Any software development process must include end-to-end testing to ensure product quality. But what is end-to-end testing, and how do you perform it?
End-to-end testing is a method that looks at the complete system from start to finish. In other words, it tests all system aspects to ensure it is working as expected.
If you’re new to end-to-end testing or want to brush up on your skills, this blog will show you everything you need to know. We’ll cover end-to-end testing, its importance, and how to create and execute test cases. So let’s get started!
What is end-to-end testing?
End-to-end testing is integral to the software development process, ensuring that all system components function together as expected. End-to-end testing (E2E) involves testing an application from start to finish, including all of its user interfaces, business logic, and APIs. This testing verifies that the system behaves as expected from the user’s perspective.
For example, suppose a website has a login page with user authentication functionality. In that case, E2E testers need to create test cases that indicate whether or not the login page functions correctly when the user provides valid credentials. Additionally, they would need to test for any errors that may occur if the credentials are invalid or missing.
The same holds for other scenarios, such as creating accounts and resetting passwords, ordering products from an online store, and making payments via a payment gateway. End-to-end testing aims to ensure that all processes in the system work smoothly and accurately when interacted with by the user.
It’s important to note that end-to-end testing should be done in multiple environments (development, staging, production) and with different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.) to uncover any compatibility issues that could arise in various settings.
Examples of End-to-End Testing
1. Testing the login functionality
This involves testing the entire flow from the user entering their credentials, validating them against a database, and redirecting the user to their dashboard.
2. Testing payment processing
This involves testing the entire payment flow, from selecting a product or service to entering payment information and confirming that the payment was successfully processed.
3. Testing user onboarding
This involves testing the entire onboarding process from signup to activation and ensuring all necessary steps are completed promptly.
4. User Interface Testing
This involves testing the user interface (UI) to ensure it is easy to navigate and use. This may include testing buttons, links, and other elements to ensure they all function as expected.
5. System Performance Testing
This involves testing the system’s performance when subjected to high levels of traffic or stress. Testers should check that the system can handle sudden traffic spikes and perform its functions effectively.
6. Security Testing
This involves testing the system’s security measures to ensure that confidential data is kept safe. Testers should check for potential vulnerabilities and ensure that the system has the appropriate security measures.
Why is end-to-end testing necessary?
1. Ensures that the entire system works as expected
End-to-end testing is crucial as it helps ensure that the entire system works as expected and reveals performance issues that may not be apparent from unit or component tests.
For example, imagine a simple system with a front-end web application and a back-end database. A unit test might check the web application’s add a new record to the database. An end-to-end test would also check the new record displayed on the web page. This comprehensive test is more likely to uncover issues than individual unit tests.
2. Allows release teams to automate the most critical user pathways
End-to-end testing is a valuable tool for release teams, as it allows them to automate the most critical user pathways and reduce the time to bring their product to market. End-to-end tests can identify potential issues that are difficult to detect in unit or integration tests by simulating fundamental user interactions with the system.
For example, a release team could create an automated test that checks for errors when users log into their accounts. This test would simulate the entire login process – from entering credentials in the login form to submitting the form and verifying the successful login message.
Similarly, an end-to-end test could also be used to check whether a payment transaction was successful by simulating the entire purchase process, from selecting items in a shopping cart to receiving confirmation of successful payment.
3. Decreases the time needed to test software
End-to-end testing helps reduce the time and cost associated with producing and maintaining high-quality software. When done correctly, end-to-end testing can help identify issues quickly and efficiently before they become significant problems. To illustrate this, let’s take a look at two examples.
The first example involves web applications. By performing end-to-end tests on web applications, developers can test functionality from the user’s perspective and ensure that all interactions work as expected in different browsers, operating systems, and devices. This type of testing helps developers find bugs early, which saves time and money on fixes later on down the line.
The second example involves mobile applications. End-to-end testing of mobile apps allows developers to verify features are functioning as expected across multiple devices and platforms. By running automated tests for each forum during development, developers can save time and money by ensuring the app works as intended in all environments. This reduces manual testing and identifies problems before reaching users.
