Autumn is just around the corner, and with that the warm winds leave the Northern Hemisphere. Hopefully, if you’re from the Southern Hemisphere, you’re gearing up for the summer heat already! And hopefully, if you’re a tester, you’re thinking about gearing up for better and more efficient testing strategies! Today on this Feature Friday, we are joined by Daniel and Amy who are going to talk to us more about our exciting new feature, Test Data Management!
Tell us more about Test Data Management offered by Qyrus and its use cases.
Dan: Well, Test Data Management is a feature that manages your test data in one place. It helps eliminate the tedious steps of importing data from external sources like an Excel file. It also has an added benefit of allowing users to synthetically generate data within the Test Data Management system itself for usage during runtime.
Amy: So, when you import data from a database, you need only to establish a connection one time. Afterwards, Test Data Management will retrieve the data anytime a test is run that uses that data. Furthermore, you can even grab data from an API call for usage during runtime, as well.
Interesting… it seems like a tool that can cover a lot of use cases under one umbrella. This must mean it has a significant impact on testing processes throughout.
What is this feature’s overall impact on the testing process?
Dan: The areas in which we see the largest impact would probably by test building and execution. It has a direct benefit in terms of test coverage, allowing users to quickly build tests that use data dynamically and during runtime.
Amy: Instead of having to incorporate some 3rd party tools to generate data, it’s all done from our Test Data Management system. Connections to databases and pulling data from API calls during runtime helps enhance the testing capabilities that Qyrus already provides to its users.
Fragmented environments are the worst. They cause problems and if no problems exist today they will months or a couple years down the line. The ability for users to have a centralized system to handle all of their needs is important. How might other users, besides testers, utilize this feature?
How might Test Data Management help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can this feature bring?
Amy: Well, a tester would utilize this feature heavily. Again, it has a large impact on the test building and execution process, and would empower testers to manage their test data more efficiently. This also helps in terms of maintenance from their perspective.
Dan: And developers can use the Test Data Management system to generate synthetic data to quickly build sample tests or unit tests even. This could help them then catch bugs before it even makes it to the testing phase.
Amy: And the cool thing about the system is that it can generate data similar to what you provide to it. So, in that aspect, a business technologist could provide a sample set of data and use the tool to expand that sample set.
So, with it being useful for a wide arrange of users and personas, we might see this making waves in the ebb and flow of normal business operations. Let’s learn more!
How do you see using Test Data Management impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?
Amy: Well, it helps increase test coverage at a faster pace, so day-to-day operations might be sped up to a degree. Data imports are faster, and AI is utilized to help generate sample data. All of these help speed up the testing process.
Dan: On top of that, from a maintenance standpoint, it all becomes manageable from one spot. It’s super easy to take care of. Connect to your database once, and never worry about it again.
Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?
Dan: From a competitor standpoint, not everything is integrated and combined in one place like we have in our Test Data Management system. From being able to connect and import data from databases, API calls, and synthetically generate similar data, we have it all in one spot.
Amy: And before Qyrus, testers would have to have studied and built up a large amount of coding knowledge. That’s if they want to replicate it from the ground up. However, they could use a fragmented suite of tools to help achieve the same functionality.
Enjoy the last remnants of summer while you can! Before it gets chilly up here for us northern folk, we’re out to enjoy one last hurrah before the bell tolls, signifying the end of our summer. We hope you learned a lot about our Test Data Management system and how it can bring value to a tester’s day-to-day life. Hopefully we’ve convinced you to give Qyrus out a try. Until next time, thanks for joining us for this Feature Friday!
Over the years, we have seen many examples of large ecosystems and species harmed by changes in predator and prey relationships caused by natural selection.
Is it so naive to say today’s technological era is accustomed to rules that may not be so different? The consumer chose movement and reach, and thus laptops rendered towers and workstations near obsolete.
The Kindle Fire as a primary reading utensil was dominated by Surface Pros, iPads, and other powerful hybrid devices which have since transitioned into handheld mobile devices with hundreds of gigabytes of memory and multi-core processors capable of running laptop-equivalent functionality.
This continual necessity for simpler and more practical technology has led to an influx of devices running on an array of differing operating systems connecting to multiple browser versions amongst more.
The options seem limitless and, often, overwhelming for those who aim to create or maintain applications of any caliber.
When looking at these challenges in business processes, it’s important to ensure that the software works well on different browsers, devices, and operating systems. This might mean using a device farm.
What is a Device Farm?
Device farms are dedicated hosting locations for a multitude of devices, used for testing application functionality in real-time.
But, with industry leading names like Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, and Uber topping the list of companies with the highest percentages of personal data collected, it can be daunting choosing a platform or provider for your entire business’ devices and testing with the confidence that your data is secure.
Qyrus’ dedicated, cloud-based mobile device farm utilizes three prominent business fundamentals: power, performance, and privacy to maximize all facets of testing.
What Makes Qyrus’ Device Farm Different?
The Qyrus device farm is one of the prominent AWS device farm alternatives. It contains a multitude of different tablets and mobile devices to use for device farm testing including but not limited to iPads, various Android tablets, iPhones, and a multitude of Android-based mobile devices with device customizations available to fit specific client needs.
Alongside this, with the addition of parallel testing features, Qyrus allows multiple tests to be executed on multiple devices and operating systems simultaneously. The versatility provided by an option pool covering all facets of devices and testing synergized by the efficiency of parallel test execution comprise the power of the Qyrus platform, a platform that welcomes unique testing challenges.
The Qyrus device farm goes even a step further. With performance profiling metrics, further understand the application being tested. Learn how the app affects battery consumption, CPU and memory usage, and other device vitals. Screenshots can be captured during a session for reporting and device logs are also available for further debugging.
Qyrus’ device farm was built on a business centric interface that allows a user the freedom to connect and test from any device, in any location, and at any given time, within clicks. Emergencies are eminent and business never sleeps, therefore, your testing solution shouldn’t either.
Run suites of tests through the night using Qyrus’ scheduled run feature and wake up to a confirmation that your applications are properly functional. Furthermore, with a detailed and easily sharable analytics and reports tab, being in touch with your past and present business processes has never been easier.
