What is the single best open source automation tool for functional web testing

Question

I wanted to check out a new open source tool for automated testing of a website. I prefer multi-browser support, even multi-platform.

Answer 1

Watir is probably what you're looking for.

Answer 2

Selenium is a very good open source automated testing tool for websites. It can drive different web browers on different platforms, and tests can be written in a number of different languages. It also has a component called Selenium IDE, which is a Firefox extension that lets you create tests by actually driving the web browser, which is good for user acceptance tests.

Answer 3

I agree with Ycros. I tried Selenium before on Firefox and it gives great results. Its also very user friendly and easy to work with. I think is is little difficult to set up with IE though

Answer 4

Thanks for the question and for Ycros' answer. I described installation and test case generation in my blog.

Answer 5

The question is a little subjective, especially given that there are quite a few open source web testing tools available. Your decision could be influenced by factors such as your current development environment and language proficiencies. So in addition to those already mentioned WatiN is worthy of consideration if you are a .NET shop.

Answer 6

I've been googling for a comparison between various such tools and found the following links. They may be useful to you as well.

http://www.infoq.com/news/2007/11/canoo-webtest-selenium-testing

http://www.stpmag.com/issues/stp-2007-11.pdf

http://mguillem.wordpress.com/2007/10/29/webtest-vs-selenium-webtest-wins-13-5/ (recommend this one since it compares based on some tangible parameters)

www.denverjug.org/meetings/files/200501_WebTierTesting.pdf

My own views: I've used Canoo and thought it was excellent but its usage will require some familiarity with XML. Also, it doesn't support recording as Selenium does.

Answer 7

Another, very easy to use, alternative is iMAcros https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3863

Answer 8

If you are on the Java stack, JWebUnit is a very good choice IMO. It is written in Java, which makes it easy to reuse parts (login, logout, check for application error messages). You can also run multiple testers, which allows for tests of concurrent changes.

I'm currently using it with the HtmlUnit engine as part of my builds on the continuous integration server. It can also drive Selenium for in-browser testing, but I haven't tried that.

Prior to that I have used Canoo Webtest, but we found that it didn't scale too well. Writing reusable parts in XML was just too painful. The Groovy flavour might be better, but that wasn't around back then.