Salesforce is the top vendor in providing CRM service to millions of users across the globe. While serving these many customers, this vendor has faced some challenges during Salesforce app testing. In these modern days, selenium is the best tool to test different kinds of apps across different platforms. So today in this article, I would like to share the challenges faced during selenium testing.
Before going too in-depth details let initially discuss types of Salesforce testing
Types of Salesforce Testing:
a)Manual testing:
The manual testing process including the testing of salesforce apps on the Salesforce official website. Here you will be testing the apps using traditional methods. Usually, the QA team uses manual testing. This testing is performed to execute functional testing, happy path testing, integration testing, regression testing as well as system testing.
b)Automated testing:
It involves the computer program to test the Salesforce official website(or) force.com app. Some of the popular tools to test Salesforce apps are selenium, QTP, Assure Click, and so on.
Get hands-on experience on selenium testing with real world examples at Selenium Online TrainingIn any case, Salesforce undergoes different types of testing. This includes unit testing, system testing, UAT testing, production testing, and regression testing
Since we have got on enough idea of the Salesforce testing process, let us initially know
Salesforce App Testing process:
The salesforce testing process is the same as any normal web-based application. Here the tester should have a clear perspective of customizable features that were built during the test process. Basically, it focuses on customized code instead of the salesforce built-in process.
Here the developer and the tester should use the sandbox environment (Test environment) for each of their purposes. Here the test code in the sandbox environment is deployed to production from the sandbox environment. In this case. we assume that the QA tester has basic knowledge of Salesforce terminology
Get practical explanation of salesforce testing process from real time experts at Salesforce Online TrainingHence till now, we came have got enough idea of the Salesforce testing process. So now, let us discuss the challenges during this process
Salesforce Testing challenges:
selenium is a powerful tool to automate user interactions on the web browser. This robust framework with the right design can increase test coverage and saves time. Hence this is the reason for many organizations to use for automating application testing including salesforce application. The following use cases explain the challenges faced during the salesforce test automation
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1)Navigating through frames:
Salesforce is a complex application, with the front end inbuilt dynamic frames. And this application can load the content independently, in the current HTML document. So handing the frames with selenium is a difficult process. This is because it cannot access the content directly. Hence, in this case, it requires switching to a selenium web driver. So here, we use the attribute driver.switchTo().frame(“frame-attribute”); to perform the actions. On the other hand, actions that need to be performed outside the frame require explicit instructions to selenium. Hence in case, we make use of following instructions to move out of the frame.
driver.switchTo().parentFrame(); (or)driver.switchTo().defaultContent();
Usually, frames were handled by selenium albeit that takes a lot of effort in finding the right attributes and scripts accordingly. Hence it becomes more tedious when you deal with nested (or) hidden frames. An ideal salesforce application does have many frames. And a usual 30-50 step case can take hours of coding and usually results in brittle scripts.
2)Execution against dynamic content:
Similar to modern web apps, Salesforce has dynamic elements that don't have a static ID, name, class (or) CSS attributes. Hence you cannot hard code the element locator. Moreover, a standard method to detect the fixed part of the locator is usually not straightforward. On the other hand, minor changes to UI can make the test more divisions. Moreover, while loading the element, selenium can get into syncing issues.
3)Table Handling:
Salesforce application does have different database-driven tables. Here were can create the row dynamically and can be controlled by different tabs. Hence simple actions ticking the checkbox would be complex. And this situation may lead to errors. So selecting the active tab may be challenging. And commands like driver.switch_to.window and send_keys may not work reliably.
Other Challenges
There are some other challenges that held with this testing process than the above. Sometimes Salesforce apps face some complexities such as Shadow-DOM, IFrames, and some pop-up windows. These put obstacles to test the app with Selenium. Also, Selenium does not offer direct support to such elements thus, it needs remarkable custom coding for this. Here there is a challenge such as maintaining test cases held with testing any complex app.
