Quick guide for testers

This guide shows you the basic steps to automated testing in Katalon Studio and helps you get familiar with some of Katalon Studio basic functions.

Requirements

• You have created a Katalon account.
• You have downloaded Katalon Studio. You can download Katalon Studio from the website: Katalon.

#1 Activate Katalon Studio

When you first open the Katalon Studio application, you are prompted to activate the 30-day trial for Katalon Studio Enterprise (KSE), for Katalon Runtime Engine (KRE) - an add-on for console execution, and for Katalon TestCloud - a cloud-based testing environment.

You can start using Katalon Studio after activating. Follow these steps:

1. Launch the Katalon Studio application.
   The Katalon Studio Activation dialog displays as below. Sign in to your Katalon account to activate your license.

   

2. After you are done, click Activate.

Katalon Studio is ready for use.

Useful tips to get started

Katalon Studio provides in-app onboarding guides and sample projects to help you get familiar with Katalon Studio capabilities.

Onboarding guide

Important:

• Katalon Studio version 7.8.0 onwards.

When you first open a project in Katalon Studio, you might see the Quickstart guide page. In the onboarding guide, Katalon Studio shows you how to:

1. Create and run your first test

2. Plan your test with a Test Suite

Katalon Studio supports onboarding guides for the following types of automated testing:

• WebUI
• Mobile
• API
• Desktop
• BDD (from version 8.4.0 onwards)

Learn more about onboarding guide and tutorials in Katalon Studio: Quickstart Guide.

Sample projects

Katalon Studio provides sample projects for each supported testing types. You can open those sample projects in Katalon Studio.

When you open Katalon Studio, you can select your preferred testing type from the Sample Projects list in the Test Explorer section.

Alternatively, you can go to File > New Sample Project and select a sample project.

For more details on Katalon Studio sample projects, see: Sample projects overview.

#2 Create your first test project

To create your first test project in Katalon Studio, do as follows:

1. Go to File > New > Project from the main menu.
2. In the displayed New Project dialog:
   
   1. Name: Enter the name of your project.
   2. Type: Choose your desired project type.
   3. Project: In the dropdown list, you can either choose to create a blank project or a sample project.
      • If you choose to create a sample project, the Git repository URL of that sample project is retrieved in the Repository URL accordingly.

      • If you choose to create a blank project, you can choose whether to generate .gitignore file or build.gradle file.

        
   4. Location: Choose the location to store your test.
   5. Description: Enter a brief description for your new project.
3. Click OK.

Your new project is created.

#3 Create your first test case

This tutorial shows you how to create a WebUI test case using the Web Record Utility in Katalon Studio. You can perform all the desired actions as a real user on your website while the Web Record Utility records them.

The application under test (AUT) is the CURA Healthcare Service demo website: https://katalon-demo-cura.herokuapp.com/. We create a test to verify the successful login to the demo website. The basic steps are:

1. Open the AUT in a browser.
2. Click Make Appointment.
3. Enter username and password to sign in.
4. Click Login.
5. Verify whether the Make appointment heading appears after the successful login.
6. Close the application.

The test is successful if we successfully sign in the CURA Healthcare Service demo website.

You can clone the sample project here: Healthcare sample.

1. From the main toolbar, click on Record Web to open the Web Recorder.
   
   The Web Recorder dialog appears.
2. Enter the demo website URL: https://katalon-demo-cura.herokuapp.com/.
3. Select a browser to start recording. Here, we choose the Chrome browser.
   You can click Expand, then click Show Captured Object to see recorded steps and captured objects while recording.
   
4. Click Record. Wait until the browser is launched and ready to interact.
   When you hover an element, the element is highlighted and displays its correspondent XPath on the top of the page.

   

5. Record the test script as planned.
   1. Click on Make appointment, fill in the demo username and password, then click Login.
   2. To verify the Make appointment heading after the successful login, mouse over the Make appointment text, right-click > Katalon Studio > Verify Element Present.
      
   3. Close browser.
6. Once done, click Save script to stop recording and save the captured objects. Web Record Utility exports a list of objects captured in the test case in Katalon Studio.
   Create a new folder or select an existing one in the Object Repository, then click OK.
   
7. A pop-up dialog prompts you to name a new test case. Here, we name it TC1_Verify Successful Login.
   Click OK.

You have successfully recorded a WebUI test case using Web Record Utility in Katalon Studio.

#4 Review your recorded test case

After each recording, you can review the recorded actions and the generated test objects. This section helps you familiarize with Katalon Studio interface and explore the connection between the recorded actions and the object repository.

The Katalon Studio user interface

After saving your recording, Katalon Studio opens the recorded test case in the editor view. Below are places you can interact with its associated test artifacts.

1. Tests Explorer: The Tests Explorer displays all folders, references, and files associated with the opened test project.

   After saving your recording, a new test case and the captured test objects are located in the Test Cases and Object Repository folder respectively.

2. The test case editor displays the test case steps. You can add, edit, move or remove steps in a test case in different editing modes: manual or script.

   You can also add variables and additional information for the test case. To learn more about the tabs in the editor view, see: Toolbars and views.