Twenty-four seven coverage and testing capabilities with full scale reports and analytics, accessible from any location, built for a collaborative mentality, Qyrus specializes in increasing efficiency throughout all testing-based business, and development processes.
Qyrus’ device farm goes a step further in capturing useful data and metrics. With performance profiling metrics and
Qyrus Takes Your Data Security Very Seriously
Data security is becoming necessary at an alarming rate. As technology becomes more prevalent, the same can be said about cyber-attacks and data theft. Qyrus leverages private instances with each of their clients to allow maximum security through testing processes.
That’s to say, regardless of whether you are sharing, or have private devices, your instance of Qyrus and all company-related data hosted, by, or on Qyrus is private to you, and inaccessible by any other Qyrus users.
Qyrus also allows clients the option to essentially build their own device farm, providing private devices, instances, and specifications as required for optimal security.
Furthermore, Qyrus is empowered with many security features including single-sign-on options, and security testing features such as web token implementation and testing, alongside certificate-based authentication within API testing to ensure your web apps, mobile apps, and API’s are stable and secure.
As a recently certified SOC level II compliant company, Qyrus excels at all five pillars of the certification standard including security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy, standardizing a level of credibility and professionalism throughout client and business interactions.
Maximum coverage is the obvious combatant to ‘technological selection’. Keeping it simple, the more people you can reach the higher your chances of survival, and in this age of endless options, device farms are essential to ensure functionality and user retention effectively on arrays of different browsers, devices, and operating systems.
Technology can connect any corner of the world, and instead of fire or the wheel, it is device farms, and the simple, smart, and scalable solution in Qyrus, that stands as evolutionary assistance through unpredictable times.
Elevate Your Testing with Qyrus Device Farm
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, ensuring that your applications perform seamlessly across various devices and platforms is crucial. The Qyrus Device Farm stands out as a premier solution that offers unparalleled testing capabilities, enhanced data security, and the flexibility to adapt to unique testing requirements.
With features like parallel testing and performance profiling, Qyrus not only simplifies the testing process but also empowers businesses to optimize their applications effectively.
Are you ready to elevate your testing strategy and experience the difference for yourself? Sign up today for a free trial of Qyrus Device Farm and transform the way you conduct application testing!
In this discussion’s simplest form, we pose a question, “If there was a tsunami en route, are you positioned on the shore?” The days of garage launches and the necessity of brick and mortar are becoming lost to the sands of time. The Technological Era through its comfort and practicality has become a silent killer. With Victoria’s Secret, Bed Bath & Beyond, Gamestop, and Men’s Warehouse topping the list of chains permanently closing the most stores in 2020, the movement inland must come with swift technological adaptations.
But this concept in and of itself is both foreign and daunting to most. Meanwhile, noticeably forcing the hand of industry leaders, it becomes clear that the transformation is imminent but how to go about it is less transparent. With differing standards including new and pre-existing business management, transitioning to online or handheld effectively and efficiently often requires a large checkbook and developmental nightmares on the road to functionality. But as the times indicate the only alternative seems to be going under.
Importance of Automation is Software Testing
As in every proverbial dark tunnel, the developments in testing, specifically, automated testing technology, stands to be the light. Providing the ability to build test cases around individual elements, pages, and sites while storing and running them at your convenience, testing technology has taken the initiative in paving a simpler path through the development and deployment cycle. Build, test, save, repeat: a simple process that allows you to manage functionality with constant feedback, regulation, and iteration.
Qyrus – Benefits of an All-in-One Testing Platform
In this realm of testing technology lies the answer to the question, “Why Qyrus?” Qyrus is an inclusive platform providing Web, Mobile, API, Artificial Intelligence, and Infrastructure testing. With a business-first structure, Qyrus allows you to begin with web testing and transition through the platform with your business progression. Meaning as your business goes handheld so does Qyrus, providing you with comfort through the troubling tides of various development and deployment cycles. Hosting international device farms based with the addition of client-specific private instances, the platform provides power and security, but even more so a solid foundation that as your business scales your testing solution remains reliable and comprehensive.
Beyond comfort and business progression there stands an area that Qyrus has re-defined; the testing market. Qyrus’ “low-code, no-code” platform fused with a user-first interface allows full-scale tests to be built in minutes using a series of clicks. Reports immediately provide screenshots and video feedback of the live test upon run completion. But we didn’t stop there, with platform-specific features and AI such as Hawkeye, Healer, QyrusBot, Sage, and Rover behind the simplicity, Qyrus has the power to meet a wide range of testing requirements and needs increasing in levels of complexity. All placed behind a series of clicks, Qyrus has the power to map and record every click of your mobile application, the intuition to fix brittle and defective test scripts through AI implementation, and future additions including the use of Native language commands to build and test. As a field dominated by software developers and engineers, testing has now been simplified to the likes of high school students thanks to Qyrus.
The Future of Software Testing
The motion towards web and mobile applications was once inevitable but is now upon us. With the global number of mobile contactless payment users growing to 760 million, including roughly 30% of the North American population shifting to mobile wallets, it becomes as simple as following the money. But with the synergy of power and simplicity, and the streamlining of extensive test coverage attainable by professionals of any background, Qyrus simplifies the web and mobile transition, paving the path inward for businesses in wake of the eminent technological tidal wave.
Ahhh, Spring. What a wonderful time to open our windows and doors and let the fresh air into our homes. As the cover of winter slowly lifts, trees begin to bud, birds begin to sing, and the scent of fresh flowers tickle the nose.
But let’s not forget the dangers that may lie just around the corner. Securing our applications, much like our houses, is of critical importance. Sensitive data and information can be accessed and stolen, similar to a burglar breaking into your house. Many applications require tokens or keys to access data. But, how exactly can those processes be tested?
This week’s Feature Friday covers just that. A prerequisite API test enables the testing of data-dependent APIs and API processes. To learn more, we interviewed Daniel and Steve on the Qyrus team:
Tell us more about the prerequisite API testing feature offered by Qyrus, its use cases, and its impact on testing and QA processes.
