General frequently asked questions (FAQ)

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Finding support

There are a variety of different places to find support of any issues you may encounter or questions you may have. Firstly, you can speak with the support team directly using the chat feature when you first open mabl, which should appear at the bottom lefthand corner of the screen.

In addition, you can also email us directly at [email protected] if you would prefer.

What is mabl?

mabl is an automated testing service that is powered by machine intelligence. You can use mabl to identify regressions in the functionality of your web sites applications.

How does mabl know how to test my application?

When you set up your first application, mabl begins to execute default tests that apply to most web sites and web applications. In order to complete these tests, mabl only needs to know where to access your application (URL) and, if applicable, which credentials to use to log in. The default tests are smart enough to figure out how to log in and traverse links for most applications.

Beyond these default tests, you’ll want to train mabl how to test your application using the mabl Trainer.

How does mabl execute tests?

Mabl accesses your application via Chrome browser sessions running in compute containers and virtual machines hosted on cloud infrastructure. Mabl follows tests to complete specific operations, captures the output, processes the results, and feeds information and insights back to you via the mabl application.

How much does mabl cost?

Please refer to the pricing page for more information on our pricing structure.

What does mabl test by default?

When you create an application, mabl adds two default tests and corresponding plans automatically:

• Visit home page: The first test is a basic smoke test that visits the base URL of your environment and logs in, if applicable. The plan is configured to test that test every 30 minutes and any time you notify mabl of a deployment of the application to a particular environment.

• Link crawler: The second test is a crawl through your entire application. With this test, mabl loads your base URL, visits each of the linked pages, visits each of the links on those pages, and so forth. mabl will follow up to 50 layers of links within your domain. It will also load external links but it will not “crawl” pages outside of your domain. The plan for that test specifies that it will be tested every 24 hours and any time you notify mabl of a deployment of the application to a particular environment.

Can I integrate mabl with my CI/CD pipeline?

Yes! mabl maintains native plugins for Jenkins and Bamboo. Likewise, mabl provides a REST API that you can call from your CI/CD tool to notify mabl of new deployments. These deployment events will trigger the execution of any test policies that are configured to fire when a deployment occurs. You can find the API keys and a CURL command builder for your account on the Settings page within the mabl web interface.

In addition, mabl can integrate with webhooks. You can find more information about them here in the docs.

Can I define my own test?

Yes! The mabl Trainer can be used to define tests that are specific to your application. You can then define Plans to test those tests on a schedule or when a new deployment occurs.

Can I edit the tests that I've trained?

Yes! mabl lets you retrain and edit your tests via the main dashboard/monitor page. You can edit most steps, and if not it's simple to redo the step! To find our more, you can visit the edits docs page.

What types of insights will mabl provide automatically?

By default, mabl provides insights when:

• mabl is unable to login using credentials that you provided for your test account.
• mabl is unable to load your homepage or login page.
• The load time for your application home page is currently faster or slower than usual.
• The execution time for a given test is currently faster or slower than usual.
• There are new broken or fixed links within your application.
• There are new JavaScript errors within your application.
• mabl detects an unexpected visual change on your page.
• Your plans change from passing to failing, and the reverse.

Does mabl produce a lot of false positives? Can I provide mabl with feedback?

Many of the insights that mabl provides are based on learned models of your application. The quality of the models improve automatically as mabl executes more tests. mabl also asks for your feedback in the user interface for each insight type and uses that feedback to improve its model for your particular environment.

Can mabl test my Single Page Application (SPA)?

Yes! Mabl will adapt to test your application, regardless of whether it's an SPA or not. You won't have to test your SPA any differently than you would any other application.

Can mabl run on premise/in a single-tenant environment?

Mabl is a multi-tenant SaaS solution. It cannot be deployed on-premise or in a single-tenant environment today. However, you can use mabl Link to test on-premise environments.

My dev/test environment cannot be accessed from the public internet. What can I do?

You can use mabl Link to set up a secure tunnel between mabl's test systems and your internal environments. Alternatively, you can create firewall rules to permit inbound traffic from mabl's IP addresses, which you can find them under the "Settings" page and the "Networking" tab.

What steps does mabl take to secure my test information?

