In a highly competitive software industry nowadays, the keys to a product’s success are quality and speed. Automated testing emerged as the right-hand assistant for teams to release high-quality software faster and enhance productivity. This efficient practice allows testers to replace repetitive manual testing efforts, increase test coverage, find more bugs, and have better control of product quality. 

However, it remains a challenge to identify a test automation tool that is not only affordable and comprehensive but also easy to use even for users without much experience in computer programming. Katalon Studio was created to be an ultimate tool to tackle this problem. 

Katalon Studio is a robust and cross-platform automation solution for API, web, mobile, and desktop testing. It is an all-in-one automation framework of necessary components with built-in keywords and project templates. Katalon Studio is trusted by an active community from +150 countries around the world.

Download Katalon Studio for free at www.katalon.com.

A Full-feature Set For Api, Web, Mobile, And Desktop Testing

API testing

Katalon Studio provides an inbuilt module for end-to-end API testing, which  optimizes the process of scripting, debugging, and maintaining tests. Some highlight features of API testing include code auto-completion, code snippeting, code inspection, and debugger. Katalon Studio supports various data sources from XLS, XML, to other databases with dynamic mapping to enhance test coverage. 

Web testing

Katalon Studio offers a completed web testing solution with built-in project templates and integrations with CI/CD tools such as Git, Jira, Jenkins, Slack, Docker, etc. Katalon Studio consists of a vast number of utilities like built-in keywords, custom keywords, objects spying and recording, and code refactoring that facilitates your code process. Furthermore, its flexible execution engine allows teams to run tests from any stage, on any browsers and devices.

Mobile testing

Katalon Studio leverages Appium technology to become a versatile tool to test mobile web, iOS, and Android apps. The tool enables teams to write and execute test cases on multiple platforms and devices without extra installations. Teams can also execute tests under the cloud or local environment using the built-in features or Katalon’s integrations with Sauce Labs and LambdaTest. Katalon's powerful object spying utility, pre-built keywords, and test artifacts storing makes the testing process faster and more effective. 

Desktop testing

Katalon has recently announced its support for desktop applications testing in the latest 7.0 version. Similar to web, API, and mobile, the desktop application features also include objects spying, object recording, object locating and sets of keywords to help users execute desktop testing more efficiently.

Key Features Of Katalon Studio

Easy to set up and configure 

Katalon Studio is easy to adopt for manual and automated testers, with or without programming skills. The tool provides a friendly user-interface from installation, setup, to configurations that allow users of all programming levels can quickly create, execute, and maintain test cases. Katalon Studio also has an extensive repository with multiple pre-built templates and test scripts for users to implement their first tests in no time.

Smart Objects Spying

It is necessary to spy on objects when you work in both manual and scripting modes. Katalon Studio provides built-in verify and highlight object spying functionalities that enable users to locate test objects more accurately. In its recent versions, Katalon Studio offers object spying tools for web, mobile, API, and desktop testing.

Record and Playback

Test recording is a fundamental feature in test automation. Katalon Studio captures all movements in the application and transforms them into runnable codes in the backend that can be replayed for investigation. The list of test objects exported right after each test execution reduces the time and effort spent on identifying them. Katalon Studio also supports running this recorder utility on multiple browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer.

Test Cases in Manual and Script Views

The keyword-driven testing feature of Katalon Studio provides a large number of test cases with available built-in keywords for different testing purposes. There are two view options to take advantage of these keywords: Manual view and Script view. 

The Manual view is established for those with limited programming skills. The built-in keywords allow users to execute automation tests step by step easily.

The Script view is a suitable choice for more advanced users, in which they can write test automation scripts or modify the available test scripts.

Built-in and custom keywords

Katalon supports various libraries with hundreds of built-in keywords, assisting users in creating accurate test scripts with ease and flexibility. These built-in keywords ensure that test cases that simulate a typical user journey behave as expected. In addition to built-in keywords, Katalon Studio also allows users to build their own custom keywords to extend testing capabilities and reuse in other projects.

Page Object Model (POM) framework 

Katalium is a framework that supports TestNG and Selenium test automation. One highlight feature of this framework is the Page Object Model (POM) — a prevalent factor in automated testing. It is a design pattern that targets improving test maintenance and eliminating code duplication. In case you need to interact with the UI of an application under test, POM ensures that the UI changes on the page only lead to changes in the code within the page object while the change of the test themselves is unaltered.

Data-driven testing 

Users do not have to execute hard-coded values. Test case variables in Katalon Studio help parameterize test cases or call them using various inputs. In other words, Katalon Studio offers data-driven testing to enable users to define data sets and implement test scripts that use these data sets. Katalon Studio also offers a Data file object, which can query data from external sources such as CSV file, Excel file, Relational DB, and so on.

BDD testing

Cucumber Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) has recently become a prevalent method for Agile teams to utilize in their testing process. Katalon Studio offers BBD testing capability with numerous easy-to-manage Feature Files that are stored and located in project folders. These Feature Files are automatically saved in BDD formats and standards — thus no further steps are needed. Besides, Katalon Studio will automatically locate the according Step Definitions when a feature file is executed. These Step Definitions could also be executed in Script Mode with a vast number of built-in keywords for reusability.

Advanced reports

Katalon Studio uses Grid – TestOps Cloud to execute tests entirely in the cloud and automatically deliver results to Katalon Analytics. Katalon Analytics is an AI-assisted platform that gives users detailed dashboards and reports on their test execution. In other words, Katalon Analytics provides a complete picture of the test quality. Users can review and centralize data, including history, results, logs, screenshots, and videos to identify and fix bugs faster. Additionally, Katalon’s comprehensive reports help optimize testing strategies by eliminating ineffective test suites and focus more on the most critical areas.

CI – DevOps Practices

Katalon Studio has a system of built-in integrations with various platforms such as Jira, Jenkins, qTest, and Slack that helps optimize automation efficiency.

Katalon's Jira integration supports tracking the requirements coverage. Slack integration enables real-time feedback on test status and continuous communication between team members. Jenkin integration enables command-line interface execution; and qTest integration empowers test case planning, requirements, and flaws management. Furthermore, all test cases can be implemented under multiple environments, from iOS, Android, Firefox, Windows, many other browsers, to cloud services.

Conclusion

With the overflowing number of automation testing tools in today’s marketplace, Katalon has been endorsed to be an end-to-end, multifunctional, and easy-to-use solution that fits users of all testing levels.

Katalon Studio was recognized as a customer's choice by Gartner Peer Insights for the Software Automation Industry, Capterra, uTest, G2 Crowd, AlternativeTo, and other prestigious reports. For more information, visit www.katalon.com.