The cloud has eyes, thanks to a service from Applitools designed for automated visual testing of web, mobile and desktop applications. The company announced it is now a Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 partner through its Applitools Eyes cloud service, based on proprietary Cognitive Vision technology.
The service works by integrating with a coded UI and enhancing it with automated visual testing capabilities. That means that all visual aspects of an application are automatically tested, and all fields on a given screen are validated without the need to write separate tests for each UI element present on the screen. The result is major efficiencies for developers.
"In today's world, UI is the face of any application and a key to successful user experience (UX)" said Gil Sever, co-founder and CEO of Applitools. "The tremendous evolution in modern app environments such as multi-device, Agile, Continuous Deployment and more, is posing new challenges to developers and testers which are not being answered by any of the existing functional test automation tools. Applitools Eyes enables app developers and testers to bridge that gap and automate this process."
The Cognitive Vision technology is an interesting and unique one. Applitools basically researched image processing algorithms capable of imitating human testers’ eyes and brains. The company then used those algorithms to develop Applitools Eyes. The result is an app and service that validates all visual aspects of an application just like a manual tester, but quicker and more accurately.
"Applitools helps Visual Studio developers solve real, challenging problems for testing with a unique and innovative solution," said Mitra Azizirad, general manager, Developer Tools Marketing and Sales, Microsoft. "Applitools Eyes, integrated with Visual Studio 2013, enhances Coded UI and adds automated visual testing for mobile and web apps, while also tying into our application lifecycle management tools."
As a cloud service, Applitools is easily integrated with the cloud version of Microsoft Team Foundation Service (TFS). Once the solution is integrated with coded UI, it may be run and managed through Microsoft Test Manager (MTM) with all other functional tests. Once Applitools detects visual and UI problems, it returns an error to Microsoft TFS as well as a link to the visual log of the failure. This offers users an immediate and precise description of the root source of the problem.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
