Testing Banking Apps, WebDriverIo, E2E Playwright TGNS133

[00:00:00] Joe Colantonio What test tool are testers of banking and financial apps raving about? Have you seen the latest mind release of WebDriverIO? And how do you do API database and end-to-end test automation using Playwright? Find out all about these and more in this episode of the Test Guild News Show for the week of August 18th. Grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea and let's do this.

[00:00:22] Before we get into it. If you haven't already, please make sure to subscribe to our Test Guild LinkedIn to News Show newsletter that Ill have a link down below to never miss another episode.

[00:00:32] Our first item is a little different. You know me, I don't like to criticize tools or tool vendors. Still, many testers have told me how frustrated they've become with this huge company. I'll leave nameless, which has been the preferred solution for financial services and major banks. Some have told me they've also gone as far as discontinuing its use or considering doing so. They also tell me how annoying it is to use because of its complexity and the excessive time required to automate test cases, which slows them down in their testing efforts. And many of these testers have reverted back to the manual testing of things that can be automated, especially for testing processes across different applications and devices, including email and PDF checks. A lot of the enterprise type of testing you need to do in these types of environments, but testers at the most advanced banking and financial services solve that problem. How? I'm going to spill the beans now. They did it with one simple step. They made a simple switch to TestResults.io. This is a company of founders that I've interviewed on my podcast in the past, and it's a solution I think it's worth considering. And its solution you should see and try for yourself. I have a special offer for listeners of this news show. Send me your email address via DM and I will personally introduce you to the founders of TestResults.IO as I know them personally, this is an exclusive opportunity to speak directly with them. They'll even tell you which tool vendor I left nameless in this post. And to make this deal even sweeter, I'm going to offer a free Automation Guild 2025 ticket exclusive Automation Guild Community access in my e-book with every Testresult.io license you purchase, so make sure to DM me to learn more.

[00:02:22] Joe Colantonio Next up is a new release of a test tool I think you need know about. I heard about this from Tristan, about how WebDriverio was just about to release a new version, and he was hosting an event that was going to go over some of the new features. And then I saw this post last week from Open JS Foundation, which announced the release of WebDriverIO v9. And this post goes over all the new features and benefits for the new version, introducing several enhancements and it's improved performance, usability and integration capabilities, making it a huge upgrade for developers and testers alike. And some of the new features that popped out to me with the enhancements to WebDriver Bidi. There's a new URL command parameter that helps you do a bunch of cool things. Also, it has automatic piercing of web components, iFrames, and shadow Dom. It has visual testing, reporting capabilities, and a bunch more.

[00:03:12] Joe Colantonio And to hear about all these new features, definitely check out my latest podcast interview I just released yesterday with Christian, who is the main contributor maintainer of WebDriverIO as we talked all about the latest V9. You don't want to miss it, and you can find links to all these in the comments down below.

[00:03:29] Joe Colantonio Next up is how to do API database and end-to-end testing using Playwright. In this recent blog post by Mahtab, they provide insights into the unified approach for API, database, and end-to-end testing using Playwright. They highlight the challenges faced by testers due to the fragmented testing ecosystem, which traditionally requires use of multiple tools with different testing domains. This post proposes Playwright as a comprehensive solution capable of addressing these testing needs under a single umbrella, and the blog post provides practical examples and code snippets to demonstrate Playwright's features, such as its ability to handle various test scenarios and its capabilities with modern testing requirements. Also, one of the major advantages of using Playwright according to this post, is the reduction in complexity and learning curve for testers, and by consolidating multiple testing tools into one, Playwright, simplifies the testing process, which could lead to quicker test development and execution. Check out the post. Let me know your thoughts.

