Introduction to the Katalon Automation Recorder
Are you worried because your automation testing work has been hampered as Selenium IDE has stopped working from Firefox 55 onwards? Alright, no need to worry anymore as we have some good news for you.
The Katalon Studio team recently introduced Katalon Automation Recorder, which has been developed for users who are no longer able to continue automation testing using obsolete Selenium IDE.
It can be added as an extension in Firefox and Chrome and is supported by the latest versions of these browsers (and will be supported by the upcoming versions as well). This tool is the perfect alternative to Selenium IDE and other similar open-source frameworks.
Table of Contents:
Katalon Automation Recorder
It is a very handy and powerful test steps recorder that is ported from Selenium IDE to Chrome and Firefox with major functions preserved.
Selenium IDE Vs Katalon Automation Recorder
In the below figure, you can observe that all the features that were presented in Selenium IDE are also available in this Katalon tool.
In fact, this Katalon tool has two more export languages – Robot Framework and Katalon Studio. It is also compatible with the Groovy programming language.
This tool is a great help for the teams who have been dependent heavily on Selenium IDE. It has a powerful IDE to record, debug, and playtests in Chrome & Firefox browsers.
Katalon Automation Recorder Installation
Below are the links to download the Katalon Automation Recorder for both Chrome & Firefox:
It is very easy and quick to get this tool installed. I will show you how:
You just need to click the ‘Add to Firefox’ button as seen in the above screenshot and the Katalon Recorder will appear on your Firefox toolbar in a jiffy (it will not take more than 10 seconds to get installed).
And this is how it looks:
A Quick Demo
Click on the ‘New’ button and provide the test case name in the dialogue box. Then, Click ‘OK’
Click on the “Add” button and give the command you want to get executed:
In the Reference section as seen above, you will get the details of what that particular command does.
Similarly, provide subsequent commands to complete your test case:
Once completed, click on the ‘Play’ button to execute the test case.
As seen in the above screenshot, the steps executed successfully are turned green and the execution info along with the Test case passed/ failed status has appeared in the Console area.
Main Features
#1) With this tool, you can capture the web elements and record the actions performed on the web app. It allows you to create (new test cases), edit (existing test cases), and play with automated test cases. And all this can be done very quickly and easily.
#2) All the Selenese commands are supported by this tool.
#3) Existing Selenium IDE tests can be imported into Katalon Recorder (using Script mode) and can be exported to the below languages & frameworks:
Language | Corresponding Framework |
---|---|
Groovy | Katalon Studio |
Java | WebDriver + TestNG |
Java | WebDriver + Junit |
Java | WebDriver-backend Remote Control + Junit |
Robot Framework | |
C# | WebDriver + Nunit |
Ruby | WebDriver + Rspec |
Python2 | WebDriver + unittest |
#4) This tool is compatible with the latest versions of Firefox and Chrome browsers.
#5) It works on Selenium 3 core engine.
#6) Multiple test cases can be combined and arranged inside a test suite and can be executed as a complete test suite.
#7) Test cases can be imported into Katalon Studio – a completely free automation testing solution that is key-driven and data-driven, supports TDD/BDD Testing, API Testing, Page Object Model, test management, test case recording, advanced scripting, parallel execution, CI integrations and much more!
#8) Allows not only Katalon Studio users but also users of the obsolete Selenium IDE and other popular open-source frameworks to record and playback automation tests.
Features Discussed in Detail
#1) Toolbar: The toolbar consists of 6 buttons namely New, Record, Play, Export, Help, and Settings:
- New: Clicking on this button will allow you to add a new test case inside the test suite.
- Record: This will allow you to record the test steps.
- Play: This button is to execute the existing test case.
- Export: Clicking on this button takes you to the script mode where you can choose the Language & Framework. By default, “Katalon Studio” is selected.
You can save the script here. Clicking on the Save As File button in the above screenshot will allow you to save the script as a Groovy file.
You can also observe here that corresponding to the commands you gave on the front end, you have received the code generated here:
This is similar to the “Source” section we had for Selenium IDE.
You can switch to different Languages & Frameworks below:
Changing the Language & Framework will automatically change your code in the script accordingly:
- Help: This will take you to the Katalon Automation Recorder User Guide page where various features are explained in detail.
- Settings: This will take you to the port and configuration settings.
#2) Test Case Explorer:
The test case explorer contains test suites. In the test suite, you can have multiple test cases.
