Let me tell you a story. It’s one I haven’t told before. But to do it, let’s first get acquainted.

Hi – I’m Dave Piacente. You may know me from a past life when I went by the name Dave Haeffner and my past works with Selenium. I’m the new DevRel and Head of Community at Applitools—Andy’s moved on to a tremendous bucket-list job opportunity elsewhere, and we wish him all the best! I’ve been working closely with him behind the scenes to learn the ropes to help make this a smooth transition and to ensure that all of the great work he’s done and the community he’s grown will continue to flourish. And to loosely paraphrase Shakespeare – A DevRel (or a Dave) by any other name would be just as sweet.

Now, about that story…

I used to be known for a thing – “Selenium Dave” as they would say. I worked hard to earn that rep. I had one aim, to be helpful. I was trying to solve a problem that vexed me early on in my career in test automation (circa 2009) when open-source test automation and grid providers were on a meteoric rise. The lack of clear and concise guidance on how to get started and grow into a mature test automation practice was profound. But the fundamentals weren’t that challenging to master (once you knew what they were), and the number of people gnashing their teeth as they white-knuckled their way through it was eye-popping.

So, back in 2011, after working in the trenches at a company as an SDET (back before that job title was a thing), I left to start out on my own with a mission to help make test automation simpler. It started simply enough with consulting. But then the dominos began to fall when I started organizing a local test automation meetup.

While running the meetup I realized I kept getting asked the same questions and offering the same answers, so I started jotting them down and putting them into blog posts which later became a weekly tip newsletter (Elemental Selenium, which eventually grew to a readership of 30,000 testers). Organically, that grew into enough content (and confidence) to write a book, The Selenium Guidebook.

I then stepped out of meetup organization and into organizing the Selenium conference, where I became the conference chair from 2014 to 2017. My work on the conference opened the door for me to become part of the Selenium core team. From there it was a hop-skip-and-a-jump to working full-time as a contributor on Selenium IDE at Applitools.

Underpinning all of this, I was doing public speaking at meetups and conferences around the world (starting with my first conference talk back in 2010). I felt like I had summited the mountain—I was in the best possible position to be the most helpful. And I truly felt like I was making a difference in the industry.

But then I took a hard right turn and stopped doing it all. I felt like I had accomplished what I’d set out to do – I had helped make testing simpler (at least for people using Selenium). So I stepped down from the Selenium project, I stopped organizing the Selenium conference, I stopped doing public speaking, I sold my content business (e.g., the newsletter & book) to a third party, and I even changed my last name (from Haeffner to Piacente – although for reasons unrelated to my work). By all marks, I had closed that chapter of my life and was happily focusing on being a full-time Software Developer in the R&D team at Applitools.

While I was doing that, the test automation space continued to grow and evolve as I watched from the sidelines. Seemingly every enterprise was now shifting left (not just the more progressive ones), alternative open-source test automation frameworks to Selenium continued to gain ground in adoption, some new-and-noteworthy entrants started popping up, and the myriad of companies selling their wares in test automation seemed to grow exponentially. And then, Generative AI waltzed into the public domain like the Kool-Aid man busting through a wall. “Oh yeah!”

I started to realize that the initial problem I had strived to make a dent in—making testing simpler—was a moving target. Some things are far simpler now than when I started out, but some are more complex. There are new problems constantly emerging, and the ground underneath our feet is shifting.

So perhaps my work is not done. Perhaps there is more that I can do to help make test automation simpler. To return to public speaking and content creation. To return to being helpful. But this time, with the full weight of a company behind me, instead of as just as a one-man show.

I’m thrilled to be back, and I’m excited for what’s to come!

The post Welcome Back, Selenium Dave! appeared first on Automated Visual Testing | Applitools.

We are excited to share some fantastic news with our valued customers and the broader testing community. Applitools has acquired Preflight, a pioneering no-code platform that streamlines the creation, execution, and management of complex end-to-end tests. This acquisition marks a significant step in our journey to provide you with breakthrough technology that empowers your teams to increase test coverage, reduce test execution time, and deliver superior applications that your customers will love.

Introducing Applitools Preflight

Preflight is a robust no-code testing tool that empowers teams of all skill levels to automate complex testing scenarios. It runs these tests at an impressive scale across various browsers and screen sizes. Preflight’s user-friendly web recorder captures every element accurately and includes a data generator to simulate even the most complex test cases. This is a game-changer for manual testers, QA engineers, and product teams as it empowers them to automate test scenarios regardless of their skillset, effectively multiplying their QA abilities instantly.

