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Connecting your Back-End and Front-End Functional Testing

August 17, 2020 By Gareth Goh Leave a Comment

Many SmartBear testers who use SoapUI Pro to tackle their automated API functional testing know the importance of end-to-end testing of the entire back-end. Making sure those critical web services like REST, GraphQL APIs, and others are functioning is why testers use SoapUI Pro to create, run, and analyze complex tests. Creating comprehensive end-to-end tests is the best way to validate the entire workflow of your APIs from either an API definition or live endpoints. With those tests, the back-end of your web services are able to flow and function smoothly. 

Soap functional testers are adept at creating, running complex functional tests and finding bugs with APIs. Most APIs are consumed by other services and in a large number of cases by UI layers in web, mobile and desktop apps.

The functionality of APIs can be validated by exercising the APIs or the services that call them. An alternate or truer mechanism can be the exercising of the application workflows as end users do using the UI layers of the web, mobile and desktop apps. These end-end workflow tests when created and tested have the dual advantage of testing the UI layers and also testing the APIs that serve them underneath.

But what about the front-end?

As organizations are shifting left, becoming leaner and becoming more agile in an effort to delivery software faster with unsurpassed quality, functional testers are being tasked with testing the API layers and the UI layers. Additionally, the shift left movement means that API endpoints are being tested by more than just QA or SDETs, which benefits the final product. Revealing or discovering issues earlier in the process makes it easier and much less expensive for the team to resolve.

This is particularly true in smaller, fast moving teams and organizations and in instances where an older application has been retrofitted with a new services layer in an effort to support digital transformation.

Increasingly, we are seeing that API testers are becoming responsible for not just making sure the back-end of web services works correctly, but that the front-end looks and functions well too. Mobile and web testers are now tasked with tackling the entire functional testing lifecycle and getting more of that API experience. 

When that test automation engineer is writing a test script for the frontend, ideally they are also keeping the backend in mind and writing a test script that matches up as well. 

In a number of instances, especially for web apps and native mobile apps. Testers who are charged with testing both the UI and API layers have a few choices.

  1. Test the API layers and then test the UI which will also test the API’s
  2. Test the UI which will indirectly test the API layers
  3. Find a set of complementary tools that allow the use of an API functional test alongside a UI functional test tool. This has some overlap but it ensures that all use cases including edge cases are covered effectively

To that end, those testers need testing tools that play well together and are able to communicate in sync. More and more, we’re seeing SoapUI Pro users ask and using CrossBrowserTesting to test their web apps, as well as BitBar for their mobile app testing – both of which have API’s which are being tested using SoapUI

By further connecting your back-end and front-end functional testing, API testing should also fit neatly into your continuous delivery/continuous integration (CI/CD) pipeline. SoapUI Pro and both CrossBrowserTesting and BitBar are designed for test automation and for those automated tests to fit seamlessly into your DevOps or Agile development workflow. 

Diagnosis of problems will also be quicker and smoother with the UI test driving the front end which in turn drives the APIs. Some visual bugs could be the result of bad code on the frontend or the API having an issue pinging the database the showcase the correct visual. Without this exercise of using the application workflow, the backend test automation test may not have catch issues that the front end testing does. The test automation engineer working on both parts will know that. 

Whether you’re an API tester looking to branch into the front-end of your website, or a UI/UX designer looking to learn more about how APIs work on the back-end, SmartBear tools are designed to help you get there and manage that process more efficiently.

Learn more about SmartBear tools to test your front-end by signing up for CrossBrowserTesting & BitBar FREE trials!

Filed Under: Test Automation Tagged With: automated testing, back-end testing, front-end testing, SmartBear

SmartBear Named a Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Software Test Automation

January 8, 2019 By Alex McPeak Leave a Comment

gartner test automation smartbear

SmartBear was named a Leader in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Software Test Automation. Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, has recognized SmartBear for the fourth consecutive year, with this being the first as a Leader.

Amidst emerging trends in DevOps and Agile Development, SmartBear has solidified its commitment to accelerate delivery by enabling continuous testing, making it a key player in this space.

SmartBear has encouraged teams to adopt intelligent automation practices across the entire software delivery lifecycle, providing a portfolio of tools to easily design, test, and monitor at both the API and UI layer such as TestComplete, TestLeft, Hiptest, ReadyAPI, and CrossBrowserTesting.

CrossBrowserTesting is proud to be part of SmartBear since being acquired in 2016. The CrossBrowserTesting provides the ability to run Selenium- and Appium-based tests across over 1500 real desktop and mobile devices in the cloud. Additionally, capabilities for record and replay, remote interactive testing and debugging, and visual testing in CrossBrowserTesting make it an asset to teams are practicing both manual and automated testing.

