Top Python-Powered Test Automation Tools

top-python-powered-test-automation-tools


Introduction

Python has been a hot favorite among test automation developers, thanks to its open-source nature, cross-platform support, and easy-to-learn advantages. It has also been rated as the top programming language in 2020 by IEEE.

A software development company may use Python in various domains including software development, data science and machine learning applications, test automation tools, and more. It contains many powerful libraries to help code developers build products with ease. To help make this possible, Python scripts can be used for designing Web UI tests, API tests, mobile application tests, security testing, and more, using new-age automation testing tools.

This article details some of the test automation tools that offer Python support, enabling the tool to be powerful and in-sync with the advanced features that test automation developers desire.

List of 6 Python-powered test automation tools

1. TestProject

Many new-age test automation tools are now ramping up to be artificial intelligence-driven. They also contain features, such as self-healing capabilities, enabling the tests to create, execute, and run with ease. TestProject is one of the tools which has specifically powered up on these features. Their framework encompasses all the automation goals from end to end. In addition to open-source Python, it also supports Java, C#, etc.  As the tool is easy to learn, it is popular among test automation developers (from beginners to experts) with their varied skill sets.

The Mobile/Web Test recorder and their OpenSDK is a class apart. The OpenSDK is open source and is associated with Maven and PyPI dependency. Its Python-specific SDK is available on PyPI. Using the Python SDK, Selenium and Appium tests can be run, automatic HTML/PDF test reports generated,  etc.

2. TestComplete

TestComplete allows scripting tests in open-source Python. Apart from this, it also supports other languages such as .Net, Javascript, etc. Just as with other tools, TestComplete supports the standard python library functions. It has additional functions that it internally provides to help the test automation developer build powerful automation frameworks.

In TestComplete, there are specifics for using techniques that must be known before coding in Python.  Some examples of specifics are in the usage of functions, importing packages, multithreading, etc.  With this tool, Python unit tests and Selenium tests can be designed using PyUnit, which comes as a part of the tool project. As we are aware, PyUnit is the unit test framework for Python.

3. Selenium

Selenium is a popular cross-browser test tool supporting various browsers such as Chrome, Mozilla, IE, Edge, Firefox, Safari, etc. The Selenium Webdriver makes this happen at the foundation level.

This open-source test tool is used primarily to automate web-based applications. Apart from Python, it supports languages like Perl, Ruby, etc.  Selenium web driver is associated with Python language here. So, eventually, the tool package is used to automate web browser-based tests using Python.

PIP can be used to install or upgrade the bindings, or the source distribution can be downloaded from PyPI. Note that for the browser-based tests in Selenium, one would require the installation of the driver associated with the browser to be tested. This will be used for interfacing with the browser.  For example, geckodriver is associated with Firefox.

4. Appium

Appium is a mobile test framework and Appium tests can be built using Python. This is an open-source utility that offers cross-platform support. Testing can be performed on the web, native, and hybrid mobile OS platforms.  The scripts built using Appium are used for testing iOS and Android mobile applications. The mobile applications can be native, web, or hybrid applications on either Android or iOS.

Here, the Python language bindings are added with the extension library. The library enables the adding of Selenium and Mobile JSON Wire protocol functionality to the Python utilities, eventually powering up Appium.

To enable the Appium Python client,  one can install using pip, PyPi, or GitHub. Tools such as BrowserStack and TestProject can be easily associated with Appium. For example, BrowserStack enables the testing of mobile-based applications using the Appium-based framework. As a result, the Appium tests are coded in Python or real mobile devices on it.

5. Behave

Python has many BDD frameworks associated with it; Behave is one of them. It is similar to the Cucumber BDD framework, supported by Python.  Behave uses the Gherkin language for the specification of behaviors in the behavior-driven framework.

In Behave, just as in other BDD tools, test scenarios are scripted in “.feature“ files with given-when-then steps. These steps are then linked with the Python code. Behave functions best with black-box test scenarios, as the tests are behavior-driven.

This behavior-driven development method in Python style has proven to empower the collaboration between developers, the QA team, and even the business analysts in the project. Those with no technical know-how can easily understand Gherkin because the statements are in natural English language statement form.

6. Robot Framework

Robot Framework is also an open-source framework used for automating test scenarios. Apart from this, it is also used for RPA. It is platform-independent as well. The framework is powered up using Python.  Additionally, it also runs on Jython and IronPython.

Since the framework has a clear and modular architecture, it is trendy. It contains inbuilt libraries and is extendable as well. Remote execution is possible for the tool. It can also be associated with external libraries such as the Appium library used for mobile tests. It also contains the Auto Recorder external library used for recording tests.

Conclusion

Python is a wise choice by test automation developers due to its immense number of advantages. Due to these advantages, there have been many advancements in the area of automation as well as with several popular test automation frameworks, enabling scripting in Python.

Thanks to Python being open-source, there are other benefits including flexibility and community support. The cost-effectiveness of relying on an open-source powered tool is also a big plus and has contributed to its increasing popularity in recent years.

So we now have a clear understanding of the advantages of having tools that enable you to script tests in Python. The programming language enables the test automation tools to be in sync with the digital transformation associated with AI and ML. Therefore, test automation developers prefer to use these cutting edge tools to their advantage - for their features, and career growth as well!

Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post