SmartBear Software announced new versions of TestComplete and QAComplete.

With this release, TestComplete and QAComplete are now integrated with SoapUI, the most used API testing tool in the world, as well as with SoapUI NG and ServiceV, tools that are part of the Ready! API family, a fully integrated and extensible platform for building reliable, scalable and secure APIs. Customers deploying the new versions are able to design automated functional tests at the Graphical User Interface (GUI) as well as API level.

Most applications today include numerous calls to APIs. If a tester wants to make sure their application works, they not only need to test the application’s GUI, but also ensure the APIs dictating the information presented on the GUI work as expected. In a modern banking application for example, the tester may be required to go below the GUI and test if customer information accessed from mainframe using Web services returns the right customer details. The tester may even be required to test third-party APIs like Apple maps to confirm the nearest bank location presented on the GUI is correct. An ability to go beyond the GUI layer and drive automated tests at the underlying API layer enables testers to effectively test for business logic, driving the GUI and thereby preventing rework associated with late discovery of defects. To successfully test applications both at GUI and the API level, an integrated testing approach is required.

But this integrated testing approach may always not be enough. Challenges arising due to dependency between the GUI and API can become even more pronounced in an agile environment. Early sprints in agile development often have an unfinished Web services component. It can thereby become difficult to accurately test how the GUI would behave in production when the Web service goes live. If a different team is developing the API than the one testing it, a lot of back and forth is involved in the process, making testing continuously in an agile environment tedious and long. Hence, testing is often pushed back in the development cycle, altering the quicker delivery deadlines necessitated. To solve these problems, other than having an integrated GUI and API testing solution, an access to virtual APIs that enable testers to work on APIs still in development is crucial.

“In the last two years, it has become clear that traditional waterfall development and testing across the software lifecycle is increasingly outdated, and that agile methods are more applicable,” said Raul Castañon-Martinez, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Mobility at 451 Research. “There is a clear trend towards a compressed lifecycle and stronger collaboration across the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Developers and testers increasingly require tools that will allow a compressed development lifecycle and concurrent development and collaboration across different teams, where at all stages stakeholders are as close as possible to what the end user will experience.”

With TestComplete and QAComplete integration to SoapUI NG and ServiceV as well as SoapUI, SmartBear allows developers and testers to:

- Reduce dependencies between the GUI and API development and testing by allowing testers to simulate Web services that are still in development or not available

- Perform end-to-end automated testing by going beyond the GUI to automate tests that invoke APIs or other Web services

- Quickly identify problems and reduce debugging time by driving tests at the API level

- Apply test management practices such as establishing traceability between requirements, tests and defects for APIs and ensure proper API and functional test coverage exists for requirements

- Reduce dependence and wait times between different testing teams by providing instant accessibility to changes made to tests at the GUI, API and service levels

- Get a single report on all testing efforts, including manual, automated, Selenium and API to better prioritize testing efforts