New Playwright, Continuous Testing, AI Software Engineer and More!

What are some of the new features of the latest Playwright release?

How do you do embrace continuous testing in 2024?

Have you seen the demo for Devin, the first AI software engineer?

Find out in this edition of the Test Guild New Shows Newsletter for the week of March 17.

So, grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea, and let's do this.

Learn how top enterprises are preparing themselves to embrace continuous testing in 2024.

Continuous Testing in 2024

Do you want to know how top enterprises are preparing themselves to embrace continuous testing in 2024.

Perfecto and BlazeMeter by Perforce surveyed hundreds of leading digital enterprises across a wide range of industries to answer this question. Now, the results are in!

So I asked continuous testing experts Mina Sprengeler and John Boebinger if they could do a free training session with the TestGuild to take a closer look at what these enterprise testing professionals had to say as part of this survey. They will break down what challenges teams are facing, their main focuses, and what enterprises are doing to address their continuous testing concerns in the new year.

 Watch to learn:

   * The biggest challenges teams face in automation and ways to solve them.

  * Which tools teams rely on for testing and why.

  * Emerging trends for testing in 2024.

 And more!

Register now for the instance access replay of the webinar that took place earlier this week on Wed March 20th.

Major Boyka Framework Milestone

The Boyka Framework marked a milestone by releasing its stable version 1.0.0, now available on Maven Central.

This testing framework, born out of the need for a unified tool to handle API, web, and mobile app automation seamlessly, has rapidly evolved from its MVP stage. Offering features like zero boilerplate code, multi-platform support, and cloud-based test execution, Boyka Framework aims to simplify and accelerate the automation process for QA professionals.

The framework's development was driven by the industry's need for a cohesive solution that reduces learning curves and automation debt, thereby enabling quicker and more reliable test script creation. With its comprehensive capabilities including REST API automation, web browser automation, and support for both Android and iOS platforms,

This achievement was highlighted in Wasiq LinkedIn post, showcasing the framework's transition to a stable release and its recognition in the testing community. As Boyka Framework continues to evolve, its roadmap promises the introduction of even more advanced features, including video recording for web platforms and expanded cloud platform support. If this sounds like an open source solution you could benefit from now's the time to get on board and give it a try.

Mabl Marks Seven Years of Pioneering AI in Test Automation

In another milestone Mabl marked its seven year anniversary this week as well.

Time flies and I remember back 10 December 2017 when I interviewed co-founder Dan Belcher right before they were coming out of stealth mode.

Since its inception in 2017, Mabl has focused on leveraging AI and machine learning to empower software testers, earning trust from major clients like ADP, Barracuda, JetBlue, Roche, and Liberty Mutual.

The company's commitment to augmenting human insight with AI has garnered recognition, including a recent acknowledgment by Gartner in their Market Guide for AI-Augmented Software Testing Tools. Mabl's AI principles emphasize augmentation over replacement, quality over quantity, and a user experience-centric approach. These principles have positioned Mabl as a leader among over 100 vendors in the AI-augmented software testing market, a field Gartner predicts will see significant growth by 2027. Mabl's AI capabilities extend to visual testing, test orchestration, and intelligent wait features, accessible on a user-friendly, low-code platform.

Mabl is one of the OG AI innovators in test creation, using generative AI to capture testers' goals and integrate best practices, highlight their continued leadership in AI-driven test automation.

Bling our your Cypress Test Runner

David Ingraham introduced a cool new plugin, cypress-runner-themes, offering a refreshing makeover to the traditional Cypress Test Runner. Aimed at enhancing the visual appeal of test results, this plugin comes as a boon to developers seeking a more engaging testing environment.

By incorporating multiple themes, including Dark, Light, and Colorblind modes, cypress-runner-themes not only caters to aesthetic preferences but also supports colorblind users, ensuring accessibility and convenience. Installation is straightforward, requiring a simple npm command and minimal configuration adjustments. This versatility allows for easy theme customization without affecting the workspace of other team members, promoting both personalization and collaboration.

While acknowledging the plugin's primary focus on aesthetics, David jokingly notes it won't solve test issues but guarantees a visually appealing failure screen. As of its latest update, cypress-runner-themes is compatible with Cypress version 13, promising compatibility and support for the most current testing environments.

David encourages the community to contribute ideas for new themes or to develop their own, emphasizing a collaborative approach to enhancing the testing experience.

Custom Synthetic Users

CheckieAI introduces a fast, innovative solution by generating custom synthetic users tailored to individual websites. These artificial users, complete with distinct names, backgrounds, and objectives, scrutinize websites to offer detailed qualitative and quantitative feedback, covering aspects like design appeal, usability, and emotional engagement.

CheckieAI's technology enables rapid feedback generation in minutes and incorporates an API for pre-release design evaluations, allowing teams to refine their products more efficiently.

This development promises to significantly enhance software testing and quality by leveraging generative AI, streamlining the feedback process, and enabling more focused product improvements.

