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AVA vs Protractor: What are the differences?

<h1>Key Differences between AVA and Protractor</h1>

<p>When it comes to automated testing frameworks, AVA and Protractor are two popular choices within the development community. Let's explore the key differences between these two tools.</p>

1. <b>Test Environments:</b> AVA runs tests concurrently, providing faster test execution, while Protractor runs tests sequentially, which may be slower in comparison.

2. <b>Programming Language:</b> AVA is specifically targeted towards testing JavaScript code, making it suitable for projects built on Node.js, while Protractor is designed for testing Angular applications.

3. <b>Asynchronous Testing:</b> AVA utilizes asynchronous testing by default, allowing faster and more efficient testing of asynchronous code, whereas Protractor provides built-in support for handling Angular's asynchronous behavior.

4. <b>User Interface Testing:</b> Protractor includes features specifically tailored for end-to-end testing of Angular applications, such as automatic synchronization with Angular elements, while AVA focuses more on general JavaScript testing.

5. <b>Community Support:</b> Protractor has a larger user base and extensive documentation, making it easier to troubleshoot issues and find resources online, while AVA may have a smaller community but is known for its simplicity and ease of use.

6. <b>Integration with CI/CD:</b> Protractor offers seamless integration with popular CI/CD tools such as Jenkins and Travis CI, facilitating continuous testing and deployment workflows, whereas AVA may require additional configuration for integration with certain CI/CD pipelines.

In Summary, AVA and Protractor offer distinct advantages based on the specific testing requirements and project environments, with AVA excelling in speed and simplicity for JavaScript testing, while Protractor is tailored for Angular application testing with robust community support.
Advice on AVA and Protractor
Yildiz Dila
testmanager/automation tester at medicalservice · | 5 upvotes · 259.8K views
Needs advice
on
CypressCypress
and
ProtractorProtractor

In the company I will be building test automation framework and my new company develops apps mainly using AngularJS/TypeScript. I was planning to build Protractor-Jasmine framework but a friend of mine told me about Cypress and heard that its users are very satisfied with it. I am trying to understand the capabilities of Cypress and as the final goal to differentiate these two tools. Can anyone advice me on this in a nutshell pls...

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Replies (2)
Kevin Emery
QE Systems Engineer at Discovery, Inc. · | 4 upvotes · 158.9K views
Recommends
on
CypressCypressProtractorProtractor

I've used both Protractor and Cypress extensively. Cypress is the easier and more reliable tool, whereas Protractor is the more powerful tool. Your choice of tool should depend on your specific testing needs. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of each tool:

Cypress advantages:

  • Faster

  • More reliable (tends to throw fewer intermittent false failures)

  • Easier to read code (handles promises gracefully)

Cypress disadvantages:

  • Cannot switch between browser tabs

  • Cannot switch to iFrames

  • Cannot specify clicks or keypresses explicitly as if a real user was interacting

  • Cannot move the mouse to specific co-ordinates

  • Sometimes has trouble switching between different top-level domains, so not good for testing external links

  • Cypress is a newer tool with less extensive documentation and less community support

Protractor advantages:

  • More powerful because it is Selenium-based - it can switch between tabs, it can handle external links to other domains, it can handle iFrames, simulate keypresses and clicks, and move the mouse to specific co-ordinates within the browser.

  • More extensive community support and documentation

Protractor disadvantages:

  • Slower and more brittle - in general there is a higher likelihood of cryptic and/or intermittent errors which may cause your tests to fail even though there is nothing wrong with your application

  • For highly experienced automation engineers, the fundamental "brittle" nature of Selenium can be worked around - it can be reliable but only if you really know what you are doing

  • Less graceful handling of promises - relies on async/await or .then to manage the order of execution. Therefore it is a bit harder to read the code.

  • Harder to set up, and the method of setup impacts its reliability. For example, a hub/node configuration where the selenium jar is on a different physical machine than the browser under test will cause unreliability in your tests. Not everyone knows about this type of thing, so it's common to find Selenium frameworks that are set up poorly.

It's probably better to use Cypress if

  • you're at a smaller company and have a close relationship with developers who can help write hooks or stubs in their code to assist your testing

  • you don't need to do things like switch between tabs or test links to external top-level domains

It's probably better to use Protractor if

  • You might need to switch between tabs or test external links to other domains within the scope of your framework

  • You want to use a more accurate simulation of how a real user interacts with a browser (i.e. click at this location, type these keys)

  • You're at a company where you won't have any support from developers in writing hooks or stubs to make their code more testable in a less powerful framework like Cypress

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Jian Wang
Web Engineer at sentaca · | 1 upvotes · 187.7K views
Recommends

Please try Handow, the e2e tool basing on Puppeteer.

Gherkin syntax compatible

Chrome/Chromium orentied, driven by Puppeteer engine

Complete JavaScript programming

Create test suites rapidly without coding (or a little bit), basing on built-in steps library

Schedule test with plans and arrange stories with sequential stages

Fast running, execute story groups in parallel by multi-workers

Built-in single page report render

Cover page view, REST API and cookies test

https://github.com/newlifewj/handow

http://demo.shm.handow.org/reports

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Pros of AVA
Pros of Protractor
  • 12
    Simple and fast
  • 6
    Parallel test running
  • 5
    Open source
  • 3
    Promise support
  • 3
    Test code Instrumenting
  • 2
    Babel integration
  • 1
    ESM Ready
  • 9
    Easy setup
  • 8
    Quick tests implementation
  • 6
    Flexible
  • 5
    Open source
  • 5
    Promise support

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of AVA
Cons of Protractor
  • 1
    No built-in support for DOM
  • 1
    No source files compilation
  • 4
    Limited

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

- No public GitHub repository available -

What is AVA?

Even though JavaScript is single-threaded, IO in Node.js can happen in parallel due to its async nature. AVA takes advantage of this and runs your tests concurrently, which is especially beneficial for IO heavy tests. In addition, test files are run in parallel as separate processes, giving you even better performance and an isolated environment for each test file.

What is 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.

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What companies use AVA?
What companies use Protractor?
See which teams inside your own company are using AVA or Protractor.
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What tools integrate with AVA?
What tools integrate with Protractor?
    No integrations found

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    What are some alternatives to AVA and Protractor?
    Jest
    Jest provides you with multiple layers on top of Jasmine.
    EVA
    Equipping you with hundreds of symbols and dozens or styles configurations, it makes sure the design stays consistent across all of your applications and platforms.
    Mocha
    Mocha is a feature-rich JavaScript test framework running on node.js and the browser, making asynchronous testing simple and fun. Mocha tests run serially, allowing for flexible and accurate reporting, while mapping uncaught exceptions to the correct test cases.
    Chai
    It is a BDD / TDD assertion library for node and the browser that can be delightfully paired with any javascript testing framework. It has several interfaces that allow the developer to choose the most comfortable. The chain-capable BDD styles provide an expressive language & readable style, while the TDD assert style provides a more classical feel.
    Jasmine
    Jasmine is a Behavior Driven Development testing framework for JavaScript. It does not rely on browsers, DOM, or any JavaScript framework. Thus it's suited for websites, Node.js projects, or anywhere that JavaScript can run.
    See all alternatives