Automated Testing with GitLab

How to Use GitLab
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I work at a university that uses Ellucian Banner as its student information system. We are using GitLab to store Banner 9 Admin Page code. We want to implement automated testing and are currently researching testing tools and how GitLab can fit into our implementation of automated testing. What I’m requesting/asking…

  1. I would love to hear from others about what they’ve gotten working with GitLab and any automated testing tools (e.g., Testim, Sahi Pro, Katalon Studio, Selenium, TestComplete, etc.) used.

  2. Am I correct in understanding that in order to have GitLab run automated tests that the code to perform the testing will have to be written using another tool? We would need to be able to write test cases that can navigate to a URL and simulate user actions (e.g., button clicks, inserting/updating/deleting records, etc.). It would be done against our Banner 9 Admin Pages.

  3. The YAML language that GitLab uses would be used to write scripts that execute the tests written or generated by the automated testing tool, correct? It cannot be used to write the automated test scripts themselves? My understanding is that it cannot.

  4. Can the GitLab code editor be used to write the scripts that actually perform the tests (the user actions performed on the Banner Admin pages)? Again, my understanding is that GitLab cannot do this and that a separate tool for writing the automated test scripts is needed.

More information about Ellucian Banner: https://www.ellucian.com/solutions/ellucian-banner

The Banner Admin Pages are online pages/forms accessed via URL where users (e.g., Registrar’s Office, faculty, advisors, etc.) can view and edit student data.

Thanks for your help!

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Hi,

please add some line breaks and formatting to your questions, my head exploded after the 10th line :wink: Also, please add a reference to what “Banner 9 Admin Page code” is.

Cheers,
Michael

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Done.

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Welcome to the community @strammel_uga! There’s a write up of how to use webdriver to do automated web testing as you’re describing in the GitLab docs.

I would not mind hearing your feedback about that here or on the docs page itself. I hope this helps. Good luck!

-JH

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Hi, and thank you for responding!

So it looks like this utilizes Selenium. I’ve tried writing test scripts in Selenium, just simple test cases to try out the software. I actually used Sikuli with it, as one tool would work where the other would not, at least not easily. I tried to run the tests I’d written after an upgrade changed some UI elements. I had a hard time getting certain parts of the code to work. At one point, it seemed I had gotten one test to complete successfully, but it failed on a subsequent run. I think at this time we’re looking for alternatives to Selenium. Thanks again!

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Hi Sarah,

I too work at a university and am interested in implementing automated testing into aspects of our Banner system. Have you had any luck in your efforts and if so, can you provide a status update? Thanks!

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Thanks for reaching out. No, we’ve not had a chance to move forward on this. We are still rolling out Banner 9 Self-Service. Hopefully we can revisit this sometime in the near future.

Sarah

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Thank you, Sarah

We’ve been Banner users for about 25 years now and in that time, I’ve seen a lot of manual effort and many hours invested in upgrade testing, patch testing, etc.

Seems like there should be a better way, but I suspect setting up testing on processes and forms and getting people onboard with it is no small endeavor

Please keep me posted!