WatIn

I’ve been fighting with Selenium and automated testing lately, and I just couldn’t shake the feeling that it just wasn’t the right tool for the job. The IDE is flakey in terms of files you save (making changes to the project often results in JS errors in the tests), the server is a java server which I had to jump through hoops to get running as a Windows service, and the loading of a browser for the tests is hellishly slow.

It really is a great tool, and I love it’s ease of use for development (I use it to autocomplete forms instead of typing all that crap in over and over again), but as an automated testing suite on a Windows technology stack, I’m just not a huge fan.

So today, I downloaded WatIn and gave it a run. I had the automated nUnit side up and running in a matter of minutes - the tests ran fast and the API is intuitive and easy to use.

The test recorder is not as good as Selenium’s, but it’s decent enough, and there is a beta version out that is supposed to be a vast improvement. I did download and try the Beta version, but it wouldn’t even run for me, so I guess it’s REALLY in Beta. Anyway, I’m more interested in the CruiseControl automated side of testing than visual testing, so it’s easy, understandable unit test code that I want to be able to produce - and for this WatIn wins hands down.