Preflight ensures businesses achieve the test coverage necessary to consistently delight customers with each new experience, all without writing a single line of code.

The Benefits of Preflight

Simplified Test Creation: With Preflight, anyone on the team can create and run tests, democratizing the testing process. This inclusivity leads to more thorough testing and faster feedback cycles.

Expanded Test Coverage: Preflight enables teams to create comprehensive test suites that cover more functionality in less time. It can easily create UI tests, API tests, verify emails during sign-up, generate synthetic data, and more. This means teams can test more scenarios and edge cases that may have been overlooked with manual testing or traditional automated testing.

Enhanced Maintainability and Reusability: Preflight allows customers to reuse sections of test suites, workflows, login profiles, data, and more across different tests, reducing redundancy. It also simplifies test maintenance with a powerful test editor and live test replay that makes editing tests fast and intuitive, reducing one of the biggest gripes of record-and-replay tools.

The Future of Applitools and Preflight

While Preflight will continue to be available as a standalone product, we are actively integrating it into the Applitools platform to bring Visual AI to the masses! To get an exclusive first look at Preflight today, we invite you to sign up for a demo with one of our engineers.

The post Welcome Preflight To The Applitools Family appeared first on Automated Visual Testing | Applitools.

How can I become an Ambassador?

If you think you’ve got what it takes to become an Applitools Ambassador, then please apply! We’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, keep an eye open as we announce our first set of Ambassadors.

The post Announcing the Applitools Ambassadors Program! appeared first on Automated Visual Testing | Applitools.

No more “detached from DOM” errors

If you are a daily Cypress user, chances are you have seen an error that said something like, “the element was detached from DOM”. This is often caused by the fact that the element you tried to select was re-rendered, disappeared, or detached some other way. With modern web applications, this is something that happens quite often. Cypress could deal with this reasonably well, but the API was not intuitive enough. In fact, I listed this as one of the most common mistakes in my talk earlier this year.

Let’s consider the example from my talk. In a test, we want to do the following:

1. Open the search box.
2. Type “abc” into the search box.
3. Verify that the first result is an item with the text “abc”.

As we type into the search box, an HTTP request is sent with every keystroke. Every response from that HTTP request then triggers re-rendering of the results.

The test will look like this:

it('Searching for item with the text "abc"', () => {
 
 cy.visit('/')
 
 cy.realPress(['Meta', 'k'])
 
 cy.get('[data-cy=search-input]')
   .type('abc')
 
 cy.get('[data-cy=result-item]')
   .first()
   .should('contain.text', 'abc')
 
})

The main problem here is that we ignore the HTTP requests that re-render our results. Depending on the moment when we call cy.get() and cy.first() commands, we get different results. As the server responds with search results (different with each keystroke), our DOM is getting re-rendered, making our “abc” item shift from second position to first. This means that our cy.should() command might make an assertion on a different element than we expect.

Typically, we rely on Cypress’ built-in retry-ability to do the trick. The only problem is that the cy.should() command will retry itself and the previous command, but it will not climb up the command chain to the cy.get() command.

It is fairly easy to solve this problem in versions v11 and before, but the newest Cypress update has brought much more clarity to the whole flow. Instead of the cy.should() command retrying only itself and the previous command, it will retry the whole chain, including our cy.get() command from the example.

In order to keep retry-ability sensible, Cypress team has split commands into three categories:

• assertions
• actions
• queries

These categories are reflected in Cypress documentation. The fundamental principle brought by version 12 is that a chain of queries is retried as a whole, instead of just the last and penultimate command. This is best demonstrated by an example comparing versions:

// Cypress v11:
cy.get('[data-cy=result-item]') //  not retried
 .first() // retried
 .should('contain.text', 'abc') // retried
 
// Cypress v12:
cy.get('[data-cy=result-item]') //  retried
 .first() // retried
 .should('contain.text', 'abc') // retried

cy.get() and cy.first() are commands that both fall into queries category, which means that they are going to get retried when cy.should() does not pass immediately. As always, Cypress is going to keep on retrying until the assertion passes or until a time limit runs up.

it('Google SSO login', () => {
 
 cy.visit('/login') // primary app login page
 
 cy.getDataCy('google-button')
   .click() // clicking the button will redirect to another domain
 
 cy.origin('https://accounts.google.com', () => {
   cy.get('[type="email"]')
     .type(Cypress.env('email')) // google email
   cy.get('[type="button"]')
     .click()
   cy.get('[type="password"]')
     .type(Cypress.env('password')) // google password
   cy.get('[type="button"]')
     .click()
 })
 
 cy.location('pathname')
   .should('eq', '/success') // check that we have successfully
 
