10 Best Integration Testing Tools to Write Integration Tests
Software testing is an integral aspect of software development to ensure that software products meet the quality standards and end-user requirements. It takes place at four levels, for example, unit or system-level testing. Among all levels, integration testing is the second one.
It is a software testing type that logically ingrates an application’s modules and tests them as a group to validate the interaction between both. This contradicts unit testing, which tests the application’s each module in isolation for its correctness.
There are two ways to perform integration testing – automated and manual. As manual testing consumes a lot of time, organizations today are adopting automated testing, which involves using tools.
For automated integration testing, many tools are available in the market. In this blog post, we will go through the top picks for the best integration testing tools. But before that, let us briefly discuss integration testing.
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What is Integration Testing?
Our software depends on a lot of connected modules for its complete working. Integration testing ensures the interaction between individually unit-tested components/modules does not create any defects or issues.
For example, consider the application’s specific module works perfectly as per unit testing. But, when it tries to communicate with another module, it may be the case that this interaction may result in an error. If this happens, your application will offer a bad experience to end users.
So, it becomes essential to test the interaction between multiple software modules before releasing it to end users. This is where integration testing comes into play.
Check out in detail: Integration Testing
Integration testing tools help you automate this task and save time. You can use these tools to create different test cases, which can be run to see how your application performs under different situations.
Different Approaches to Integration Testing
- Big-Bang Integration Testing
The big-bang testing approach integrates an application’s units or modules and tests them as a group. It is ideal for small projects, whether personal or professional, as it is challenging to localize where the error occurs.
- Bottom-Up Integration Testing
This approach tests the lowest components of the codebase first and then moves up to the middle layer and then the upper layers. You can use this approach for testing driver-level logic in your software on which upper layers depend.
- Top-Down Integration Testing
In this approach, testing takes place from top to bottom. Initially, it involves testing the application’s top-level modules followed by the low-level modules. Finally, it integrates the low-level modules with a high-level to ensure the application functions as planned.
If low-level modules are not present and you need to test the upper-layer modules, you can simulate the low-level modules’ behavior without first building them. This reduces your effort and time.
- Mixed Integration testing
Mixed integration testing is an amalgamation of the top-down and bottom-up testing approaches discussed above. It avoids shortcomings of the top-down and bottom-up approaches, as it starts testing from the middle level and continues in the lower and upper layers separately.
10 Best Integration Testing Tools To Use in 2023
It is a framework for automated integration tests developed in Java programming language that focuses on message integration. It supports multiple message protocols and data formats, including HTTP, JMS, SOAP, TCP/IP, FTP/SFTP, Kafka, JMS, etc.
This tool can simulate your application’s request and response cycle. It helps you create end-to-end use case tests for enterprise SOA applications. When the application under test runs on the test infrastructure and interacts with Citrus, the framework acts as a client and server and exchanges real requests and responses.
Now, you can monitor the message sent and received with the expected control data, such as message headers, attachments, and body content. Citrus provides a Java-fluent API where you can write the test logic and automate it completely.
FitNesse is a free and open-source project developed in Java that is not owned by anyone. It is a tool to define an application’s acceptance criteria and serves as an interface between different stakeholders. It is primarily used to test the business needs and know how the application will function when released to end-users.
The tool’s test execution capabilities help you ensure that the documentation is created according to the application under test, the application does not undergo regression, and the documentation stays up-to-date. FitNesse’s wiki server, a web browser, helps create documents easily.
To make this all happen, it is essential to create tests on a business level, which are basically business requirements. They are created through the wiki server in a way that stakeholders can understand them easily.
You can mainly use FitNesse for black box testing, where you don’t need to bother about the internal working of the application but only need to see how it performs as a complete product. It supports several languages, including Java, C#, and Python.
It is a tool to perform integration and unit testing of embedded software developed in C and C++ on different target systems. It can carry out the entire test organization, including requirements, traceability, test management, and coverage management. You can create test cases in TESSY using CTE (Classification of Tree Editor) and edit them using TDE (Test Data Editor).