Steve: Just like the locks on a door, applications often work the same way, especially when they contain sensitive user and organization data. To test or even enter these applications, users require a unique key or token. This is a prominent use case for prerequisite API tests. Simply set up the prerequisite API, and it will execute prior to the API test, providing the required data to continue the testing process.
Daniel: More than just security tokens, prerequisite APIs come in handy anytime initialization is required. Often, a particular API is dependent upon input data from a different source, most likely another API. In order to truly test the behavior of the data-dependent API, it is nice to completely mimic this behavior. A simple prerequisite API can be used instead of building an API process of two items, saving time but accomplishing the required behavior and data transfer process.
Data-dependent APIs are fundamental in application creation. Therefore, it’s important to gain some knowledge and background on how these use cases are tested today. So, we asked:
Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?
Steve: Other competitors often require extensive setup, usually utilizing code, to run the prerequisite API, enable data transfer, and trigger the accompanying API test. Though, at the heart of it, the process boils down to calling concurrent API tests, Qyrus simplifies script building and management, mitigates coding requirements, and enables easy environment setup and dynamic data transfer all in one intuitive feature.
Daniel: Prerequisite APIs on Qyrus differ from our competitors because we provide rich reporting, including pass and fail indicators, execution time, and response headers and body. Furthermore, we offer the ability to dynamically use the responses, building them into dynamic variables that can be implemented as desired across test scripts in the project.
What is the overall impact on the testing process when using prerequisite API testing with Qyrus?
Daniel: We no longer need to manually enter in pre-request credentials for every pre-request API call. With the prerequisite API feature, the tester enters the pre-request credentials once, and the prerequisite API will always run before a request execution takes place.
Steve: Additionally, building these interdependent tests could be a little complicated, as the asynchronous behavior of APIs can be conceptually difficult for newer developers to understand. This feature makes testing easier by eliminating the coding barrier required to build these scripts.
Daniel: Furthermore, a user is able to dynamically use the response body from the prerequisite API into the request execution. In terms of data-dependent API testing, this is a simple, smart, and comprehensive option.
The prerequisite API test provides a lot of utility to users, that’s for sure. Newer developers have less of a hurdle to jump over, as just mentioned. The leap forward cannot be understated. However, does this mean that API testing will no longer be dependent on those with a high level of programming knowledge?
How might prerequisite API testing help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can this feature bring?
Steve: A great question. We find a handful of personas are able to use this feature to test required data-dependent APIs. Testers use this feature to enable an efficient and high-level data transfer process. To be specific, testers build out comprehensive prerequisite API tests across complex use cases through simple form-filling functionality. They can quickly set required data as dynamic variables and implement them directly into the API test for steadfast test building, execution, and data transfer processes. Testers often use this feature to speed up the testing process of production-level APIs.
Daniel: That’s correct. Furthermore, we find developers using this feature to establish API functionality during development. Creating prerequisite APIs allows for the mapping and pre-development of API processes. Given the capability through prerequisite API testing, developers can pre-determine requirements and design their APIs to target specific use cases. Upon creation, a prerequisite API test can be created and conducted to validate the functionality of both the APIs and the data transfer process.
Steve: Also, the codeless nature of prerequisite API testing makes it easy for business analysts to build and execute prerequisite API tests. In fact, this feature could help provide more domain knowledge for business technologists. With form-filling functionality, business analysts could further understand the interdependent relationships between the APIs created by the business.
A unique feature for all personas within testing teams, we felt the need to further implore its usefulness to testing as a whole:
How do you see CI pipelines impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?
Daniel: The main objective of prerequisite API testing is to provide a functional solution to data-driven API tests where requirements are contained in a logical fashion without removing the modularity of the API tests.
Steve: Exactly, you can run functional tests on the prerequisite API. Once you have confirmed that it is working, you can then apply the same process across all APIs. Also, after a Prerequisite API is created and executed, a user is able to dynamically reuse the response body across the entire API project.
Daniel: And with a bright future roadmap, the prerequisite API feature aims to allow users to add logic or code snippets to the prerequisite request. This can be useful if a request header expects a unique and specific input.
That concludes this week’s Feature Friday! As the week concludes, let’s all take a breath of fresh air in anticipation of even better days ahead. Take a walk, stop and smell the flowers, and maybe have a picnic. Whatever it might be, we hope everyone enjoys the coming Spring!
They’re everywhere! Now that summer is rolling through the Northern Hemisphere, BUGS are everywhere! Yes, I’m talking about real, physical bugs, not the ones we find in our software. But, I suppose those are abundant everywhere, as well. Similarly, BOTS are now everywhere. From crawlers to transactional and informational bots and even Conversational Agents – or chatbots – the focus of this Feature Friday! Today, we’re here to introduce you to our new tool to test and train AI chatbots – BotMetrics.
What do you mean?
Chatbots are becoming more and more intelligent with advances in the area of Natural Language Processing and Understanding. But still, organizations and industries are hesitant and skeptical to adopt these agents. Not because chatbots are hard to build or develop — one can develop a chatbot easily using Google DialogFlow or Amazon Lex — but they are hard to test and maintain. Now, what if we say: we have a bot (we have named it – BotMetrics) that can connect to your Conversational Agent/chatbot, have a conversation with regard to your bot’s functionality, and rate your bot’s performance. Just like AI Gilfoyle having a chat with AI Dinesh, but without breaking anything. You might be thinking, “That’s sick!” It doesn’t end here; BotMetrics also helps your bot’s performance by providing it with data related to all the failed conversations they had.
What is BotMetrics?
BotMetrics is our Conversational Testing Platform, the very first of its kind. Currently, it’s under wraps, so we will try to divulge as much as we can to get you excited. We wanted to develop a Super Agent Generalized on Everything, and we started developing BotMetrics. Currently, it works with the English language, and there is a long way for it to go. BotMetrics can be seamlessly integrated with chatbot development platforms like Google’s DialogFlow, Meta’s Wit, and Amazon’s Lex to test and maintain your Conversational Agent/chatbot. SAGE tests the agent’s capability to understand and reply to phrases/utterances by creating hundreds to thousands of virtual conversations with your agent in just minutes.
Why BotMetrics?
