Katalon Studio is a free functional test automation IDE designed to enhance collaboration between testers and developers, addressing the complexities of modern web and mobile application testing. It allows for test case creation through recording, manual selection, or scripting in Groovy, all while integrating seamlessly with cloud services and offering powerful support for test management and execution. By bridging the gap between testers and developers, Katalon Studio aims to create efficient and effective functional test automation that meets the needs of both roles.

1. Katalon Studio
Free Test Automation IDE
Hai Nguyen

2. About me
 github.com/minhhai2209
 Software Architect @ QASymphony.
 Software Testing & OSS junkie.

3. Introduction
 Modern Web & Mobile Applications are getting more complex.
 Functional test automation (FTA) is key for quality and in-time releases.
 A usable FTA needs to be both effective and efficient.
 The divide between Developers’ and Testers’ practices prevent FTA
implementation to be both effective and efficient.
 The challenge is not to implement FTA but usable FTA.

4. The Great Divide of Functional Test
Automation
 Commercial tools heavily focus on Testers (e.g. UFT, TestComplete).
 Comfortable Record/Playback functions.
 Limited options for Page Object Pattern, Parameterization, Data Generation etc.
 Plain scripting editor with ancient programming languages (VBScript).
 Limited extension points to fit organizations’ specific demands.
 Open source frameworks (e.g. Watir, Protractor) heavily focus on programming
capabilities for Developers.
 Powerful APIs for popular programming languages.
 Supported by sophisticated modern IDEs.
 Multiple do-one-thing components, architectural design is needed to glue them together.
 Setting up is complicated for Testers, involving different runtimes/tools, the use of
command lines, and environment variable configuration.

5. Functional Test Automation is Vietnam
War for Record/Playback tools
 Same approach, many attempts, same failures.
 Still unsolved problems:
 Wait detection: Heavy AJAX and HTML generation prevent page objects available in
time.
 Replay-able actions: Complex widgets with many layer of markup make it difficult
to detect the correct elements under actions.
 Reliable XPath/CSS selectors: Generated selectors are inefficient and lack invariant
factors to be immune with future changes.
 Complex fixture set up cannot be done elegantly.
 At the end, a programmable FTA framework is still necessary.

6. Modern FTA frameworks are not for
Testers
 Modern FTA leverages mainstream programming languages with advanced
concepts.
 Testers can only work on simple languages with limited power, resulting in low
maintainability.
 Time and energy end up being spent on coding rather than doing
Exploratory/Acceptance Testing.
 Still needs Developers to solve the problems of replay-able actions and
reliable XPath/CSS selectors.

7. Developers cannot write tests alone
 Developers are good at building robust testing frameworks.
 But time tends to be devoted on perfecting the architecture, and beautifying
the code, rather than the Test Cases’ content.
 Less effective scenarios due to isolated view without system-wide and end-
user perspective.
 Frameworks often focus on scripting and execution without supports for
various other Testers’ activities like data generation, reporting, ALM
integration.

8. 1st Solution – Developers as Interpreter
 Testers define scenarios in natural or Gherkin-style languages.
 Developers translate scenarios into programming languages.
 Cons:
 Double the effort of authoring Test Cases.
 Content is split to separate forms and places.
 Requires close collaboration to keep scenarios and test scripts in sync.
 Testers cannot verify the test scripts directly.
 Separate contents make it hard for Testers to do failure analysis.

9. 2nd Solution – Developers extend Testers’
scripts
 Testers compose scenarios using Record/Replay tools (e.g. Selenium IDE).
 Recorded sessions are exported as scripts in desired programming languages.
 Developers modify the exported scripts to fit the frameworks.
 Initial translation effort is reduced.
 Cons:
 Exporting happens in one-direction only – from recorded sessions to test scripts.
 Still subjects to the first solution’s problems after initial translation.

10. 3rd Solution – Developers and Testers
work together
 Testers and Developers work on the same scripts using both graphical and
scripting interface.
 Changes must be continuously reflected i.e. Testers and Developers always
read the same content.
 Execution should be simple for Testers.
 Logs and other artifacts should be presented in a readable.
 The underlying framework must not ignore Testers’ requirements for Test
Management, Parameterization, integration etc. for effective reporting and
collaboration.
 Deployment should be trivial for the whole toolset.

11. Meet Katalon Studio

12. Katalon Studio
 https://www.katalon.com.
 A free Functional Test Automation IDE, designed for efficient and effective
testing, with collaboration in mind.
 IDE means real IDE with autocomplete and debugging e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse,
Visual Studio – not a glorified text editor.
 Supports Web, Mobile, and API Testing.
 Works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

14. Setting up
 One package to rule them all – nothing else needed.
 Even JRE, Selenium, WebDriver binaries, Appium, Android SDK.
 For both GUI and CLI modes.
 Necessary PATHs are configured automatically.
 Out of the box support for Cloud Services e.g. Sauce Labs, BrowserStack,
Kobiton.

15. Test Cases
 Consist of many actions (Keywords) interacting with AUTs, can be authored in
three ways:
 Record: capturing interactions on browsers i.e. Chrome, Firefox, IE (for Testers).
 Manual: selecting actions on GUI in a point-and-click manner (for Testers).
 Script: writing real scripts using Groovy (for Developers).
 All methods output the same content interchangeably at any point of time.
 Manual and Script Modes are equally powerful.
 Test Case are Groovy scripts behind the scene.
 Groovy is Java-based language, suitable for complex implementation.
 Groovy supplements Java syntax with intuitive structures.
 Testers can write script without hassles of Java syntax.

16. Test Cases - Record tool
 Works on Chrome, Firefox, and IE.

17. Test Cases - Manual Mode

18. Test Cases - Script Mode

19. Test Cases - Script Mode (Debug)

20. Better Test Cases
 Ensure pre- & post-conditions with @SetUp and @TearDown.
 Annotate steps with Gherkin-style language to improve expressiveness.
 Organize Test Cases into Test Suites for flexible execution.
 Parameterize Test Cases with Test Data to avoid duplicates.
 Decouple AUT’s business and implementation with Object Repository (Page
Object Pattern).
 Eliminate duplication using Call Test Case.

21. Better Test Cases - Test Data

22. Execution
 Available in GUI for development and CLI for CI integration.
 Execute against multiple environments: Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge, Safari,
Headless, Selenium Grid, Android, iOS, Cloud Services (e.g. Sauce Labs,
BrowserStack, Kobiton).
 Extensive logs, screenshots, and context information to assist failure analysis.
 Integration with JIRA to speed up defect reporting and avoid missing data.
 Integration with qTest for overall quality reports and sophisticated test
management.

23. Execution – Trigger from GUI

24. Execution – Trigger from CLI

25. Execution – Failure Analysis

26. Execution – Reporting

27. Execution – JIRA integration

28. Collaboration
 Built-in Git supports for reviewing history and merging changes.
 Activities can be published to Slack for discussion.

29. Collaboration - Git

30. Collaboration - Slack

31. Extension Points – Custom Keywords
 Actions set can be extended via Custom (user defined) Keywords.
 Keywords are normal programming methods without any limitations.
 Custom Keywords can be used in both Manual and Script Modes.

32. References
 Katalon Studio homepage – https://katalon.com.
 Katalon Studio documentation - https://docs.katalon.com.
 Test Automation Framework Designs (by Sauce Labs) -
https://www.slideshare.net/saucelabs/test-automation-framework-designs.

33. Thank you!