Author: kristinjackvony

Fix All the Things

It’s very easy when you are rushing to complete features to let some bugs slide.  This article will show why in most cases it’s better to fix all the bugs now rather than later.  The following scenario is hypothetical, but is based on my experience as a tester.   NewTech Inc. is very excited about […]

The Trouble With Toggles

Some of you may have seen the classic Star Trek episode, “The Trouble with Tribbles”.  In the episode, Lt. Uhura gets a gift of a cute little ball of fur from a passing trader.  It’s a huge hit with the crew, and when the tribble has babies, everyone who wants one can enjoy these little […]

Designing a Complete Automation Suite

In my last two positions, I have been the sole Software Engineer in Test for a brand-new software platform.  This means that I have been able to set up an entire arsenal of automated tests for both the backend and the front-end.  This article will describe the suite of tools I used to test a […]

Organizing Java Integration Tests

In this post, I’ll be switching gears from discussing automated tests with Webdriver to discussing integration tests that are included as part of an application’s back-end Java code.  In my new Software Engineer in Test position, I have been writing integration tests to test every API call we have.  This means that I have dozens […]

Understanding the DOM

In order to find and use web elements using By.cssSelector or By.xpath, it is very helpful to understand the DOM.  The DOM (Document Object Model) is simply the interface that is used to interact with HTML and XML documents.  When a JavaScript program manipulates elements on a page, it finds them using the DOM.  If […]

Finding an Element With Webdriver- Part I

The most useful method of Webdriver is the findElement() method.  It can also be the most frustrating:  you can see the element you want on your webpage, but it’s often difficult to figure out how to tell Webdriver to find it! There are many different ways to find an element with findElement(): By.idBy.classNameBy.nameBy.linkTextBy.partialLinkTextBy.tagNameBy.cssSelectorBy.xpath I will […]

Installing Webdriver

Webdriver is an API that enables testers to find and use web elements in their automated tests.  To get set up, you will need to find out what the latest version of Webdriver is.  Navigate to this link:  http://docs.seleniumhq.org/download and in the section called Selenium Client and Webdriver Language Bindings, find the Java entry and […]