved as XML files, you can incorporate them easily into your process as attachments to groupware, issue tracking and requirements management tools.
• Securely gather error conditions and debug information by instrumenting your apps to communicate test data to LISA, instead of trying to hide potentially dangerous debug information within the web session.

Benefits

Dynamic web applications need a dynamic testing solution, and LISA delivers:

• Multiple roles. LISA is no-code automated testing, meaning developers no longer have to script tests, and non-programming team members in QA and business requirements teams can also get involved in testing earlier in the process.
• Multiple systems. One LISA test case can follow a complex workflow and validate multiple web sites and web applications, even if they are actually leveraging more than one physical application. LISA supports active sessions, SSL, authentication and magic strings, so it maintains continuity and lets you test systems just as your end users will.
• Across the full development lifecycle. Directly invoke and test web sites according to your use cases and using data sets, then roll those same unit and functional tests into regression tests for developers to launch within their Ant/Make builds. Then take those same test cases and turn them into load and stress tests that can run continuously from LISA Server. LISA can be run from the command line or within your scripts for maximum test deployment latency and flexibility.
• Rich simulation capabilities. When you stage LISA tests with LISA Server, you can adjust the settings of the end user to an incredible level of detail or variance. Simulate a range of user bandwidths, a mix of different browser or OS systems, and set the frequency of these user tests to every second, or every week. And web testing with LISA doesn't generate simple "traffic" against your apps. For each user, you can deliver a full stack trace and functional verification to the development team.

LISA lets you play and capture web tests internally or with the browser of your choice. Then LISA takes you miles beyond UI-only testing by letting you make declarations against specific dynamic data, HTML, DOM items, Swing, and more, so you can continue testing as your apps change, instead of having to fix fragile test scripts.

To learn more about how LISA incorporates the 4 C's and can address critical development constraints and software reliability challenges in your organization, please contact us, or read more about LISA Virtualize, LISA Validate, LISA Test, and LISA Pathfinder.