User Interface (UI) testing plays an essential role in ensuring that Dynamics 365 applications are intuitive, functional, and provide a smooth experience for end-users. While there are many tools available for UI testing, EasyRepro stands out as a powerful, open-source framework specifically designed for automating UI tests within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem. EasyRepro simplifies the process of writing UI tests for Dynamics 365 applications, ensuring that your business logic and customizations work as expected from the user’s perspective.
In this article, we will explore the purpose of EasyRepro, how to set it up, and best practices for using it to automate UI testing for Dynamics 365 applications.
What is EasyRepro?
EasyRepro is an open-source test automation framework developed by Microsoft that is specifically designed to help testers and developers automate the process of UI testing for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement applications, including Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service, and other modules in the Dynamics 365 suite.
EasyRepro automates interactions with the web interface of Dynamics 365 apps, simulating actions that a user would take, such as clicking buttons, filling out forms, and navigating between pages. This framework is built on top of Selenium, a widely-used tool for web browser automation, and leverages C# for writing test scripts.
Key Features of EasyRepro:
- Dynamics 365 Specific: EasyRepro provides functionality tailored to the Dynamics 365 ecosystem, making it easier to automate tests specific to the platform.
- Selenium-based: It utilizes Selenium WebDriver for automating browser-based interactions with Dynamics 365 applications.
- Open-source: Being open-source, EasyRepro is free to use, and its source code is available for contribution and modification.
- Rich UI Testing Support: EasyRepro supports a variety of UI elements and interactions, such as buttons, dropdowns, grids, and forms, allowing you to fully test Dynamics 365’s web interface.
- Cross-browser Testing: EasyRepro supports multiple browsers, including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Internet Explorer, ensuring that tests are performed across different environments.
Why Use EasyRepro for UI Testing in Dynamics 365?
Testing UI elements of Dynamics 365 applications is vital to ensure that customizations, configurations, and extensions function correctly across all environments. Here’s why EasyRepro is an excellent choice for UI testing in Dynamics 365:
1. Platform-Specific Features
Since EasyRepro is specifically designed for Dynamics 365 applications, it comes with a set of built-in methods that are optimized for interacting with Dynamics 365-specific UI elements, such as forms, records, and data grids. This is much more efficient than using a generic testing tool like Selenium alone, as it provides ready-made methods for common tasks like creating records, verifying field values, and navigating entities.
2. Automation of Repetitive Tasks
UI testing can be time-consuming, especially when testing complex user interfaces with multiple workflows and data inputs. EasyRepro allows testers to automate repetitive tasks, such as verifying page elements, filling out forms, and clicking buttons, thus speeding up the testing process and freeing up resources for other tasks.
3. Cross-Browser Compatibility
Dynamics 365 apps are accessed through web browsers, which means that it’s essential to ensure the application behaves consistently across different browsers. EasyRepro provides support for multiple browsers, allowing teams to ensure that their customizations work properly across all platforms.
4. End-to-End Testing
With EasyRepro, you can simulate real user behavior, including logging in, navigating between forms, creating or updating records, and interacting with UI elements. This makes EasyRepro a powerful tool for performing end-to-end testing, ensuring that all business processes function correctly from start to finish.
5. Integration with CI/CD Pipelines
EasyRepro can be integrated into CI/CD pipelines, enabling automated UI testing to be run during every build or deployment cycle. This ensures that UI regressions or errors are caught early, improving the stability of the application and accelerating the release process.
Setting Up EasyRepro for UI Testing
Setting up EasyRepro for UI testing involves several steps, including setting up the test environment, configuring dependencies, and writing test scripts. Here’s how you can get started with EasyRepro:
1. Prerequisites
Before you begin, you need to ensure that you have the necessary software and tools installed:
- Visual Studio: EasyRepro tests are written in C#, so you need to have Visual Studio installed on your machine. Make sure you have the .NET Framework and NuGet Package Manager installed as well.
- Selenium WebDriver: EasyRepro uses Selenium for browser automation, so you’ll need to install the Selenium WebDriver for the browser(s) you plan to test.