})

it('Google SSO login', () => {
 
 cy.visit('/login') // primary app login page
 cy.getDataCy('google-button')
   .click() // clicking the button will redirect to another domain
 
 cy.session('google login', () => {
   cy.origin('https://accounts.google.com', () => {
     cy.get('[type="email"]')
       .type(Cypress.env('email')) // google email
     cy.get('[type="button"]')
       .click()
     cy.get('[type="password"]')
       .type(Cypress.env('password')) // google password
     cy.get('[type="button"]')
       .click()
   })
 })
 
 cy.location('pathname')
   .should('eq', '/success') // check that we have successfully
 
})

// file #1
describe('group 1', () => {
 it('test A', () => {
   // ...
 })
})
 
it('test B', () => {
 // ...
})
 
// file #2
before( () => {
 // ...
})
 
it('test C', () => {
 // ...
})

it('test A', () => {
 cy.visit('https://staging.myapp.com')
 // ...
 // your test doing stuff
})
 
// navigates to about:blank
 
it('test B', () => {
 cy.get('#myElement') // nope, will fail, we are at about:blank
})

Removing of deprecated commands and APIs

Some of the APIs and commands reached end of life with the latest Cypress release. For example, cy.route() and cy.server() have been replaced by the much more powerful cy.intercept() command that was introduced back in version 6.

The more impactful change was the deprecation of Cypress.Cookies.default() and Cypress.Cookies.preserveOnce() APIs that were used for handling the behavior of clearing up and preserving cookies. With the introduction of cy.session(), these APIs didn’t fit well into the system. The migration from these commands to cy.session() might not seem as straightforward, but it is quite simple when you look at it.

For example, instead of using Cypress.Cookies.preserveOnce() function to prevent deletion of certain cookies you can use cy.session() like this:

beforeEach(() => {
 cy.session('importantCookies', () => {
   cy.setCookie('authentication', 'top_secret');
 })
});
 
it('test A', () => {
 cy.visit('/');
});
 
it('test B', () => {
 cy.visit('/');
});

Also, instead of using Cypress.Cookies.defaults() to set up default cookies for your tests, you can go to your cypress/support/e2e.js support file and set up a global beforeEach() hook that will do the same as shown in the previous example.

Besides these there were a couple of bug fixes and smaller tweaks which can all be viewed in Cypress changelog. Overall, I think that the v12 release of Cypress is one of the unsung heroes. Rewriting of query commands and availability of cy.session() and cy.origin() commands may not seem like a big deal on paper, but it will make the experience much smoother than it was before.

New command queries might require some rewriting in your tests. But I would advise you to upgrade as soon as possible, as this update will bring much more stability to your tests. I’d also advise to rethink your test suite and integrate cy.session() to your tests as it might not only handle your login actions more elegantly but shave off minutes of your test run.

If you want to learn more about Cypress, you can come visit my blog, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Let the Engineers Speak! Part 5: Audience Q&A

Articles — 01.11.2023

Let the Engineers Speak! Part 4: Changing Frameworks

Articles — 01.05.2023

Let the Engineers Speak! Part 3: Favorite Test Integrations

Articles — 12.28.2022

The post What’s New in Cypress 12 appeared first on Automated Visual Testing | Applitools.

Update to One-line Setup Command

A small but effective update so far that made me smile was being able to set up a WebdriverIO project with one command `$ npm init wdio@latest ./`. After that command, it asks you all the questions needed to set up and run your tests. It provides you with predefined options for not only end-to-end testing of web and mobile applications but unit and component testing as well.

Transition from Common JS to EMCAScript modules (ESM)

To give some background, CommonJS and ESM refer to the module system that allows us to use code from a “next” developer/library or code/data that is in a different file. The CommonJS module system has been the default module system within the Node.js ecosystem. However, the ES module was added in Node.js v8.5.0 and has been stabilized and incorporated as standard from Node.js v13.2.0. 
You may be familiar with using `require` to use your page objects in your test files and `module.exports` or `exports` so that your page objects or other files can be accessed by your tests. This method of managing files and libraries is the CommonJS way.

With ESM you use `import` and `export` to manage files and libraries.

There are some other differences between them, but for you, the end user, this is the main one. 
This change should not affect your work as CommonJS is still supported. However, if you want to use ES modules then you can now do so. I recommend getting familiar with ESM and how it works before starting to use it. Hopefully, in the near future, there will be additional boilerplates from WebdriverIO on using ESM in your projects https://webdriver.io/docs/boilerplates/.