We already have a lot of test automation functionalities to test APIs, Web Applications, and Native Mobile Applications in Qyrus, but we wanted to develop (still developing) something new which has never been developed or even imagined.
With the advancements in Natural Language Processing and Understanding, we thought, why don’t we create a Super Agent, which can ”test” other Conversational Agents/chatbots? Moreover, it’s hard to benchmark/test AI, and there is a scarcity of good platforms that can aide in testing and maintaining chatbots.
What does BotMetrics solve?
In the field of Machine Learning and AI, the models are benchmarked using a set of test data, and the model’s effectiveness is decided based on its performance on that data. Let’s take an example of a conversational agent who is trained to provide customers with details regarding their credit and debit accounts, transactions, purchases, and deposits. In this case, the agent needs to learn what type of sentences or phrases point to which of the above-mentioned category.
Moreover, the same thing can be asked in many different ways. Let’s say I want to know the outstanding amount on my credit card; I can ask the agent in a multitude of ways — what’s my credit card bill for this month, or what’s the due credit, or what’s the minimum due for this month? Still, these are normal phrases but if a non-native speaker is trying to interact with this bot and if they make a spelling mistake or the structure of the sentence is not correct — for example, “What account balance?” instead of, ”What’s my account balance?” — the bot won’t understand it and fail to provide an appropriate response. Not all of these test cases will be covered in the training, validation, or test datasets. Only when the user gets their hands on the agent, the developer comes to know about all of the shortcomings.
We have added different testing modes in BotMetrics which helps the developer check how their agent is performing with badly written phrases, phrases with spelling and grammatical errors, phrases with different slang, phrases with non-trivial words, etc. Plus, we provide a data upload integration, so the developer just needs to upload those phrases which their agent couldn’t understand and re-train in just a few clicks. These testing features and modes help the developers to add more and more features to their agents while continuously testing, benchmarking, and validating the new version using BotMetrics.
How does BotMetrics work?
Chatbots are everywhere, like it or not. We use chatbot assistants like Siri, Alexa, or Google to get different things done from time to time. Some might use it to set reminders or timers, some might use it to check facts, some might have a casual chat with it, or some might even use it to control household appliances and electronics.
Similar to these assistants, there can be a conversational agent for banks wherein a user can check their balance or transfer money by just chatting with the agent, or a conversational agent to track all your appointments and meetings, or a conversational agent for a restaurant support system. Applications like these, which are customer-facing for support and engagement are moving towards such conversational agents to minimize cost and human intervention for servicing and support. Platforms like DialogFlow and Wit are also boosting the adoption of Conversational Agents, but testing and maintenance remain an unsolved problem.
This is where BotMetrics comes in and alleviates the chatbot testing and maintenance issues.
With BotMetrics we offer two types of testing abilities for chatbots:
Intent Testing
Entity Testing
What is Intent Testing?
Every chatbot must understand what the user is saying and act accordingly. The process of understanding what the user is trying to say by typing or speaking is called Intent detection. The output of the actions (i.e. typing or speaking) is called utterance. The chatbot first needs to understand this utterance and map it to a pre-defined intent.
If the bot fails at this very first step (and trust us, many bots fail) the conversation won’t move forward, and the user might close the application and move on.
Using BotMetrics, you can avoid this. You need only to add your pre-defined intents into BotMetrics and provide your bot credentials, and it connects to your bot and generates hundreds to thousands of conversations with the bot based on the pre-defined intents. Thus, testing your bot’s ability to understand intent.
What is Entity Testing?
When you ask Siri to “Set a timer for ten minutes…” it understands the intent first and then extracts the words “ten” and “minutes” from the utterance and sets the timer based on that. These words are what we call entities. One could use different units of time to set an alarm or timer. Similarly, there can be other cases where different words can be used for the same entity type.Based on the intent and the type of entity the chatbot supports, BotMetrics creates a lot of words of the same type and converses with the chatbot by putting these generated words into the conversation to check the bot’s capability of detecting entities.
We hope you like what you learned about BotMetrics. Again, this is just a sneak peek at what’s to come! BotMetrics is still being developed, but we have seen amazing leaps and bounds thus far with what we already have. Join us again in future postings to learn more about the amazing abilities of BotMetrics. For now, close your laptops or shut down your machines and enjoy the weekend! Stay cool, stay safe!
Budgeting, a very interesting concept that some are privy to, comes down to the recording and maintenance of all monetary transactions. But all budgeters know and fear the moment that their payments don’t match their data logs. They are forced into hours on the phone with the bank, often to realize it was a relevant purchase that was improperly logged, leaving no one to blame but yourself. APIs and databases work almost identically, except instead of transaction history, the transferring and logging is of any essential application data. This week’s feature Friday is brought to you by Daniel and Joyal where we will dive into Qyrus’ API to database testing and validation feature.
Tell us more about the API to DB feature offered by Qyrus, its use cases, and its impact on testing and QA processes.
Daniel: API to DB is used to validate an API’s behavior whose job is to save or manipulate data to a database. The user maps values in their APIs request body to a column in their database and creates assertions to ensure that the data being sent by the API is properly saved or altered in their database.
Joyal: Similar to a logbook of transactions, your database is your central point for data logging and management. Therefore, it becomes essential to test API to DB processes, ensuring that the request body passed into an API is properly saved in the database and the right transformations, if required, have been done on the data before it was saved.
Daniel: In essence, this feature attempts to answer the question, “How can I be sure that my API properly saved the data into my database?”
A very interesting feature, API to DB, is sure to make an impact on the testing process. With a feature like this, testing databases becomes much easier and seamless. We asked Daniel and Joyal:
What is the API to DB feature’s overall impact on the testing process?
Daniel: API test can be a little more technical than things like Web and Mobile application testing. It is much easier for tests to fail simply because tests were not set up properly. As such, we have focused on simplifying the configurations required in this form of testing, as well as providing clear feedback and visualizations to assist the user in the building of these tests. One example would be our JSON tree mapping tool, which provides a visual representation of the API’s request body and is intractable. The user only needs to click on the node they are looking for in order to extract the JSON path they want to map to a database.
