Sahi vs ...

2 weeks of work and the newly released Sahi has a better controller GUI, better log reporting, and some bugfixes for multidomain support.

I have been asked many times as to why I am developing yet another web testing tool. My answer is that what we have so far really does not address complex web pages with frames, popups and frame breaking code.

As I realized on watching the progress of development on Selenium, it seems like people have started moving towards Ruby Selenium as it gives better control for the QA to organize code. The popularity of Selenium also seems to say that a visual indication for tests run is very much wanted. And of course the Selenium recorder has been really appreciated.

Combining all these concepts, but taking a totally different approach of injecting code into web pages (unintrusively as far as I know) which attaches handlers to elements, Sahi is able to do absolutely anything at all with the browser and the web page.

The Sahi script is essentially javascript, but is parsed on the Sahi proxy to achieve objectives like delayed execution.

A recorder makes the tool extremely useful as one can easily write mundane scripts, and then refactor it.

One place where it beats professional tools is in multithreaded playback and the way it does not require the test screens to be in focus, leaving you to carry on with your work, while it chugs (sails really) away in the background.

There are still quite a few bugs to be fixed and functionality to be added, but I think it is for grabs for people who wish to use a testing tool with almost all the features of a professional tool and more, but of course, want them absolutely free ;)

Putting Sahi on sourceforge has been one of my more satisfying moves, just for the fact that the daily statistics of the number of downloads really keeps my enthusiasm to add and rectify functionality to it. And of course it has made ego surfing more pleasureable!