Streamline Front-End Testing of Ext JS Applications With Sencha Test

June 15, 2023 111 Views

Do you hate spending a lot of time and money on manually testing your Ext JS programs? If so, allow me to introduce Sencha Test. Front-end testing is essential for guaranteeing the quality and effectiveness of your web applications, but without the correct tools, it may be a difficult effort. Sencha Test aims to solve that. Sencha Test gives developers the tools to produce high-quality apps while spending less time and money on testing. In this article, we’ll go in-depth on the value of front-end testing and how the Sencha Test can completely change the way you do tests.

What Is Front-End Testing?

what is FrontEnd Testing

Front-end testing validates and guarantees that a web application’s graphical user interface components operate as thought. It focuses on examining a number of factors, including the proper acceptance of input characters in input fields, making sure one can successfully submit the forms when all mandatory fields are filled out, evaluating the simplicity of navigation, measuring the speed at which pages load, user experience, and more.

Why Is Front-End Testing Important?

Front-end testing is essential for a number of reasons. It first ensures the application is safe to deploy in production and performs correctly. Developers can find and fix any functional flaws, ensuring that users can interact with the application as intended.

Front-end testing also enables programmers to monitor and improve aspects like reactivity, responsiveness to user input, and overall user experience, ensuring that the application operates at its best in a variety of circumstances. front-end testing also assists in confirming cross-browser and cross-device capability.

What to Test in Front-End?

The following are factors you should test in the front end.

Cross-Browser and Cross-Platform Functionality

It is important to test the application against a variety of browsers and devices available in order to guarantee dependable and consistent performance for all users who use different platforms.

Accessibility

You must ensure that everyone, including those with visual or auditory impairments, can use your application.

End-To-End Checks

They are needed to verify and check the back-end-to-front-end workflow of the application by simulating the actions users would actually perform in the real world.

Image Analysis Testing

You must do tests to see where you can optimize the graphics such as images to make the application operate more efficiently because they greatly increase the application’s size.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Testing

Although the user never sees the style sheet code, if it is wrong, they will notice the negative impacts. Therefore, tests must be done to assure the performance of the two primary CSS elements: syntax and display.

Challenges of Front-End Testing?

challenges of FrontEnd Testing

Testing in the front end is important. When handling it, there are a few standard difficulties you should be aware of and ready for.

Frequently Changing UI

The UI is constantly updated as web apps develop and new features are added. This makes it difficult for testers to stay current with the changes and guarantee that their test cases are still applicable. Moreover, when the UI changes frequently it’s hard to carry out continuous tests as the product is unstable.

Determining the Most Crucial front-end Elements

Prioritizing the testing of these components is important for efficient resource allocation and the detection of potential problems that could have a big impact on user experience.

Simulating the Real-World Environment

In order to ensure compatibility and responsiveness, testing must be conducted across a variety of browsers, operating systems, and screen sizes.

Choosing Testing Best Tools – Sencha

It is important to carefully evaluate aspects like compatibility with the application framework, convenience of use, reporting capabilities, and automation support when evaluating and selecting the ideal tool for front-end testing. With its extensive unit and end-to-end testing features, Sencha Test is a highly suggested solution for Ext JS apps.

Human Factors

The application’s functionality, user expectations, and probable use cases must be thoroughly understood by testers. In order to enable efficient testing, collaboration, and communication between developers, designers, and testers are essential.

Best Practices in Front-End Testing

The following are some best practices in front-end testing.

First Principles

The F.I.R.S.T. principles must be followed when conducting front-end testing. Fast tests ensure timely feedback on the behavior of the application. In order to eliminate dependencies and guarantee correct findings, they should be independent, which means that each test should run separately from others. Test results should be consistent and reproducible, and they should be repeated. They should be self-validating, displaying pass-or-fail results in a straightforward manner without requiring manual interpretation. In order to provide full test coverage, tests should cover a variety of test cases.

Start With the Testing Pyramid

The testing pyramid is a framework to help development teams create high-quality software. Developers will take less time to find changes that have a negative impact on their code, and it supports the creation of trustworthy test suites.

Prioritize Front-End Elements

Testing various UI and functional components must be prioritized in order to manage front-end testing properly. Forms, links, buttons, and other interactive elements are examples of functional elements while formatting, CSS, text, and graphics are examples of UI elements. Prioritizing these components according to how they affect the user experience and vital functionality makes it easier to assign testing resources efficiently and guarantees that the most important components are adequately tested

Use Real Browser And Devices

There are certain tools such as BrowserStack which support cross-browser testing, or else you can use a few types of browsers in your machine and use different devices such as tables, and phones to test the UI.