Joyal: Furthermore, we see it solving multiple problems, as you are ensuring any logic that is executed after the API is called is working properly, as well as the API itself. So, you are testing two different entities using the same test.
Daniel: Yes, Joyal, and that’s exactly the value, keep it simple but comprehensive.
As we’ve heard from Daniel, we want to keep it simple. Complex testing processes can lead to more errors. Having to switch from one application to another just to perform a simple task is ridiculous. The team at Qyrus sought to tie it all together.
Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?
Joyal: So, we have seen prerequisite API test options, but there are just a few differentiating factors. Tests on Qyrus include in-depth reporting and the ability to dynamically use responses across API tests upon execution of the prerequisite API.
Daniel: And it’s no secret that there are multiple ways to solve this problem without Qyrus. The automated way would require knowledge of a couple of different libraries and combining them to create a multi-step process. The manual way would be akin to something like calling in an API in Postman, opening up something like MySQL workbench to make a database query, and then visually confirming that what you entered into the API’s request body was saved into the database correctly. Believe it or not, but this manual workflow is what we often hear developers are doing today.
Database testing has historically been a complex task that only those with high knowledge of the database would be able to properly test it. With the introduction of API to DB testing in Qyrus, we have seen that the process has been simplified to the point where even non-technical people have a use for it!
How might the API to DB feature help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can they bring?
Daniel: Great question… we often find that a tester would first use functional testing in the API service to ensure that the API is “behaving” the way they want it to by providing adequate assertions in their functional test. Once they know the API is behaving as expected, they then create database assertions to ensure that the API is properly storing the data in their database. Testers would use this to ensure proper communication between their APIs and their databases.
Joyal: Developers could use this to make sure the API itself is functioning and the logic that is executed after the API is called is working properly. Furthermore, verifying the final output in the database ensures database functionality. Developers can run these test executions during sprints and through CI pipelines to ensure existing data processing functionality upon new builds.
Daniel: With robust reporting and easy-to-make assertions, this feature stands as a great transition for business technologists and analysts to further understand the inner workings of their applications. Following the data transfer and storage process is made simple with robust reporting while staying in the loop is even easier with collaborative reporting options. With a codeless approach, non-technical specialists can go as far as building out test scripts to ensure application and database synchronization and functionality.
All of this being said, we know that this feature will have an impact on testing overall. The ramifications of this process being simplified mean that certain routines or testing processes will no longer be as lengthy or time-consuming. We asked:
How do you see Qyrus’ API to DB feature impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?
Joyal: The first thing we see is that the feature mitigates redundancies in testing operations. With a prerequisite API, the tester will no longer need to manually enter pre-request credentials for every pre-request-dependent API call. Within the prerequisite API, the tester enters the pre-request credentials once, and the API will always run before a request execution takes place.
Daniel: Correct, and after a prerequisite API is created and executed, a user is able to dynamically reuse the response body across the entire project.
Joyal: We also note that this feature offers you more depth in testing. You are not just testing whether you got the expected status code or response body from an API call anymore. You are making sure any transformation that is done on the request body is properly reflected on the data that is saved in the database.
Daniel: With further developments coming, including more database options and allowing users to add logic or code snippets into prerequisite requests for specific header input requirements, we truly see this feature making an impact on testing at a day-to-day, script-to-script level.
That’s all, folks! Thanks for joining us this week for Feature Friday. The team here at Qyrus hopes you enjoy the weekend and the weather, and stop to smell the roses every once and a while! As Spring rounds the corner, dreams of summer are just right behind it.
June is finally here! And with it, summer arrives! I’m sure everyone is excited for the warm days and fun-filled evenings to come. So, let’s leave Spring in the past, just like we here at Qyrus are leaving manual testing and traditional automated testing methods in the past! Put on your shades, break out the sunscreen, and get ready for the blinding brilliance that is API monitoring. This week we are joined again by Daniel and Joyal, two members from our Chicago Qyrus team, to give more insight on the various benefits it provides users. Without further to do, let’s jump right into it!
Tell us more about API monitoring offered by Qyrus and its use cases.
Daniel: Well, simply put, it is a service that checks the status of an API call by continuously calling that API and examining the results.
Joyal: Yup, it monitors the health of the API, making sure that the right people are notified whenever something goes wrong. This helps prevent long periods of service disruption where users might be dealing with interruptions for hours.
Daniel: Certain APIs are critical to an application’s ability to serve its users. API monitoring can potentially catch errors before users do. In a way you can say it’s testing the reliability of your API.
It’s very true that certain APIs can be quite literally “mission critical” when it comes to a functioning application. I mean, imagine if the search API for Google went down. The world might literally come close to burning down.
What is API monitoring’s overall impact on the testing process?
Joyal: Well, I’d say we see the most impact in terms of reporting. The whole premise is to provide users with constant feedback in the form of a report. Users can see a lot of different metrics here.
Daniel: And you can take things a step further, by allowing this reporting to notify you via email about the status of your API and its overall health such as when the average response time crosses a certain threshold and if the API goes down in general.
Monitoring the health of your API sounds complicated. However, Qyrus seeks to make testing simpler for all types of users – whether they be seasoned testing veterans or totally clueless about coding. In the past, testing was complicated. Today, it’s our job to make it more accessible for all.
How might API monitoring help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can this feature bring?
Joyal: It can bring a wide range of benefits for different types of people. Regular testers wouldn’t use this service to “test” APIs, but rather to keep tabs on the overall health of their critical APIs.
Daniel: Yeah, and developers might use this service for the exact same reason. But also, they can use it to monitor any quirks or weird issues like random response time spikes that their API might be witnessing without their knowledge. And business technologists could use this service to share performance data with a client of theirs, or even internally. More importantly, I think, is that it’s so easy to set up that less technical people like business techs can set up and operate an API monitoring session.
Joyal: That’s right, Daniel. That’s really the essence of Qyrus, isn’t it? We try to make everything as intuitive as it can be – and code free!
Making testing simple takes a lot of work. It’s not easy for us to extrapolate the complexity of automated testing in a codeless and intuitive fashion. That being said – how complicated would this be to, say, try and do this on your own?
Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus?