The strong support for open source communities like Selenium in CrossBrowserTesting as well as the OpenAPI Initiative, Swagger, and SoapUI has further propelled the success of SmartBear. By contributing to these initiatives, SmartBear has a crucial hand in the open source tools that are used by thousands of software teams every day.

Additionally, new offerings over the last year have broadened the portfolio and enabled SmartBear to lead the test automation market. With the acquisitions of Zephyr for test management and Hiptest for continuous testing with native BDD support, as well as the development of LoadNinja, SmartBear is innovating at an unparalleled speed.

“We’re proud to be recognized by Gartner as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant,” said Christian Wright, Chief Product Officer and Executive GM at SmartBear. “We believe our Leader position reaffirms our vision of enabling quality throughout the software development lifecycle through a comprehensive test automation portfolio. We see Gartner’s recognition reflects the excellent feedback we receive from our vast customer base and our teams’ ability to deliver open, collaborative, and easy-to-use tools to our users.”

To access a complimentary copy of the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Software Test Automation, visit https://smartbear.com/resources/white-papers/gartner-magic-quadrant-2018/.


Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Software Test Automation, Joachim Herschmann, Thomas Murphy, Jim Scheibmeir, 27 November 2018

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from [insert client name or reprint URL].

Filed Under: Test Automation Tagged With: gartner, open source, SmartBear, test automation

Make Your Voice Heard in the 2018 State of Testing Survey

July 24, 2018 By Alex McPeak Leave a Comment

SmartBear State of Testing Survey 2018

SmartBear’s State of Testing Survey has commenced for 2018, and we can’t wait to hear from our valued community.

The purpose of this survey is to get an benchmark of common practices, emerging trends, and future predictions in the software testing industry. And, it only takes about 15 minutes of your time to complete.

Over 3,400 respondents took part in last year’s survey. We’re hoping this year brings even more participants to give us deeper insights, but we can’t do it without your help.

As a thank you, we will be giving away $100 Amazon Gift Cards to five lucky survey respondents!

To qualify to win, you must complete all of the questions and provide your contact information at the end of the survey by 11:59 PM PST on Tuesday, July 31st.

The results will be analyzed and turned into our annual ‘State of Testing’ report. All respondents who complete the survey will receive a copy of the final results if they are interested.

Some of the highlights included observations on browser testing, mobile testing, parallel and cloud testing, as well as other takeaways surrounding Agile and automation. Additionally, we received some feedback on the top challenges testers face in their day-to-day.

To see what it’s all about, you can check out the full State of Testing 2017 Industry Report.

Make your voice heard — take SmartBear’s 2018 State of Testing Survey here.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: SmartBear, software testing, state of testing, survey

Here’s What CrossBrowserTesting Customers Can Look Forward to at #SBConnect18

July 17, 2018 By Alex McPeak Leave a Comment

smartbear connect 2018 crossbrowsertesting customers

smartbear connect 2018 crossbrowsertesting customers

Hey there CrossBrowserTesting customers!

We’re all getting ready for SmartBear Connect, and while October 29 might seem far away, it’ll be here before you know it.

That’s why we want you to get just as excited as we all are to join us for two days of learning, mingling, and growing with the rest of SmartBear community and staff.

SmartBear Connect will bring together the world’s testing, development, and technology communities for two days of training workshops, best practice sessions, and visionary content in addition to some really great speakers that will provide their own unique insights as customers and industry experts. If you went last year,

We’re going to have classes specifically for CrossBrowserTesting customers again this year! CrossBrowserTesting Software Engineers Chase Cook and Sree Vallabhaneni will be giving a CrossBrowserTesting 101 as well as a session about Integrating Selenium Tests with CI/CD Deployment and Reporting.

The former will be an introductory class for getting started with CrossBrowserTesting, while the latter will cover automated testing combined with the most popular tool for continuous integration, Jenkins, and will show how to do this both quickly with accurate reporting to help make your overall testing process more efficient.

So whether you’ve just started onboarding with CrossBrowserTesting or have been with us for years, there’s something for all of our customers at this year’s SmartBear Connect.

Get your ticket today to download the event app and start putting your schedule together. We can’t wait to meet you in October!

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: crossbrowsertesting, customer, SmartBear, SmartBear Connect

Expert Insight: Why Testing Matters

December 11, 2017 By Alex McPeak Leave a Comment

Why software testing matters fails mistakes stock image

Why software testing matters fails mistakes stock image

SmartBear recently asked you to consider “Why Testing Matters”. From Apple’s iOS11 autocorrect failure to a revealing Facebook bug, there are plenty of everyday examples that pop-up to prove why software testing matters.