Mabl takes the security very seriously. For example:

• All mabl systems use TLS (a.k.a. SSL, HTTPS) encryption to encrypt all data in transit.
• Customer data is encrypted at rest using customer-specific encryption keys (AES-256).
• All keys are managed by a widely-used hosted key management service.
• The mabl application is deployed on cloud infrastructure that maintains compliance with a wide variety of security and privacy standards, including SSAE16 / ISAE 3402 Type II, PCI/DSS, and many more.
• Mabl integrates with popular single sign-on providers in order to support centralized identity and access management.
• The mabl service and systems undergo regular penetration testing.
• The mabl service, systems, and components are automatically scanned for known vulnerabilities.
• All mabl employees are required to participate in security training.
• All mabl data is stored in the United States.
  ....and more!

Is mabl SOC 2 certified?

Yes. Mabl has completed a successful SOC II Type II audit.

Can mabl test my mobile app?

Mabl only supports web-based applications today, but we can test responsive mobile websites.

Can mabl test my APIs?

Yes, mabl can test your APIs either with dedicated API tests or API steps within a browser test.

Can mabl run tests on other web browsers?

Mabl runs tests on Chrome, FireFox, Internet Explorer 11, Safari, and Edge today!

What browser version is my test running on?

Hover over the browser icon of any test to see the specific browser version the test ran on. Additionally, you can view the browser version for a specific test run by clicking "View more" from the header at the top of the page.

Can I add other users from my team to my mabl account?

Mabl supports multi-user organizations. Invite other team members to share an organization from the Settings > Invitations screen. Once the Invitation is accepted, the user will be joined to the organization.

Can I limit mabl’s link crawler to a subset of my site or application?

Yes, you can restrict the link crawler to only those pages that are under your root URL by adding a parameter to the "Visit all linked pages within my app" test on the plan edit form. The parameter is of type "mabl Parameter", parameter name is "Use strict URL prefix", parameter value is "True".

See the "Restricting the crawler to a specific application" document for step-by-step information.

My test is taking too long to run, how can I stop it from running?

mabl will stop a test early if it runs for too long, so you don't need to worry. You can also stop a run of a plan by clicking the top button on the run column of the "plans" page.

Do I need to add wait steps to my tests?

mabl automatically retries steps every 100 milliseconds for up to 30 seconds. This usually allows pages to load, or other actions to complete. If a process takes longer than 30 seconds, you can manually add a wait step to your test.

Why isn't mabl recording my clicks or interactions?

Be sure to check that the mabl Trainer is set to record, you'll see a glowing red Rec. if it is.

Mabl supports the vast majority of interactions with webpage elements, as long as the page itself is comprised of an HTML DOM.

Can mabl interact with SVG elements?

Yes, you can click on and assert against <svg> elements and elements within an <svg> in the mabl Trainer.

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Note

The mabl Trainer cannot record clicks or assertions on specific coordinates within <path> elements.

Can I add a third/additional login step to mabl’s auto-login?

Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to use our auto-login for cases where there are three login fields today. Currently, the only approach available today is to disable auto-login and manually step through the login within your trained test.

Can I test captcha (re-captcha) screens when logging into my application?

Re-captcha is designed as a way to prevent automated tooling from using an application. When attempting to test applications where you have re-captcha configured, our recommendation is to create a way to bypass re-captcha specifically for your test automation. Here are some ways you can signal to your application that it is being accessed via test-automation and thus should disable re-captcha:

• Query Parameters
• Browser Headers
• Specific Test Users
• By Environment

How do I identify mabl-generated traffic?

mabl test traffic adds the following headers for traffic identification:

• User-Agent: … mabl (contains)
• X-Mabl-Agent : Mabl/0.1

See mabl traffic best practices for more details.

How long does mabl retain data on test runs?

In an active workspace, mabl retains data on test runs for 13 months.

How long does mabl retain data after a workspace is deleted?

Mabl retains data for 30 days after a workspace is deleted. Trial workspaces are deleted 30 days after the expiration of the trial.

How do I engage with mabl and other users on feature requests, bug reports, new releases, tips and tricks, and more?

Simply join us on the Friends of mabl Slack channel. If you don't have access already, please feel free to reach out via in-app chat or by email to [email protected] to be added promptly.