AI-Powered E2E UI Testing: Faster Creation, Easier Maintenance

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This session will guide you through the advanced field of AI- E2E UI Testing, focusing on how it speeds up test creation and simplifies test maintenance. We'll begin by examining the challenges in generating E2E tests with AI, noting how this differs from the simpler task of creating unit tests.
The discussion will then shift to a solution that addresses these challenges effectively. Prepare to see a live demonstration where we'll craft an E2E test using popular tools like Cypress or Playwright. To wrap up, we'll look into how AI comes close to fully automating the maintenance of our test suites, ensuring they stay up-to-date with minimal manual intervention.

This talk has been presented at JSNation US 2024, check out the latest edition of this JavaScript Conference.

FAQ

You can follow Daniel Ostrovsky on Twitter, Medium, and YouTube by scanning the provided barcode. His username is nanduh81.

The two best practices are using meaningful data test IDs and relying on the page objects model pattern to make tests cleaner and more modular.

Meaningful data test IDs help AI understand the purpose of each actionable item, making it easier to generate and execute relevant tests for UI elements.

Daniel recommends using an in-browser extension called end-to-end test helper and an IDE extension called continue, which offers features like powerful auto-completion.

The application used for the demo is a Pokemon application, which includes features like filtering by name or type, and navigation to Pokemon details pages.

The continue extension is used for managing code directly in the IDE, offering features like auto-completion and helping in generating end-to-end tests.

AI-powered UI testing faces challenges due to the abstraction layers between the source code and the rendered UI, unlike unit tests where the source code is directly available.

The main topic of the presentation is AI-powered end-to-end testing for user interfaces.

Daniel Ostrovsky is a full-cycle developer expert with over 25 years of experience. He is a public speaker, writer, open-source contributor, and technical mentor.

AI can effectively generate tests for common applications like e-commerce websites due to existing knowledge. However, for niche applications, it struggles without specific guidance as it lacks access to proprietary systems.

Daniel Ostrovsky
Daniel Ostrovsky
10 min
21 Nov, 2024

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Video Summary and Transcription
Hello, everyone. Today we are going to explore AI-powered end-to-end testing. Unlike unit tests, UI testing has a huge layer of obstructions between the source code and the rendered UI. The source code includes HTML, CSS, and TypeScript, which are transpiled into JavaScript and bundled with tools like Webpack. AI can generate tests effectively for standard websites or blogs, but it may struggle with niche applications behind strict authorization or on-premise tools. AI-powered end-to-end testing for complex scenarios requires our guidance. We use meaningful data test IDs and follow the page objects model pattern. Additionally, we rely on useful tools like the end-to-end test helper in-browser extension and the continue IDE extension. Now, let's proceed to the demo, where we will create tests for the Pokemon application, including the ability to filter by name or type. We will navigate to the Pokemon details page and use our extension to manage settings and prompts. Additionally, we will create the details page object together and generate the test file. The Pokemon details page has 105 elements. We can view the elements for debugging purposes, including page object name, Pokemon details page, and system message. We will copy the page object and save it to a file. We need to make it exportable. Then, we will use the extension to create an end-to-end test and pass the context. I will use all the open files, including the page objects and the test case itself. I will send them to EI along with the predefined prompt. There is a system message and additional information we need to be aware of. The test runs successfully, and that concludes this part.
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