3. The output section: Here displays the problems and errors before and during the test execution for troubleshooting.

Recorded actions

The test case editor contains all actions performed during the recording, numbered accordingly.

• Action #1 and #2: Open the browser and navigate to the website under test.

• Action #3: Click Make Appointment button.

• Action #4 and #5: Click the username text box and input the John Doe username.

• Action #6 and #7: Click the password text box and input the password. When you enter the Password field, Web Recorder Utility uses the Set Encrypted Text keyword automatically. This helps encrypt the input value to ensure security.

• Action #8: Click Login.

• Action #9: Verify the Make Appointment heading in the successful login page.

• Action #10: Close browser.

Note:

• If you did not follow the recording instructions precisely, there may be extra recorded actions. If so, identify actions which do not belong to the intended test and delete them.

Test Objects

The actions listed above controls the UI elements in the application under test (AUT). These UI elements are represented by test objects in the Tests Explorer > Object Repository.

Double-click to open a test object. By default, these test objects are detected by XPath. Once a test object is captured using Spy/Recorder, a set of XPath locators is generated. The first value is the object default XPath locator. You can view, edit, or delete these test objects.

The following picture explains the captured test objects from the recorded test case:

1. a_Make Appointment: This test object represents the Make Appointment button.

2. button_Login: This test object represents the Login button.

3. h2_Make Appointment: This test object represents the Make Appointment heading.

4. input_Password_password: This test object represents the Password text box.

5. input_Username_username: This test object represents the Username text box.

The link between actions and objects repository

Actions that control UI elements, such as clicking a button, are automatically linked to the corresponding test object. In the manual mode of the test case editor view, you can see the test objects and the actions are in the same row.

Actions that don't control UI elements, such as opening a browser, aren't linked to test objects. The following pictures explains the relationship of actions and test objects in our recording.

1. Item column: This lists the actions that control the test objects. Here, the Set Text action inputs John Doe into the Username text box.

2. Object column: This contains the test objects corresponding with the actions.

3. Input column: This specifies the data that the action should input, for example: the text to fill in a text box, the delay time to open a browser.

Playback

After a recording, you can also playback to recheck your test case. This helps prevent errors in your test scripts. To do so, open the test case you want to playback. From the main toolbar, click Run.

Katalon Studio will execute the chosen test case with the recorded steps accordingly.

#5 Run your first test

This article will show you the basic steps to run your test in Katalon Studio with a local browser.

1. In the test case editor, click Add to test suite.
   The test suite is where you manage and run your tests.
2. In the dropdown list, you can choose Add to an existing test suite or Add to a new test suite. Here, we choose Add to a new test suite.
   
3. A New dialog opens. Input the test suite name. Here, we name it TS-healthcare-tests.
4. Click OK.
   Katalon Studio opens the test suite editor of the TS-healthcare-tests.
5. Click Run.
   
6. Watch the test run. When the test run starts, you can see:
   1. Job Progress bar: This bar allows you to see the progress of executing test cases and test suites/test suite collections.
   2. Log Viewer tab: This tab shows the real-time report/log of the test execution.
   3. A pop-up browser windows that runs the recording steps.
   

You've successfully run your first test in Katalon Studio with a local browser. Katalon Studio also supports two other ways you can run your tests:

• Run your test with Katalon Runtime Engine (KRE) using command-line mode execution. To learn more about executing tests with KRE, see Command-Line Syntax in Katalon Runtime Engine

• Run your test with Katalon TestCloud on standard browsers and operating systems on the cloud. To learn more about executing tests with Katalon TestCloud, see Conclusion

When the test run finishes, Katalon Studio automatically generates test reports.

#6 View test reports

Katalon Studio generates two types of test reports after a test execution:

• Basic reports in Katalon Studio

• Advanced reports in Katalon TestOps

This article shows you how to view both types of reports.

View basic reports in Katalon Studio

Once a test suite finishes, you can view the latest test results in the Result tab of the test suite editor. This tab contains all information such as: test environment, total run test case, each test case result.

You can also view each test case log to identify the failed steps for quick troubleshooting by clicking Show Test Case Details.

Katalon Studio generates a folder corresponding to each test run in the Reports folder.

View advanced reports in Katalon TestOps

Important:

• You have enabled Katalon TestOps integration in Katalon Studio.

To view the test run results in TestOps, in the Tests Explorer panel, click TestOps > Test Runs.

You can view a summary of your test executions here. It might take a few minute to load the latest test execution. You can also click Refresh to fetch the latest data.

Click a test run ID to view the test run in Katalon TestOps.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You've just completed your first automated software test with Katalon Studio.

This is just a start! There are so much more to explore in Katalon Studio. You can learn more about:

• BDD testing in Katalon Studio. See: BDD Testing Framework (Cucumber integration) overview.

• API testing in Katalon Studio. See: Create your first API test with Katalon Studio.

• Mobile testing in Katalon Studio. See: Introduction to Mobile Recorder in Katalon Studio.

• Data-driven testing in Katalon Studio. See: Data-driven testing with Katalon Studio.