Integeration Testing Tools

This article will cover the topic of integration testing systems and the integration testing tools which are used to implement them.

Before diving into the integration testing we need to need to understand what does a module mean?

Modules are small units or components of a software project which are integrated to form a complete software product. Generally, a project is divided into modules to reduce the burden and complexity for developers.

What is Integration testing?

Integration testing is a testing technique that is used to test different modules or components of a software project when modules are integrated. It is used to see whether the project is running efficiently or not when all modules are integrated. It identifies all the errors in the modules and reports them to the developers so that they can rectify them.

The tools which are used to implement the integration testing system are called integration testing tools.

Below are a few Integration testing tools that are more popular and widely used in the market:

1. FitNesse
2. Rational Integration Tester
3. VectorCAST/C++
4. Protractor
5. Citrus

1. FitNesse

It is a standalone integration testing tool which means that it is only useful for integration testing and doesn’t support other types of testing, unlike other tools.
It can be used to test applications written in programming languages like c, java, python, PHP, etc.

Features:

• The best part of this tool is it is open-source. Anyone can use it for free.
• The java jar file is enough for accessing this tool.
• It supports many no programming languages like c, java, python, ruby, etc.
• It provides the result in tabular representation so that it becomes very easy for developers to understand the quality of the product
• It provides WIKI powered test framework which provides developers to easily customize the tests.

2 Rational Integration tester

Rational Integration tester is the integration testing tool acquired by IBM. This tool was first developed by Green Hat and later IBM acquired Green Hat.

It helps in providing a high-quality product and it can be easily accessed and maintained by developers. Below are a few key features of the integration testing tool.

Features:

• It offers code-free integration testing and it even allows for reusing stubs(similar to a module) so that testing can be even performed when some of the components are missing.
• Sometimes a single project must be accessed by multiple users to achieve this tool using standard software configuration management(SCM) system.
• It facilitates developers to record all the events during the development of the project.
• It reduces the time cycle of a project.
• The learning time for this tool is also less.

3. VectorCAST/C++

VectorCAST is an integration tool developed by vector Software and is generally used for both unit and integration testing. Here unit testing refers to the testing of each module.

It works on the main principle that combining all unit tests lead to integration testing because the integration of all modules leads to the entire project.

Features:

•  It is mainly useful for developers who are working on building embedded software using C or C++.
• it provides a highly efficient integration testing system
• it is widely used in medical devices, railways, financial industries
• it facilitates the automatic creation of test cases with various forms of input and output
• it even helps in certifying the embedded systems.

4. Protractor

This integration testing tool is mainly used for testing Angular and AngularJS applications. It provides E2E(end-to-end) testing due to its integration with Selenium WebDriver.

It is very easy to write scripts and run them on protracter.

Features:

• It provides many third-party integrations
• The test scripts can easily interact with the selenium driver
• It is an open-source integration testing tool
• It even supports for an end to  end testing
• It even helps in identifying web elements with advanced HTML attributes
• It even supports cross-browser testing

5. Citrus

It is an integration testing tool written in java language it provides automated testing integration testing of message-based applications. It provides testing for data formats like XML, JSON, FTP, etc. Below are a few key features of the Citrus integration testing system.

Features:

•  It is an open-source integration testing system
•  It even validates the message headers
• It supports message transporting like SOAP, HTTP, JMS
• It acts as both the server and client side and sends request and response messages accordingly
• it is even used for error replication.

This is all about integration testing systems and tools. Hope you have received a better understanding of this topic.