The application development market is massively revolutionizing by integrating modern application development practices like automated tests. Automated testing has become the compulsory industry standard for ensuring a high standard of application testing practices. Current apps are complex entities that access various web elements simultaneously. The proper verification process for these applications is almost impossible with complete manual testing teams. On the other hand, automated testing can help developers efficiently conduct the testing process on these applications. While using test automation, the developers can also integrate different plugins and libraries to improve the efficiency of the testing process. Various test automation frameworks like Playwright, Selenium, and Cypress help the developers to conduct all the testing processes efficiently.
Continuous integration and delivery are critical in the modern application development pipeline. So, the developers must be aware of these testing practices to realize their test bench’s full potential. This article will look at some of the best test automation tools to help developers with continuous integration and delivery.
A Detailed Analysis of Automated Testing
Automation testing is a process of eliminating the need for human developers in the application development process. To create a detailed understanding of the CI/CD pipeline, the developers need to understand the general meaning of test automation. With automation testing practices, the system will use a predetermined test file for conducting similar test cases. This test file will consist of all the required data and parameters that the system will use to implicate human interaction with the web application. Based on this interaction, it will generate a report about the reliability of the application and whether it is ready for the real world. The developers can also make changes in the test file to make it suitable for the testing requirements. It is also possible to store and reuse files for future projects.
However, with automation testing, the developers have to bear a significant disadvantage that comes with it. This is because app companies must invest a lot of money while implementing test automation. These investments will cover the expenses for integrating various dependencies, plugins, and libraries for properly implementing the automation test bench. So we recommend all the app companies have a detailed look at the investments, business analysis, and future perspectives to understand whether they are ready for the transition.
Understanding the CI/CD Pipeline
We can easily define the CI/CD pipeline as one of the essential parts of modern agile methodologies. With this practice, application development companies can easily bridge the gap between the different teams in the app company. This means with this technique, a company’s development, testing, and business team can work in close coordination. Continuous integration and development also inform the non-technical teams about basic app development practices. The major advantage of this practice is that the business teams can properly relate to the application and understand its intended audience. On the other hand, the testing team can also customize the test cases accordingly. Various tools and platforms can help developers integrate continuous integration and development in their test bench.
These integrations also help the developers to improve the efficiency of the application testing process. This is because while using these additions, the developers can initiate and conduct the automation testing practices along with the development phase. Many experts believe that with this addition, the developers can reduce the application testing process to only a few days. Moreover, various test automation frameworks like Playwright provide native support for continuous integration. This means that while working with these tools, the developers do not have to depend on any third-party integration to start these practices.
Best Tools for Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery
Currently, multiple tools are readily available in the market that helps developers with continuous integration and delivery. However, the developers must understand that all the tools are unique and are meant for a specific use case. So, it is essential to understand your requirements and choose the right tool accordingly. To simplify this process, we have analyzed some of the famous names in the market. Based on our understanding, the most popular tools for continuous integration/continuous delivery are as follows:
1. Bitbucket Pipeline
We can define the Bitbucket pipeline as a modern continuous integration tool integrated into the cloud version of Bitbucket. Atlassian offers this platform. The major advantage of this tool is that the developers can easily implement continuous integration with these tools on app development projects already present over the Bitbucket cloud. This tool provides native support on all CI additions over the cloud system. This tool also offers native support for continuous delivery. This means that while using this tool, the developers can integrate the application testing process and deploy the final app to the production infrastructure. We’d also mention that it is possible to integrate the Bitbucket pipeline with other popular platforms like LambdaTest.
While defining LambdaTest, we can say that it is a popular online app testing platform that helps developers to introduce cross-browser testing on their web apps. Cross-browser testing has become the industry standard for ensuring the best performance in the modern generation. This is because, with this advanced testing process, the developers can stabilize the application’s performance irrespective of the user’s change in browser version, operating system, or the complete device specification. This platform also has advanced features like parallel test execution to initiate multiple test configurations simultaneously. LambdaTest can also import all the required automation test files from multiple well-known frameworks like Playwright, Selenium, and Cypress. While using LambdaTest, the developers can combine their app testing processes with various simulation software and hundreds of real devices.
One of the significant advantages of this platform is that it helps developers to perform cloud testing. Cloud testing is a modern app development process that allows developers to remove the headache of a physical device testing lab. This is because, with this form of testing, the developers can achieve similar test results while performing all the test cases over the Internet. This is a very appealing method for small companies and individual creators who cannot afford the expenses of an in-house lab.
2. Jenkins
Jenkins is one of the oldest tools to introduce continuous integration and delivery. It has a record of multiple satisfied customers who have been using it for several years. Jenkins also has a community of tech lovers who are always ready to help newcomers to this tool. With this tool, the developers can primarily focus on-premise installations. Therefore it is one of the best options for companies needing support handling multiple sensitive customers like HIPAA compliance data. This form of data is present mainly in sensitive applications that involve banking, e-Commerce, and health. Moreover, the open-source nature of this tool helps the developers to access all of its features without worrying about license costs. It also has a huge plugin ecosystem that allows the developers to seamlessly use them without any additional setup.
3. AWS CodePipeline
The word AWS signifies Amazon Web Services. It is one of the most well-known cloud infrastructures currently available in the application development market. It offers multiple services and tools for all infrastructure work and code development technologies. CodePipeline is another offering from AWS. It can directly link all the existing AWS tools to provide one of the most smooth AWS experiences to modern application developers and testers. The native support for all other AWS tools means that while working with their application, the developers can give native support to all the other tools without any third-party dependencies. The complete cloud infrastructure of this tool allows it to remove geolocation barriers from the application development process.
4. CircleCI
CircleCI is one of the most valuable offerings from GitHub. It is a popular version of the complete cloud hosting tool. This is also well known as one of the most flexible continuous integration tools that support a series of version control systems, delivery mechanisms, and container systems. While using this tool, the developers can host it on their site or perform all the operations over the cloud. This means that with this tool, the developers can initiate and execute continuous integration testing processes from anywhere around the globe. It also has various quick builds to optimize the performance of the application testing process. CircleCI also provides various analytics that helps the developers analyze the build’s performance and make the necessary changes.
5. Azure Pipelines
Azure is the cloud infrastructure platform offered by Microsoft. Azure is a Microsoft service that is equivalent to Amazon Web Services. The Azure pipeline provides a continuous integration tool wholly integrated within the Azure suite that consists of multiple tools. Moreover, the support of Microsoft means that the developers will not have any compatibility or update issues in the long run. It also has support for containers and the integration of GitHub. Since Microsoft develops this continuous integration tool, it has native support for the Windows operating system. It also has various other offerings that help the developers to improve the quality of the development and testing process. Microsoft also assures that Azure will continue to evolve as one of the most reliable CI/CD tools.
Conclusion
This article explained the importance of a smooth CI/CD pipeline and discussed some of the best tools to help developers in this process. In the present app market, developers need to understand the situation of automation testing practices. This is because this modern testing process will continue to gain more popularity with time. App developers should try every possible way to keep themselves involved in all the new additions, innovations, and integrations in the test automation field. In this area, app companies should also take critical steps to conduct seminars and spread the required information to testers and developers. The developing companies should also have the necessary knowledge about their target audience. Lastly, choosing the correct test automation tool to complement your application development practices is essential.
