Show HN: Usetrace – Virtual users doing your repetitive web testing

by dhpe • 12 years ago

43 27 12 years ago

joncalhoun• 12 years ago

How different is this from https://www.rainforestqa.com/ ?

I haven't used either extensively, but they look similar in a few ways, yet different. I am curious if anyone with knowledge of the two could elaborate on the differences.

eeheino3• 12 years ago

In Usetrace you define modular tests by using your own site. Tests (or traces) are visually represented like cartoon strips. You can follow test execution from a live view in your browser. Tests are executed automatically and in parallel. An average test run completes in 10-20s from request. Error screenshots and reports can be emailed or send to your team chat e.g. HipChat.

In Rainforest you define tests by writing instructions for human testers. Reports only tell you if a test was successful or which steps succeeded / failed. It takes close to half an hour for one two step test to complete in five browsers.

Cheers, Eero CEO of Usetrace http://twitter.com/EeroHeroHeino

michaelmior• 12 years ago

For me, I'm more interested in how this differs from Selenium. Is it just making this sort of testing process easier?

eeheino3• 12 years ago

We've build on top of selenium. Traces are modular in a similar fashion than programming parametrized modules and they can be updated separately - Mixing the benefits of programmable tests with the easiness of record&playback.

lazyant2• 12 years ago

Very nice, dashboard and test working as expected, intuitive etc. Only comment is that from the front page I wasn't sure what I was signing up for (saw no demo)

Theodores• 12 years ago

It also wasn't obvious that you had to scroll down to read more stuff even though it was yet another Twitter Bootstrap thing that we should all know and understand in this 'sign up to our Saas startup' context.

lazyant2• 12 years ago

I'm trained because it's been a year or so since apparently all startup web sites are like that, an option I've seen is to add an arrow to indicate there's more.

dhpe8• 12 years ago

Thanks, a good point!

dhpe8• 12 years ago

Thanks! We're going to improve the landingpage. Meanwhile, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQqAr4jJ9Xw - signing up is also free.

SimpleXYZ• 12 years ago

You really need to work on your sign-up form validation. At least add client side validation.

dhpe8• 12 years ago

Some improvements made. Going to be better!

mef• 12 years ago

Pretty cool. Signed up and figured out how to start using it right away, which is in and of itself a great thing.

Questions:

1. When creating a trace, how do you specify when you're finished?

2. Is there a way to set a single trace to run on all browsers?

3. How do you specify what constitutes a "success" vs. a "fail" for any given trace?

dhpe8• 12 years ago

1. Just click "Run Trace" to verify the automation works.

2. Yes, from Dashboard it's currently FF&Chrome only, but via API you can include IEs. I can help you to get started (mailto arto@usetrace.com)

3. If a Trace can be walked through it passes. A Trace includes steps like clicks on buttons and checks (explicit things that must be visible on the page, e.g. text or other elements).

pionar• 12 years ago

I really like the Visual Studio "load testing" [1] for this purpose. My team uses it. It doesn't just include a trace of paths through the application, it performs important load testing and analysis. Well worth the price.

[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms182594.aspx

jprince2• 12 years ago

Why wouldn't you just use Cucumber or RSPEC+Selenium(or some other variant library for a different language) to do it?

ertdfgcb• 12 years ago

Because you can pay these guys to do that for you. Plus, they'll support it and provide fake user data.

dhpe8• 12 years ago

Most of the teams do not have required skills for scripted test automation. Even the teams that do have the skills struggle to have time for testing.

Personally after doing programmed Selenium tests for 9 years, I have learned that when releasing software daily, scripted tests lag all the time behind development. Providing a simplified testing tool that allows easy trace creation and maintenance without programming is needed.

However traditional record & playback tools are not working for agile teams due to maintenance burden. Usetrace brings concepts from the scripted testing available to non-programmers.

wehadfun• 12 years ago

How much time does it take to set this up? I ask because it would be nice to set up the test for free then start paying the $90-$700 to actually run unless this is something that a busy engineer can set up in a few hours.

eeheino3• 12 years ago

You can create a trace for your web app and integrate it with Jenkins in 5 minutes.

One customer, that didn't have any automated testing, was able to create 40 cross-browser traces and integrate runs with Jenkins in two days. The average running time for their whole set is about 3 minutes.

When you register account, you can test for free. CI and reporting are under settings.

jvandyke• 12 years ago

Great start to a great product.

We have an Angular app w/ OAuth flows and connections to outside apps. We started with Protractor running locally and on SauceLabs, but it hasn't seen much love because adding new tests takes time, especially for complicated stuff like oauth flows.

Your product should allow our "Product guys" and QA guy write the smoke tests in much less time and maintain them without having to write code or take up developer time, which is huge in a team of 2 guys who write front-end code and would be maintaining the tests.

The only real issues I have right now are 1. Errors can be hard to track down since there isn't any console output. That's something I miss from SauceLabs which was a huge help. 2. Smaller, but annoying, pasting isn't allowed when creating a test. This is painful for username/password entry. It would also be nice to use some kind of variable to ease this. 3. I'm unsure of pricing. When I'm logged in, I see that I have the free plan, but I see no limits or details about the plan.

Other than that, it was a great feeling to get a basic smoke test, plus jenkins integration, plus flowdock integration within an hour of discovering the app. Again, great job!

dhpe8• 12 years ago

Hi, thanks for the awesome feedback!

About pricing, you can test all features for free. If you like it and continue to use it, you can subscribe to one of our plans.

Copy pasting is a feature which we haven't solved yet. It would definitely be a huge productivity boost when making traces.

Console output is in our backlog but currently we focus on more important issues.

rpedela• 12 years ago

On Ubuntu 12.04 with latest Firefox, clicking signup locks up Firefox and subsequently locks up the system. Eventually I am able to launch a terminal and kill the Firefox process. Using latest Chrome, everything works fine.

Show HN: Usetrace – Virtual users doing your repetitive web testing

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