Daniel: In order to get anywhere near what the feature offers, it’d take a good amount of coding and prior knowledge on different 3rd party technologies to make everything work.
Joyal: Of course, it can be done. But, like Dan said, it would take a lot of effort. On top of that, we offer a good deal of reusability on Qyrus itself. The functional API tests you build on Qyrus can be imported into API monitoring and set up very quickly.
Daniel: And it’s also important to note that in functional API testing, you can import APIs from Swagger format or OpenAPI specifications. These additional features really help tie everything together.
The reusability and ease of use combined makes for a disruptive duo. That being said, it’s sure to make some people’s lives a lot easier. In a day-to-day scenario, what might take place?
How do you see this impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?
Joyal: Overall, it’ll make monitoring the health of APIs easier. You’ll probably see less performance testing overall and you won’t have to manually trigger APIs to check on health. The goal is to have the developer alerted about the issue before it becomes an issue for clients.
Daniel: Yup, and you only have to set up the API monitor once. It measures the reliability of the API, more accurately. And overall, it’ll make testing over prolonged periods of time much simpler.
API monitoring can bring a lot of benefits as we’ve seen. It represents a holistic and complete API testing experience – taking functional testing to another level – reliability testing. We won’t keep you any longer! Got your sunscreen applied? Sunglasses in hand? Get out there and enjoy the weather! Thanks for joining us for this week’s Feature Friday!
As the seasons turn, there is one thing Chicago natives love is events. A lively city constantly buzzing with farmer’s markets, plant shows, block parties, and music festivals, Chicago natives enjoy the lively summers, discovering the city as they go. But just like any parade, there is always a chance of rain. Any number of things could go wrong, including the weather, picking a noisy and isolated location, among a range of other things mitigating the desired flood of happy faces.
The same problem can be found throughout application development. With respect to application success, a range of indicators can inhibit usage and ultimately client retention. This week’s feature Friday is brought to you by Tim and Vishal, who discuss service virtualization, a feature that mitigates developmental bottlenecks and allows the testing of application functionality when certain resources are missing.
Tell us more about service virtualization offered by Qyrus, their use cases, and their impact on testing and QA processes.
Tim: Service Virtualization is a feature that allows users to virtualize assets that may be required for testing, whether that be in an API test or an API requirement within an end-to-end business process. You can tailor the virtualized asset to be a variety of different API methods and set up multiple request/response pairs to a single API call.
Vishal: Specifically, service virtualization handles the issue of waiting for unattainable or incomplete API assets before continuing with certain testing. It can cause a hassle, slowing down the testing process and ultimately impacting the entire QA and deployment cycle. If speed to market and quality are essential, any time waiting is time wasted.
This is a feature that truly promotes a shift left, we decided to further investigate just how impactful it can be and if used across the testing industry today.
What is service virtualization’s overall impact on the testing process?
Vishal: Functional testing components may be unavailable for a range of reasons including security, performance, maintenance, and development. A virtualized asset of the required component to be tested can be more than enough to get the testing started. For example, you might need to test a geo-location functionality in your component that in turn uses a 3rd party payment APIs. Instead of using the payment APIs, you could use a mock that would return known results to your component. This helps you validate that the results from your component are returned correctly. An added benefit is that you keep your usage of external APIs to a minimum.
Tim: Service virtualization can also be used to make sure that your component or system under test behaves correctly in regards to performance, SLAs, security, etc. For example, you might want to make sure that if you get an error from your back-end system that it will be logged correctly, or that your component gracefully handles situations like when a 3rd party API stops responding during a load test, etc.
Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?
Vishal: Some competitors offer similar asset virtualization solutions. Some might just refer them to mock APIs or mock servers, which contain similar capabilities of building out and simulating API responses.
Tim: But what makes Qyrus unique is that Qyrus provides 2 approaches for virtualization. The manual approach allows users to create Mock API with Java, Python, or similar technology, yielding desired, static responses every time. Qyrus also offers a dynamic approach, where users can generate real-time data, using dynamic APIs, while implementing them across test scripts.
A unique feature with a range of possibilities, we wanted to figure out just how targeted this feature can get across an organization’s personas. After all, a feature is only as relevant as its usage and functionality!
How might service virtualization help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can they bring?
Vishal: Developers are always working on writing code that requires APIs and integration with other system components via APIs. It might not always be desirable or even possible to actually access those systems during development. This is where mocking comes in. Instead of developing code with actual external dependencies in place, a mock of those dependencies is created and used instead. Depending on your development requirements, this mock is made “intelligent” enough to allow you to make the calls you need and get similar results back as you would from the actual component, thus enabling a seamless development and delivery process.
Tim: Business analysts often like to use and validate applications before they become available to consumers. before they can try them out and commit to using them. In this case, a complete simulation of the API can be provided online or as a distributive for local deployment. The consumer can try out the API from their system, and make basic requirement assessments without imposing any cost on the actual API. With proper Swagger documentation, a business analyst can even mock an entire service with a few clicks!
Vishal: We often find testers taking API and application functionality testing to a new level. With the ability to mock certain responses and functionalities, testers can simulate a range of different edge cases and unique test cases. In doing so, we often find testers tying up loose ends with application functionality and finding inconsistencies that may have been otherwise overlooked.
To end, we bugged our experts’ brains to figure out exactly how the implantation and usage of this feature promote regular, daily, value. A consistent feature that can provide daily value is integral to business processes.
How do you see service virtualization impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?
Tim: Service virtualization is a comprehensive feature that can be implemented for a range of benefits. Primarily, using service virtualization, otherwise unattainable assets no longer create bottlenecks in development and testing. Testing is no longer limited to the speed of development, allowing for better quality applications and competitive release times.
Vishal: Furthermore, expanding testing capabilities and use cases allows for broader testing coverage and testing sooner within the development process. This enables a steadfast testing and QA process led by automation, directly promoting quality and efficiency across organizations every day.
In conclusion, we can see how powerful service virtualization on Qyrus can be. It’s a very useful feature and can help multiple different kinds of users. That’s it for this Feature Friday. Join us next week as we discuss parameterization on Qyrus and data-driven testing!
