Apply HN: TestBeacon – Web Automation Testing as a Service

4 points by wjg 10 years ago | 6 comments

I want to disrupt the web automation & testing space by making it more accessible to QA teams who might not have the technical knowledge to stand up heavier solutions.

I built a new automation language and a webapp that allows users to create sharable and composable all without ever leaving the browser.

Check out a TestBeacon app demo here (click the Run button and it will test that email validation is working): https://app.testbeacon.com/workflows/demo

Landing page: http://www.testbeacon.com

Language docs: http://docs.flytrap.io

PROBLEM - Standing up web automation testing is tough. Maintaining it is tougher. Lots of dependencies to install, and learning new automation languages can be a chore. QA teams can benefit immensely from automation but the high technical level usually means they don't leverage it as much as they could, or worse, forego automation testing altogether.

SOLUTION - TestBeacon is a SaaS that allows users to write and run pass/fail automation tests for their own webapps in minutes. Installation is minimal: reference a javascript file in your webapp. Create automations by specifying the URL of your webapp, and writing a script in a new language, Flytrap. TestBeacon will run automations inside an iframe (or eventually a child window).

DETAILS at http://pastebin.com/Et1mVJ6H - Pastebin link (http://pastebin.com/Et1mVJ6H) answers a bunch of questions that I would ask someone who's asking me for money. Please check it out and I'd be happy to expand on anything!

glougheed 10 years ago |

Nice. Have you thought about adding a simple point and click element to the browser plugin so that you could pre build some of the scripts by simply browsing? It would be a nice time saver and add more depth to the product for the price.

wjg 10 years ago | |

Point-and-click is definitely THE next technical milestone. And I think it's essential, because right now I have a bit of a conflicting message to QA analysts: stop fumbling with writing automation scripts and come into my environment and ... write automation scripts!

I think such a feature would go a long way in eliminating that initial "so I have to write the automation?" hurdle, and I agree it provides a clearer and shorter path to extracting value from the product.

I appreciate the feedback!

glougheed 10 years ago | | |

The thing that I have found about point and click however is that some issues can't be solved with this method. I really like the idea of positioning it as a starter and you can augment that script from this point. So are you thinking about them being able to edit the output as well?

bestattack 10 years ago |

Very nice. If I had a website I might be excited about this.

What is "standing up"?

I'm interested in your Flytrap language. Can you bring it to other platforms, like mobile?

wjg 10 years ago | |

Thank you! By standing up, I simply mean getting to a place where your team is taking full advantage of web automation scripting. "Implementing" is probably the better word there.

And right now, "implementing" web UI automation usually means downloading and installing Selenium drivers and their language bindings... and writing Selenium scripts in a major programming language (C#/Java/Ruby/JS etc). Then coordinating teammates' machines... then sharing tests with each other, so we'll create a git repo... ARGH I'm a QA analyst, not a developer!

But that is the crux of the issue: QA people usually do not have the necessary programming/technical experience to get that to a place where the rest of the team can use it AND not have it result in a heaping mess of abandoned scripts a year later.

However, show any QA person an automation of a tedious workflow of theirs and their eyes light up as they think of the time that can be saved.

Flytrap aims to make the automation barrier-to-entry insignificant by providing simple commands that map directly to things people can do on a website. Click this, set this value. But it's also extremely powerful and can perform very elaborate workflows by utilizing a few simple programming constructs (loops, variables, etc).

Right now, Flytrap only works in DOM environments, so "just" the browser. But that's not to say that it couldn't be extended for mobile apps (and it actually works like a charm for a mobile web app!). As long as the "things" in a UI can be referenced via text, then theoretically, Flytrap would work in any environment!

I'm focusing on web for now though because that seems to be where most shops struggle with automation and it seems to be where a JS library and have the biggest impact.

I really appreciate the comment and would love to expand on any other questions.