In automated testing, ensuring the reliability of UI elements is essential for delivering high-quality applications. However, dynamic controls—UI elements that change their attributes or behaviors during runtime—pose a significant challenge for automation frameworks like Coded UI. These controls can often change their properties, such as ID or name, depending on factors like user actions, time, or session state, making them difficult to locate consistently. This blog’ll discuss effective strategies for handling dynamic controls in Coded UI testing without relying on complex coding. If you want to enhance your expertise in Coded UI, consider enrolling in Coded UI Online Training to deepen your understanding of these strategies and improve your testing skills.
Understanding Dynamic Controls in Coded UI
Dynamic controls are user interface elements that change attributes after every interaction or page load. These attributes, such as the element’s ID, class name, or text, are often dynamic, which makes it hard to target them in automated tests. For example, a button on an application might have an ID like “submit1234” during one session, but the number at the end might change in another session. This dynamic behavior leads to test failures when the test scripts cannot find the correct element.
In Coded UI testing, which typically relies on attributes like Name, ID, or Class to identify elements, handling these dynamic attributes is crucial to ensuring your tests remain stable and accurate.
Strategies for Handling Dynamic Controls
1. Use of Flexible Identifiers
Instead of relying on absolute attribute values, use partial or flexible identifiers. For instance, if the dynamic element always contains a consistent string in its ID or class, you can design your tests to search for that portion of the identifier. This allows you to account for variations in the dynamic part of the control while still interacting with the correct element. Using relative or partial identifiers helps ensure the test script can locate the element despite changes in the dynamic parts of its attributes. Similarly, when working with web services, tools like SoapUI allow for testing APIs and services by simulating real-world requests and responses, ensuring they function properly even with dynamic data. If you’re interested in mastering this aspect of testing, consider enrolling in Web Services With SoapUI Testing Online Training to enhance your understanding and skills in testing web services efficiently.
2. Leverage Element Hierarchy
Another useful technique is relying on the hierarchy or structure of the UI rather than specific attributes. If an element’s immediate parent or surrounding elements have fixed identifiers, you can reference the element by its position within this stable hierarchy. This method helps isolate the dynamic control’s position, reducing the risk of failing tests due to changes in the control’s attributes.
3. Index-Based Selection
When dealing with dynamic lists or multiple similar elements, selecting a control by its position or index within a group can be effective. If the controls appear in a predictable order, you can refer to the element by its index (e.g., first, second, third), reducing the reliance on dynamic properties. This method is particularly useful when testing a list of controls like buttons, checkboxes, or menu items that follow a consistent sequence. Additionally, mobile testing scenarios often involve handling dynamic elements in lists, and understanding how to manage these elements is crucial for effective testing. Suppose you want to improve your skills in this area. In that case, Mobile Testing Training in Chennai offers comprehensive courses to help you master techniques for handling dynamic controls and enhance your testing expertise.
4. Synchronization and Wait Mechanisms
Dynamic controls are often loaded asynchronously or based on user actions, leading to issues where tests attempt to interact with elements before they are ready. To solve this problem, it’s important to incorporate synchronization techniques in your tests. This involves waiting for the dynamic control to be fully loaded or to change into the expected state before proceeding with further interactions. By implementing wait conditions, such as “wait until visible” or “wait for completion,” you can ensure that tests only interact with ready elements and avoid unnecessary errors.
5. Dynamic Element Recognition Based on Context
Sometimes dynamic controls change not only in their attributes but also in the context in which they appear. To handle this, you can design tests that look for patterns or contextual cues, such as text nearby or specific states that trigger the visibility or behavior of the control. By focusing on the context rather than specific attributes, you ensure that your tests can adapt to changes in the UI structure.
Handling dynamic controls in Coded UI testing can be challenging, but by adopting the right strategies, testers can ensure more reliable and effective test automation. By using flexible identifiers, leveraging element hierarchy, selecting elements based on index, and incorporating synchronization techniques, you can successfully interact with dynamic controls while maintaining the stability of your test scripts. Implementing these strategies will help ensure that your automated tests run smoothly, even when dealing with unpredictable UI elements, and contribute to delivering high-quality software. To further enhance your testing expertise, consider enrolling in Mobile Testing Training Online, which provides in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience in testing mobile applications effectively, including dealing with dynamic elements.
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