New Action Interface

This is a new interface that makes executing various actions much easier. Two new browser commands action and actions have been added. It is now much simpler and type-safe to run the right action, e.g. sending key events to the browser.

Read more about this in the WebdriverIO API docs.

Optional Globals

The WebdriverIO test runner would usually register the browser object or the $ and $$ commands to the global scope. With v8 update, the user can decide if they want to continue attaching these objects and methods to the global scope or prefer importing them directly.

To import them directly you would say : 

import { browser, $, $$, expect } from ‘@wdio/globals’

Importing the $ command allows you to use it from the @wdio/globals:

Using Visual Studio Code as my code editor, if I hover over the $ it shows that it is coming as a global import from WebdriverIO:

A new configuration property called injectGlobals (defaults: true) handles whether the test runner modifies the global scope or not. If your setup works fine using global objects, no change is needed to update to v8.

You don’t have to import from @wdio/globals as it will still work.

Update to WebdriverIO version 8 from version 7

Install a module to help update outdated npm modules

`npm install -g npm-check-updates`

Run `ncu` to show list of outdated npm packages:

Then run `ncu -u` to upgrade your package.json:

Then finally run npm install to install new versions:

I then reran all my tests and they passed successfully.

The post What’s New in WebdriverIO 8 appeared first on Automated Visual Testing | Applitools.

Applitools is proud to announce its positioning in the Major Players category in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Cloud Testing 2022 Vendor Assessment — Empowering Business Velocity. Applitools was also positioned in the Major Players category in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Mobile Testing and Digital Quality 2022 Vendor Assessment — Enabling Multimodal Dynamism for Digital Innovation.

Written by Melinda-Carol Ballou, Research Director, Agile ALM, Quality & Portfolio Strategies at IDC Research, this IDC study uses the IDC MarketScape model to provide an assessment of 24 vendors for worldwide cloud testing and enterprise automated software quality (ASQ) SaaS solutions.

“Participating vendors needed to have sufficient cloud testing automated software quality capabilities available in key areas of concern (e.g., test infrastructure provisioning and configuration management; deep analytics for analysis of performance optimization, service virtualization, and architectural and other analysis to enable visibility into the health of applications deployed in native and hybrid cloud; readiness for software targeting the cloud; and/or delivery of their ASQ software solution in the cloud with partner integration for other capabilities) for IDC clients.”

Source: IDC

Applitools products considered as part of these vendor assessments include Applitools Eyes and Applitools Ultrafast Test Cloud (the combination of Applitools Eyes, Applitools Ultrafast Grid and Applitools Native Mobile Grid).

How Applitools Enables Automated Software Quality

As software development teams rapidly deliver new products and services to market through more frequent and shorter release cycles, they struggle to fully test the customer experience due to increasing application complexity and an explosion of device/browser combinations. When development teams are confident they can fix functional and visual bugs faster, they can push more high-quality code faster than ever before.

To enable automated software quality consistently, quickly, and at a fraction of the cost, Applitools extends to its customers the power of Applitools Visual AI—the only AI-powered computer vision that accurately mimics the human eye and brain to avoid undetected functional and visual bugs, minimizing false positive bug alerts.

Visual AI is trained on more than 1 billion images and supports analysis across custom regions, with advanced comparison modes/match levels and auto-maintenance of test results. Tests infused with Visual AI (via Applitools Eyes) are created 5.8x faster, run 3.8x more stable, and catch 45% more bugs vs. traditional functional testing. In addition, tests powered by Visual AI can take advantage of the ultrafast speed and stability of Applitools Ultrafast Test Cloud.

The Ultrafast Test Cloud can instantly validate entire application pages and detect issues on even the most complex and dynamic pages. It allows users to write and execute tests once locally with support for more than 50 test frameworks and programming languages including: Cypress, Storybook, Selenium Java, Selenium JavaScript, Selenium C#, Selenium Python, Selenium Ruby, Selenium IDE, Webdriver.IO, TestCafe, and more.

A single functional test run captures the DOM & CSS rules for every browser state, automatically rendering it in parallel across all browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Internet Explorer) and viewports using the Ultrafast Grid. Screenshots are then instantly analyzed by Applitools Eyes to find functional and visual bugs. 

Applitools integrates with all the major CI/CD platforms, including GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, Travis CI, Circle CI, Semaphore, TeamCity, and Bamboo, as well as with defect- tracking/collaboration systems, including Jira, CA Rally, Microsoft Teams, and Slack. The Applitools Eyes dashboard also enables collaboration between design, product, development, testing, and DevOps teams.

