Process testing with MTA

Characteristics of (User) Interface vs “Direct Model” process testing

Test automation tools have specific capabilities resulting from the  interaction they have with the system under test. In order to distinguish these characteristics we explore the fundamental limitations of each test automation approach. UI based testing is limited by the functionality that is offered by pages. API based testing by the functionality offered by existing API’s. Menditects Direct Model testing is limited by the backend actions that it can execute directly. In the table below we have made a more detailed description of these limitations per type of test automation tool.

This table shows that Menditects Direct model testing only has some limitations related to page specific actions and widgets (nanoflows behave similar to  a front end widget). Although it is obvious that these types of functionalities need testing as well, the risks associated with them are often low and many of these functionalities can be tested with relatively little manual test effort.

Configuring process testing with Menditect Recorder

With the introduction of the Menditect Recorder (See What Happens below the screen?), it has become possible to record the backend actions as a result of UI and API based actions. From release 1.6 of MTA we add the capability to the Menditect Recorder to generate test cases directly from the recordings. To do this MTA connects all recorded teststeps to each other.

Let us provide an example of how this works with a simple screen action:

• First a button is clicked that calls a microflow to generate an object.
• Then the user changes the values of attributes of that object on the screen.
• In the last step the user saves the object in the screen with a save button that executes a microflow.

The generated test case of this example would result in 3 teststeps in MTA (Microflow – Object Action – Microflow). The Menditect Recorder is aware of the fact that all three teststeps manipulate the same object (same Mendix object ID). Therefore it is possible to connect the three teststeps automatically to each other to form an executable test case.

With the Menditect Recorder it is now possible to create process tests that exactly follow the actions that are executed in Mendix pages. Previously it took time to read and understand the Mendix page model, now it is a matter of minutes to create the teststeps. This makes the creation of process tests faster and easier, while keeping the benefits that Menditect already provides for unit and component testing and the low maintenance due to the consistency checks with changes in the Mendix model.