askui Blog

Follow the askui blog for product news, feature announcements and technical posts about automation.

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Better AskUI Workflows with Convenience Methods in AskUI SDK (ADK)

AskUI interacts with your operating system like a real human user. This directly leads to code that specifies WHAT you have to do in a specific sequence to achieve a workflow. Unfortunately this also means a lot of repetitive code. This is why we implemented some convenience methods to help you ease these pain points.

Johannes Dienst
March 13, 2024
Left side AskUI logo with subtitle AskUI. Right side Playwright logo with title Playwright on the top. Background is left side teal colored right side is rose colored.

Use Playwright and AskUI Together

Playwright is the de facto standard when it comes to reliably testing browser applications across browsers and operating systems. But what if your workflow under test leaves your browser and requires you to automate on a desktop application? AskUI is not confined to a specific application because it uses visual selectors and real human-user-like input with keypresses and natural mouse movement. This makes it an ideal tool to accompany Playwright.

Johannes Dienst
March 27, 2024
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Run AskUI Workflows with Pipedream for Smoke Testing

This blog describes all the steps on how to integrate AskUI into a Pipedream workflow, so we get the benefit of visual selection and user interaction. We do this by implementing a smoke test for a login form.

Johannes Dienst
February 23, 2024
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Create XRAY JSON Report And Upload it via API

When you use Jira as a testing team it is highly likely that you also use XRAY for testmanagement. So when you run UI-tests with AskUI you want to integrate the test run reports into xray automatically on each run. With the latest version of `askui-reporters` we added the `AskUIXRayStepReporter` that can create XRAY-proprietory-json reports, which offers step-level-reporting with screenshots!

Johannes Dienst
February 28, 2024
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Automate Glowing Outline Effect in Gimp with AskUI

AskUI shines when you realize a workflow has a complex click path and you want to automate it ad-hoc. This blog post shows you how you can automate a graphics effect I need for YouTube thumbnails: Outline the glow effect of a cropped-out person in Gimp!

Johannes Dienst
February 13, 2024
Digital landscape showcasing a variety of desktop automation tool icons including Selenium, Appium, Ranorex Studio, Leapwork, AutoIt, Katalon Studio, and AskUI, artistically arranged in a futuristic, technology-themed virtual space, symbolizing the cutting-edge advancements in automation tools

Best Desktop automation software to use in 2024

The world of desktop automation is rich and diverse, with each tool offering unique capabilities tailored to different testing needs. From the robustness of Selenium and Appium to the user-friendly interface of Ranorex Studio and the no-code approach of Leapwork, the choices are many.

Ron van Cann
January 3, 2024

Developing an Automated UI Controller using GPT Agents and GPT-4 Vision

The emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT has ushered in a new era in text generation and AI advancements. While tools such as AutoGPT have aimed at task automation, their reliance on underlying DOM/HTML code poses challenges for desktop applications built on .NET/.SAP. The GPT-4 Vision (GPT-4v) API addresses this limitation by focusing on visual inputs, eliminating the need for HTML code.

Murali Kondragunta
February 23, 2024

HTML5 Canvas Testing: Techniques, Tools, and Best Practices

Welcome to our blog post on HTML5 Canvas testing! In today's digital world, HTML5 Canvas has become an essential tool for creating interactive and visually stunning web applications. However, with great power comes great responsibility, and ensuring the quality and reliability of your HTML5 Canvas projects is crucial.

Ron van Cann
December 29, 2023

How to solve complex UI automation projects

In today's digital age, user interface (UI) automation has become an essential part of software development and testing. With the increasing complexity of user interfaces, manual testing alone is no longer sufficient to ensure the quality and reliability of applications. That's where UI automation comes in.

Ron van Cann
December 29, 2023

QA Automation: A Comprehensive Guide

In this blog post, we will delve into the world of QA Automation, providing you with a complete understanding of its basics, key elements, and why it is essential for modern software development. We will explore the tools and technologies commonly used in QA Automation, as well as the process of implementing it effectively.

Ron van Cann
November 18, 2023

Desktop Automation: Understanding, Implementing, and Maintaining

In this blog post, we will delve into the world of desktop automation, providing you with a comprehensive understanding of what it is, why it is essential, and how to successfully implement and maintain it in your organization.

Ron van Cann
November 18, 2023

Understanding and Implementing No Code Test Automation Tools

Enter no code test automation tools - the game-changers in the testing industry. These tools allow individuals with little to no coding experience to automate their testing processes, making it easier and more efficient than ever before. In this blog post, we will dive deep into the world of no code test automation tools, understanding their benefits, how to select the right tool, and implementing them successfully.

Ron van Cann
November 18, 2023
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Mastering Test Automation: A Comprehensive Guide

In this guide, we will delve into the world of test automation, covering everything from the basics and importance of test automation to setting up the test automation environment. We will explore the significance of choosing the right tools for test automation and provide insights into essential tools that can streamline your testing process.