Automated software testing powered by Visual AI can help developers test 18 times faster across the full test cycle including writing, running, analyzing, reporting, and maintaining tests. That’s because Visual AI-powered automated tests that leverage the Ultrafast Test Cloud can run 30-50x faster than traditional solutions, with 99.9999% accuracy.* 

“References contacted by IDC found that Applitools’ solution led to greater efficiency in testing operations. They reported cost savings of up to 95% by making the switch to Applitools in combination with adoption of containers — additional testing tools were not required. Another customer reported that it was able to increase the speed of testing to reduce approval time for moving websites to production from 29 days to 1.5 hours. This is especially significant for a company maintaining 2,400 websites — Applitools helped ensure that sites maintained the same digital experience look and feel across pages as they changed dynamically, supporting up to five browsers and four viewpoints”.

Source: IDC

Applitools Customers, Use Cases and Community 

Applitools is helping more than 400 of the world’s top digital brands release, test, and monitor flawless mobile, web, and native apps in a fully automated way. We help our customers modernize critical test automation use cases — functional and visual regression testing, web and mobile UI/UX testing, cross browser / cross device testing, localization testing, PDF testing, digital accessibility and legal/compliance testing — to transform the way their businesses deliver innovation at the speed of DevOps without jeopardizing brand integrity.

Learn about the impact Applitools is having on these organizations by reading the customer stories in our case study library: https://applitools.com/case-studies/.  

To support the community, Applitools also maintains and manages Test Automation University, a free online learning community with over 100,000 members, that hosts more than 50 courses on a wide range of test automation topics and best practices.

“Being recognized as a major player in the IDC MarketScape for worldwide cloud testing underscores our ability to bring speed and stability to automated software quality with Visual AI and Ultrafast Test Cloud. We’re the world’s fastest-growing software testing company because our customers are using the most advanced, yet simple way to ensure brand integrity across any digital end-user experience. Their success is our success.”

Moshe Milman, COO and co-founder, Applitools

Thank You

It takes a village. Our fantastic team has worked long and hard to achieve this recognition from IDC Research, but this is also the direct result of the feedback and collaboration we’ve had with our customers – we could not have done it without you. Because of our strong community and our valued partnerships, the industry has also recognized Applitools as the:

• Best Testing Service/Tool in the DevOps Dozen² Awards for 2021
• Leading software vendor in testing in the 2021 North American Testing Awards
• Fastest growing software testing company in North America on the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list 
• Category leader in automated testing on GetApp and Capterra

Thank you for trusting Applitools to deliver flawless automated testing for you, and we’re excited to head into the future of testing together.

Learn More

For more, schedule a demo and see for yourself how Visual AI is helping industry leaders deliver visually perfect digital experiences.

*Modern Cross Browser Testing Through Visual AI Report https://applitools.com/modern-cross-browser-testing-report/ 

The post Applitools Recognized as ‘Major Player’ in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Cloud Testing 2022 Vendor Assessment appeared first on Automated Visual Testing | Applitools.

Here at Applitools, we are relentlessly focused on making software testing easier, faster and more reliable. Our industry-leading Visual AI, trained on more than a billion images to deliver 99.9999% accuracy, can automatically detect visual and functional bugs just as a human would. The blazing fast Ultrafast Test Cloud, powered by our Ultrafast Grid, makes cross-browser, cross-device and cross-platform testing a snap. And we’re not done there, as we continue to grow and innovate along the path to autonomous testing.

Don’t just take our word for it though.  Hundreds of clients have determined that Applitools is the best visual testing tool and are using Applitools today, including nine of the top 10 software companies in the world, seven of the top 10 banks in the US and two of the top three retailers. We’ve empirically measured the impact of Visual AI and we know that the results – 5.8x faster test creation, 5.9x more efficient code (in terms of lines of code), 3.8x improvement in test code stability and 45% increase in effectiveness catching bugs early – speak for themselves.

We know that Applitools can make a dramatic difference in the lives of our customers – but again, you don’t need to just hear this from us. Numerous organizations have recognized the value Applitools brings just this month.

Update 1/19/22: We’re excited to share that we have also just been named the Best Testing Service/Tool in the DevOps Dozen² Awards for 2021. We’re honored by this latest recognition as well as the ones below!

