Quick testing tips

Team collaboration

It's free and easy to invite your team to test and learn together.

Get mabl test insights delivered to you straight into Slack.

Want to receive certain test insights in Slack? Just choose what notification types you want.

It's easy to share test run output details with others. Just export the results to a PDF.

Get a closer look at your Plan run history with a CSV export.

Use Jira? You can report issues from failed test runs directly to Jira — details, screenshot and a link to the test output included.

Have a question about mabl? Send an email to [email protected] or start an in-app chat. The team is happy to help.

Test creation and maintenance

Use random values during test runs with generated variables.

Try using custom Javascript steps for challenging testing scenarios.

When training your tests, use the up and down arrows on your keyboard to quickly navigate between steps.

Be mindful when recording hover steps. Hovers can add extra time to your test runs.

Finding an element using CSS selectors is usually faster than using an XPath ID but each approach has its benefits.

Use Flows to reuse a set of common steps across tests.

Turn existing test steps into reusable Flows to reduce the need for future test maintenance.

Updating steps in a Flow updates all tests containing that Flow.

It is best to breakdown complex test case scenarios into smaller sets of steps that run faster in parallel and are easier to debug.

Import existing data in a CSV format to create a data table for data-driven testing scenarios.

Broken links discovered? Share the report with your team to discuss fixing or redirecting those links.

No need to add explicit wait steps around file download assertions, unless the download takes longer than the default 30 second download timeout.

Files uploaded to the application when training a test are securely stored in your workspace-encrypted storage bucket for later use during test executions.

Change the viewport size of your tests to test the responsive web design experience.

Specify a mobile user agent in your Plans to identify with the browser as a mobile device during test execution.

When training responsive web design tests be mindful of hover actions which are not available on touch-input mobile devices.

Set and assert against cookies in your tests to test a personalized user experience.

Keep test credentials safe and easy to update by using Plan credential variables.

Using Labels is a great way to classify your flows, tests and plans so you can easily find them later (e.g. smoke vs mobile test cases).

Double click a step in the Trainer to quickly edit the step description.

Select and delete a range of steps in the Trainer by using the Shift key.

Do you find yourself using the up and down arrows to move the Trainer cursor? You save time by dragging and dropping it to a desired position.

Use conditional steps with flows to test for different possible states of the application during a test run.

Need to test double clicks? Record a click step and turn it into a double click from the edit options.

Easily mark and differentiate multiple email addresses in a single test by adding a custom prefix to your mabl mailbox email address.

Compare variables to one another or a string to a variable with our new assertion improvements.

Test execution

Deliver a consistent user experience by testing on different browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Run smoke and regression tests on deployment using mabl APIs and plugins for Jenkins and Bamboo.

Need to execute tests against local and private network environments behind a firewall? Get the mabl Link Agent setup.

No need to contact your system administrator to test against local environments. Just set up the mabl Link Agent.

Use mabl Link with Docker to start testing against environments on private networks.

Control which Plans execute in response to a CI/CD deployment event by using Labels with the API.

Add logic before or after tests execute as part of your CI/CD pipeline with webhooks.

Use the API to rebaseline the visual change models for the application or set a fixed baseline to compare consecutive runs against.

For those times when a test needs to wait just a little longer for the application to respond, add a wait step.

Turn up the load to 10 for your application with the Plan multiplier, which spins up multiple parallel versions of the same tests.

The Link Crawler plan is great for discovering broken URLs but sometimes you just want to limit the URLs it visits.

Want to trigger a deployment event that executes given test plans? Just go to the mabl dashboard and click New > Deployment to configure and trigger a deployment event.

If a pop-up prevents mabl from clicking on an element during a test run, mabl will automatically dismiss it. You can also use conditional steps to check for and dismiss pop-ups.

Reduce time spent troubleshooting intermittent failures by configuring mabl to automatically retry failed plan runs.

Test results analysis

Create your own reports with real-time data on plan and test runs with BigQuery Export feeds.

Integrate with BigQuery to perform ad-hoc analyses on test results.

Print brief notes about a set of steps in the test output with echo steps to remind yourself what a set of steps is all about.

When debugging tests with variables, use echo steps.

Wonder why a test step fails? Check out the performance timeline data for details.

If a test fails intermittently, look for application timing or environment load capacity issues.

If a test fails on a hover step, try replacing recorded hover steps with CSS selector hovers.

If a test fails to locate a page element that appears present, check if the step includes the right element.

Find tests associated with a code commit by using the advanced filters on the Results page to filter by Git Hash.

Use the Development Events API to create a fixed visual baseline of your application for visual change detection during consecutive test runs.