What is CasperJS and what are its top alternatives?
CasperJS is a navigation scripting & testing utility for PhantomJS and SlimerJS. It allows you to navigate and scrape websites, perform automated testing, and generate screenshots. CasperJS offers features like DOM manipulation, user interaction simulation, and assertions for testing. However, it lacks active development and support, and its compatibility with newer web technologies may be limited.
Puppeteer: Puppeteer is a Node library developed by Google that provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium over the DevTools Protocol. Key features include browser automation, navigation, and page scraping. Compared to CasperJS, Puppeteer has excellent documentation, active development, and support for modern web technologies. However, it requires some technical knowledge to set up and use effectively.
Selenium: Selenium is a popular testing framework that supports multiple programming languages and browsers. It allows you to automate browser interactions, perform testing, and scrape web data. Selenium is highly versatile and widely used in the industry for web testing. However, compared to CasperJS, Selenium might have a steeper learning curve and require more setup steps.
Playwright: Playwright is a Node library developed by Microsoft that provides a high-level API to automate browsers based on Chromium, WebKit, and Firefox. It supports multiple programming languages and offers powerful features for web automation and testing. Playwright boasts faster execution speeds and better browser compatibility compared to CasperJS. However, it might have fewer community resources and tutorials available.
Nightmare: Nightmare is a high-level browser automation library for Node.js, built on top of Electron. It allows you to automate tasks like clicking, filling forms, and scraping web pages. Nightmare provides an easy-to-use API and better debugging capabilities compared to CasperJS. However, it may have limitations in terms of browser compatibility and performance.
TestCafe: TestCafe is a modern testing framework for web applications that provides automated cross-browser testing without WebDriver. It offers features like intelligent element locating and automatic waiting. TestCafe is easy to set up and use, and it supports multiple browsers. Compared to CasperJS, TestCafe may have better performance and stability in test execution.
WebdriverIO: WebdriverIO is a next-gen browser and mobile automation test framework for Node.js. It supports both WebDriver and DevTools Protocol for automating web applications. WebdriverIO offers features like smart selectors and integration with popular test runners. Compared to CasperJS, WebdriverIO has a more active community and better support for modern browser technologies.
SimpleBrowser: SimpleBrowser is a headless browser automation tool for .NET applications. It allows you to automate browser interactions, perform testing, and scrape web data using C# or F#. SimpleBrowser provides a simple and easy-to-use API for web automation tasks. Compared to CasperJS, SimpleBrowser is tailored for .NET environments and may lack some advanced features.
Cypress: Cypress is a next-gen front end testing tool built for the modern web. It offers real-time reloading and interactive GUI for test execution. Cypress supports end-to-end testing and integration testing with an easy-to-use API. Compared to CasperJS, Cypress provides faster test execution and better debugging capabilities.
Taiko: Taiko is a Node.js library that provides a test automation and browser automation API. It allows you to write code like a developer to automate tasks and perform testing on web applications. Taiko simplifies test automation with a clear and concise API. Compared to CasperJS, Taiko offers better readability and maintainability in test scripts.
Katalon Studio: Katalon Studio is an all-in-one test automation solution for web, API, mobile, and desktop applications. It offers features like record and playback, test case management, and integration with popular CI/CD tools. Katalon Studio provides a comprehensive platform for test automation with a user-friendly interface. Compared to CasperJS, Katalon Studio may have a more visual approach to test automation.
Top Alternatives to CasperJS
- PhantomJS
PhantomJS is a headless WebKit scriptable with JavaScript. It is used by hundreds of developers and dozens of organizations for web-related development workflow. ...
- Selenium
Selenium automates browsers. That's it! What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that. Boring web-based administration tasks can (and should!) also be automated as well. ...
- Puppeteer
Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome over the DevTools Protocol. It can also be configured to use full (non-headless) Chrome. ...
- Cypress
Cypress is a front end automated testing application created for the modern web. Cypress is built on a new architecture and runs in the same run-loop as the application being tested. As a result Cypress provides better, faster, and more reliable testing for anything that runs in a browser. Cypress works on any front-end framework or website. ...
- SlimerJS
It allows you to manipulate a web page with an external Javascript script: opening a webpage, clicking on links, modifying the content... It is useful to do functional tests, page automation, network monitoring, screen capture etc. ...
- Protractor
Protractor is an end-to-end test framework for Angular and AngularJS applications. Protractor runs tests against your application running in a real browser, interacting with it as a user would. ...
- JavaScript
JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles. ...
- Python
Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best. ...
