Getting started with SnapTest

This guide will give you the first steps to learn how to use SnapTest tools. Before you start, download the SnapTest Chrome Extension and register an account.

If you're concerned about the amount of permissions SnapTest requires as an extension, you have the option to use a separate Chrome profile, which will sandbox the extension to a separate area so it can't access any sensitive data.

Step 1: Do the in-extension tutorial

After registering, proceed with the in-extension tutorial which will help you create and run your first test.

If you've closed the tutorial, you can always restart it in "profile menu" -> "help"

Step 2: Prepare to generate your first QA project.

In order to accomplish the next steps, some terminal/bash/cmd-prompt skills are required. If this is an issue, you can continue to run the SnapTests exclusively in the extension and skip this step.

You now have an account full of tests, don't worry, you can clean it up whenever you'd like. But before you do, let's generate the "Sample Tests" folder which came with your new account using the SnapTest's official NightwatchJS generator. Our goal is to set up and entire QA project on your local machine.

SnapTest usually just generates a folder with your tests, not the surrounding project or configuration. In the spirit of making things easy, we have provided some "starter kits" to get you up to speed.

Click on the "Sample Tests" generate code button:

You will see:

Each generator has usage instructions included on this screen. The options are:

Framework: The main type of generation available. Will include various languages and frameworks within those languages.
Style: The same framework will often have various types of generators with varying degrees of capabilities. For example, Chromeless has a Prototyper and a full-project generator.
Generating for: A reminder of what is about to be generated. Can be a single test, folder, or entire account.
Top directory name: The name of the test folder to be generated.
Include harness: The "harness" refers to starter kit projects that can be included if you haven't setup a QA project yet.

Step 3: Generate the code on your local machine.

The next steps require you have the following installed:

Git
Node v6.10.0+
Chromedriver installed on your Path
Java 8+ (since Selenium requires it)
snaptest-cli

Configure the code generation as follows:

Click the "Include harness" checkbox
Copy and paste the command line into your terminal in a directory you'd like your QA project to exist.

If all went well, you'll have an entire new project generated locally. Finally, type npm test to run them. Please report any issues you face so we can handle them quickly.

The NightwatchJS starter kit has the tests running in parallel, but you can change that in the nightwatch.json file by removing the test_workers fields.

Step 4: Regenerate new tests changes.

The final step is to change a test in the SnapTest extension and regenerate the new code for it. Go ahead and add a new test or change an existing one within the "Sample Tests" folder.

After finishing that, in order to regenerate you simply remove the "include harness" checkbox in the code generation options and copy/paste the new command into your terminal It will be much shorter because it doesn't include the starter kit "harness", and it will generate much faster. The new command should look something like this.

snaptest -f <YOUR_FOLDER_ID> -r nightwatch -s flat -t <YOUR API KEY>

As your tests change or you add more, keep regenerating the tests.

As a best practice, do not change the generated code because your changes will be replaced next time you generate. If you need to do manual changes to the code, copy and paste the file to something outside the generated folder and maintain manually

What should I do next?

(coming soon) How to best make use of generated code.