Rationale

High-quality tests are crucial to ensuring that code consistently delivers value. While unit testing is a well-explored and well-understood space, full-stack browser testing has emerged as an important component of any testing plan. Unit tests ensure particular pieces of code perform as expected, but only full-stack integration tests can ensure that the entire application is behaving as expected, ensuring customers are getting what they ask for.

However, browser testing remains in the stone age. Testers use tools like Selenium IDE and HP QuickTest Pro to record and play back brittle tests that even the simplest of changes can break. Automated browser tests end up taking up egregious amounts of time in maintenance keeping up with HTML and style changes. Traditional browser automation technology simply cannot keep up with the tight iterations of truly agile development organizations.

The Page Object Model has emerged as an industry-standard practice for building reusable, reliable, and robust browser tests. Many companies have built Page Object Model testing frameworks internally, but the open-source standard remains low-level. Without a clear path forward, many developers and QA people never move on from low-level Selenium tests until immense energy has been wasted.

Test::Right provides a flexible, powerful platform for building full-stack browser integration tests. While borrowing concepts from the Page Object Model, Test::Right goes even further, enforcing a robust separation of concerns while maintaining enough flexibility to interact with even the most complex JavaScript applications.