5-10 min to complete
Prerequisites: mabl Trainer, a Chrome browser extension for creating tests, which we call journeys.
You will learn
- How to set up your user account and application under test
- How to train your first journey and run it in the cloud
- How to view the comprehensive journey run output
If you don't have an account, sign up for a free trial that includes all product features and free support via in-app chat or email to support@mabl.com.
mabl sign up form
You can simply point mabl to the URL of your application or website to start testing. And, if you just want to give mabl a try with a sample app, we recommend starting with our sandbox app available at sandbox.mabl.com/training. In either case, mabl creates and automatically runs two journeys for the app: a broken link checker and a home page smoke test. (learn more about default journeys). You can use the mabl Trainer Google Chrome extension to create your own journeys in and then run them across all supported browsers.
setting your initial test URL
You can setup mabl to test multiple applications where each application can have multiple environments such as dev, staging, and production. Though, to test internal environments behind a firewall, you will need to setup secure tunneling with mabl Link. Oh, and feel free to invite all your teammates to the workspace since testing together is a lot more fun and there's no limit or fee for additional users.
In order to create and edit journeys, you need to use Google Chrome and the mabl Trainer extension.
You will find a convenient link to the Chrome Store on the dashboard when you first log in:
mabl dashboard first steps guide
Use an incognito window for training journeys
Journeys are trained in your local browser but run in the cloud within a fresh browser created for just that journey run. These browser instances have no cookies or other information your local browser might have.
So, training journeys in an incognito window helps ensure that your extensions, saved logins, cookies, or any other personal browser configurations do not interfere with the journey training process. This helps make sure your journeys run as you expect.
After you install the Trainer, you can start training your first journey!
mabl dashboard first steps guide after extension is installed
Before recording any journey steps, you'll be prompted to log out of your application and clear your cookies. This cleans the slate for training, since mabl will run the journeys in the cloud within a fresh browser instance.
As soon as you open the trainer, mabl starts live recording interactions with your application in the trainer window that floats on top of your web page.
mabl trainer extension on start up
Add an assertion to verify an element is present on the page or that it contains a given text.
add assertion button
At present, you can assert against page elements, URLs, cookies, and variables.
assertion options
For example, a very simple assertion might be that a text string is present.
asserting on a page element
element assertion options
Once you are done training, save the journey and close the trainer to go back to the mabl app where you can trigger a journey (test) run in the cloud.
save your journey
Run the new journey. Journeys run in the cloud (learn more about how mabl executes tests).
Once the journey run is done, click on the view the output to see detailed logs and other application mabl has captured during the run.
In the journey output, you will see detailed logs about every executed journey step together with a screenshot, DOM snapshot, HTTP Archive (HAR) file with network request data, Speed index, performance trace and more. With consecutive journey runs, mabl will start showing you any detected visual changes as it learns to ignore dynamic page regions such as ad banners.
You completed your first end-to-end test! Go explore mabl. Soon, you'll be a power user ready to learn about the visual explorer, coverage, insights, integrations, teams, auto-healing, CI/CD, and more!