Testing Web Applications

There are many ways to test Web Applications with Groovy:

• use Groovy to simplify the code required to drive a Java API browser simulator, e.g. HtmlUnit or HttpUnit
• use Groovy to simplify the code required to drive a Java API for manually driving a real browser, e.g. IE or Firefox
• use Groovy to interact with a higher-level testing library which uses one of the above two approaches, e.g. Watij (for the equivalent of Watir in the Ruby world) or WebTest (to open up the possibility of testing more than just web applications)

We examine a few approaches below.

Groovy and HtmlUnit

The following example tests the Google search engine using HtmlUnit:

Groovy and Watij

The following example tests the Google search engine using Watij:

You can use Watij from within groovysh or groovyconsole if you want to have an interactive (irb-like in ruby terms) experience.

Groovy and WebTest