10 Types of Automation Testing You Need To Know

Automation testing has become the unsung hero of the software development world. It's like having a superhero sidekick to save the day by preventing your application from crashing in production. Who needs a 3 a.m. wake-up call from the client or the customer service team, right?

But, truly, automation testing is significant. It's like having a team of ninja testers working around the clock to find bugs and problems, allowing your human testers to concentrate on more complicated and creative jobs. And, let's be honest, who doesn't like the concept of accelerating the testing process and delivering items to market sooner? Let's explore the various types of automated testing and walk through them one by one.

What is Automated Testing?

Automated testing is a crucial aspect of the QA process in software development. It involves using specialized automation tools to execute pre-defined test cases, comparing actual results with expected outcomes. This type of testing significantly speeds up the testing process, improves accuracy, and allows for consistent, repeatable test coverage. It also helps teams detect bugs faster and deliver higher-quality software more efficiently.

1. Unit Testing

Unit testing automation is a software testing methodology that involves testing individual parts of the program, or "units," separately to verify their proper operation. The smallest testable component in software is called a unit; this can be a function, method, or class.

To write and execute tests for individual functions or methods in automated unit testing, we utilize tools such as JUnit or NUnit. By automatically running hundreds of unit tests in a matter of seconds, these tools can find flaws early in the development process.

The main objective of unit testing is to confirm that every software unit operates as intended. Developers can find and address problems early in the development process, resulting in more dependable and maintainable code, by independently testing units.

Example: Let's say you have a function that calculates the total price of items in a shopping cart. Your unit test might look like this:

@Test
public void testCalculateTotal() {
    ShoppingCart cart = new ShoppingCart();
    cart.addItem(new Item("Book", 10.99));
    cart.addItem(new Item("Pen", 1.99));
    assertEquals(12.98, cart.calculateTotal(), 0.01);
}

2. Integration Testing

Automated integration testing involves testing how different modules or components of a software application work together as a group. Unlike unit testing, which focuses on individual components, integration testing checks for issues in the interaction between these components. Automated tests are written to simulate real-world scenarios, ensuring that the integrated system functions as expected. 

This helps catch issues that may arise when different parts of the application are combined. Automation makes it possible to run these tests frequently and consistently during development.

Automation shines in integration testing. We use tools like Selenium or Cypress to simulate user interactions across different modules. These tools can automatically navigate through multiple parts of your application, checking if they work together correctly.

Example: Testing if a user can successfully log in and add an item to their cart:

describe('User shopping flow', () => {
  it('should allow user to log in and add item to cart', () => {
    cy.visit('/login');
    cy.get('#username').type('testuser');
    cy.get('#password').type('password123');
    cy.get('#login-button').click();
    cy.url().should('include', '/dashboard');
    cy.visit('/product/1');
    cy.get('#add-to-cart').click();
    cy.get('#cart-count').should('contain', '1');
  });
});

3. Functional Testing

Automated functional testing focuses on verifying that the software's features work as intended according to the requirements. It involves writing tests that simulate user actions, such as clicking buttons or entering data, to ensure the software behaves correctly.

Unlike integration tests, which check how components interact, functional tests validate the overall functionality of the application. Automation allows these tests to be run repeatedly and efficiently, ensuring the software meets its functional specifications.

Automated functional testing involves using tools like TestComplete or Watir to script user scenarios. These tools can simulate clicks, form fills, and other user actions, verifying that your app's features work as expected without manual intervention.

Example: Testing a search functionality:

import unittest
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

class SearchFunctionalityTest(unittest.TestCase):
    def setUp(self):
        self.driver = webdriver.Chrome()  # Assumes ChromeDriver is in PATH
        self.driver.get("https://example.com")  # Replace with your website URL

    def test_search_functionality(self):
        # Locate the search input field
        search_input = self.driver.find_element(By.ID, "search-input")

        # Enter a search query
        search_query = "test query"
        search_input.send_keys(search_query)
        search_input.send_keys(Keys.RETURN)

        # Wait for search results to load
        results = WebDriverWait(self.driver, 10).until(
            EC.presence_of_all_elements_located((By.CLASS_NAME, "search-result"))
        )

        # Assert that search results are displayed
        self.assertTrue(len(results) > 0, "No search results found")

        # Check if the search query is present in each result
        for result in results:
            self.assertIn(search_query.lower(), result.text.lower(), 
                          f"Search query '{search_query}' not found in result: {result.text}")

    def tearDown(self):
        self.driver.quit()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    unittest.main()

4. Regression Testing

Regression testing is a type of automated testing to confirm that a recent program or code change has not adversely affected existing features. This is where automation really saves the day. We create a suite of automated tests covering all functionalities. Then, tools like Jenkins can automatically run this entire suite after every code change, quickly catching any unintended side effects.

For example, in an OTT application, when a new feature like watching movies with friends in real time is added, testers need to verify that all existing functionalities are unaffected. Automation of regression testing allows for efficient and repeated testing of all features, both new and existing.

5. Performance Testing

A type of testing to determine how a system performs in terms of responsiveness and stability under a particular workload.

For automated performance testing, we use tools like Apache JMeter. These can simulate hundreds or thousands of concurrent users, automatically measuring response times and resource usage under various conditions.

