Testing Flex Applications?

We are exploring using Flex more (goodbye Powerbuilder!) here at work. We are also doing more and more testing and hope to eventually implement continuous integration.

I’ve seen a few tools to unit test Flex but I’m curious how you test Flex at the application level? For our web applications we are currently using Selenium.

Is there something similar for Flex?

7 Comments

  1. David Buhler
    Posted April 7, 2008 at 12:37 pm | Permalink

    FlexUnit: http://code.google.com/p/as3flexunitlib/

  2. Posted April 7, 2008 at 12:43 pm | Permalink

    I also need to dig for information about that.
    i’ve read about a new tool from borland just today :
    http://www.borland.com/us/prod.....ndex.html#
    http://www.borland.com/us/prod.....index.html

    also there is a project called VFU:
    http://code.google.com/p/visua.....e/checkout

    and this blog post is maybe a good point to start:
    http://life.neophi.com/danielr.....th_fl.html

    and at last i’ve found a non-free tool for visual testing:
    http://riatest.com/screenshots.html

    Best,
    Andrew

  3. Posted April 7, 2008 at 12:51 pm | Permalink

    David - I had bookmarked FlexUnit already - but had assumed it was mainly for unit testing? Will it do tests at the application level also (similar to Selenium?)

    Andra - looks like some promising links! I had seen Silk before but I have heard it is very expensive.

  4. David Buhler
    Posted April 7, 2008 at 1:18 pm | Permalink

    Hi Jim,

    On CF/Flex projects, I’ll usually do the following:

    I’ll use Service Capture to record a bare-minimum call to my CFC (only the bare minimum fields complete with mimimum data).

    I’ll use Service Capture and capture a comprehensive call to my CFC (every field completed with maximum data).

    Then, I’ll take that data and create my unit test in CF with same mock data.

    To Debug:
    On the client, I’ll add try/catch statements to every method, and throw an exception.

    In CF, I’ll generate a PDF on each exception or error.

    For me, this has been the best way to test and debug Flex Applications.

    hth

  5. Posted April 7, 2008 at 1:50 pm | Permalink

    I have been meaning to try this but havent gotten into it yet, but you can use selenium combined with the flex-ajax bridge. The latter exposes the Flex DOM from what I hear.

  6. ekz
    Posted April 7, 2008 at 4:36 pm | Permalink

    Have you considered using QTP, with the flex QTP plugin?
    Some ‘getting started’ info can be found here: http://www.adobe.com/support/d.....ll.html#at

  7. Posted April 7, 2008 at 4:40 pm | Permalink

    also take a look at here:
    http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fl.....automated/

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