Automation Strategy - How to Automate on Web UI Table for the Data Displayed in Table

 

Use Case to Automate and a Problem Statement

I read the below question in The Test Tribe's Discord community server.  As I read, I realized, we all go through it when we think of automating a use case.  The credit of this question is to Avishek Behera.

Picture: Description of a use case to automate and a problem statement

Here is the copy-paste of the use case and problem statement posted by Avishek Behera:

Hello everyone, here is a use case I came across while having a discussion on automating it.

A webpage has a table containing different columns,let's say employees table with I'd, name, salary , date, etc

It also has pagination in UI, we can have 20 rows in one screen or navigate to next 20 records based on how many total records present,it could go about 10 + pages and so on....

Problem statement:

How to validate the data displayed in table are correctly displayed as per column header , also correct values like names, amount etc. Use case is to validate data.

The data comes from an underlying service, different endpoints basically.

Now it's not about automation but about right and faster approach to test this data.

What are different ways can we think of?

I know this is a basic scenario but since I was thinking of different possible solutions.

One way my friend suggested to use selenium, loop through tables ,get values ,assert with expected. Then it is time consuming, is it right approach just to validate data using selenium?

 These are the useful attributes of this question:

1. It had the preset of context and the context information to the reader
2. The availability of context information gave an idea of
• What would API look like
• The request and type
• The response and details
• The consumer of this API
3. It helped to imagine and visualize how the data would be interpreted by consumers to render
4. I get to see what Avishek is looking for in the said context

Interpreting the Use Case and Problem Statement

What it is?

• Looks like the consumer is a web UI interface
• Mention of Selenium library supports this interpretation
• The response has a data which is displayed in the table kind of web UI
• There can be no data to multiple rows of data displayed in the table
• Pagination is available for this result in the UI
• Is pagination available in the API request and response or not, this is not sure from the problem description
• 20 rows are shown on one page of a table
• The number of pages in the table can be more than one
• The response will have a filter flag
• I assume that data displayed in the table can be validated accordingly
• The response will have the data on the number of result pages
• This makes the result in a page to be of fixed length
• That is 20 results on each page and I cannot choose the number on the UI
• The response will have the offset or a value that tells the number of records displayed or/and returned in the response
• Is it a GET or POST request?
• This is not said in the problem description
• But from the way the problem is described, it looks like a GET request
• But should I assume that it is an HTTP request?
• I assume it for now!
• I assume the data is received in JSON format by the consumer
• I assume the data responded by the endpoint or the service, are sorted and returned
• The consumer need not process the response, sort, filter, and display
• If the consumer has to process the response, then filter, sort and display, 
• it would be a heavy operation on the client and the client-side automation for this use case

If it is other than an HTTP request, it should not matter much.  The underlying working and representation may remain something similar to HTTP requests and responses unless the data is transferred in binary format.

Automation Strategy for the Use Case

The key question I ask myself here is:

What is the expectation from automating this use case?

How I automate and where I automate is important but it comes later on answering the key question. The key is in knowing:

• What is the expectation by automating this use case? 
• What am I going to do from the outcome of this automation? 
• What if the outcome of the automation gives me False Positive information and feedback?

These questions help me to see:

• How should I weigh and prioritize the automation of this use case?
• How should I approach automating this use case to be close to precise and accurate with deterministic attributes?
• What and whose problem am I solving from automating this use case?

It gives me the lead to the idea of different approaches for automating the same; helps in picking the best for the context

That said, the use case shared by Avishek Behera is not a problem or a challenge with the Selenium library or any other similar libraries.  Also, it is not a problem or a challenge with libraries used in the automation of web requests and responses.

Challenges in the Problem Statement

I do not see any problem in automating the use case.  But there are challenges in approaching the automation of this use case.

On the web UI, if I automate on data returned, filtered, sorted, and displayed, it is a heavy task for automation.  Eventually, this is a very good candidate for soon to be a fragile test.  

Do the below said are the expectation from automation of the use case?

• To have a fragile test
• To have high code maintenance for this use case
• To do high rework in the automation when UI of the web change
• To complicate the deterministic attribute of this use case automation

If these are not the expectations, then picking an approach that has lower cost and maintenance is a need.