[00:04:29] Joe Colantonio And speaking of Playwright, this next post, which is posted on Bondar Academy by Artem Bondar, talks about Playwright not waiting for elements, which discusses a common issue faced by many developers and testers using Microsoft Playwright framework for automated browser testing. And this article delves into the intricacies of effective waiting for elements to appear in the Dom while using Playwright ensuring more stable and reliable test outcomes. This blog elaborates on different strategies to handle situations where tests fail because an element is not yet available, and emphasize the importance of understanding Playwright's built in waiting mechanism and how they can be leveraged to avoid unnecessary test flakiness through detailed code examples, it guides you to how to use functions like waitForSelector and also touches upon advanced usage scenarios such as handling dynamic context and network responses. And I think the primary takeaway from this blog post is that the understanding of Playwright's waiting mechanisms is crucial for writing stable automated tests to ensure that all necessary elements are loaded and interactable before allowing test to proceed. And this definitely could prevent a lot of script flakiness that you're probably been seeing. Definitely check it out in the comment down below.

[00:05:42] Joe Colantonio All right, this next article is all about trusting AI and machine learning. This recent blog post by Toni, who wrote a detailed article that provides insight into the pivotal role of automated testing in ensuring the reliability of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. And as you know, there's a growing reliance on AI/ML and various sectors necessitates really stringent testing protocols to verify the accuracy, performance, and security. And this blog post highlights the need for a robust framework for testing AI/ML systems, due to the inherent complexities and unpredictable behaviors resulting from vast amounts of data and intricate algorithms. And these technologies need continual assessment not only at the development stage, but throughout their operational lifecycle. He also emphasized the traditional testing methodologies are often inadequate for AI/ML systems. Given their dynamic evolving nature. Therefore, specialized automated testing approaches such as model validation, simulation-based testing, and anomaly detection are crucial. And these methods helped in managing the constant feed of new data and configurations that AI/ML systems encounter. And it gives some examples, and also goes to how the incorporation of automated testing into AI/ML development pipelines not only ensures the elimination of biases and errors, but also enhances the transparency and trust in these systems. Definitely another must read that you can find in the comments down below.

[00:07:07] Joe Colantonio All right, are you using Cypress? This next article is all about Cypress web accessibility and this, by Madhur, who goes over ensuring web accessibility with Cypress a comprehensive guide. And this offers a thorough explanation of how web developers can leverage the Cypress testing framework to ensure these sites are accessible to all users. And the guide provides a step by step process on integrating accessibility checks into the development lifecycle using Cypress. It begins by highlighting the points of web accessibility, referencing global standards and regulations including the Web Context Accessibility Guidelines. And the author emphasizes the societal and legal imperatives of making web content accessible to people with disabilities. Some key sections of this guide. Detailed installment configuration of Cypress demonstrating how developers can write an automated accessibility test. Additionally, the guide covers how to use plugins like Cypress Axe, which integrate the Axe accessibility testing engine within Cypress. And through practical examples, the guide showcases how to write accessibility tests that identify common issues such as missing alt text, poor color contrast, and improper heading structures. Definitely a worthwhile thing to learn more about if you're using Cypress, for sure.

[00:08:18] Joe Colantonio This next blog post is about a security hack. I didn't know anything about. So I found this next article because it was posted by Mark about how researchers have introduced another class of high precision branch targeted injection attacks. What is it? I didn't know, so I clicked on this article and after reading it, it's all about how MTI attacks target the latest Intel CPUs, including Raptor Lake and Alder Lake models. And the study uncovers new vulnerabilities within indirect branch predicate and the branch target buffer in these processors, allowing attackers to bypass existing security measures. And by reverse engineering these components, the researchers develop precise BTI attacks capable of breaching security boundaries in various scenarios, including cross process and cross privilege environments. All the things you need to worry about as a tester, and this is just something I think you just need to be aware about as well.

[00:09:14] All right for links of everything of value we covered in this news episode. Head on over to the links in the first comment down below. That's it for this episode of the Test Guild News Show. I'm Joe, my mission is to help you succeed in creating end-to-end full stack pipeline automation awesomeness. As always, test everything and keep the good. Cheers.