Whether it’s a loss in revenue, a hit to your company’s reputation, or even an oversight that could put your users in danger, businesses have a lot to lose by leaving their software untested.

In thinking about #WhyTestingMatters, we asked a few industry professionals to add their two cents from an insider’s perspective. Here’s what they had to say.

On What Happens Without Enough Testing:

“Early in my career, I worked on a product that used multiple data points to make predictions about how much traffic a store could expect. Because the product used multiple data points, it was important for each data point to deliver correct information.

At one juncture, our customers said that their video capture data was returning different numbers than our reports. Upon first glance, our numbers were not different than reported numbers. I dug deeper. There were discrepancies in the videos capture that were not reflected in the software. By watching hours of videos, I identified what was happening, and brought samples to the engineering team.

In this case, testing and following my hunch resulted in replacing our third-party vendor, which resulted in more accurate video capture data. Ultimately, my tests resulted in more accurate data, which tightened up the prediction engine. Fortunately, we were able to catch and address this issue in testing, but it might have been a different story if the company had inaccurate traffic predictions around the holidays.”

-Jess Ingrassellino, Senior Technical Staff in QA at Salesforce, JessIngrassellino.com and on Twitter as @jess_ingrass

“The team developing a new European Union shopping cart found out quickly that the VAT tax test server was flaky. But was that the cause of the one-cent discrepancy between the estimated and actual price that randomly appeared? Everyone on the team thought so. I wasn’t sure.

Taking my Selenium script that placed an EU order, I looped it twenty times, collecting data all the while. It had a failure rate of 40 – 60%. After showing the metrics gathered to the new developer assigned to the EU cart, he checked his code. It turned out he had made a rounding error calculating the estimated and actual tax differently.

Does something not feel right? Don’t just go with a hunch or a gut feeling. Make sure to do the legwork required.”

-T.J. Maher, Senior QA Engineer and Ministry of Testing Boston Organizer, Adventures in Automation and on Twitter as @tjmaher1

“Testing doesn’t matter. Not always. But it does matter when your favorite app doesn’t work, or your financial transaction fails to process for you! There is an old saying ‘if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it really make a noise’. The same applies to testing. Testing needs a purpose.

We never realize the power of autocorrect until something as simple as the word ‘It’ is autocorrected to ‘I.T.’ in the latest version of iOS. Therefore, I.T. matters to that person using their phone and appearing to say the wrong things! Testing is important when we need to communicate correctly!

So many times, even the simplest of defects can cause the most grief to us. The first time you find yourself trying to use a product that simply does not work as expected, you too will realize that testing does matter.”

-Mike Lyles, QA Director at MikeWLyles.com and on Twitter @mikelyles

“#WhyTestingMatters It matters because when you are designing a system for a ‘US agency’ for missile positioning, you don’t want that software released without proper and extra testing. I wish I could say more… Go TestComplete and thank you for saving my butt.”

-Lino Tadros, President and CEO of Falafel Software, linotadros.com and on Twitter @linotadros

On Why Software Testing Matters:

“There are so many factors that contribute to software being ‘of quality‘ that typically you have only the resources to make a few stand out. Those that are emphasized become part of your brand. You wouldn’t want your brand to become infamous for a faulty decision that could have been prevented by smarter testing, would you?

Testing can be a trusted advisor to help the business make informed decisions around quality – like when to release. In other words: Testing matters because quality keeps customers coming back for more.”

-Trevor Atkins, Principal Consultant at ThinkTesting.com and on Twitter @thinktesting

“Why does testing matter? Would we be asked why development matters? Or why design matters? Or why management of any kind matters? Why accounting processes matter? Would we assign any of these other tasks to someone who hasn’t studied their role? Why do we and others often think so low of testing? Why do people think that anyone can understand the complexity of software and find the problems that matter? How long are people going to continue kidding themselves that they can save a few bucks by hiring people on the cheap that really don’t know what they are doing?

Testing matters because software is complex. Increasingly complex as the technology connects and integrates with so many other mind-boggling ‘things’.

Testing matters because humans are complex and fallible. No matter how hard a team will try, mistakes will happen. Good testing increases the chance of stopping them get through.

Testing matters because the software experience is crucial to a business’s success. Who else will go through the effort of getting to know your software inside out?

Testing matters because bugs will exist, like it or not, and whilst in theory any can find a bug, testers are the ones that will have the time and knowledge to help you have the confidence to release.”