The challenges here are:

• It is an Automation Strategy and Approaching challenge
• It is a sampling challenge
• Yes, automation at its best is as well a sampling, not just the testing
• It is about having better data, state, and response which helps to have accuracy in the deterministic attributes of automation
• To know if it is a:
• true positive
• false positive
• true negative
• false negative
• an error
• not processable
• The layer where we want to automate
• The layers which we want to use together in automation, and how much
• Automate to what extent for having information and the confidence -- if this sampling works then most data should work in this context of a system?
• The availability of test data that helps me to evaluate faster and confidently

Let whatever the system have in the underhood that is GraphQL, gRPC, ReST API, or any other technology stack services, one has to work on -- how to make a request; go through the response, and analyze it in context.  Like testing depends on context, automation as well depends on context.  In fact, context drives testing and automation better when it is included.

My Approach to Automate this Use Case

I will not automate the functional flow of this use case entirely on the web UI.  My thought will be to have those tests which are more reliable and the result influencing and driving the decision.

This thought has nothing to do with the Test Automation Pyramid and its advocacy that is to have the minimal number of UI tests at the UI layer and much more at the integration (or service) layer.  I'm looking for what works best in the context and where to have the tests that give me information and feedback so I have the confidence to decide and act.

To start, I identify the below functional tests for the said use case:

1. Does the endpoint exist and serve?
2. Assuming it is HTTP,  I see what HTTP methods this endpoint serves?
3. What does the endpoint serve when it has no data to return?
• The different HTTP status code this endpoint is programmed to return and not programmed but still returns
4. What inputs (data, state, and event) does this endpoint need to return the data?
5. In what format and how the input is sent in the request?
6. In what format the response will be returned from the endpoint?
7. Is the response sorted and filtered by the endpoint?
8. How does the response look when there is no data available for any key?
9. What if certain keys and their value are not available in the response?  How does it impact the client when displaying the data in a table?
• For example,
• No filter data is returned or it is invalid to a consumer to process
• No sorted data is returned or it is invalid to a consumer to process
• No pagination data is returned or it is invalid to a consumer to process
• The contract mismatch between provider and consumer for data returned
• What the web UI shows in the table data
• Any locale or environment-specific data format and its conversion when the client consumes the data that is returned by the endpoint
• The data when sorted by consumer and provider differs
• The data is sorted on a state by the endpoint and that might change at any time when being consumed by the consumer
• Is it a one time response or a lazy loading
• If it is a lazy response, does the response have the key which tells the number of pages
• and more cases as we explore ...
10. and more tests as we explore ...

Should we automate all of these tests?  Maybe no per business needs.  Imagine the complexity it carries when automating all these tests at the UI level.  But there are a few cases that need to be automated at the UI level.  

Then, should we to look at the table rows on different pages to test in this automation?  No!  But we can sample and thereby we try to evaluate with as much as minimal data.  This highlights the importance and usefulness of the Test Data preparation and availability.  While, preparing the test data is a skill, the using of minimal test data to sample is also a skill.

API Layer Test

I have a straight case here for first.  That is to evaluate:

1. The key (table header) and its value are returned as expected
• Is it filtered? 
• If yes, is it filtered on key what I want?
• Is it sorted upon filtering?
• There is no null or no value for a key that needs to have a value in any case
• The data count (usually the JSON array object), that is the number of rows
• The page index and current offset value
• The number of result pages returned by the endpoint
2. Can I accomplish this with an API test? 
• Yes, I can and it will be efficient for the given context
3. I will have five to ten test data which will help me to know if the data is sorted and filtered
4. Another test will be to receive more than 10 rows and how these data look on filtered and sorted
• Especially in case of lazy loading
• I will try to evaluate the filtering and sorting with minimal data
• I will have my test data available for the same in the system

UPDATE: I missed this point so adding it as an update.  I'm exploring the Selenium 4 feature where I can use the dev toolbar and monitor the network.  If I can accomplish what I can and it is simple in the context, this will help.

UI Layer Test

I have a straight case here as well to evaluate in the given context:

1. I assume the provider and consumer abides by the contract
• If not then this is not an automation problem
• It is a culture and practice problem to address and fix
2. I assume the data returned data is sorted on the filter; the web UI just consume it to display
• If not, I will understand why the client is doing heavy work to filter and sort
• What makes it to be this way?
• You see, this is not an automation problem; it is a design challenge that can become a problem to product, not jot just for automation
3. Asserting the data in the web UI table:
• I will keep minimal data on the UI to assert that is not more than 4 or 5 rows
• These rows should have data that tells me the displayed order is sorted and filtered
• Let's call the above 1 and 2 as one test
• To evaluate pagination that is number of result pages, I will use the response of API and use the same on the web UI to assert
• Let's call the above another test that is the second test
• Again, the test data will be the key here
• To see if the pagination is interactive and navigatable on UI, I make an action to navigate for page number 'n'
• If it is lazy loading, I will have to think about how to test table refresh
• Mostly I will not assert for data
  
• In testing the endpoint, 
• I would have validated for the results returned and its length
• I will assert for number of rows in the table now
• Let's call it a third test
4. I will not do the data validations and its heavy assertions on the web UI unless I have no other way
• This is not a good approach to pick either
• One test will try to evaluate just one aspect and I do not club tests into one test

Note: The purpose of the test is not check if the web UI is loading the same rows in all pages.  If this is the purpose, then it will be another test and I will try to keep minimal assertion on the web UI.