CasperJS alternatives & related posts
- Scriptable web browser13
- Depends on QT3
- No ECMAScript 62
related PhantomJS posts
We use CasperJS because we adopted it back in 2013 for JavaScript frontend testing. It was a really nice system back then compared to what else was out there; you had PhantomJS as a programmable browser that actually rendered CSS and everything, it was really fast (speed is a big downside of e.g. Selenium), and it was possible to make non-flaky frontend integration tests with it.
I wouldn't recommend it today, because PhantomJS is a basically dead project, and as a result, so is CasperJS. I expect we'll migrate to something else. We haven't in large part because 95% of our new tests are written with a simple Node.js-based unit testing framework we use that run 35K lines of unit tests covering most of our JS codebase in 3.6 seconds. And for the things where we want an integration test, CasperJS does work, and I think there's a good chance that waiting another year or two will result in our being able to switch to a much better option than what we'd get if we migrated now.
- Automates browsers177
- Testing154
- Essential tool for running test automation101
- Record-Playback24
- Remote Control24
- Data crawling8
- Supports end to end testing7
- Easy set up6
- Functional testing6
- The Most flexible monitoring system4
- End to End Testing3
- Easy to integrate with build tools3
- Comparing the performance selenium is faster than jasm2
- Record and playback2
- Compatible with Python2
- Easy to scale2
- Integration Tests2
- Integrated into Selenium-Jupiter framework0
- Flaky tests8
- Slow as needs to make browser (even with no gui)4
- Update browser drivers2
related Selenium posts
When you think about test automation, it’s crucial to make it everyone’s responsibility (not just QA Engineers'). We started with Selenium and Java, but with our platform revolving around Ruby, Elixir and JavaScript, QA Engineers were left alone to automate tests. Cypress was the answer, as we could switch to JS and simply involve more people from day one. There's a downside too, as it meant testing on Chrome only, but that was "good enough" for us + if really needed we can always cover some specific cases in a different way.
For our digital QA organization to support a complex hybrid monolith/microservice architecture, our team took on the lofty goal of building out a commonized UI test automation framework. One of the primary requisites included a technical minimalist threshold such that an engineer or analyst with fundamental knowledge of JavaScript could automate their tests with greater ease. Just to list a few: - Nightwatchjs - Selenium - Cucumber - GitHub - Go.CD - Docker - ExpressJS - React - PostgreSQL
With this structure, we're able to combine the automation efforts of each team member into a centralized repository while also providing new relevant metrics to business owners.
- Very well documented10
- Scriptable web browser10
- Promise based6
- Chrome only10
related Puppeteer posts
Currently, we are using Protractor in our project. Since Protractor isn't updated anymore, we are looking for a new tool. The strongest suggestions are WebdriverIO or Puppeteer. Please help me figure out what tool would make the transition fastest and easiest. Please note that Protractor uses its own locator system, and we want the switch to be as simple as possible. Thank you!
I work in a company building web apps with AngularJS. I started using Selenium for tests automation, as I am more familiar with Python. However, I found some difficulties, like the impossibility of using IDs and fixed lists of classes, ending up with using xpaths most, which unfortunately could change with fixes and modifications in the code.
So, I started using Puppeteer, but I am still learning. It seems easier to find elements on the webpage, even if the creation and managing of arrays of elements seem to be a little bit more complicated than in Selenium, but it could be also due to my poor knowledge of JavaScript.
Any comments on this comparison and also on comparisons with similar tools are welcome! :)
Cypress
- Open source29
- Great documentation22
- Simple usage20
- Fast18
- Cross Browser testing10
- Easy us with CI9
- Npm install cypress only5
- Good for beginner automation engineers2
- Cypress is weak at cross-browser testing21
- Switch tabs : Cypress can'nt support14
- No iFrame support12
- No page object support9
- No multiple domain support9
- No file upload support8
- No support for multiple tab control8
- No xPath support8
- No support for Safari7
- Cypress doesn't support native app7
- Re-run failed tests retries not supported yet7
- No support for multiple browser control7
- $20/user/thread for reports5
- Adobe4
- Using a non-standard automation protocol4
- Not freeware4
- No 'WD wire protocol' support3
related Cypress posts
When you think about test automation, it’s crucial to make it everyone’s responsibility (not just QA Engineers'). We started with Selenium and Java, but with our platform revolving around Ruby, Elixir and JavaScript, QA Engineers were left alone to automate tests. Cypress was the answer, as we could switch to JS and simply involve more people from day one. There's a downside too, as it meant testing on Chrome only, but that was "good enough" for us + if really needed we can always cover some specific cases in a different way.
