PhantomJSis a lightweight headless tryout runner which is perfect for command-line-based testing. What is PhantomJS? It allows us to access the browser ’ s DOM API. After all, PhantomJS is even a browser without the GUI skin. It is suitable for local development, version control pre-commit hooks testing, and as part of your continuous consolidation pipeline testing.

The brainless test moon-curser WILL NOT be a replacement forSeleniumfunctional testing. The idea behind a command-line base quiz suite is that it will ply fast feedback for a deployed web application without spinning up a browser. It is critical to set a criterion where developers naturally fulfil inactive code analysis, unit tests,server specificationtests, and PhantomJS exam in a local evolution environs before make a pull request. The following section will help you understand why a well-defined cloud testing strategy will trim web application bug in production.

Cloud Testing Strategy

A major component of cloud program result is that all of the codification travel through the gantlet of testing before merging a pull request into the master branch, and before pushing changes to product. We need to prove that the code deploys the web covering correctly before we start utilise it in the cloud staging and product surroundings. It ’ s much easier and cheaper to catch and trouble-shoot issues locally, as fight to having production servers go down or affect the user experience.

Thanks to configuration direction tools, we can useChef, Vagrant, and VirtualBoxto spin up a web application locally and begin testing alteration before even creating a clout petition.

The general strategy is to make testing easy for developer or whoever performs web covering code changes. How do we make it easy for developers? The good examination instrument for the job isTest Kitchen. Test Kitchen is an integrating test harness tool for testing infrastructure code on isolated platforms. The great thing about this test harness is that it permit you to run your codification on virtualization technology and various cloud provider.

Here is the cloud testing strategy for developers. Each checkpoint will fulfill static code analysis, unit tests for coating and chef role cookbooks, server spec test, and PhantomJS tests.

Local Development

Testing the covering code locally using Chef, Vagrant, and VirtualBox

GitHub Pre-commit Hooks

Testing the application code every clip a pull request is created by using Chef, Vagrant, and VirtualBox

Uninterrupted Integration

Testing the application after merging a clout request into the master branch and deploying the application on a cloud provider (staging and product)

Pro tip: Tools like SUSA can handle this autonomously — upload your app and get results without writing a single test script.

The growth of cloud solutions doesn ’ t change the grandness of testing practice. It does, however, elevate the grandness of testing other in a local ontogenesis environment and will increase self-confidence in code changes before advertize code. Please—Consider implementing these test checkpoints above when acquire your cloud testing strategy.

Command-Line Testing Suite Using PhantomJS

The brainless test runner allow us to make assertions about the final state of the machine after the Chef Role Cookbook discharge. It is important and required to start with a “ clean ” virtual or cloud environment to run your PhantomJS examination to get accurate results. (Here is an example ofPhantomJS Chef Role Cookbookdeveloped by Custom Ink.)

Just remember that PhantomJS testing is not a shortcut for Selenium functional examination. PhantomJS is a perfect lightweight test runner to evaluate a web application before launch your Selenium tests across multiple browsers and platforms on. What is the composition of the lightweight command-line testing retinue?

Let ’ s delineate the lightweight acceptance test suite for checking a deployed application:

• Compute the loading speed of a web application.

• Capture network traffic in HTTP Archive format (HAR) formatting file. (The HAR is a JSON-formatted archive file format for logging of a web browser ’ s interaction with a site.)

• Send HTTP GET and POST requests and validate the answer such as the HTTP status code.

• Set the initial viewport size before loading the page by choosing between ‘ landscape ’ and ‘ portrait ’.

• The file system module allows access to files and directories, but I recommend using host spec examine for this eccentric of proof.

• DOM manipulation, pure interaction with the deployed web application by using the measureDOM scriptand CSS selectors. Keeps command-line tests tiptop light.

• Capture Screenshots

• …

It formalise that the build and deployment of your web coating are ready for the next testing checkpoint.

Conclusion

I trust this blog post has encouraged you to look into PhantomJS and start delimit a cloud testing strategy for your cloud applications. The idea behind cloud testing is that it is easygoing and tatty to catch and troubleshoot matter locally, as fight to having staging or production reversal up. The tooling solution are available. What is quit you from changing your cloud prove strategy? Nothing.

To close, PhantomJS come with a lot ofincluded examples. I recommend looking them over.

Greg Sypolt (@ gregsypolt) is a Senior Engineer at Gannett – USA Today Network and co-founder of Quality Element. He is a passionate automation engineer seeking to optimize package evolution quality, while coaching team members on how to compose great automation scripts and helping the testing community become best testers. Greg has spent most of his career working on package quality—concentrating on web browsers, APIs, and mobile. For the past five years, he has focused on the conception and deployment of automated test strategies, frameworks, instrument and platforms.