New Playwright

In a recent update, Playwright version 1.42 has been launched, introducing several key features aimed at enhancing the web testing experience. The update includes new tags and annotations for better test management, improved screenshot styling options, and a novel locator handler for more reliable element selection.

This video emphasizes the avoidance of unreliable web elements, advocating for the use of text-based locators that automatically retry, thus reducing test flakiness. Highlighting best practices, it advises annotating tests with issues for easier tracking and history review.

The update also allows for customizable user interfaces, such as the ability to modify border radius, tailoring the testing environment to specific needs. A significant focus of the update is on testing deterministic behavior by disabling extraneous elements like advertisements to ensure tests concentrate on essential functionalities.

The video also shares strategies for managing predictable online distractions, such as cookie banners, by automating their closure to maintain testing flow. The release encourages persistence in test writing and navigating online annoyances with practical solutions for dealing with overlays and other predictable elements. Playwright's new capabilities facilitate testing by waiting for specific elements, like sign-up prompts, to appear before proceeding, improving test accuracy and efficiency.

The video updates conclude with an invitation for beta testing of the new features, urging users to provide feedback to refine and enhance future versions of Playwright. This update marks a significant advancement in web testing, offering tools and practices for developers to create more reliable and efficient tests.

Kubeshark Unveils Hands-On Live Demo for Enhanced Kubernetes Monitoring

Kubeshark, a Kubernetes monitoring tool I just came across, now offers a live demo that allows users to explore its comprehensive features without the need for a Kubernetes cluster setup.

This walkthrough aims to showcase Kubeshark's functionalities, including secure self-hosted deployment with Ingress, TLS, and SAML, and real-time API traffic visibility across various protocols such as HTTP, REST, gRPC, and more. The demo highlights Kubeshark's ability to provide insights into encrypted traffic using eBPF, without decryption, and its powerful network error detection and analysis capabilities.

Users can also experience an identity-aware service map, inspect performance KPIs, and utilize a rich query language to filter traffic data effectively. Additionally, the demo introduces features like sensitive data redaction and a dashboard mode for an optimized viewing experience, although certain authorization rules limit access to some functionalities for security reasons.

Accessible via a straightforward sign-up or login process at the Kubeshark demo portal, this live demo represents a significant step forward in Kubernetes monitoring, offering a practical, hands-on experience for developers and IT professionals.

AutoDev

Microsoft researchers have developed AutoDev, an innovative AI-driven software development framework that enables autonomous planning and execution of complex software engineering tasks. AutoDev empowers AI agents to perform diverse operations on codebases, including editing files, running tests, and executing git commands. 

The novel framework confines all operations to secure Docker containers, while allowing users to set guardrails on permitted commands. In an evaluation on code and test generation benchmarks, AutoDev delivered impressive results, achieving over 90% accuracy without any additional training data. AutoDev aims to transform how developers interact with AI assistants. Rather than just suggesting code snippets, AutoDev's AI agents can autonomously carry out intricate programming workflows based on high-level user objectives. The framework opens up exciting possibilities to streamline software development practices through advanced AI capabilities.

Microsoft believes AutoDev represents a major step forward in leveraging AI to enhance developer productivity. The researchers plan to further refine the system and explore integrations into popular IDEs and software development platforms. AutoDev provides an intriguing glimpse into a future where AI and human programmers seamlessly collaborate on software projects.

The First "AI software engineer"

Have you seen this? Cognition Labs introduces Devin, the first AI software engineer, a development that could potentially reshape the future of software engineering jobs.

Developed by a team of coding prodigies and backed by Peter Thiel's venture capital, Devin stands out not just for its ability to autonomously train other AI systems but also for its practical applications, having successfully completed real programming tasks on the freelancing platform Upwork.

This AI is capable of independently developing complete applications, identifying and fixing bugs, a feat demonstrated by its performance in resolving real-world open-source project issues on GitHub. However, this technological leap has sparked concerns among human software engineers about job security in the face of AI advancements. Devin's introduction into the workforce as a "tireless, skilled teammate" aims to complement human efforts, allowing engineers to tackle more complex problems.

Yet, the potential for AI like Devin to outperform human engineers in efficiency and productivity raises unsettling questions about the future of human roles in software development.

Critiques and marvels at Devin's capabilities underscore the broader debate over AI's place in the workforce: whether it should be viewed as an asset or a threat to job security. As the tech industry grapples with efficiency and the ideal of the "10x engineer," the arrival of AI engineers like Devin adds a new dimension to discussions on productivity, efficiency, and the evolving nature of work in the digital age.

Get Instant Access to Automation Guild and Monthly Training

Hey if you missed our 8th Annual online testing event Automation Guild last week I decided to offer after event tickets so you can get instant access to all the sessions and recordings of what took place.

And if you register now you’ll still be able to join our ongoing  monthly training sessions that will take place once a month from march – Nov for automation guild 2024 ticket holders. For example our private training session for March is Building High Performing SDET teams: Strategies for Success in a Rapidly Evolving Tech Environment.

So register now and use the special code linkedin20 to get 20% off your after event ticket and year long community.