Hence, there are so many ways to solve the Sales-force app testing through Selenium easily. But the scripting of the code consumes much time which may affect the continuous testing parameters.
Further, there are different levels of Salesforce testing such as Unit testing, UAT, System testing, Production, and Regression testing.
Best practices for Salesforce testing with Selenium
The tests should be run like a real user that runs to test the app.
Automation testing tools like Selenium and other functional testing tools should be applied.
It should include the different testing methods like UI, functional, integration testing.
Also, it needs the preparation of Test data for the report functionality validations.
Moreover, the Sales-force tester should consider the +VE and -VE flows frequently.
Users’ roles also should be tested using Workflows.
How Selenium is beneficial?
Selenium can be extremely useful for automation testing to make dynamic changes between the Salesforce business units. It helps with the endless usability with refreshing sandboxes every time while avoiding test day preparations.
While conducting a test a tester should require the following things- test data, test phases, and significant components of test cases. Hence, Selenium is the best automation tool for browser apps like Salesforce. It helps to drive tests for apps that run on the browser.
If Selenium is not useful for Salesforce, then?
It is necessary to automate the tests even in Salesforce to make the app ready to use with no bugs. In this regard, Selenium checks the upfront boxes while automating the Sales-force test if required by the teams. But it is quite challenging that needs more investment of time to set up and maintain than the expected one.
Hence, there is some risk also of Testing errors that happen while using Selenium for web testing within techs like Sales-force. Thus, many testers prefer user-friendly and code-free tools in this regard.
The major intention behind the automation of Salesforce tests is to ensure the functional stability of the critical enterprise processes. It also follows the correctness of all customer data with accuracy and safe storage. Also, it needs to verify the various integrations between the products and Sales-force for accuracy. It is not easier always to manage the tests with accuracy and troubleshoot failed tests for the developers. And sometimes these tests also not run much smoothly so that they could deliver the best results.
Furthermore, it should be noted that Selenium is a kind of simple tool that makes the browser execute certain tasks better. But we cannot say that it can offer things more than that. In large business enterprises where there is a large team, big tests, and large coding, security, team alliance, etc. require to perform, Selenium won’t be sufficient.
Thus, there should be some alternative process or testing solution for this purpose.
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Why testing Salesforce is important?
Salesforce supports a different range of CRM services to many industries. Also, it is applied and combined with many other apps like web services, web portals, security, cloud services, social media, and so on. Due to time and budget constraints, in many integrations they avoid testing. Hence, this negligence results in poor product quality, customer dissatisfaction, etc. Also, there is a huge hike in quality costs. Thus, effective Salesforce testing whether through Selenium is needed to let the business processes work smoothly.
Automation testing tool checklist
The following are the requirements or features of an automation testing tool to conduct tests.
A tool should be code-free to carry out tests easily and smoothly.
It must be flexible to use and provide a user-friendly environment. Also, it should be able to test across ecosystems and comply with the browser needs.
The tool should be very smart to handle minor changes to the app without disturbing the tests. It should be capable to reduce errors while testing the apps.
It should know the Salesforce while conducting tests as many testing tools struggle with implanted tables.
Moreover, the testing tool should support various integrations such as connecting with email lists and databases.
The tool should be ready to produce various reports automatically with minimal supervision.
It should be lightning-fast in delivering the valuable results of the tests throughout the process. All the final products of tests should be delivered much fast to make them useful.
Conclusion
Hence, these are the various attributes of testing the Salesforce app using Selenium and its uses. Many of the testers struggle with a lack of sufficient tools or budget requirements that make tests cumbersome. Thus, they need proper testing tools for apps to test rather than they become challenging for tests. So, to learn more in this regard with real-time experience, get into Selenium Online Course with ITGuru platform.
So likewise there are many challenges that occur while testing the salesforce application using selenium. And you can get rid of all those challenges by taking those preventive. And in the upcoming articles, ill update the solutions to these challenges