The Parallel Learnings

If observed, the outcome of automation and its effectiveness is not just dependent and directly proportional to how we write automation.  It is also dependent on:

• The design of the system (& product)
• The environment and maintenance
• The test data and maintenance
• The way we sequence the tests to execute in automation
• Where and how we automate
• The person and team doing the automation
• The organization's thought process and vision for testing and automation
• The organization's expectation from testing and automation
• How, why, and what the people, organization, and customers understand for testing and automation
• Time and resources for testing and automation
• The automation strategy and approach
• More importantly, the system having and providing
• Testability
• Automatability
• Observability

Note: This is not the only way to approach the automation of this use case.  I shared the one which looks much better to the context.

The Automation Strategy Problem; Not a Appium Challenge

 

In The Test Tribe's forum, I read the post which described the problem as in the below paragraphs and picture.  On looking into it, I learned this can be made as a blog post that tells a strategy for automation.  

Maybe, 10 years back I would have asked the same question.  That's a learning curve.  Today as well, I end up in thinking for a while asking self -- how to test it and how to automate it.  

I want to share how this problem can be looked at from the perspective of testing and automation, and then approach it to automate.

 

Folks. I've two issues on Appium automation which needs your help. 

1. I'm working on a ecommerce website where a payment method is integrated (lets take the example as PhonePe). When i try to place the order in the mobile website with payment method as PhonePe, the payment method app will be opened and I've to complete the payment using it and I'm navigated back to the browser. Issue is - How can i switch context between the mobile browser and the app? I tried using driver.startActivity() but on performing any other actions, it errors out. 

2. Since i need to use the browser to place order and the payment using the payment app, I tried to set up the driver instance with browserName and app as the desired capabilities together. But on running the test, it errors out - browserName and app can't be used together. How can i approach this problem? Anyone who has automated such flows?

Apologies, i'm pretty new to Appium and so, please excuse my ignorance.

Picture: Problem Statement - Description of Scenario & Challenge

Understanding the Scenario and Functional Flow

I observe the below in the said scenario:

1. It is a website; it also has a mobile website
2. It has got a payment option integrated
3. The Appium's Desired Capabilities defined has browserName and the app
• borwserName -- name of the mobile web browser used in automation; it is an empty string if automating an app
• app -- the path of an app to be automated
4. When using a mobile website on a mobile device -- assuming it a mobile web app
• On selecting a payment app -- assuming it a native app
• The context changes to payment app UI
• On completing the payment, the context changes to the mobile website

Challenges Described in the Funtional Flow

I see these as challenges:

• How to handle this said scenario in automation using Appium?
• How to switch context between mobile browser and the mobile app?
• Using driver.startActivity(), it yields an error on performing any other actions
• On making any actions on UI after using the above said method, the error is observed
• Reading the description, it is said that the error is thrown when running the automation
• And, when changing the context back to mobile website from payment app

The driver.startActivity(), takes two arguments -- app's package name and activity to be started.  What's passed for the package name and activity name is not clear from the problem description.  

If the mobile browser is used to launch the mobile website and mimic the action, what is passed as app's package name and activity in driver.startActivity() ? This is not mentioned and unclear to me.

Also what is mentioned for the browserName and app in desired capabilities is not clear.

A Common Use Case

In recent years this is a common use case in a mobile native app having a web view and the websites that have payment transactions.  For example, in the native app when making payment, the web view of payment gateway that shows list of payment choices.  On successful payment, the view switches to native view from web view.

Questions on Reading the Problem Statement:

I have the below questions on reading the problem description:

1. Why did it throw the errors on any actions post calling the driver.startActivity()
• driver.startActivity() will start an Android activity using package name and the activity name
2. The context picked on switching from web view to native and then back to native, is not well picked?
• But it is a mobile website which means it is opened on a mobile browser, right?
• No where it is mentioned as a Hybird app i.e. the mobile website installed as an app
• Does this mobile website maintains its context when switching to a native app (payment app), and then changing the context to (web view) mobile browser?