It’s Friday, everyone’s trying to get home, and the traffic is jammed. 4-lane highways quickly are filled with weary-eyed workers eager to get home for the weekend. But, as everyone is rushing out at the same time and with no semblance of organization, everything comes to a halt. Bumper-to-bumper traffic ensues, and everyone’s getting home late. Similarly, bottlenecks can be found within test building, execution, and report generation.
Without organization and the right tools, testing can experience significant inefficiencies. This week’s Feature Friday is on the Qyrus mobile test recorder and live test execution, brought to you by Qyrus team members Adhiraj and Milton.
Tell us more about the Qyrus mobile recorder and live testing features offered by Qyrus, its use cases, and its impact on testing and QA processes.
Milton: The mobility recorder allows you to build mobile test scripts quickly in an intuitive manner. Simply connect to an Android or iOS device, toggle recorder mode, and start interacting with the device. All interactions in recorder mode will be automatically built out into test steps, creating robust automation scripts within minutes.
Adhi: And as you have the phone or tablet connected already, it is possible to test your steps and script at any point. Simply select a handful of steps, or the entire script, and run a live test. Watch the phone run through the test scripting in front of your very eyes, providing pass-fail indicators per step.
What a great feature! This completely changes how the testing process will look. That being said, why do we not see these test recorders everywhere?
Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?
Adhi: Our mobility recorder is more of a translator than a recorder. Its goal is to efficiently capture what you “want to do with your test” as opposed to “what you are doing to the device.” Instead of focusing purely on device behavior, our mobility recorder provides a quick and easy way to make verifications, create variables, and inspect elements. Performing more complex actions is simple, as well. We wanted to provide the end-user with a seamless building experience.
Milton: Our competitors tend to have recorders that try to make sense of what you are doing with the phone. These methods can be effective in capturing direct interactions and navigational steps but ignore other important things like verifiers. Qyrus’ mobile recorder gives the user the ability to handle complex scenarios without having to switch to a different mode or add excessive steps.
Adhi: Additionally, the way we have built the recorder means that you can edit tests easily – most other recorders require users to rebuild the test from scratch every time. This makes maintenance much simpler!
There’s no doubt that this mobile recorder is starting to make ripples that will soon grow into waves. The time of monotonous and time-consuming test building is nigh, with fast and easy test recorders coming to fill in the dots.
What is the overall impact on the testing process when using the Qyrus mobile recorder?
Milton: Using the mobile recorder lends to an increase in overall testing efficiency. This is caused by the increase in speed in test building and the decrease of execution time for scripts.
Adhi: We see all user actions on the phone are translated into test steps, such that the user doesn’t have to manually fill out the steps anymore. Also, the locator value that is chosen by the recorder follows best practices to help prevent against test brittleness. This is test building done right, as it promotes high-quality test building that can be done simply and efficiently.
Milton: Furthermore, by allowing end-users to watch their tests in live execution, they are able to unit test and verify the functionality of tests prior to real execution and report generation. This prevents users from having to constantly execute tests and re-execute after you find one, little error that stops your script dead in its tracks.
How might the Qyrus mobile recorder and live test options help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can this feature bring?
Adhi: Actually, with the simplicity of recording and the ability to interact with a live device, business technologists use the recorder to ensure application functionality by interacting with the phone once, creating fully automated test scripts, and live tests or executing them for visual reports. Qyrus not only provides a gateway for business technologists into automation but also enables the simple and steadfast testing of user journeys.
Milton: Developers can use the recorder to quickly ensure application functionality through simple interaction. Taking a quick shift left, developers can now test incomplete and beta versions of applications, ensuring the app is working as expected without requiring the assistance of a tester or automation engineer. And, with the ability to live test the application, the developer is able to see the application in action with per-step pass-fail indicators.
Adhi: We also find this feature to be a tester’s best friend. Testers often use this feature to quickly create robust and automated mobile tests. After getting comfortable with the mobile recorder, testers utilize its deepest functionalities using the (right-click) element access menu to access advanced testing features, including dynamic variable creation and verifications. Furthermore, testers use the live test feature to catch up in test scripts. If step fifty-seven is broken, testers are left with no option but to manually navigate the device to that point in the broken test script. But, with the live test feature, testers select the steps to execute and watch the device go through each step as the device reaches that point in the script.
Milton: On top of that, after a tester creates a test script using the recorder, he can then use additional Qyrus features, such as parameterization, to cover more test cases and scenarios.
This thing packs a lot of punch in a small feature! With it providing benefits to all types of users, from technical to non-technical, testing practices are sure to see a shift!
How do you see the Qyrus mobile recorder and live test feature impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?
Milton: We find that this feature redefines test building, mitigating step creation requirements altogether. The feature translates interactions into test steps while maintaining best practices in selecting locator types and values.
Adhi: Removing a lot of repetition, the mobile recorder sheds step-building time. Scripts that would otherwise take a half hour to build are now cut down into 5-minute, interactive tasks.
Milton: It’s quite simple, if test building is as easy as playing with an application and yielding repeatable test scripts with robust reports, QA teams can focus their time and energy on more important tasks like user experience and application integrity, producing quality applications with best-in-class user experience and an emphasis on speed to market.
So, with the week coming to a close, hop in your cars or on the buses/trains and have a safe trip back home. Like test building with Qyrus, we hope the ride home is speedy just as much as we hope you enjoyed this installment of Feature Friday!
Test Automation – Overview
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), the Internet of Things (IoT), and Automation are game-changing technologies that will transform the testing world over the next decade. These technological trends have become even more important with the COVID-19 pandemic changing the tech-driven landscape in a manner never imagined.
With the global pandemic changing workforce dynamics, the reliance on cutting-edge software, web, and mobile applications has grown substantially. To support this ever-growing demand, businesses turned to technology increasing the need to release fully functional, feature-rich, and flawless products and software to their end-users. As a result, in came test automation bringing the promise of extensive test coverage, scientific test accuracy, streamlined testing operations, lower cost, and increased resource efficiency.
Due to various factors, employees began queuing up at the exit door in record-breaking numbers, now coined the “Great Resignation,” causing major disruptions across all industries. This further increased the reliance on remote interactions and fully functional applications. And, with resources now spread thin, businesses and software development firms no longer have to pioneer these shifts alone due to the complimentary development of test automation technology and solutions.
