At the first glance, software development and testing may seem completely different unrelated processes. But some of their aspects are extremely important for both these spheres.

In this article, we’ll focus on some popular patterns and methodologies of web testing that will be helpful for UI automation in general and for the development of test frameworks in particular.

List of Popular Patterns for UI Test Automation

Design patterns are an unfinished part of code that can easily be applied to software projects. Most likely, these are the components of the decision template.

The advantage of these patterns is that with their help, testers or developers can simplify communication with other members of the project team involved in the software development process. If everyone understands how the pattern should function correctly, then it is enough to say its name, and everyone will understand what it will be about. There will be no need to show the program code.

Decorator Pattern

It helps to get components into special “envelopes” responsible for rewriting and supporting only a certain set of parameters (very important for projects where test automated companies use A/B testing). The tester does not need to write a new class for all subsequent characteristics of the component, only the changes that are used are implemented. A similar technique can also be used when web components are edited depending on the size of the web browser or the type of device.

Page Object + Page Elements

The Page Object pattern is the most popular and basic UI automation pattern in the software testing field. After all, in it, all the functionality of a particular web UI “turns” into a special class. This is great for simple views where there are no special features for system interaction – Page Object patterns are simple to manage.

However, if the project has pages with a lot of parameters, the page object classes may become huge and transform into complex programming code. This is where page components come in handy. The logic here is to wrap the X functionality of the component element, rather than the entire page, in a class.

Dependency Injection Pattern

This pattern appeared due to the concept of inversion of control. In it, the selected objects can receive other objects they need from the outside, rather than developing them themselves. This procedure significantly simplifies class nesting and the process of unit testing.

To Sum Up: Principles on the Use of Patterns

The Simpler the Better

The simplest systems always work better than complex ones. These principles can be used not only for software development but also for GUI. As for test frameworks for UI tests, the development of the test scenario should be obvious and simple. [highlight dark=”no”]The basic objective of any framework is to simplify complicated tasks.[/highlight]

We Don’t Do Anything Difficult!

Is there anything similar to the principle described above? That we should work with the simplest, and with what will definitely work. In other words, new parameters should be set when the user is sure they are needed, not in situations where they may be needed someday.

If you follow this principle, you can finish the framework development process faster, since you won’t have to think about all the available variations before executing automated testing services.