Applitools Awarded Leading Vendor in Testing for North America

Software Testing News recently named Applitools Leading Vendor. This award is granted only to the vendor who receives top marks for both their product/service and customer service. Software Testing News specifically looked for commitment to a high quality product with excellent customer satisfaction, strong value for its cost, rock-solid reliability and ease of use, and proof of thought leadership that can drive the software testing/QE industry forward. 

It’s not easy to score highly on each of those metrics, and we’re thrilled that Software Testing News has recognized us with this award as the as the leading software testing vendor.

Applitools Named Fastest-Growing Software Testing Vendor in North America

It’s one thing to be recognized for product innovation and customer service – and make no mistake, we are proud of that – but when the rubber meets the road it is only the businesses that are growing that can meet the increasingly complex needs of more customers over the long term. That’s why we’re so excited to be named the fastest-growing software testing vendor in North America by Deloitte. 

This placement on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 is a testament to the demand in the market for a solution that can make the demanding lives of test engineers easier and significantly increase the reliability of software.

Applitools a Leader on GetApp and Capterra

We’re always grateful to the testing community and our customers for their feedback, and we’re pleased that many of them are not shy about sharing their love for Applitools and how it helps make their lives easier and more productive. That’s why we’re a Category Leader in Automated Testing on GetApp and have a strong 4.6/5.0 rating on Capterra – with no reviewer giving us fewer than four stars.

Our commitment to our customers is ironclad. We know that it’s only by our continued dedication to giving our customers exactly what they need that we can continue to win awards for growth and innovation, and we’re honored that our customers choose to share their experiences with the world.

Try it for Yourself

See for yourself why everyone from our customers to market-defining publications are calling Applitools a leader in automated software testing and showcasing the tremendous impact we’re having on the software testing industry. Get your free account and dive in, or reach out to schedule your demo today.

The post Applitools Recognized as Testing Leader by DevOps.com, Deloitte, GetApp and More appeared first on Automated Visual Testing | Applitools.

We are proud to announce our position as the top ranked software testing vendor on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies in North America.

Here at Applitools we know that when people experience the power of Visual AI, they fall in love, and that there is a large and growing demand for this technology in the market. We’re proud to share our recognition as the fastest-growing software testing company on the continent as a part of the Deloitte Fast 500. This long-running list, now in its 27^th year, provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies — both public and private — in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.

It is an honor to be the top ranked software testing vendor on the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500. And, it is a testament to the growing demand for Visual AI technology. From healthcare to transportation, digital experiences are becoming central to companies’ success. Applitools makes delivering flawless digital experiences simple, ensuring brand integrity is never compromised. Thanks to all of the hard work and dedication from the Applitools team that made our ranking on the Technology Fast 500 possible.

Gil Sever, CEO and co-founder, Applitools

How Does Applitools Help?

Modern software development teams are rapidly delivering innovation to market through more frequent and shorter release cycles, but they struggle to fully test the customer experience due to increasing application complexity and an explosion of device/browser combinations.

Applitools is helping over 400 of the world’s top digital brands release, test, and monitor flawless mobile, web, and native apps in a fully automated way. Our Visual AI mimics the human eye and brain to avoid undetected functional and visual bugs, minimizing false positive bug alerts. The Ultrafast Test Cloud can instantly validate entire application pages and detect issues on even the most complex and dynamic pages. When development teams are confident they can fix functional and visual bugs faster, they can push more high-quality code faster than ever before.

Applitools’ Visual AI modernizes critical test automation use cases — functional and visual regression testing, web and mobile UI/UX testing, cross browser / cross device testing, localization testing, PDF testing, digital accessibility and legal/compliance testing — to transform the way businesses deliver innovation at the speed of DevOps without jeopardizing their brand.

An Honor to be Recognized

The Technology Fast 500 list is an impressive list of top companies in the tech space, and we’re honored to be recognized and proud of our placement as one of the fastest growing companies in North America.

Each year the Technology Fast 500 shines a light on leading innovators in technology and this year is no exception. In the face of innumerable challenges resulting from the pandemic, the best and brightest were able to pivot, reinvent and transform and grow. We celebrate the winning organizations and especially the talented employees driving their success.

Paul Silverglate, vice chair, Deloitte LLP and U.S. technology sector leader

“The pandemic has underscored the urgent need for tech solutions in a variety of areas across health care, fintech, energy tech, entertainment, to name a few, so reliance on innovators like the winners of the Technology Fast 500 is more important than ever,” said . “These companies are not only at the cutting edge, transforming the way we do business, but most importantly, recognize the strategic importance of ongoing innovation, especially in the ever-changing world of technology.” 

