Salesforce Test Automation: A Complete Guide

In today’s dynamic business landscape, companies heavily depend on Salesforce to keep up with the fast-paced nature of their operations. Salesforce is a cloud-based software organization that builds CRMs and applications focused on customer service, sales, marketing automation, analytics, etc.

Salesforce is at the top of the world market with more than 150k global customers, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Tech giants like Amazon Web Services, Walmart, Spotify, and more use Salesforce to offer great customer experience.

It has become a cornerstone for many organizations, helping them streamline their sales, marketing, and customer service processes. However, as the complexity of Salesforce applications grows, so does the need for robust and reliable test automation.

In this complete guide to Salesforce test automation, we will explore the benefits of test automation, its challenges, and tools that can be used for Salesforce testing. So let’s dive in and explore the world of Salesforce test automation!

What is Salesforce Test Automation?

Salesforce test automation is an automated testing process that is specifically designed to test Salesforce. It helps enhance testing speed, efficiency, and accuracy while eliminating the chances of human error and repetitive activities.

Automated Salesforce tests can be applied to various types of testing, including functional testing, regression testing, performance testing, UAT testing, and more.

Why Automate Salesforce Tests?

Salesforce applications are complex, with multiple modules, features, and customizations. Manually testing them would require a significant amount of time, resources, and manpower. That is why automation is considered best for Salesforce testing.

There are various reasons to automate Salesforce tests, including,

• Manual Salesforce testing is complex and requires enormous time and effort from QA teams. So, automating Salesforce tests is cost-effective and helps save time and effort.
• It is possible for testers to miss certain aspects while testing, manually. In contrast, automation improves testing efficiency and allows testers to get a wider test coverage with minimal effort.
• You need to start testing early in the SDLC to detect and fix bugs in the very early stages. Automation helps streamline your testing.
• Generating comprehensive test reports is another tedious task. Using automation tools, you can get custom test reports that are detailed and comprehensive.

Why are Salesforce Tests Difficult to Automate?

Salesforce tests could be difficult to automate due to several reasons, including,

• Dynamic and complex UI
• Frequent changes and updates
• Customization and configurations
• Shadow DOM

Let’s discuss these challenges in detail in the below sections.

Benefits of Salesforce Test Automation

Salesforce test automation offers many benefits to organizations looking to improve the quality and reliability of their Salesforce applications. Some of the key benefits of Salesforce automated testing include,

1. Wide Test Coverage

Automation testing lets you execute hundreds of tests in less time, allowing QAs to cover multiple test scenarios. As you might already know that Salesforce releases frequent updates, testing the whole application and ensuring it adapts to those changes is highly crucial.

2. Increased Accuracy

Performing manual testing for long hours can be tedious and might result in errors. That is why automation testing is considered best, as it saves time and manual effort. Plus, it eliminates the chances of human error and ensures that all test cases are run consistently at high accuracy.

3. Early Problem Detection

Using test automation will help you identify issues in your Salesforce instance at an early stage before they get severe and impact your business.

4. Money and Time Savings

Manual Salesforce testing takes time and is very costly. Automation is the best choice to automate similar tests in less time with less effort and cost.

Salesforce test automation lets you quickly detect bugs in the early stages, helping you free up your time to focus on other critical tasks. Besides, the reusability of test scripts is another advantage of automation. You can simply reuse automation scripts for different test cases and scenarios.

5. Gaining Valuable Insights

Using automated testing, you can automatically generate detailed test reports. They provide valuable insights into the performance and quality of your Salesforce application.

By analyzing the test results, you can update your testing approach and concentrate on areas where issues may arise or that you consider critical. This process of report generation and analysis can provide valuable information.

Challenges of Salesforce Test Automation

While there are many benefits to automating Salesforce tests, there are also some challenges that organizations may face. Some of these challenges include,

1. Frequent Updates

Most top businesses in the world use Salesforce CRM for their sales and marketing activities. You might be aware of the wild fact that Salesforce releases seasonal updates three times a year with many new features due to its constant evolution.

