Quickstart: run your first Testmode test

This quickstart takes you from sign-up to your first verdict in about ten minutes. The example tests the Toolshop, a public practice shop at https://practicesoftwaretesting.com, so you can follow along without your own app. To test your own app instead, use its URL wherever the Toolshop’s appears.

• A browser. There is nothing to install, and nothing to add to your app’s code.
• A site to test. Use the Toolshop, or any web app reachable from the public internet. Testmode’s browsers run in the cloud, so they can’t open localhost or sites behind a VPN.
• No card. The Free plan’s 100 credits a month are plenty for this quickstart: a test like the one below uses about four. To try Self-driving as well, start the 7-day Pro trial instead, which asks for a card and charges nothing until it ends. See Plans and billing.

1. On testmode.ai, click Start free on the Pricing page to start on Free, or Try for free to start the Pro trial. The Sign up tab opens, with your choice described above it.

2. Enter your Name, Email and Password. The password needs at least 12 characters, with upper- and lower-case letters and a number.

3. Click Create account.

4. Testmode emails you a 6-digit code. Type it on the Verify your email page. If it doesn’t arrive within a minute, check your spam folder, or ask for a new code on the same page.

You can also click Continue with Google or Continue with GitHub where they are shown; those accounts need no code. See Sign up and sign in.

An organization holds your team, your projects and your plan. A project holds the tests for one app.

1. Under Create your organization, enter an Organization name, such as Pellbrook Digital, and click Continue. You become the organization’s Owner.

2. Under Invite your team, add your colleagues’ email addresses, or click Skip for now. You can invite people later from Organization settings.

3. Under Create your first project, enter a Project name, such as Toolshop Storefront, and in Application URL (optional) enter https://practicesoftwaretesting.com. Click Continue.

What happens next depends on how you signed up:

• Start free: setup ends here, and your organization is on Free.
• Try for free: Testmode opens the checkout of Polar, our payment provider. Enter your card details and finish the checkout; nothing is charged for 7 days. You come back to Testmode on the Pro trial.
• Sign up without either: a last step, Choose your plan, shows the plans. Click Start free on the Free card, or Start 7-day free trial on the Pro card.

The top of the sidebar shows your organization and its plan, for example Free or Pro trial. Click it to see how many credits are left.

An environment is a site your tests run against. The Application URL you entered became an environment named Default.

1. In the sidebar, click Settings, then open the Environments tab.

2. Find Default in the list.

A test case is a list of steps and an Expected Outcome, both in plain English. You describe what a person would do and see. You don’t write code or selectors.

1. In the sidebar, click Test cases, then click New test case. The Create test case dialog opens.

2. In the name field at the top, type Search finds hammers.

3. Under Test Steps, click Add step and type the first step. Click Add step again for the second:

   1. Type "hammer" into the "Search" field and click "Search".
   2. Wait until the heading "Searched for: hammer" appears.

4. In Expected Outcome, describe what success looks like:

   Every product card shown has "hammer" in its name, and "Thor Hammer" is one of them.

5. Leave everything under Optional as it is. Without a Start path, the test starts at the environment’s URL, the shop’s home page.

6. Click Create.

Create stays disabled until the test case has a name, at least one step and an Expected Outcome.

1. Click Run test in the top right corner. The Run tests dialog opens.

2. Under Environment, choose Default.

3. Under What to run, choose Single test, then pick Search finds hammers.

4. Click Run.

A run uses one credit for each action its tests take: a typed value, a click, a wait, the final check. This test takes about four.

Testmode opens the run page. While the test waits for a browser and runs, it shows as in progress. The first time a step runs, Testmode works out the browser actions it needs; later runs replay them, which makes them faster and more predictable.

When the test finishes, the page shows:

• The verdict and a one-line summary, for example “Passed. 2 steps (3 actions) completed and the expected outcome was verified.”
• Session replay, a recording of the browser for the whole test. Play it to watch what Testmode did.
• Test steps, your steps in order. Open a step to see the operations it ran, such as typing into a field or clicking a button, and the page each one ran on. The last row is the check of your Expected Outcome.
• Console and Network, the browser’s logs during the test.

If your test shows PASSED, you’re done: Testmode searched the shop and confirmed that the results match your Expected Outcome.

A failed test says where it stopped: “Failed at step N” with the step and what went wrong, or “Expected outcome not met” with what Testmode observed instead. The run page shows a screenshot of the page at that moment; play the session replay to see how it got there. Then change the test case and run it again.

Common causes on a first test:

• A label doesn’t match the site. Quote buttons, fields and headings exactly as the page shows them.
• The Expected Outcome is stricter than you meant. Describe only what must be true, in words the page actually shows.
• The site blocked the cloud browser. If the screenshot shows an error or a challenge page instead of your site, the site refuses automated traffic. Test an environment that allows it.

See Troubleshoot failed tests for more.

One test is a start. On Pro, the trial included, Self-driving explores your app on its own, keeps a map of it, writes the tests your app needs, schedules them and investigates the runs that fail. Turn it on from the gear beside Self-driving in the sidebar. See Turn on Self-driving.