Christie Simons, partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP and industry leader for technology, media and telecommunications within Deloitte’s audit & assurance practice

Thank You

Many dedicated team members have worked long and hard here at Applitools to achieve this ranking, but it is also the direct result of the feedback and collaboration we’ve had with our customers – we could not have done it without you. Thank you for trusting us to deliver flawless automated testing for you, and we’re excited to head into the future of testing together.

Learn more

For more, you can read our full press release, or schedule a demo and see for yourself how Visual AI is helping industry leaders delivery visually perfect digital experiences.

The post Applitools Named Fastest-Growing Software Testing Vendor in North America appeared first on Automated Visual Testing | Applitools.

AI is needed to meet the scale and complexities of modern software delivery. According to the EMA report, traditional test automation tools will continue to struggle to keep up.

A growing challenge for organizations reliant on software (in other words, just about every organization today) is the ever-rising scale and speed of software delivery. Software is growing more complex, users are demanding more from their experiences, and release cycles are getting shorter and shorter. All of this puts an enormous strain on the testing teams charged with ensuring that applications are error-free and delivering the desired user experience.

AI is one technology that can ease this burden on today’s testers, according to EMA Research, which has just released a research paper on the topic. The need to create better software, faster, has never been greater.

“Business’s ability to accelerate the delivery of customer value through software innovation, at lower cost, has become critical for achieving competitive advantages,” said Torsten Volk, Enterprise Management Associates Managing Research Director.

Software Testing Complexity is Increasing

The report highlights a number of data points showing the increasing complexity of testing environments. The number of test automation-related questions posted to StackOverflow has nearly doubled over the past year. Smartphones continue to proliferate at a very high rate (30% CAGR since 2017 for Android alone), adding yet more configurations that need to be tested. Apps residing in a growing number of cloud services has risen 225% since 2015, compounding the complexity of software delivery.

In an article on the topic, VentureBeat recently highlighted another report on enterprise software development by Gatepoint Research which emphasizes some of the same struggles. According to that report, 77% of respondents said that they experience setbacks in releasing new software. A smaller but still high 34% said that fixing bugs takes anywhere from days to months.

Overall, EMA found that the increase in the complexity of technology, combined with faster release cycles and the daily tasks that already exists for test engineers, combines to yield an exponential increase in testing effort required. It doesn’t help that, as EMA puts it, “test automation frameworks typically rely on a jungle of test scripts written in different languages, using different sets of runtime parameters, and lacking consistent compliance test capabilities.”

AI is Critical to Modern Software Testing According to EMA

The research by Torsten Volk and his team makes clear in no uncertain terms that “you cannot scale automated testing without AI.”  The paper outlines how the latest AI solutions help in five key categories today, and digs into how AI can help address six of the biggest test automation pain points.

“AI-based test automation technologies can deliver real ROI today,” said Volk, “and come with the potential of addressing, and ultimately eliminating, today’s critical automation bottlenecks that stifle modern software delivery.”

EMA’s research discusses several essential AI capabilities that can combined and customized according to an organization’s requirements. Visual inspection (with Visual AI) was rated as having the highest overall impact of these capabilities, both today and in the future:

Smart crawling, self-healing, anomaly detection, and coverage detection each are point solutions that help organizations lower their risk of blind spots while decreasing human workload. Visual inspection goes further compared to these point solutions by aiming to understand application workflows and business requirements.

-Disrupting the Economics of Software Testing Through AI

To learn more, download the complementary report, “Disrupting the Economics of Testing Through AI.”

The post How AI Can Help Address Modern Software Testing appeared first on Automated Visual Testing | Applitools.

Applitools was invited to share our expertise in applying AI to quality engineering, and we’re honored to be co-authors of this comprehensive report by Sogeti.

Sogeti has just released the first section of their State of AI applied to Quality Engineering 2021-22 report, including two chapters co-authored by Applitools. The report is a detailed examination of the current state of artificial intelligence in the field of quality engineering. It centers around a key question – how can AI make our quality validation smarter? In the words of the executive introduction:

This report aims to assist you in understanding the potential of AI and how it can help improve the quality, velocity, and efficiency of your quality engineering activities.

As one of the pioneers in the application of AI to quality engineering through Visual AI, we were honored to be asked to participate in this report and share our expertise. We co-authored several chapters, including two that have been released today in the first section.

