Automating testing of a web application's UI consistancy

Question

I am now doing a manual web UI consistency testing ie, making sure of stuff like

1. All similar UI elements (eg: table) has same style across the application.
2. All similar items appear in the screen at the same place (eg: in gmail when clicking inbox and Sent mail the first mail should start at same (x,y) coords in screen)
3. All save buttons should have a cancell button at same place and they are in same order.
4. you get the drift...

This is a time consuming and error prone job and a best candidate for automation, So how such testing is done in real world? What tools are you people using for automating such testng? I found two questions 351975 and 805910 that are in the same spirit, but none of them have an good answer.

I am using PHP under Linux as development/deployment, and we are a Linux shop.

with regards,

raj

Answer 1

Regarding:

• All similar UI elements (eg: table) has same style across the application.
• All save buttons should have a cancel button at same place and they are in same order.

A lot of this can be done by examining the page's source code.

For example, verify all tables use the same style sheet and/or have the same properties. Same with button positions, and button existence.

I've used jmeter several times for this sort of testing.

Regarding:

• All similar items appear in the screen at the same place

You'll need a tool that can capture co-ordinates. I believe Selenium does this for free; but any of the major automation tools (Rational, QTP, etc.) will do this.

Answer 2

I've been working hard to automate this process and have published the work as Web Consistency Testing. Check out the material for a good starting point.