4. Aids in reliably and predictably detecting issues
End-to-end testing verifies the system by validating all components from start to finish. It helps in reliably and predictably detecting any issues that arise throughout the entire process of the system, thus ensuring its quality and correctness.
For example, say an online store is being developed. End-to-end testing can validate data flow between the store’s website, payment processor, and inventory management systems. This ensures the accuracy of customer data entered on the site, successful payment transactions, and availability of items in stock.
Another example is when developing an application for managing medical records. End-to-end testing would ensure that patient data, such as test results, are correctly stored and retrieved when needed and verify proper authentication protocols for accessing sensitive information.
End-to-end testing provides a comprehensive approach to verifying a system’s functionality.
Creating End-to-End Test Cases
Building user functions, conditions, and test cases is essential to ensure a successful end-to-end testing process. This section will cover each of these aspects in detail with examples.
1. Build User Functions
The first step in end-to-end testing is identifying the functionality that needs testing. This includes identifying the user tasks, such as logging into an application, entering data into a form, or submitting an order. This step aims to define what needs to be tested and how it should be tested.
For example, if you are going to test a web application, you may want to build user functions such as `login,` `create an account,` `add items to the cart, and `checkout.` Other examples of functionality that may need testing include authentication systems, API calls, data processing workflows, search engine optimization (SEO), and mobile compatibility. All these areas should be verified for accuracy.
Another example is when testing an online payment system, it would be necessary to check that the user can navigate through the checkout flow and complete payment without any issues. Additionally, it’s essential to test if payment methods such as credit cards and PayPal are accepted and adequately processed.
It’s also essential to verify that all data is stored correctly in a database and accessible from other applications or websites. Testers can ensure that users have a seamless experience with their software by thoroughly verifying the different parts of the system.
2. Build Conditions
The second step is to define the conditions under which the user functions should be tested. This includes determining the input and output data and the scenarios that need to be tested to ensure that all aspects of the application are working correctly.
For example, before deploying the app, you may want to test the `login` function with valid and invalid credentials, different browsers and devices, or a combination of both. You may also want to test that the `add an item to cart functionality works when a user adds multiple items or adds an item with a discount applied.
3. Build Test Cases
The third step is to build test cases based on the user functions and conditions defined in the previous actions. This involves creating specific test cases that cover all scenarios identified in step two and ensuring that they are comprehensive enough to cover all possible outcomes.
For example, you may want to test that the `checkout` process works correctly when a user pays with different payment methods, such as a credit card or PayPal. You can also test that the delivery address is correctly saved and that the order history page reflects the correct information.
Building comprehensive test cases based on the functions and conditions established in the previous steps ensures that your end-to-end testing is thorough and effective. This will help you identify issues before they become significant problems for your users.
Ultimately, creating practical end-to-end tests requires careful planning and attention to detail. By following these three steps – building user functions, building conditions, and constructing test cases – you can create comprehensive test plans that will help you identify any issues with your system.
Tools Used for End-to-End Testing
1. LambdaTest
LambdaTest is a cloud-based, end-to-end testing platform that supports Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Puppeteer, and many other test suites. With LambdaTest, you can perform end-to-end testing on over 3000+ browser-OS combinations. You can also run tests on locally hosted or remote URLs and take advantage of features like screenshots and video recordings to debug your tests. In addition, LambdaTest provides integrations with popular CI/CD tools like Jenkins, CircleCI, and TravisCI, making it easy to set up automated testing pipelines.
LambdaTest offers many features, including dashboards to monitor parallel and flaky tests to meet the demands of developers who want to scale their end-to-end tests. Now they are taking the performance level one step further with their new HyperTest offering. With HyperTest, developers can specify the desired parallelism level, allowing them to distribute their test runs across multiple devices simultaneously. This results in shorter test times and more consistent performance.
2. Cypress
Cypress is a JavaScript-based front-end test automation tool. You can use it to debug your UI. Cypress is designed to make end-to-end testing more straightforward and faster. Cypress has a lot of features, including:
- A command line interface
- A graphical user interface
- An assertion library
- A mocking library
- A headless mode
With Cypress, you can write tests quickly and easily in JavaScript that will verify the functionality of your web application. It provides a powerful and intuitive command line interface that allows you to debug your UI without manually inspecting each element. Cypress also provides tools for mocking and stubbing requests, so you can create automated tests that are easy to maintain.
