Functional testing for web applications, what is it and why do you need it?
Tags: php, testing, functionaltesting, selenium
Published: 2023-09-06 18:29:46

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title: Functional testing for web applications, what is it and why do you need it?
published: true
description: 
tags: php, testing, functionaltesting, selenium
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/osizl2474k6s1zd360wf.jpg
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# published_at: 2023-09-06 17:56 +0000
---

Most of us have heard of Unit Testing or Integration testing or the PHPUnit framework if you're a PHP developer. But not so many people are well aware of Functional testing.

Functional testing for web applications is like checking if a website works as we expect it to do. It's about testing the different parts of a website, like buttons, links, forms, and more, to make sure they do what they're supposed to do.

Imagine you have a website for an online store. Functional testing would involve clicking on the **Add to Cart** button to see if it adds items to your shopping cart, filling out the shipping address form to ensure it saves the information, and clicking on links to different product pages to make sure they take you to the right places on the website. Functional testing helps find problems or "bugs" in a website so that they can be fixed before the website is used by real customers.

There are several tools and frameworks available for functional testing of web applications. Some popular ones include:

**Selenium:** Selenium is one of the most widely used frameworks for web application testing. It allows you to automate interactions with a website, like clicking buttons and filling out forms, and then check if the results are as expected.

**Cypress:** Cypress is a newer testing framework known for its ease of use and fast testing capabilities. It's particularly popular for testing modern web applications and single-page applications.

**Puppeteer:** Puppeteer is a Node.js library that provides a high-level API to control headless (invisible) versions of web browsers like Chrome. It's often used for tasks like web scraping and automated testing.

**TestCafe:** TestCafe is a cross-browser testing framework that doesn't require browser plugins. It's known for its simplicity and the ability to test web applications on different browsers and platforms.

**Playwright:** Playwright is a relatively new framework that supports testing web applications in multiple browsers (Chrome, Firefox, and WebKit) and is known for its speed and reliability.

**Jest:** While primarily known as a JavaScript testing framework, Jest can also be used for web application functional testing, especially when combined with libraries like Puppeteer or Playwright.

Additionally, there's a tool called **[TestAutomate.io](https://testautomate.io/)**, which enables users to create functional tests without any need for coding. 

It follows a *codeless approach*, making it accessible to a broader range of users, including manual testers, QA engineers and business analysts. This can be advantageous for teams or individuals who want to automate their web application testing but may not have a background in programming. 

TestAutomate.io also works as a website monitoring tool. It has a feature that lets you set a schedule for running tests automatically. If one of these tests fails, it will alert you by sending you an email right away. 

This way you're notified if your website is down or if the checkout system has stopped working or if the latest deploy is breaking any previous changes.