Repeato is a mobile test automation tool which works based on computer vision and machine learning. This way the tester does not need to care about the underlying architecture of the app (IDs, layout structure) which simplifies the creation of tests. Instead of writing code, tests can be recorded via a test recorder. For each click interaction, a visual fingerprint is generated which allows the test runner to find the UI element later on. For each test run, a report can be generated which shows a visual step-by-step representation of the automated UI interactions.
Repeato has a new approach to mobile testing and works fundamentally differently than other UI testing frameworks:
Repeato operates fully on pixel data and does not care about the underlying structure of the UI. It basically sees what a tester would see by utilizing computer vision and machine learning. Asserts are created by defining visual fingerprints of elements, which can later be found again by the computer vision algorithm. That even works when your design or device aspect ratios change slightly.
Repeato’s main focus is the ease of use, speed of test creation and execution as well as test stability. Also, other than many other testing tools, you can conduct real device testing, independently of emulators or simulators.
Only your own physical devices at the moment. Emulators work too.
Our main focus is still to provide a no-code test automation tool that actually works and works well for all sorts of test cases. So we have a “test as many app features as possible – fast” strategy.
Other tools out there (such as sauce labs, firebase, appium, etc), make it easy to run tests on many devices, they follow a “test app on as many different devices” strategy, but as you might have experienced, they require quite an investment to be implemented.
What we typically recommend to our clients is this:
Yes, with Repeato you can also use emulators or simulators instead of physical devices.
Yes, it does.
Basically yes, depending on how much your iOS app differs from your Android app.
Yes.
Yes, you can edit test steps easily.
Yes, e.g. for registering new accounts you can generate random usernames or email addresses.
Yes, you can.
Repeato allows you to create workspaces. Each workspace can live in its own directory which can be easily checked into a repository (either git or some other versioning software). Learn how to get started
On your own drive, so it’s the most private solution you can have. You can keep your data and use it however you like. All data is stored in an open format, so it’s easy to read and convert. If you decide to do so you can sync test data within your team via git or some other versioning system.
If you are on the monthly plan, you can decide to pause the service at any time up to 2 times a year. The reason for this limit is the administrative work that it implies for the Repeato team.
We feel you.
On our support page we offer some resources that can help you get that budget.
If that doesn’t make things easier, don’t hesitate to reach out and let’s discuss your situation – we’re sure we find a solution that works for you!
Yes you can. Repeato will run headless as a node.js application on pretty much every system.
Yes, Repeato supports a wide range of frameworks: Flutter, React Native, Xamarin, Unreal Engine, and many more.
Yes, it is.
Not much, there is one big issue though: It’s very time consuming to create tests: finding the right view ID, mocking classes, creating idling resources or finding the right delays for you next step. Espresso need to have a sophisticated understanding of how the UI is structured. In order to create asserts and click views, Espresso as well as most other testing frameworks needs a unique reference to the respective view in the view hierarchy (layout). Usually a manually set ID or the “layout path” is used as a unique reference and the developers needs to reference that ID when they write test automation code. This approach comes with a lot of complexity which needs to be handled by the
developer:
Gherkin with Appium is not a bad idea. Especially if you want to tests on hundreds of different devices in parallel. It’s open source and there is tons of documentation out there. However, the problem with traditional test automation is the complexity in terms of setup and communication: The testers need the app to be built in a way that they can access the UI elements. Most often IDs are used for that. So before they can even start to automate things, the developer team needs to do a lot of work:
BDD (or, Gherkin) adds another layer of abstraction, which is good for non-technical staff, but has it’s own downsides:
To sum it up: Gherkin with Appium makes the QA team dependent on the developer team and puts even more responsibilities on them. And it takes a lot of communication between the teams. We have seen companies postpone their plans to introduce test automation because of that for years (not kidding).
So we suggest: Use both things in parallel. You will need lots of time to get a proper Appium automation working. But it might pay off in the long run! Additionally use Repeato because some of the things you can do with it are not even possible with Appium (like checking content in native views like maps, generating batch run reports or pixel perfect assertions).
