Record and playback tools were ruling until it became a nightmare to maintain the previously recorded scripts. If a tester wanted to perform the UI automation, the record and playback tools would come to the rescue. But it was felt hard by the companies when these tools would not scale even after putting in efforts. So came the need for an automation tool that could overcome the challenges of a record and playback tool.

When it comes to automation without coding, we know that there is no substitute. Only a digital transformation can provide organizations with the velocity and agility. They need to survive and thrive in today’s highly competitive and fast-paced world, and this will happen when your business embraces a codeless solution. That allows you to edit any of the tools needed for this process without having any extensive development experience on your hands. And hence there are certain key features that a codeless test automation tool must provide for organizations to succeed in their application.

The Top 5 Features That Every Codeless Automation Tool Must Provide:

1. Structures of control: The lack of control structures like loops and conditional clauses was one of the most significant drawbacks of early record-and-playback systems. If a script author needed to repeat an action ten times, they would need to record the activity ten times and keep track of each action separately. There was no support for such logic if there were numerous viable alternatives within a step. The test author intended to do one activity if a specific condition was true and a different action if it wasn’t. And this was overcome by deploying a test automation tool.
2. Smart Element Locators: The biggest problem with test automation is that a tester develops a script at a point in time. When the application changes, those scripted automated tests may break because the locators they were using are outdated or no longer available in the app. Therefore it’s better to gather more than one element locator during the recording phase to begin with. This gives testers a much better chance at developing stable scripts because when it comes down to playback if their primary locator no longer works for some reason, there are other “alternative” locators – which works in this situation if one doesn’t – thus giving testers much greater chances at building a robust and dependable automated testing framework for their enterprise.
3. Reusable recorded steps: Going back to the above example, imagine completing these same steps every time you are testing. It would be tiring and challenging to manage repeatedly because every time you change a frequently used step, your script writer needs to change all of the tests that include it. With a Test automation tool that is made easy now!
4. Cross-browser compatibility: Browser extensions are the most common form of test automation tools. The majority of browser extensions are tied to a specific browser. Unlike browser extensions, the software that businesses create isn’t limited to a single browser. Tests must be done on a variety of browsers and devices. Because various scenarios within an application need to be thoroughly evaluated, testing the same scenario on several browsers can toll script authors. A decent scriptless test automation platform should allow test authors to run their tests across various browsers.
5. Report: Reporting is essential for any function in an organization. The same applies to test automation as well. With multiple testers involved and plenty of tests being run simultaneously, you need to be up-to-date. You need reports that tell you how your tests are performing, which failed tests need not be re-run, what features do not require extensive debugging. A test case is a document that describes a single test. It usually includes the test steps, the expected results, and the actual results.