Example: A JMeter test plan to simulate 1000 users accessing a website over 5 minutes:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jmeterTestPlan version="1.2" properties="5.0" jmeter="5.4.1">
  <hashTree>
    <ThreadGroup guiclass="ThreadGroupGui" testclass="ThreadGroup" testname="Web Users" enabled="true">
      <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.num_threads">1000</stringProp>
      <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.ramp_time">300</stringProp>
      <boolProp name="ThreadGroup.scheduler">true</boolProp>
      <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.duration">300</stringProp>
      <HTTPSamplerProxy guiclass="HttpTestSampleGui" testclass="HTTPSamplerProxy" testname="HTTP Request" enabled="true">
        <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.domain">example.com</stringProp>
        <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.protocol">https</stringProp>
      </HTTPSamplerProxy>
    </ThreadGroup>
  </hashTree>
</jmeterTestPlan>

6. Load Testing

Load testing is a type of performance testing conducted to understand the behavior of the system under a specific expected load. Load testing automation tools like Apache JMeter can simulate massive user loads on your system. They automatically ramp up virtual users, monitor system behavior, and generate detailed reports on how your app handles stress.

Suggested Reads - Loader.io vs JMeter: Choosing the Best Load Testing Tool

Example of a simple load test script using k6:

This test script will help us determine how the website will react under different levels of concurrent users.

import http from 'k6/http';
import { check, sleep } from 'k6';

export let options = {
  stages: [
    { duration: '30s', target: 20 },
    { duration: '1m30s', target: 10 },
    { duration: '20s', target: 0 },
  ],
};

export default function() {
  let res = http.get('https://test.k6.io');
  check(res, { 'status was 200': (r) => r.status == 200 });
  sleep(1);
}

7. Security Testing

Security testing is a type of testing conducted to evaluate the security of the software system and identify potential vulnerabilities. Automated security testing uses tools like OWASP ZAP or Acunetix. These can automatically scan your application for known vulnerabilities, attempt various types of attacks, and report potential security issues without manual probing.

Example: Running an automated OWASP ZAP scan:

import time
from zapv2 import ZAPv2 

target_url = "https://www.example.com"  # Replace with your target URL

# Initialize ZAP
zap = ZAPv2()

# Start ZAP session
print('Starting ZAP session...')
zap.core.new_session(name="automated_security_test", overwrite=True)

# Access the target URL
print(f'Accessing target URL: {target_url}')
zap.urlopen(target_url)
time.sleep(2)  # Wait for the page to load

# Run a spider scan
print('Running spider scan...')
scan_id = zap.spider.scan(target_url)
time.sleep(2)
while int(zap.spider.status(scan_id)) < 100:
    print(f'Spider progress: {zap.spider.status(scan_id)}%')
    time.sleep(2)
print('Spider scan complete')

# Run an active scan
print('Running active scan...')
scan_id = zap.ascan.scan(target_url)
while int(zap.ascan.status(scan_id)) < 100:
    print(f'Active scan progress: {zap.ascan.status(scan_id)}%')
    time.sleep(5)
print('Active scan complete')

# Generate an HTML report
print('Generating report...')
report = zap.core.htmlreport()
with open('zap_report.html', 'w') as f:
    f.write(report)

print('Security test complete. Check zap_report.html for results.')

# Shut down ZAP
zap.core.shutdown()

8. User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is a type of testing performed by the end-user or client to verify the software system before moving the software application to the production environment. While UAT often involves real users, we can automate parts of it. Tools like TestRail or Zephyr can manage test cases, automatically track test execution, and generate reports to streamline the UAT process.

The all above-mentioned code examples can be done in doing automation testing in UAT.

9. API Testing

API testing is a type of software testing that involves testing application programming interfaces (APIs) directly and as part of integration testing to determine if they meet expectations for functionality, reliability, performance, and security. 

Automated API testing uses tools like Postman or REST-assured. These can send automated requests to your API endpoints, validate responses, check data formats, and even perform complex API call sequences without manual intervention.

Example: A REST-assured test for a simple GET request:

@Test
public void testGetUser() {
    given()
        .when()
        .get("https://api.example.com/users/1")
        .then()
        .statusCode(200)
        .body("name", equalTo("John Doe"))
        .body("email", equalTo("john@example.com"));
}

10. Cross-browser Testing

Cross-browser testing is a type of testing used to check that your website or web application works correctly across different web browsers. Tools like Browserstack or Sauce Labs automate cross-browser testing. They can automatically run your test scripts across multiple browsers and versions simultaneously, capturing screenshots and logs for easy comparison.

Example of a Selenium WebDriver script using Browserstack:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
from selenium.webdriver.common.desired_capabilities import DesiredCapabilities

desired_cap = {
 'browserName': 'iPhone',
 'device': 'iPhone 11',
 'realMobile': 'true',
 'os_version': '14.0',
}

driver = webdriver.Remote(
    command_executor='http://USERNAME:ACCESS_KEY@hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub',
    desired_capabilities=desired_cap)

driver.get("http://www.google.com")
if not "Google" in driver.title:
    raise Exception("Unable to load google page!")
elem = driver.find_element_by_name("q")
elem.send_keys("BrowserStack")
elem.submit()
print driver.title
driver.quit()

Conclusion

Automation testing is a powerful process that can help you deliver your applications with high quality to your customers. By understanding different types of automated testing, you can test your application capabilities in all aspects (say UI, Performance, security, functionality, etc.). The purpose of automation testing is to improve efficiency, reduce human error, and provide consistent results in the testing process.

As the test automation market continues to grow, it's crucial to stay updated with the latest tools in software testing. These advancements enable teams to improve test coverage, streamline QA processes, and tackle complex testing scenarios more effectively. staying informed about emerging technologies can give your team a competitive edge.

FAQs

Need Expert Help? 

F22 Labs is a leading provider of software testing services, specializing in automation testing and QA. With a team of experienced professionals and cutting-edge tools, F22 Labs offers comprehensive testing solutions to ensure the highest quality software delivery for businesses of all sizes