[dhpe]

Since this thread hits my expertise... We have developed Usetrace (https://usetrace.com) for a few years targeting teams that want non-techies to automate GUI testing. (Disclaimer, I am a founder). So far the feedback has been positive and we're getting healthy revenue. It seems that teams are desperate for faster solutions than coded UI tests. But they will only use a tool that keeps up with frequent UI changes (automatically or semiautomatically) and is really painless and quick to use.

Some lessons learned that we're solving with the product:

  - creating basic tests must be doable in 1 minute
  - testing is a team effort (testers&devs) - must have collaboration tools built-in
  - must be extendable with code (js)
  - sync/timing issues must be handled automatically (when possible)
  - UIs will change - generate locators and algorithms that adds robustness
  - debugging must be speedy: must be able to debug test steps live with the browser context (html5 remote connection to the browser)
  - randomness is needed - need an easy way to introduce random data (like random emails)
  - testing emails must be as easy as testing a web page - inbox must be an integrated feature
  - must handle frames transparently - user does not care if the element is inside a frame or not
  - must be pluggable to CI
  - must have good, clear reports
  - some tests will be flaky - must be a way to keep builds stable & green
  - no installations / plugins, just a browser
  - fast to update tests when UI changes - the system must do global replacements when it sees duplicate stuff
  - duplicate test step/code will cause a major maintenance burden - must have reusable/parameterizable components
  - people will want to reuse functional tests for stress testing and monitoring - allow that too
  - people need to check for dynamic content - must have a quick and codeless way to use variables
  - people want to have quick builds - tool must offer parallel testing
  - people will want to integrate to their own systems - must offer APIs
  - html pages are responsive - must have support for different screen sizes

[HenryTheHorse]

While your premise is indeed sound - and let me say I'm not taking away any credit for what you and your team have built - but we did evaluate Usetrace last year and found several basic issues. The system simply wouldn't record several events and user actions and it fell so far behind in a test case that we concluded it was probably not the right tool for us at the time.

But I'll be happy to re-evaluate the tool.

[dhpe]

Thanks for the feedback. We have come quite far since last year. For example, now you can record html5 drag and drop events. Give it a try, we'd love to hear if there's a webpage with issues, so we can fix Usetrace.

[HenryTheHorse]

Thanks - will certainly have another go at it.

[tln]

We just signed up for Ghost Inspector yesterday. I hope it gives us half of this list... these are a fantastic set of principles.

I'd add that it's nice to have an "eject button" path to run the tests on local infrastructure. Also, it should be possible to run tests against localhost.

[dhpe]

Thanks, good points. We have used ngrok for testing localhost. We actually wrote a helpful article on it. This is useful info regardless of the testing tool, so pasting it here: http://docs.usetrace.com/articles/connection/

[aantix]

Wow, the pricing is a little inaccessible for most teams...?

Evan at the "starter - 20 builds / wk" tier, I'm not sure that would cover any team I've ever worked with for an entire day...