Types of Front-End Tests

types of FrontEnd Testing

There are several types of front-end testing that developers aren’t aware of. The following are a few of them.

Unit Testing

Unit testing involves independently testing each unit or component of a software application to ensure that it functions as intended. It entails testing the tiniest testable components—known as units—in isolation from the rest of the application. These units can be distinct functions, methods, or modules.

Acceptance Testing

A software system’s compliance with all specifications is determined via acceptance testing. In order to satisfy both corporate stakeholders and end users, it assesses if the system conforms to the necessary commercial, technical, and aesthetic standards.

Visual Regression Testing

By contrasting screenshots were taken before and after code changes, visual regression tests verify what the user would see once any changes have been made.

Accessibility Testing

Software accessibility testing examines whether all internet users, including those with special needs or impairments, can easily access a website or app.

Performance Testing

Performance testing examines the operation of your application in relation to a set of criteria, such as speed, stability, scalability, interoperability, and responsiveness.

End-to-End (E2E) Testing

End-to-end testing focuses on testing the entire application, recreating real-world scenarios, and confirming its behavior across various components, modules, and interfaces. E2E testing seeks to confirm that all of the software system’s integrated components function properly and adhere to the desired specifications.

Integration Testing

Integration tests will test the interface between two software units or modules. It focuses on determining whether modules are effectively interacting with one another and revealing any problems between connected components.

Cross Browser Testing

Cross-browser testing enables testers to determine whether a website performs as expected on various browser-device-OS combinations. Eg – Firefox, Chrome, Safari

Best Front-End Testing Tool

If you are now wondering what tool you should use for front-end testing, here’s our recommendation.

Sencha Test Tool

Sencha Test, which supports end-to-end testing of React apps, is the most complete unit and end-to-end testing solution for Ext JS. With Sencha Test, you can produce high-quality apps while cutting costs and testing time.

You must set up both the Sencha Test Runner and the Sencha Test Framework in order to use Sencha Test.

You can begin writing tests after installing Sencha Test. Once you write the test, you may use the Sencha Test Runner to run them. Sencha Test Runner executes all of the tests. After the test execution, it will provide test results as a test report.

You should use Sencha Test while creating or testing an Ext JS application. It is a useful tool that can aid in the discovery and correction of bugs in your application.

Sencha Test Features

The following are some of the key features of the Sencha Test.

Easily Integrated – Allows easy integrations to CI/CD Tools Like Jenkins and Bamboo.
Supports Continuous Integration – Supports Continuous Integration by providing a command-line interface, detailed reports, and integration with popular CI tools like Jenkins.
Test Authoring – Supports writing unit and functional tests in JavaScript using page object functions to keep test code clean.
Inspector – Locate components on the application and build meaningful locators.
External Libraries in Test – Supports to install and use Node modules to expand the scope of testing by connecting to databases.
Application Lifecycle Management (JIRA Only) – With the Sencha Test and JIRA integration, you can create and link test cases directly to JIRA issues, enabling traceability between requirements, test cases, and defects.
Event Recorder – Auto-grab events while interacting with the app under test instead of coding interactions.
Visual Screen Comparison – Minimize time spent verifying images on hundreds of screens. Review images from previous test runs and compare them with each subsequent test run.
Test Automation – Test real-time app changes from the CI system. This enables an efficient and reliable testing process.
Test Results – Comprehensive results reports from automated and manual test runs, including passed, and failed tests.
Execution – Test flexibility at its finest – any browser, local machine, or browser farm. End-to-end web driver testing with built-in Selenium driver and embedded Chrome browser.

Conclusion

In conclusion, front-end testing is vital for guaranteeing the effectiveness and quality of web applications. Sencha Test provides a complete front-end testing solution that enables developers in order to produce high-quality applications quickly. Adopting these best practices and utilizing Sencha Test will unquestionably improve the testing process and result in the creation of reliable online applications.

FAQ’s

What Is Front-End Automation Testing?

It is the process of using automated testing tools and test scripts to test the user interface and functionality of a web application.

What is Sencha Test?

Sencha Test is a complete unit and end-to-end testing solution for Ext JS apps. You can reduce time and cost with the Sencha test and deliver high-quality apps.