Tools for automation without UI interaction

Question

I am required to build automated functional tests for an older web application which does not have much in the way of services or API. Normally that would mean using something like Selenium and interacting through a browser, but the automation has to go through our continuous integration, so it can't run through the browser UI.

We are using Jules for CI and build, and the automation has to succeed for the build to pass. Our team is trained in Selenium automation.

I don't know where to start. What tools are there to perform functional testing against an application that doesn't have an API when there is no way to open a browser and test with it?

Answer 1

I am assuming that your application has UI, but you want to run automated tests in the background without opening the physical browser on the machine.

For this, you can try running your selenium test cases with headless chrome driver. If you are using serenity, then the serenity property "chrome.switches = --headless" allows you to run your test cases in headless mode without opening an actual browser.

Answer 2

From what you've given us so far (but please elaborate) you want one of two things:

• headless browser testing. This has advanced greatly in the last two years. Google it.

• integrated testing. If this is what you mean by 'not through the UI' then perhaps you are seeing agile testing quadrant two, integrated testing. If so you can set up:

  • API testing
  • Service call testing

Be aware however that integrated testing is effectively only testing the environment 'under test' and so does not ensure the application works in production unless they are run there also, which is an option.

Please give more details so we know which of these two you wish for your jules CI