Though users can benefit from these latest features, it can be troublesome for testers as the changes might affect user customizations. So, adequate testing and continuous efforts are required to repair and enhance tests.

And if the QA team is using a code-based automation platform, they must make changes to the code as well, and hence a lot of maintenance will be required. But this can be avoided if they use a low-code test automation platform like Testsigma.

To cite an example, Salesforce recently launched its Lightning Experience. Now, testers will have to update and enhance their automated tests to run on the new version.

2. Heavy DOM Structure

Salesforce has a complex and heavy DOM structure with a deeply nested tree structure. Thus, accessing elements within the DOM tree using automation tools requires more time and effort.

3. Hidden Element Identifiers

In general, UI automation tools will require specific element details to recognize and locate visual components within an application. But Salesforce uses hidden elements, which is another challenge that affects automated testing. These elements are commonly used to hide information from users. And locating them using specialized CSS selectors can be challenging for automated tools.

4. Dynamic Elements

Salesforce Lightning has dynamic elements like most modern web applications. That is, the elements will not have a fixed ID, class, name, or CSS attributes. These elements are difficult to identify or locate.

There is a chance that QAs might overlook or miss these elements during testing, resulting in inaccurate test results. There is also a possibility that it might lead to failed tests that falsely identify an issue as resolved when it’s not.

UI elements that keep changing with every test script can be a challenge for test automation. You need a solid element locator strategy to sort this issue. If not, maintaining the Salesforce tests could become time-consuming with every test run.

5. Shadow DOMs

Salesforce uses Shadow DOMs. As you might already know, Shadow DOMs in Salesforce refer to Lightning Web Components (LWC) framework feature.

It allows developers to encapsulate their code and styles within a component, preventing them from affecting other components on the page.

This makes it difficult for automation tools to access and manipulate elements within the component.

6. Highly Customizable

Salesforce is highly known for its customizations and configurations. It offers frameworks like Aura, Apex, Visualforce, and Lightning Web Components (LWC), which allows developers to build custom pages on top of Salesforce Lightning.

They can also add custom objects making it difficult for automation tools to recognize them. And with every new update or release, there is a possibility that these customizations might break.

7. Iframes

In Salesforce, a new tab is considered a new frame. Thus, making it challenging for automation testing tools to identify and locate elements inside iFrames or inline frames.

Also, this is a challenge if you’re using a script-based tool like Selenium, as you might have to add that script logic too.

Best Practices for Test Automation

1. Initiate testing as soon as possible

Identifying issues in the early phase will help you resolve them before they become serious. It is one of the best practices. Initiating testing in the early stages can help prevent potential risks and reduce expenses in the long run.

2. Simulate real-world scenarios

It’s important to create test scenarios that closely simulate real-world scenarios. This helps enhance the accuracy of your testing results. This approach will ensure that your tests accurately reflect how the Salesforce application behaves in a production environment.

3. Create a comprehensive test strategy

Creating a clear testing strategy with well-documented testing procedures and clearly defined roles can help mitigate issues and ensure a smooth testing process.

4. Invest in the right team

It is advised to have a team of skilled testers who have the expertise and thorough knowledge of Salesforce automation testing.

5. Give meaningful names to test cases

Have a proper naming convention for your test cases. Creating descriptive names that resonate with the test scenarios will help you identify the test cases quickly without any confusion.

6. Select the best testing tool

You must identify the best automation testing tool to enhance your Salesforce testing capabilities. Though there are various tools in the market, it is best to do deep research and a thorough comparison before you pick the tool. Using an AI-powered test automation tool like Testsigma will help you complete tests in less time yet efficiently.

7. Wide test coverage for better results

It is crucial to test at least 75% of the code coverage with unit test cases to catch errors early. Doing so can reduce expense, improve code reusability, and debugging efficiency.

9. Use an Agile Approach

By using an agile approach, Salesforce testing can be carried out in sprints. This allows the team to test iteratively and continuously in less time to identify and detect bugs in the early stages. Also, it promotes collaboration, flexibility, and continuous improvement.