-Rosie Sherry, Ministry of Testing Founder and BossBoss, on Twitter at @ministryoftest and @rosiesherry

Why does testing matter to you? Leave your thoughts in the comments or tweet it out!

Filed Under: Test Automation Tagged With: SmartBear, software quality, why testing matters

Time to Get Excited About SmartBear Connect

July 6, 2017 By Alex McPeak Leave a Comment

SmartBear Connect 2017 CrossBrowserTesting

SmartBear Connect 2017 CrossBrowserTesting

SmartBear is excited to be hosting the first-ever SmartBear Connect user conference September 12 – 13, 2017 in Boston. As we work to bring together a robust and global community of development, testing, and technology enthusiasts, we want to make sure we have something to offer for every attendee — this means you, CrossBrowserTesting customers.

We’ll have a dedicated track for discussing all things CrossBrowserTesting where you’ll have the chance to learn new testing strategies, mingle with the SmartBear team, and network with other CrossBrowserTesting users and industry professionals. Additionally, you’ll be able to participate in

  • Interactive product training classes
  • Sessions on the latest trends in Selenium, parallel testing, exploratory testing, and more
  • Unique insights and stories from CrossBrowserTesting customer

There will be two jam-packed days for discussing best practices and actionable insights to bring back with you. The team has been busy building the agendas for SmartBear Connect, and we wanted to share the schedule for the CrossBrowserTesting track on Day One.

Day One – Product Training Workshops & Certification

CrossBrowserTesting Speaker: Daniel Giordano

7:30 – 9:00 Registration / Breakfast
9:00 – 9:15 Welcome to SmartBear Connect 2017- Justin Teague, CEO, SmartBear
9:15 – 9:45 Welcome to CrossBrowserTesting
9:45 – 10:00 Break I
10:00 – 11:00 Exploratory Testing
11:00 – 12:00 Introduction to Selenium
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 2:00 Debugging Javascript in Browsers
2:00 – 3:00 Running Selenium in the Cloud
3:00 – 3:30 Break II
3:30 – 4:30 Running Tests in Parallel
4:30 – 5:30 Best Practices for CrossBrowserTesting
5:30 – 7:00 Welcome Party & Customer Awards

Day Two – Insights from Customers & Industry Experts

Day two will feature unique insights from customers and industry experts. SmartBear Connect will offer three tracks – API Design, API Quality, and Software Testing. CrossBrowserTesting customers are encouraged to jump from various tracks but will most likely enjoy the sessions included in the Software Quality track. Day two will conclude with a “SmartBear Product Presentations, Best Practices, and Road Map ” session from CTO and creator of SoapUI, Ole Lensmar. To learn more about what’s happening during the other sessions, you can check out the full schedule here.

7:00 – 8:15 Breakfast
8:15 – 8:30 “Welcome to Day Two of SmartBear Connect” – Bryan Semple, CMO, SmartBear
8:30 – 9:30 Keynote – To Be Announced
9:30 – 10:15 “Lessons Learned: The Challenges and Successes of Integrating Automated Testing into Existing Development Projects” – Robert Martin, QA Engineer, Select Medical
10:15 – 11:00 Bank of America Customer Presentation
11:00 – 11:15 Break I
11:15 – 12:00 Panel “Automation Frameworks with TestComplete.” Everyone has their own style when it comes to building a Test Automation Framework. In this panel, TestComplete customers will discuss their own best practices when building a good automation framework.
12:00 – 12:45 “Why, When, What & How To Automate” – Carson Underwood, QA Automation Engineer  at O’Reilly Auto Parts
12:45 – 1:30 Lunch
1:30 – 2:15 “Moving From HP ALM to SmartBear QAComplete – Why and How” – Andy Lachapelle & Rich Meskill from  a Large Sports and Entertainment media company
2:15 – 3:00 “Doing the Impossible: Implementing new Test Complete Framework for Windows Application” – Reginald Moore, Manager, Software QA, LifeWatch Services, Inc
3:00 – 3:30 Break II
3:30 – 5:00 “SmartBear Product Presentations, Best Practices, and Road Map” – Ole Lensmar,

CTO and Creator of SoapUI, SmartBear

If you’re already registered for SmartBear Connect, we anticipate meeting you in September! If you haven’t bought your ticket yet, there’s still time for you to convince your boss to send you to this can’t-miss opportunity to learn everything there is to know from industry experts, CrossBrowserTesting users, and the rest of the SmartBear community.

SmartBear Connect 2017 user conference CrossBrowserTesting

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: conference, SmartBear, testing, training

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