We are in the process of adopting Next.js as our React framework and using Storybook to help build our React components in isolation. This new part of our frontend is written in TypeScript, and we use Emotion for CSS/styling. For delivering data, we use GraphQL and Apollo. Jest, Percy, and Cypress are used for testing.
related SlimerJS posts
- Easy setup9
- Quick tests implementation8
- Flexible6
- Open source5
- Promise support5
- Limited4
related Protractor posts
Currently, we are using Protractor in our project. Since Protractor isn't updated anymore, we are looking for a new tool. The strongest suggestions are WebdriverIO or Puppeteer. Please help me figure out what tool would make the transition fastest and easiest. Please note that Protractor uses its own locator system, and we want the switch to be as simple as possible. Thank you!
Protractor or Cypress for ionic-angular?
We have a huge ionic-angular app with almost 100 pages and 10+ injectables. There are no tests written yet. Before we start, we need some suggestions about the framework. Would you suggest Cypress or Angular's Protractor with Jasmine / Karma for a heavy ionic app with Angular?
JavaScript
- Can be used on frontend/backend1.7K
- It's everywhere1.5K
- Lots of great frameworks1.2K
- Fast898
- Light weight746
- Flexible425
- You can't get a device today that doesn't run js392
- Non-blocking i/o286
- Ubiquitousness237
- Expressive191
- Extended functionality to web pages55
- Relatively easy language49
- Executed on the client side46
- Relatively fast to the end user30
- Pure Javascript25
- Functional programming21
- Async15
- Full-stack13
- Future Language of The Web12
- Setup is easy12
- Its everywhere12
- Because I love functions11
- JavaScript is the New PHP11
- Like it or not, JS is part of the web standard10
- Easy9
- Can be used in backend, frontend and DB9
- Expansive community9
- Everyone use it9
- Easy to hire developers8
- Most Popular Language in the World8
- For the good parts8
- Can be used both as frontend and backend as well8
- No need to use PHP8
- Powerful8
- Evolution of C7
- Its fun and fast7
- It's fun7
- Nice7
- Versitile7
- Hard not to use7
- Popularized Class-Less Architecture & Lambdas7
- Agile, packages simple to use7
- Supports lambdas and closures7
- Love-hate relationship7
- Photoshop has 3 JS runtimes built in7
- 1.6K Can be used on frontend/backend6
- Client side JS uses the visitors CPU to save Server Res6
- It let's me use Babel & Typescript6
- Easy to make something6
- Can be used on frontend/backend/Mobile/create PRO Ui6
- Client processing5
- What to add5
- Everywhere5
- Scope manipulation5
- Function expressions are useful for callbacks5
- Stockholm Syndrome5
- Promise relationship5
- Clojurescript5
- Only Programming language on browser4
- Because it is so simple and lightweight4
- Easy to learn and test1
- Easy to understand1
- Not the best1
- Subskill #41
- Hard to learn1
- Test21
- Test1
- Easy to learn1
- Hard 彤0
- A constant moving target, too much churn22
- Horribly inconsistent20
- Javascript is the New PHP15
- No ability to monitor memory utilitization9
- Shows Zero output in case of ANY error8
- Thinks strange results are better than errors7
- Can be ugly6
- No GitHub3
- Slow2
- HORRIBLE DOCUMENTS, faulty code, repo has bugs0
related JavaScript posts
Oof. I have truly hated JavaScript for a long time. Like, for over twenty years now. Like, since the Clinton administration. It's always been a nightmare to deal with all of the aspects of that silly language.
But wowza, things have changed. Tooling is just way, way better. I'm primarily web-oriented, and using React and Apollo together the past few years really opened my eyes to building rich apps. And I deeply apologize for using the phrase rich apps; I don't think I've ever said such Enterprisey words before.
But yeah, things are different now. I still love Rails, and still use it for a lot of apps I build. But it's that silly rich apps phrase that's the problem. Users have way more comprehensive expectations than they did even five years ago, and the JS community does a good job at building tools and tech that tackle the problems of making heavy, complicated UI and frontend work.
Obviously there's a lot of things happening here, so just saying "JavaScript isn't terrible" might encompass a huge amount of libraries and frameworks. But if you're like me, yeah, give things another shot- I'm somehow not hating on JavaScript anymore and... gulp... I kinda love it.
How Uber developed the open source, end-to-end distributed tracing Jaeger , now a CNCF project:
Distributed tracing is quickly becoming a must-have component in the tools that organizations use to monitor their complex, microservice-based architectures. At Uber, our open source distributed tracing system Jaeger saw large-scale internal adoption throughout 2016, integrated into hundreds of microservices and now recording thousands of traces every second.
