pytanium

A front-end web testing tool in Python

Why

We need a front-end testing tool that combines the strengths of existing tools

Comparison

Features not listed below are assumed to be the same among the tools, ie. cross-browser testing

Capability	Description	Selenium	Sahi	Watir	pytanium
Easy HTTPS	Auto-accept SSL certs	Yes	Pro only	Yes	Yes
Prevent alerts/confirms/prompts	Doesn't block on these events	No	Yes	No	Yes*
Prevent print	Doesn't block on print	No	Yes	No	Yes*
AJAX waits	Waits for AJAX calls to complete	No	Yes	No	Yes*
File downloads	Allows files to be saved	No	Yes	No	No
Relational identifiers	Identify objects using in, near, contains etc	No	Yes	No	To do
Recorder/Object spy	Easy identification of elements	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Languages	Programming languages	Many	JavaScript/Java/Ruby	Ruby	Python
Cross-domain support	Consistent cross-domain support	Yes	Occasional configuration	Yes	Yes
Debugging	Breakpoints and introspection	Yes	Sort of**	Yes	Yes
Technology	Browser interaction method	Native	JavaScript events	Native	Native

*Works as long as the event isn't triggered before the document is loaded

**Sahi supports running a script line by line. For introspection, JavaScript must be executed while the script is paused.

How

Pytanium uses the python binding for selenium. To provide the features not typically included with Selenium (AJAX waits, blocking print calls, etc), pytanium injects javascript on nearly every call to the browser.

Language Features

Pytanium makes it easy to switch from Selenium, Sahi, or Watir. In doing so, it supports a lot of the same syntax from each of these tools.

Selenium

If you're writing selenium with python you don't have to change your existing code, it's syntactically correct pytanium code.

Sahi

Pytanium's features are heavily inspired by Sahi, so a lot of Sahi's syntax works.

Recorder/Object spy

Sahi has an excellent object spy and recorder. The pytanium recorder leverages this power by simply adding an additional supported language to Sahi.

Download the recorder

While writing automation, it's helpful to inspect objects on a page in the same browser instance we're automating. Opening another browser just to verify an element on a page is cumbersome and slow. To use both the recorder and automation simultaneously:

1. Start the Pytanium Recorder (A Sahi Open Source proxy)
2. Pass {'enableRecorder' : True} as one of your capabilities (for Firefox) or desired_capabilities (for everything else)

from pytanium import webdriver

# For Firefox
browser = Firefox(capabilities = {'enableRecorder' : True})

# For everything else
browser = Chrome(desired_capabilities = {'enableRecorder' : True})
browser = Ie(desired_capabilities = {'enableRecorder' : True})

License

LGPL