Squish adds support for web testing with Microsoft Edge

So far Squish for Web, which supports a wide range of web browsers for automated Web testing, didn’t support Microsoft Edge. The Edge browser was introduced with the release of Windows 10 and is replacing Internet Explorer as the default browser on Windows. With the upcoming release of Squish 6.3 we will finally add official support for the new browser from Microsoft.

The Edge browser will be the first browser that Squish automates using the Webdriver API. The same API will also be used to add support for the Chromium Embedded Framework. We leverage this technology in the future to further improve our ability to do web testing on mobile devices.

Webdriver

Squish uses a wide range of techniques to be able to automate the different supported browsers. While Squish uses a COM-Interface to automate Internet Explorer, for both Chrome and Firefox custom browser plugins were developed. What all the different implementations share is that they use JavaScript for most of the automation tasks. A lot of the JavaScript code injected while testing can be shared between supported browsers, but how the code is injected and how results are communicated is very browser specific.

The Webdriver API delivers a platform and language-neutral interface that Squish can use to control any browser that implements the Webdriver API. Most importantly the API is used to inject JavaScript and to fetch results from script executions without the need to use additional plugins or interfaces. The Webdriver API uses a common wire protocol to achieve platform and language independence and to remotely instruct the browser behavior. The protocol transfers JSON Objects over HTTP and therefore follows the trend of RESTful web services.

Together with Squish’s existing library of automation features this new way to automate browsers integrates seamlessly into our existing toolset. Once set up, from the user’s point of view it doesn’t make a difference which browser is being automated and how the interaction with the browser works under the hood.

How to do web testing with Squish and Microsoft Edge

After you have setup Webdriver for Edge you can run tests just like you would with any other supported browser. Tests recorded in other browsers are compatible with Edge and vice versa. Just follow these steps to start web testing with Microsoft Edge:

1. Download and install version 6.3 of Squish (until then, request a snapshot via squish@froglogic.com).
2. Since Microsoft Webdriver is not redistributed with Squish you need to download and install it separately. You can get it from Microsoft directly: Webdriver Download
3. If you are using the IDE you can now simply select Microsoft Edge in the Server Settings configuration Dialog.
4. When using the Webdriver Squish does not start the browser itself but the Webdriver. Since it is necessary to install Webdriver separately it can be located anywhere on the system. That is why the path to the Webdriver executable needs to be specified too. In case you do not use the IDE you can set the environment variable SQUISH_BROWSERPATH to point to the Webdriver executable.

Server Settings Dialog used to select the browser and configure the Webdriver path

Known Issues

Due to some security constraints there are some minor issues mostly related to recording tests which we are still working on.

• Multiple Tabs are only supported on playback, not while recording
• If the page origin changes while recording, some events might not be registered
• The automateLogin function is not supported

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