This takes me to seek clarity for:

1. Is mobile website a installed Hybrid app? Or, is it a regular website which also has a mobile website and accessed on a mobile browser?
2. Is it possible to switch the context of web page from mobile web browser to native app, and vice versa?
• I need to explore it; I'm unsure of it
• When read the desired capabilities, it looks like this can be done
• That is context switching of mobile web browser to native app, and back to mobile browser from native app is possible
• I need to explore on the same to be very sure of it

Code Snippets for Context Switching

Refer to this page for details on using the Web view with Appium.  The below code snippets tell how to find the context of web and native views, and switching to it.

Snippet illustrating the change of context to Web view

Snippet illustrating the change of context to Native view

But, What's Actually the Problem?

If automated as described in problem statement, do we end up in a problem?  I see, yes we will end up in a problem:

1. Need to maintain our automation to make sure it executes the payment app UI anytime
• If the UI of the payment app changes, we need maintain the code
2. Do we have stage environment payment app in this case?
• If we test the mobile website in the stage and make transaction in production payment app,
• Can we continue as this in each test iterations?
• If yes, how long can we continue to use production payment app and pay?
• Will there by any transaction fee charged each time from payment app?
• Can this become a financial cost to the business and client or to stakeholders?
• What other cost should I bear for using this approach?

I need to know:

1. What is that I want to learn from the use case or scenario on automating it?
2. What would be the impact if the test did not help me to learn what I want to learn from automating this use case and scenario?
3. Should I be testing the payment app along with my app? 
• As I write UI automation to handle the web view of payment gateway and then the native payment app, it becomes part of this test.  Should I do that?
4. What information, risk and problem discovery I miss, if I do not automate the payment app flows?
• Is it okay for the business and product, if I miss any information here or if I do not test the flow in payment app?
• How to arrive at this decision?

The decision here need to be rational.  But, being rational alone may not help always.  Can I be reasonable here when I'm deciding or influencing stakeholders when deciding?

This is a Automation Strategy Problem!

If seen, for first this is not a Appium problem.  It is a problem with -- what to automate, how to automate, when to automate, how much to automate, and why automate.   That is, it is a problem with automation strategy on how to approach and execute it.

To me it is a problem to solve with approaching and execution of automation for payment transaction, and not a automation library usage and implementation problem.  

How can I Approach the Automation Here?

I will learn, should this payment scenario be automated on the UI layer for first?  If yes, why?  And, then I will have the below questions

1. Can I use the developer APIs of payment service to test and complete the transaction?
• If yes, then
• Can I use the stage APIs of payment to simulate the transaction flow and its completion?
• If I just use APIs, I will not know what's the functional experience of transactions in native payment app.  Is this okay?
2. I and the product I test, do not have control over the payment system and its apps
• When I have no control over it at any point in time, should I test it as part of my system?  If I did so, should my product as well include the probabilities and complexities of payment system?
• Having this information is good!
• But what can I do with that information?
• Do I have an authority to change or fix payment system with that information?
  
• If yes, good; if no, then the time and resource spent on this s a value return to my stakeholders and their business?
• It is wise to mention that I'm not including and testing the payment system and its transactions as a part of my system
• Because my system does not have a control over payment system in any means
3. If the API that is used for initiating transaction is functional and usable, then I do not have to worry technically from functional perspective of transactions
• We will have to work on -- if the payment initiating web view is functional on my native app and in my website or a mobile website
• From here the control of payment and any transaction problem that arises are in the realm of the payment system
4. In the test report
• I will include the stage payment API request and its response with data
• Talking to payment app organization, we may get the developer API access on stage to test our system on their stage
• Talk to payment app organization!
• Also we can mock the payment API to an extent and in the test report say this is a mock result
• If relied on mock, then we can miss the change in payment system
• I will have the mocking as last approach just to complete a business flow and it will not be my pick unless someone wants to see a business flow completion in a test
• Have a test that tell about functional and usable aspect of the payment page in -- a mobile website and the payment web view in native/hybrid app

Benefits of this Approach

1. I and my tests will have clarity what is in my control and what not
2. When I have control, the test and automation can be well maintained
3. The flaky areas can be identified; I can come to a decision to eliminate it from the automation or not
4. It helps to identify what is my problem and what is the problem that I don't own in terms of authority
5. With this approach, the tests and automation provides clarity when we uncover a risk or problem

While I know the benefits, I must also know the cost of having this approach.