The benefits of using Cypress for end-to-end testing are numerous. It helps you detect bugs before they become major problems, allowing you to ensure your application is working as intended before releasing it into production.
3. Selenium WebDriver
This robust open-source framework enables users to write and run tests for web applications in various environments, such as Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Android.
The framework supports multiple programming languages, including Java, C#, Ruby, Python, and JavaScript. Selenium WebDriver also offers features such as cross-browser testing, parallel execution of tests on multiple devices and browsers simultaneously, and integration with other tools for reporting and test management. With its great features and capabilities, Selenium WebDriver is one of the most popular end-to-end testing tools used by testers today.
How to perform end-to-end testing on the LambdaTest Platform?
There are many different ways to perform end-to-end testing, but in general, it involves creating test cases that cover all aspects of the system under test. These test cases can be executed manually or automatically.
To perform end-to-end testing, testers need to understand how the application works and what its expected behavior should be. Once this has been established, testers can begin creating test scenarios and documenting expected results. They also need to create test cases that cover all possible scenarios and use techniques such as black box, white box, and integration testing to ensure everything is working correctly.
To perform end-to-end testing, testers should follow the steps outlined below:
1. Requirements Analysis
The first step is to analyze the application requirements and create test scenarios based on those requirements. This will help to ensure that all the necessary tests are covered.
2. System Configuration
Once the test scenarios have been created, testers must ensure that the system is configured correctly before beginning testing. This could involve setting up databases, web servers, or other dependent systems.
3. Test Execution
Testers can begin executing tests once the system has been configured. This could involve using automated tests or manual testing. Automated tests are much faster and more reliable than manual testing, so it is often preferred for end-to-end testing.
4. Test Results
After executing end-to-end tests, testers should analyze the results to ensure that all test cases were passed successfully. If any of the tests fail, testers should examine the cause and determine what corrective actions need to be taken to pass the tests. Additionally, it is essential for testers to document any issues identified during testing, as this will help improve future test cycles.
Getting Started With End-to-end Testing on LambdaTest
End-to-end testing can be performed on the LambdaTest Platform, a cloud-based platform for manual and automated web and mobile app testing. This section will explain how to perform end-to-end testing on the LambdaTest Platform.
1. Create an account on LambdaTest
Before performing end-to-end tests on the LambdaTest platform, you must first create an account. Once your account has been created on LambdaTest, you can set up your environment by selecting the operating system, browser, and device on which you would like to test. You may also choose multiple combinations of these items if necessary.
2. Write Your Tests
Once your environment is set up, the next step is to write your tests. The LambdaTest platform supports Selenium WebDriver tests, which can be written in various languages such as Java, C#, and Python. Once your tests are written, you can upload them to the platform for execution.
3. Execute Your Tests
Once your tests have been uploaded to the LambdaTest platform, you can execute them remotely on the cloud-based Selenium Grid. This grid consists of over 3000+ browsers, operating systems, and devices hosted across multiple data centers worldwide. You can also use the Screenshots API to capture screenshots of your application during test execution.
4. View Results
The LambdaTest Platform provides an intuitive user interface that allows you to view the results of your tests in real time. This includes detailed logs that provide information about each step of the test execution process, including any errors or failures that may have occurred. Additionally, you can generate reports based on test results which can be used for debugging and troubleshooting.
You can also use the automation tools available on LambdaTest to automate your tests. This will help save time and ensure that all scenarios are tested thoroughly. You can integrate with existing automation tools such as Selenium, Appium, and TestNG if you prefer.
By following these steps, you can quickly and accurately perform end-to-end testing on the LambdaTest platform quickly and accurately. This ensures that applications are fully functional and ready for launch!
Conclusion
In conclusion, performing end-to-end testing requires a thorough understanding of how the application works and creating test cases that cover every possible scenario. Additionally, it is essential to test in multiple environments and browsers to uncover potential issues.
