Visual Test Automation Leads the Future of the Software Testing Industry

Today’s test automation technology in general relies primarily on the test object recognition aspect.  This means that any testing tool is required to identify test objects of the application under test (AUT) and successfully recognize it during creation of the script and its playback. Conventional test automation technologies developed are based on API object recognition, where each singular client API’s is correlated with the testing tool technology’s test object class. In the modern testing world, this approach is insufficient due to the existence of a variety of different clients for one application under test – ie browsers, client-server applications, etc. With most tools, you can only recognize one set of objects per script per AUT. Therefore, if you are automating different clients of the same applications (which may be different browser flavors or different version of client or native mobile apps) you will, in most cases, need to recreate the script. This approach tremendously increases maintenance requirements of test automation framework and makes it very costly and many times more impractical. This inevitably forces many organizations to roll back to manual testing rather than supporting test automation.

The solution for this challenge is visual based object recognition technologies. Visual based object recognition is the future for test object recognition in the modern software application development and testing world. It contains algorithms built on OCR (object character recognition) and ICR (image character recognition). This type of algorithm is what the ZAP-fiX solution is based upon. Technology based on visual based object recognition allows testers to execute scripts cross-client and cross-platform. When talking about visual based object recognition technologies, it’s very important to understand the level of object recognition. The majority of them are driven through the tool’s built-in functionality rather than sets of API’s that can be prescribed in a singular line of code. Visual-based object recognition is more reliable in many cases depending on the complexity of its algorithms. When speaking about API vs. visual object recognition, test engineers should change their approach to automation and think of less complex techniques unlike programmatic description and custom object recognition functions. Using the built in functionality of tools reduces the complexity of scripts and lines of code per scripts which, at the end of the day, reduces their required maintenance and time spent on managing such test automation framework. Instead of depleting the company’s budget and causing the failure of testing projects, selection of the proper testing tool that allows cross-client and cross-platform automation with less scripting increases return investment from software test automation.

In conclusion, in order for us to successfully cover the modern requirements for software testing, we need to start building test automation technologies that support the newest features. Today, software has changed from a standard, single, Windows-based platform to multiple platforms, and we – as test automation professionals – need to start adapting to the world using the latest technology that offers the ability to switch between all of them. Visual object recognition is the future of test automation!

zapFARM Paves the Way for Cost-Efficient Mobile Device Testing!

Currently, the process of mobile test automation requires hosting of mobile devices under test. Modern solutions on the market offer hourly rental of devices – a costly option that has many downfalls. With the continuing rise of technology,  the majority of companies are starting to perform test automation for mobile testing. Most of the time, they don’t have a precise device strategy that may justify a return of investment from such services.  It is very difficult for a company to invest hundreds of thousand dollars solely for devices under test. ZAP Technologies offers a way out of this cycle but providing a solution to solve this problem in the form of zapFARM hosted services. zapFARM offers customers the ability to rent cost-efficient use of mobile devices under test dedicated to them. These devices are available any time anywhere the customer may need them.

zapFARM with ZAP-fiX offers the flexibility of the industry’s only Full Lifecycle Mobile Testing platform – on-site, customer managed, secure (ZAP-fiX) or Pay-As-You-Go, subscription, and low administration costs (zapFARM). ZAP has expanded our industry’s only Full Lifecycle Mobile Testing solutions and services to provide hosted device support on zapFARM. ZAP has already established itself as the most functionally expert, financially flexible portfolio of mobile testing products  and solutions that have become a key strategic platform for global commercial brands rapidly accelerating transformation and migration of key business applications to smartphones, tablets and other intelligent devices. ZAP’s family of emulators, viewers and real device testing tools extend and increase the investment value of HP’s market leading QuickTest Professional ALM suite by delivering transparency and compliance with existing installation, test scripts, administration and management reporting procedures – no new skills, no new education, no retraining of expensive personnel resources. Now zapFARM can completely eliminate the time, complexity and logistics of acquiring, maintaining, updating and adding to your mobile device inventory as your application platforms change or expand.  Where you have more flexibility, and less concern regarding local process management and security, zapFARM provides a hosted service subscription program that provides managed access to mobile devices located at our Atlanta-based hosting facility. ZAP provides the hardware and telecommunications facilities, manages logistics and inventory, and administers all aspects of your custom testing environment. You pay for the service when you require it, for as long as you need it, at a cost that makes sense to you.

Visit www.ZAP-TEST.com for more information about this solution!