BDD-testing using a UI driver (e.g. Selenium for a web-application)

Posted by jonathanconway on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by jonathanconway
Published on 2011-01-03T12:00:44Z Indexed on 2011/01/03 12:53 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 233

Filed under:

TDD

|

bdd

|

web-testing

Can BDD (Behavior Driven Design) tests be implemented using a UI driver?

For example, given a web application, instead of:

Writing tests for the back-end, and then more tests in Javascript for the front-end

Should I:

Write the tests as Selenium macros, which simulate mouse-clicks, etc in the actual browser?

The advantages I see in doing it this way are:

The tests are written in one language, rather than several
They're focussed on the UI, which gets developers thinking outside-in
They run in the real execution environment (the browser), which allows us to
- Test different browsers
- Test different servers
- Get insight into real-world performance

Thoughts?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about TDD

TDD - How to start really thinking TDD?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have been reading about Agile, XP methodologies and TDDs. I have been in projects which states it needs to do TDD, but most of the tests are somehow integration tests or during the course of project TDD is forgotten in effort to finish codes faster. So, as far as my case goes, I have written unit… >>> More
Are "TDD Tests" different to Unit Tests?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I read this article about TDD and unit testing: http://stephenwalther.com/blog/archive/2009/04/11/tdd-tests-are-not-unit-tests.aspx I think it was an excellent article. The author makes a distinction between what he calls "TDD Tests" and unit testing. They appear to be different tests to him. Previous… >>> More
Doing TDD Silverlight 4 RC using Visual Studio 2010 RC

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
First I am glad to see better TDD support in VS2010. Support for generating code stubs from my tests is ok - not as good as more mature TDD plug-ins but a good start. I am looking for some best Silverlight 4.0 TDD practices. First Question: Anyone have links, recommendations? I know the new Silverlight… >>> More
Applying Test Driven Development to a tightly coupled architecture

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi all, I've recently been studying TDD, attended a conference and have dabbled in few tests and already I'm 100% sold, I absolutely love it TDD. As a result I've raised this with my seniors and they are prepared to give it a chance, so they have tasked me with coming up with a way to implement… >>> More
Integrating JavaScript Unit Tests with Visual Studio

as seen on Stephen Walter - Search for 'Stephen Walter'
Modern ASP.NET web applications take full advantage of client-side JavaScript to provide better interactivity and responsiveness. If you are building an ASP.NET application in the right way, you quickly end up with lots and lots of JavaScript code. When writing server code, you should be writing… >>> More

Related posts about bdd

BDD IS Different to TDD

as seen on Geeks with Blogs - Search for 'Geeks with Blogs'
One of this morning’s sessions at Alt.NET 2010 discussed BDD. Charlie Pool expressed the opinion, which I have heard many times, that BDD is just a description of TDD done properly. For me, the core principles of BDD are: expressing behaviour in terms that show the value to the system actors… >>> More
Spork servers super slow (>3m) to start for RSpec & Cucumber BDD

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I recently installed a fresh development setup on my laptop and now notice that my instances of spork take several minutes to start up. This is also most likely of the RSpec and Cucumber tests start up times running super slow. I ran in diagnostic mode with the -d flag and received the output below… >>> More
When should the BDD test scenarios be written?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am looking into BDD testing within a scrum scenario and realise that the BDD scenarios are more akin to specifications than tests. Therefore should they be written before the developers go into pre-planning so that all of the functionality has been identified which would allow better estimating… >>> More
My New BDD Style

as seen on Geeks with Blogs - Search for 'Geeks with Blogs'
I have made a change to my code-based BDD style. I start with a scenario such as: Pre-Editing * Given I am a book editor * And some chapters are locked and some are not * When I view the list of chapters for editing * Then I should see some chapters are editable and are not… >>> More
What's the best BDD framework for working with ASP.NET MVC 2 + C# 4?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I just heard about BDD when I watch video of Scott Guthrie in Sweden. One of listener asked question to Scott about How VS2010 and ASP.NET MVC do to support BDD. After that, I search about BDD (Behavior Driven Development) that focus on specification more than unit testing when compares with TDD… >>> More