Here is the story of how we got here, from investigating off-the-shelf solutions like Zipkin, to why we switched from pull to push architecture, and how distributed tracing will continue to evolve:
https://eng.uber.com/distributed-tracing/
(GitHub Pages : https://www.jaegertracing.io/, GitHub: https://github.com/jaegertracing/jaeger)
Bindings/Operator: Python Java Node.js Go C++ Kubernetes JavaScript OpenShift C# Apache Spark
Python
- Great libraries1.2K
- Readable code964
- Beautiful code847
- Rapid development788
- Large community691
- Open source438
- Elegant393
- Great community282
- Object oriented273
- Dynamic typing221
- Great standard library77
- Very fast60
- Functional programming55
- Easy to learn51
- Scientific computing46
- Great documentation35
- Productivity29
- Easy to read28
- Matlab alternative28
- Simple is better than complex24
- It's the way I think20
- Imperative19
- Very programmer and non-programmer friendly18
- Free18
- Powerfull language17
- Machine learning support17
- Fast and simple16
- Scripting14
- Explicit is better than implicit12
- Ease of development11
- Clear and easy and powerfull10
- Unlimited power9
- Import antigravity8
- It's lean and fun to code8
- Print "life is short, use python"7
- Python has great libraries for data processing7
- Rapid Prototyping6
- Readability counts6
- Now is better than never6
- Great for tooling6
- Flat is better than nested6
- Although practicality beats purity6
- I love snakes6
- High Documented language6
- There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious6
- Fast coding and good for competitions6
- Web scraping5
- Lists, tuples, dictionaries5
- Great for analytics5
- Easy to setup and run smooth4
- Easy to learn and use4
- Plotting4
- Beautiful is better than ugly4
- Multiple Inheritence4
- Socially engaged community4
- Complex is better than complicated4
- CG industry needs4
- Simple and easy to learn4
- It is Very easy , simple and will you be love programmi3
- Flexible and easy3
- Many types of collections3
- If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a g3
- If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad id3
- Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules3
- Pip install everything3
- List comprehensions3
- No cruft3
- Generators3
- Import this3
- Powerful language for AI3
- Can understand easily who are new to programming2
- Should START with this but not STICK with This2
- A-to-Z2
- Because of Netflix2
- Only one way to do it2
- Better outcome2
- Batteries included2
- Good for hacking2
- Securit2
- Procedural programming1
- Best friend for NLP1
- Slow1
- Automation friendly1
- Sexy af1
- Ni0
- Keep it simple0
- Powerful0
- Still divided between python 2 and python 353
- Performance impact28
- Poor syntax for anonymous functions26
- GIL22
- Package management is a mess19
- Too imperative-oriented14
- Hard to understand12
- Dynamic typing12
- Very slow12
- Indentations matter a lot8
- Not everything is expression8
- Incredibly slow7
- Explicit self parameter in methods7
- Requires C functions for dynamic modules6
- Poor DSL capabilities6
- No anonymous functions6
- Fake object-oriented programming5
- Threading5
- The "lisp style" whitespaces5
- Official documentation is unclear.5
- Hard to obfuscate5
- Circular import5
- Lack of Syntax Sugar leads to "the pyramid of doom"4
- The benevolent-dictator-for-life quit4
- Not suitable for autocomplete4
- Meta classes2
- Training wheels (forced indentation)1
related Python posts
How Uber developed the open source, end-to-end distributed tracing Jaeger , now a CNCF project:
Distributed tracing is quickly becoming a must-have component in the tools that organizations use to monitor their complex, microservice-based architectures. At Uber, our open source distributed tracing system Jaeger saw large-scale internal adoption throughout 2016, integrated into hundreds of microservices and now recording thousands of traces every second.
Here is the story of how we got here, from investigating off-the-shelf solutions like Zipkin, to why we switched from pull to push architecture, and how distributed tracing will continue to evolve:
https://eng.uber.com/distributed-tracing/
(GitHub Pages : https://www.jaegertracing.io/, GitHub: https://github.com/jaegertracing/jaeger)
Bindings/Operator: Python Java Node.js Go C++ Kubernetes JavaScript OpenShift C# Apache Spark
Winds 2.0 is an open source Podcast/RSS reader developed by Stream with a core goal to enable a wide range of developers to contribute.
We chose JavaScript because nearly every developer knows or can, at the very least, read JavaScript. With ES6 and Node.js v10.x.x, it’s become a very capable language. Async/Await is powerful and easy to use (Async/Await vs Promises). Babel allows us to experiment with next-generation JavaScript (features that are not in the official JavaScript spec yet). Yarn allows us to consistently install packages quickly (and is filled with tons of new tricks)
We’re using JavaScript for everything – both front and backend. Most of our team is experienced with Go and Python, so Node was not an obvious choice for this app.
Sure... there will be haters who refuse to acknowledge that there is anything remotely positive about JavaScript (there are even rants on Hacker News about Node.js); however, without writing completely in JavaScript, we would not have seen the results we did.
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