Chapter 1: Quality Engineering and recent trends

In this chapter, you’ll get an overview of the business and technical environment which has led us to where we are today and the current need for assistance from AI. It discusses the shortcomings of traditional testing practices and the emergence of modern quality engineering. What does a successful Quality Engineer do today? What are the challenges faced? What is the future of quality engineering, and what role could AI play in that? Check out this opening chapter for a great introduction into the topic of AI in QE. 

Chapter 2: Getting started with AI

This chapter digs a little deeper into how you can get started in your journey with AI. Moshe starts by relating a personal story about a customer service experience that left him frustrated. How can we use AI to eliminate waste from our days and spend more time on quality engineering and address issues before they impact end users? The chapter goes on to cover the difference between routine and error-prone tasks and opens up the discussion of how we can optimize each type. You’ll also get some great info on how to define AI, understand possible use cases, and thoroughly research your options. Head over to the second chapter to read more.

In chapter 3 and chapter 4, you can explore further with technical deep dives into machine learning and deep learning. 

Check out the Full Report

Sogeti has put together a strong report on this important topic and we’re excited to share the opening section with you today. Starting in September, you can expect to find new sections released bi-weekly, including another chapter from Applitools that will be out in the coming months. To learn more, check out the full “State of AI applied to Quality Engineering 2021-22” report. 

The post The “State of AI applied to Quality Engineering 2021-2022” Report Released appeared first on Automated Visual Testing | Applitools.

I’d like to share some very exciting news. This week we have announced Thoma Bravo’s strategic investment in Applitools. This investment will provide us more resources and expertise to fulfill our vision and build the most advanced AI-powered test automation platform, paving the road to autonomous testing. 

Driving More Innovation and Growth

Thoma Bravo is a premier private equity firm that invests in software and technology enabled companies, and we believe that their investment will significantly benefit Applitools and all our customers. With this new investment, we will grow our team, continue to deliver excellent customer support, drive more product innovation, build new products to expand our offering, and expand the ecosystem around Applitools.

We will continue to expand our offering to provide more comprehensive solutions to focus on what we always have, which is the success of our customers!

Thank You

Our customers, partners and the entire Applitools community are a critical part of our success and our relationship with all of you will continue to be our top priority. We’re thrilled that this investment will enable us to become an even stronger partner for you, and we look forward to continuing to provide you with the innovation and best of breed solutions that you have come to expect from us.

Thoma Bravo’s culture is built on collaboration with existing management teams to build extraordinary companies. By combining the innovation and vision of the Applitools team with the resources and expertise of Thoma Bravo, we will accelerate the development of our AI powered automation platform to help our customers release better software, faster than ever before.

Thanks again for being our partners. We are committed to your success! If you have any questions, please reach out to our team anytime.

Yours truely,

Gil Sever

The post Strategic Investment in the Future of Visual AI and the Next Generation of Test Automation appeared first on Automated Visual Testing | Applitools.

The Red Herring award recognizes the continent’s most exciting and innovative private technology companies, and Applitools was recognized for its AI-powered test automation platform. 

Applitools is honored to be a winner of the 2020 Red Herring Top 100 North America Awards. We are both excited and humbled to be included on this prestigious list alongside some amazing and innovative growth companies.

Hundreds of companies from verticals such as Tech, Banking, Insurance, Retail, Pharma, and Publishing — including 50 of the Fortune 100 — use Applitools to deliver the best possible digital experiences to millions of customers on any device and browser, and across every screen size and operating system.

The Red Herring Top 100 has been a noteworthy award in our industry since 1996 when the accolade started as a means for discovering and advocating the most promising private ventures. To win the award, organizations must go through a rigorous three-step process during which Red Herring looks at more than 20 criteria to determine the winners. In addition to a thorough report from the company, there is also an interview process where the CEO has a conversation with a Red Herring judge. If the judge determines the company’s business model is deserving of further attention, they move forward. If not, the process stops there. The Red Herring Top 100 is extraordinarily thorough and detailed and is not an easy award to win.

Applitools delivers a Next Generation Test Automation Platform through Visual AI and Ultrafast Test Cloud. We enable engineering teams to release high quality web and mobile apps at incredible speed and at a reduced cost.

Applitools Visual AI modernizes important test automation use cases — Functional Testing, Visual Testing, Web and Mobile UI/UX Testing, Cross Browser Testing, Responsive Web Design Testing, Cross Device Testing, PDF Testing, Accessibility Testing and Compliance Testing — to transform the way organizations deliver innovation at the speed of CI/CD at a significantly lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

This is a recognition we share with everyone who makes Applitools the company that it is today – from our customers and end-users to our partners and investors – congratulations to an amazing team!

Read the full press release.

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