- ChromeDriver/GeckoDriver/EdgeDriver: These drivers are required for interacting with different browsers. You can download these drivers for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
2. Setting Up the Project
To get started with EasyRepro, you can follow these steps:
- Create a New Project: In Visual Studio, create a new C# NUnit or C# xUnit test project.
- Install EasyRepro via NuGet: You can install EasyRepro through NuGet, which is Visual Studio’s package manager. In the NuGet Package Manager window, search for EasyRepro and install it. Alternatively, you can use the following command in the Package Manager Console:
Install-Package EasyRepro - Add Required Dependencies: In addition to EasyRepro, you may need to install Selenium WebDriver and NUnit or xUnit for test execution.
- Selenium WebDriver:
Install-Package Selenium.WebDriver - NUnit (if you’re using NUnit as your testing framework):
Install-Package NUnit
- Selenium WebDriver:
- Add Browser Drivers: For each browser you intend to use for testing, you’ll need to add the corresponding WebDriver, like ChromeDriver, GeckoDriver (for Firefox), or EdgeDriver. These drivers should be placed in a folder on your local machine, and their paths should be specified in your test scripts.
3. Writing EasyRepro Test Scripts
Once the project is set up, you can begin writing test scripts using EasyRepro’s pre-defined methods for interacting with Dynamics 365 UI elements. EasyRepro supports a wide variety of UI elements and interactions, such as:
- Navigating to entities
- Creating, updating, and deleting records
- Verifying field values
- Interacting with forms, grids, and lookups
Here’s an example of a simple EasyRepro test script that navigates to an account entity and verifies that a field is present:
using Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.UIAutomation.Api;
using NUnit.Framework;
namespace EasyReproExample
{
[TestFixture]
public class AccountTests
{
private ServiceClient _serviceClient;
private WebDriver _driver;
private LoginPage _loginPage;
[SetUp]
public void SetUp()
{
// Initialize the WebDriver and login to Dynamics 365
_driver = new WebDriver();
_loginPage = new LoginPage(_driver);
_loginPage.Login("https://yourorg.crm.dynamics.com", "username", "password");
}
[Test]
public void TestAccountForm()
{
// Navigate to the Account entity
var homePage = new HomePage(_driver);
homePage.NavigateToEntity("Account");
// Open a new Account form
var accountPage = homePage.OpenNewAccountForm();
// Verify if the "Name" field is displayed
var nameField = accountPage.GetField("name");
Assert.IsTrue(nameField.Displayed, "The Name field should be displayed.");
}
[TearDown]
public void TearDown()
{
// Close the WebDriver
_driver.Quit();
}
}
}
4. Running the Tests
Once you’ve written the tests, you can run them using the Test Explorer in Visual Studio. Make sure your test environment is configured correctly, and then execute the tests. EasyRepro will automatically launch the web browser, execute the UI interactions, and report the results of each test.
Best Practices for Using EasyRepro
While EasyRepro is a powerful framework for UI testing, to get the best results, it’s important to follow best practices:
1. Use Page Object Model (POM) Design Pattern
The Page Object Model (POM) design pattern is a widely used practice in UI testing that separates the test logic from the UI element interactions. In POM, each page (or screen) of the application is represented as a class with methods that interact with the UI elements on that page. This improves maintainability and readability of the test code.
2. Handle Dynamic Elements
Dynamics 365 is a dynamic platform where elements might change based on user inputs or workflows. Make sure your tests can handle these dynamic elements by using explicit waits to ensure that the elements are present before interacting with them.
3. Cross-Browser Testing
Always test your Dynamics 365 customizations across multiple browsers. EasyRepro supports Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, so make sure your tests are executed on these different browsers to ensure compatibility.
4. **Incorporate Tests into CI/CD Pip
elines**
Integrate EasyRepro tests into your CI/CD pipeline to ensure that UI tests are automatically run with every build or deployment. This helps catch issues early in the development cycle and ensures the stability of your application.
5. Data-Driven Testing
Consider using data-driven testing to run the same test with multiple sets of data. EasyRepro allows you to run tests with different inputs, which is useful for testing forms and records with a variety of values.