Automated Unit Testing of Web Applications
APEX, N.C., July 10, 2007 (ERN)- Desiderata has released a new upgrade for its Jaxcent software. Jaxcent is a Java API for Internet Explorer that provides browser automation and AJAX style programming in Java alone, without any JavaScript.
Version 1.1 of Jaxcent includes additional features that also make it very convenient to use unit testing harnesses for testing the actual behavior of applications in a browser, by simulating user actions and making automated user responses.
Among the new features of Jaxcent is the ability to detect JavaScript error messages. This can be used to check that a web page posts the correct error messages for various kinds of erroneous entries that can be made on forms. Jaxcent can be used to automatically retrieve the error message text and close the message boxes, so the automated testing can continue.
Even if the data entered on the web page is correct, the processing of the data may discover further problems. For instance, if a user selects a new username but the username is already in use, this can only be discovered after further processing.
Unit testing with Jaxcent can also verify that such (non-Javascript) errors are being captured and a message is being shown in HTML.
Finally, if the data is correct, the resulting web page can be checked to verify that the new data was entered in the system correctly.
With Jaxcent, all this can be done entirely automatically, from starting an instance of the browser, running tests, dismissing dialog boxes, checking results, to closing the instance of the browser.
With this new release, Desiderata believes Jaxcent can be of great value to programming groups that believe in running frequent automated tests.
The new release also adds an AjaxFramework class to simplify Ajax style programming using Jaxcent, and has features for improved automated browsing.
Jaxcent is available for free evaluation, from http://www.jaxcent.com/