10. Use a low-code tool

While tools like Selenium are excellent for automating tests, they have a downside. They demand high technical knowledge and expertise. In contrast, low-code solutions, like Testsigma, enable non-technical users to develop their own Salesforce tests. This approach helps your testing team develop their skill set by making it easier to get started.

Which Automation Tool Is Best for Salesforce Testing?

There are many automation tools available for Salesforce testing, and the best tool for your organization will depend on diverse factors, such as your budget, the size of your team, your testing requirements, and your technical expertise. However, below are some popular automation testing tools that are commonly used for Salesforce test automation.

Testsigma

Testsigma is a cloud-based test automation tool that can be used to automate the testing of Salesforce applications. It provides a codeless interface for test creation and supports continuous testing. We will discuss this in detail in the below sections.

Selenium

Selenium is a popular open-source tool for web application testing, including Salesforce. It has a large user community and supports many programming languages, making it a flexible option. Though Selenium can be used for Salesforce testing, it is not the best option as it requires high technical expertise and coding skills to write test scripts. That is why codeless test automation is considered best for testing Salesforce applications.

AccelQ

AccelQ is another test automation tool that provides a codeless interface. It also supports continuous testing and provides detailed reporting and analytics.

Provar

Provar is a test automation tool that has a drag-and-drop interface for test creation. It supports both manual and automated testing.

It is important to evaluate each tool carefully and consider factors such as cost, ease of use, scalability, and support when making your decision.

How Can Testsigma Improve Salesforce Test Automation?

Testsigma is a low-code test automation tool that can be used for automating tests for Salesforce applications. It is a cloud-based platform that does not require users to download multiple tools and frameworks. It can help improve Salesforce test automation in a number of ways, including:

1. Ease of use

It has a user-friendly interface that enables users to create, maintain and run automated tests for Salesforce applications without the need for coding or scripting.

2. Codeless Test Automation

Testsigma’s codeless interface makes it easy to create tests for Salesforce applications. Even complex tests can be automated in simple English (via NLPs).

Also, users can create custom NLPs specific to their application. This type of automation testing approach makes the entire testing 5x faster. Further, you can record user actions and later run them as tests on the cloud.

3. Faster Test Execution

It supports parallel test execution, which allows multiple tests to be run simultaneously, reducing the overall time required to execute tests.

4. Cross-Browser Testing

It provides support for cross-browser testing, which allows you to test Salesforce applications on multiple browsers and platforms. This helps to ensure that your application works correctly across different environments.

5. Test Data Management

It provides support for test data management, which allows you to create and manage test data for your Salesforce application. This helps to ensure that your tests are using accurate and relevant data.

6. Third-Party Integrations

Testsigma easily integrates with various third-party applications, including CI/CD tools, product management tools, bug tracking, and collaboration tools. It makes it easy to integrate your test automation with your existing tools and processes.

8. AI-Powered Testing Capabilities

It uses AI-powered testing, which can help to optimize your test suite and identify potential issues or defects.

Start automating your tests for Salesforce with Testsigma

Summary

Salesforce test automation is an important aspect of software development that helps to ensure the quality and reliability of Salesforce applications. With the increasing complexity of Salesforce, it’s becoming more and more important to use automation tools like Testsigma to test these applications effectively.

Testsigma is also available as an open-source version. The cloud version is also available free of charge for a 30-day trial period. Sign up for the Testsigma Cloud and automate Salesforce tests in no time to build a robust and efficient Salesforce testing process.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Testsigma used for Salesforce test automation?

Testsigma is a popular cloud-based test automation tool used for Salesforce testing. It offers many features and benefits to its users. Here are some reasons why it is used for Salesforce test automation,

• Codeless interface
• Easy to use
• Continuous testing
• Detailed reporting and analytics
• Cloud-based
• Scalability

How many types of testing are there in Salesforce?

There are several types of Salesforce testing, including,

• Unit testing
• System testing
• UAT testing
• End-to-End testing
• Regression testing
• Visual testing
• Load and Performance testing
• User Acceptance testing
• Integration testing
• API testing