Right-clicking on Test cases gives you three options – ‘Add New Test Case’, ‘Remove Test Case’, and ‘Rename Test Case’.
Right-clicking on Test Suite gives you six options – ‘Open Test Suites’, ‘Add New Test Suite’, ‘Save Test Suite As’, ‘Close Test Suite’, ‘Add New Test Cases, and Rename Test Suites.
#3) Test Case Window:
This area allows you to add, delete, edit and execute test steps. Each test step contains Command, Target, and Value. You can also drag and drop to change the order of test steps.
#4) Console & Reference:
Limitations
Along with all the above-discussed pros, there are certain cons as well which I observed in the tool.
For example:
- There are certain commands which are experimental as of now. For example, the “SendKeys” command is experimental. In the future, this might get replaced with the type key command. We will have to update our test scripts accordingly in the future in case we are using any experimental commands.
- The option to specify the base URL is also not present anywhere on the tool. This was a useful option in Selenium IDE allowing test cases to be run across different domains.
- In Firefox, I found the “Settings” button missing on the toolbar of Katalon Recorder:
There are only 5 buttons present here as compared to 6 buttons in Chrome.
- There are certain other bugs as well which are present in the tool. Visit Katalon Automation Recorder Bugs and Suggestions section to check more on existing issues & their suggested resolutions.
Explore more about this tool:
Click here for a quick getting started guide to Katalon Automation Recorder.
Takeaways
- This tool can be installed very easily and quickly.
- This tool is absolutely free.
- Easy to use. The Reference section is very helpful as it tells you in detail about how each command works and when it should be used.
- Multiple languages & frameworks support make this tool more useful.
- Almost all the features that were present in Selenium IDE are preserved in this tool.
- In fact, I can see a few new commands added that were not available in Selenium IDE. This makes Automation Recorder even more powerful.
- This tool is a benefit for the testing teams which relied heavily on Selenium IDE for their automation testing work.
- Found this to be better than other substitutes for Selenium IDE. For example, unlike Kantu for Chrome, Katalon Recorder supports all the commands that were there in Selenium IDE.
- Compatible with the latest Firefox and Chrome browsers and will be supported in upcoming versions as well.
- A few small bugs exist in the tool. However, these bugs stand nowhere in front of the great features, ease of use & capabilities offered by this tool.
Overall, Katalon Automation Recorder is a great tool for automation testing and a perfect substitute for Selenium IDE. Try this free tool and let us know your queries here.
Hola
Gracias Por Este Material Me Sirvio Mucho <3
Sir , Actually i don’t have coding knowledge…but am trying to learn some IT related work..to get into the IT field. Which one i have to learn first..i don’t which is the root, which one to choose.
thanks, excited to try this out !!
any site recommendation for reference with katalon recorder ? sample test cases
Great news! I’ve been waiting for this stuff so long, thanks.
how can we increase the wait time out in this addon as my page will load very slowly and its waiting for 10000 Ms and test case is getting failed.
@Devi – learn Java first. Take a Java class. It is best to have an understanding of a well-used programming language before embarking on a career in automated software testing.
Once you understand the Java basics, then try Katalon. You will see it simplifies test creation, but you still need those Java fundamentals to truly understand how the testing works (under the covers) and to feel confident fixing any breakages.
Enjoy your new career and never stop learning.
Hey Vijay,
Thanks for the article.It was very helpful.
Hi Maehtt,
Regard to importing created Selenium IDE tests, it will be available in the next Katalon Studio release (5.3), so you should wait until there.
Great extension!
Yes, I’m missing the option to specify base URL too.
But it’s great enough. Couldn’t expect more.
i am using katalon recorder and i am stuck !!!! how can i search from a combo box and pass the result of my search result as text .(how can i automate the ENTER key )
Maehtt,
I think you should post the question into their forum at https://forum.katalon.com/ for better support. They have dedicated team as well as the community there to help each others.
Finding issues with running the test in Katalon Studio. Assert text not working. Also, I keep reading about how previously created Selenium IDE tests can be imported, but I have not found out a way to do so. Anyone else experience these issue. Other than that I am greatful for the Katalon Studio and for this extension.
Another thing to add is that Katalon Recorder allows you to import an external dataset (e.g. a CSV file) into your script. Selenium IDE does no such thing!!!
Perfect option for IDE.