The test automation market in 2021 was valued at 15 billion USD and is projected to grow 16% per year to 40 billion USD by 2027. The adoption of advanced testing methods such as DevOps and Agile methodologies continue to contribute to this growth.
Challenges for Management
The Great Resignation presents particular challenges for people who manage developers and QA teams. These market conditions have driven an acceleration in the use of AI and machine learning to combat the ongoing shortage of testing resources.
The momentum for test automation is being driven by necessity, as many enterprises find it challenging to operate under the current conditions. Therefore, it now makes sense for companies to make the required capital investments and build the infrastructure to support more automated testing solutions. This is required to ensure that their products and services remain bug-free and cater to rapidly-evolving customer demands.
Test Automation and the Great Resignation
As “quality at speed” has become a crucial business requirement, testing and quality assurance have also become a necessary area of focus. However, given the scenario that companies are in at present, the biggest challenge is managing resources effectively. With evolving business scenarios and the need to push product lines in quick succession, the software development life cycle (SDLC) time frame has also shrunk. This newfound speed in development poses a major challenge when considering the of lack of resources.
The need of the hour is to have a strategic approach towards testing where less is more. For an organization to be truly agile, they need to focus on flexibility, fast response times, and rich reporting. Testing automation is a boon in this regard as it enables organizations to build and execute tests at scale with minimum latency. This frees up resources allowing them to use their expertise on more important things like research and development, new product ideation, and much more. Certain daily requirements that used to take a large amount of effort are now simple and easy to complete much faster.
For projects that require rapid release cycles, it is a time-intensive process to create test environments, allocate resources, and figure out the testing scripts and other mechanics to keep pace with development. To add to the problem, existing tools for testing require testers to embark on a steep learning curve. Conversely, the very purpose of automation is to lessen the burden on testers and shorten the testing phase of the development cycle. Also, less code means less complexity which ultimately translates into lower storage and maintenance costs. Practitioners have for long championed the idea of high quality and accurate testing with little to no code involved, thus paving the way for “codeless automation.”
Codeless Testing — The Testing Trend That Changes Everything
The Great Resignation has made organizations and especially the testing industry realize the true potential of codeless testing. The idea of codeless automated testing is to abstract the test creation and execution process through an intuitive UI coupled with a form-fill methodology thereby eliminating the need for time-intensive coding requirements for testers and developers.
The codeless approach enables broader participation in the testing process from developers and business analysts. Some of the tactical benefits of codeless testing include:
Early collaboration
Modular design
Faster test building
Reduced test execution times
Increased test coverage
Flexible maintenance
Resilient regression testing
Great reusability
The broader goals are faster delivery of quality software that enhances customer experience, increases revenue, and reduces cost, all achieved with minimum human intervention.
At the same time, the codeless platform must provide the flexibility of embedding code where the tester has a more efficient solution, an edge case, or chooses express specific creativity. The usefulness of codeless environments erodes if they cannot handle complexity, cross-platform processes, omnichannel requirements, easy integrations to CI/CD processes, or scaling test infrastructure.
Using the right product and process, testers, developers, and business analysts can push efficiencies beyond the traditional scripting and maintenance activities. DevOps is still a challenge for many organizations, and often the inefficiencies in the pipeline lead back to test coding, flakiness, and/or script maintenance challenges. Reducing time spent on repetitive tasks and abstracting the current coding practice frees up time that is better spent automating end-to-end processes.
The codeless model extends well beyond record and replay and taxonomy-driven automation. Self-healing tests to address flakiness are part of the codeless model. Natural language voice and text interfaces are the latest innovation that are transforming test scripting into a conversation. Using these approaches, the timeline to design, script, and execute has been reduced. And the effort required to maintain functional tests and add layers of performance and exploratory testing also has significantly declined. What used to take days and hours can now be completed in minutes and seconds. Furthermore, because the testing participants and reusability have increased, code coverage and test coverage have also expanded.
As per Forbes, investments in automation have grown by 26%. Let’s learn how Qyrus, a simple, smart, scalable robust, and resilient test automation platform can help you do more with less in these trying times of the Great Resignation.
Augment The Capability of Your Testing Teams with Qyrus
Enable your teams to respond to these unprecedented challenges with Qyrus, the most powerful low-code/no-code test automation platform.
Build and deliver higher-quality applications faster and more efficiently while saving time and money and increasing speed to market. Optimize application functionality and user experience by utilizing codeless and efficient test building, automation and infrastructure, and AI/ML capabilities. Qyrus can be your go-to test automation partner, and here is why:
Effectively fill the skilled resource gaps and enable today’s QA professionals for tomorrow’s opportunities and challenges
Quickly release products, web, and mobile applications faster to the market than your competitors
Consistently deliver seamless and comprehensive customer experiences
Optimize cost and resource efficiency at all times with reusable automated tests
How Can Qyrus Help You Address Your Testing Bottlenecks?
We have established that Qyrus should be your go-to test automation framework that can help you stay intact and navigate the Great Resignation with ease.
To summarize our Great Resignation series of blogs, Qyrus helps enterprises with a cloud-enabled, low-code/no-code test automation platform that is backed by exceptional AI/ML capabilities. Less time to market, great customer experience, cost, and resource efficiency, driving research, innovation, and bridging skilled resource gaps are some of the precise benefits that differentiate Qyrus from its counterparts.
We hope you have enjoyed our Great Resignation series. We look forward to hearing/reading your thoughts and perspectives. Utilize the power of Qyrus automation testing and face the Great Resignation head on!
Jerin Mathew
Manager
Jerin Mathew M M is a seasoned professional currently serving as a Content Manager at Qyrus. He possesses over 10 years of experience in content writing and editing, primarily within the international business and technology sectors. Prior to his current role, he worked as a Content Manager at Tookitaki Technologies, leading corporate and marketing communications. His background includes significant tenures as a Senior Copy Editor at The Economic Times and a Correspondent for the International Business Times UK. Jerin is skilled in digital marketing trends, SEO management, and crafting analytical, research-backed content.