The CTE makes it easy to set the values in the TESSY test process; you don’t have to switch to any other external editor. On the other hand, the TDE simplifies the editing of test data.
Protractor is an end-to-end testing tool developed in JavaScript for Angular and AngularJS applications. It helps you create and run tests against your web application running in a real browser. Built on top of WebDriverJS, Protractor interacts with your web app as a real user through native events and browser-specific drivers.
Moreover, the tool helps you test Angular-specific elements of your web app without requiring you to take the setup effort. As soon as a web page finishes its task, Protractor executes the next step in the test process.
Rational Integration Tester was earlier known as Green Hat before being acquired by IBM. It offers a script-free environment for developing and testing SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) messaging applications and business process integration initiatives. You can create, edit, and run service tests and performance tests.
The tool provides test environments where clients can test the application early in the software development life cycle. This is helpful as you can identify minor bugs early, which may be a potentially big issue in the later stages. It also creates code-free, reusable stubs for you so that the testing still continues even if some components are missing in the testing.
Moreover, the tool allows you to record the existing behavior or use requirements to create test cases. It supports creating virtual services to eliminate test dependencies.
Jasmine is a behavioral-driven development (BDD) framework for testing JavaScript code and is batteries included – it provides everything you need for testing. It does not require DOM (Document Object Model). It supports running browser tests and Node.js tests without the need for a separate framework.
BDD is derived from TDD (Test Driven Development) and focuses on testing the system’s behavior rather than the implementation part.
Jasmine supports Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc. It has a clean, obvious syntax to write tests easily. Furthermore, the tool has no external dependencies, making it less overhead.
Vector Software developed VectorCAST/C++. It uses a combination of unit testing and integration testing to test the entire application. It first runs unit tests on individual units or modules of your application and then combines them to run the integration testing. This can help you quickly determine if the issue is in the communication of modules or the specific module.
Developers who create embedded software using C and C++ use this tool. It reduces the time, effort, and cost required to test C/C++ components in mission-critical embedded systems.
It is yet another tool from Vector Software that developers use to test the applications written in the Ada programming language. It is also and unit and integration testing tool. Developers use the tool as soon as they start writing the code.
The tool automates the test code generation as soon as the software components are created. The test code consists of drivers and stubs. Drivers simulate the function of the code being tested, and stubs take the place of dependent functions that are called by the code being tested.
Moreover, VectorCAST/RSP is VectorCAST’s run-time support package that helps you execute test cases on the target hardware seamlessly.
Validata Message Testing (MSG) is an automated testing framework to test SWIFT, SOA, ATM, and Generic interface testing. Its main aim is to make the integration testing task easier and quicker. You can use end-to-end scenarios using Validate MSG and reuse them for further scenarios. This tool’s reusability helps lower the costs and time of testing.
- SWIFT Message Testing: You can schedule, test, and validate existing SWIFT messages to ensure they comply with SWIFT MT and MX standards.
- SOA Testing: Involves testing interfaces and services that bring diverse systems and platforms together.
- ATM Testing: You can create messages for advanced ATM functions and test them containing specific field data.
With Validata MSG, you can ensure increased productivity, fast time to market, reduction of testing effort by 30%, reduced deployment costs, and reduced business risks with complete coverage.
Developed by Wipro, SITA helps you to accelerate test data and design generation by automating them. It eliminates efforts to generate test data from the traditional integration testing approaches we discussed. It also supports the reusability of test cases and data to reduce the cost and time. You can also integrate it with other tools such as IBM Rational, HP ALM, etc.
Conclusion
These were our top picks for the integration testing tools. They help you automate integration testing and uncover defects in the interaction of different software modules. They save you significant time and effort.
The above list has various tools ideal for different use cases. So, before choosing any tool, ensure to outline your requirements and pick the best one that fits your needs.
We hope the above list has helped you find the right integration testing tool to test your application.
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