Ron van Cann
December 13, 2023
A Robot Hand touching a Human Hand to symbolize Revolutionizing UI Automation: Unleashing AskUI's Power with GPT! Discover how AskUI's visionary integration with advanced language models like GPT is reshaping automation. From intuitive workflows to seamless natural language translation, delve into the future of effortless UI automation.

Transforming UI Automation: AskUI and LLM

Revolutionizing UI Automation: Unleashing AskUI's Power with GPT! Discover how AskUI's visionary integration with advanced language models like GPT is reshaping automation. From intuitive workflows to seamless natural language translation, delve into the future of effortless UI automation.

Murali Kondragunta
October 25, 2023
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J&J Talk AI Season 2 Episode 05: Practical Applications of Multimodal Vision Models

Join us for the final episode of Season 2 on J&J Talk AI, where we're exploring the cutting-edge realm of multimodal vision models and their wide-ranging applications. Multimodal vision models might sound like something out of science fiction, but they're very much a reality. Essentially, they bring together various data modalities, such as images, text, and audio, and fuse them into a cohesive model.

Johannes Dienst
October 10, 2023
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J&J Talk AI Season 2 Episode 04: Generative AI - GANs and NeRFs

We're continuing our discussion on generative adversarial networks, or "GANs" for short. GANs are like a magical dance between two networks – a generator and a discriminator – creating images from random noise. Johannes explains that while GANs may seem like magic, they're a powerful tool for generating realistic images from scratch.

Johannes Dienst
October 10, 2023
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J&J Talk AI Season 2 Episode 03: Practical Applications of Generative AI

Generative AI is all about creating something new from existing data, and today, we're focusing on one exciting aspect: image-to-image translation. It's not about generating text but transforming images into something entirely different.

Johannes Dienst
October 10, 2023
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J&J Talk AI Season 2 Episode 02: Geospatial Analysis with Computer Vision

What exactly is geospatial analysis, you ask? Well, in the realm of computer vision, it's all about examining images from a unique perspective – not just your typical cat and dog snapshots, but images taken by satellites from above the Earth's surface.

Johannes Dienst
October 10, 2023
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J&J Talk AI Season 2 Episode 01: Reassess Computer Vision - Practical Applications

In season two, we are back to explore practical applications of computer vision and their unique challenges. From identifying humans through facial analysis software to assisting doctors in diagnosing patients from medical images, computer vision is making a big impact across various domains. Join us as we unravel the mysteries of object detection, classification, and segmentation, and discover how these techniques are powering self-driving cars like Tesla's autopilot.

Johannes Dienst
October 10, 2023
Boy standing on a metal platform gazing into an endless futuristic city with a lot of colorful displays. The city spans across the whole horizon and sky.

J&J Talk AI Episode 04: Deep Learning Architectures and their Building Blocks

In the fourth episode we talk about the prevalent Deep Learning Architectures and their Building blocks. We cover how they work mathematically and how they are stacked together to achieve specific tasks.

Johannes Dienst
June 13, 2023
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J&J Talk AI Episode 03: Deep Learning and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs)

In the third episode we dive deeper into Deep Learning and how Convolutional Neural Networks tackle Computer Vision tasks.

Johannes Dienst
June 13, 2023
Boy standing on a metal platform gazing into an endless futuristic city with a lot of colorful displays. The city spans across the whole horizon and sky.

J&J Talk AI Episode 02: Computer Vision - Classical Approaches

In the second episode we talk about the origin of Computer vision. Dating back to to a summer school in 1966. We also talk about classical approaches that are still used today as they excel at certain tasks like eye tracking.

Johannes Dienst
June 13, 2023
Boy standing on a metal platform gazing into an endless futuristic city with a lot of colorful displays. The city spans across the whole horizon and sky.

J&J Talk AI Episode 01: What is AI and its origins?

In the first episode, we discuss the difference between artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning, and explore the concept of artificial general intelligence. Tune in to learn more about the fascinating world of AI and machine learning!

Johannes Dienst
June 13, 2023
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Challenges in User Interface Automation: The Future is Now

In this last blog, we look at cutting-edge and future technologies that promise to solve UI Automation for user interfaces that are currently hard to test without a special setup.

Johannes Dienst
April 13, 2023
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Challenges in User Interface Automation: New Approaches

In this blog, we will discuss the problems that come with selector-based approaches and how current tools try to remedy them with Smart Selectors and Self-healing Tests.

Johannes Dienst
March 29, 2023
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Challenges in User Interface Automation: Current State

User Interface (UI) Automation is a hard task in todays world as the tools used are normally dependent on relying on structural clues instead of visual recognition of UI elements.In this three part blog series we will show where the current challenges of UI Automation are, what solutions to them exist and how AI/ML can help solve them in the future.

Johannes Dienst
March 29, 2023
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Demystifying Smart Selectors

In recent years, the term smart selector has become established in UI testing. But what is it actually? This article explain what’s behind this term and whether they deliver what has been promised – namely, no more flaky tests. But before we get to smart selectors, we first need to understand what selectors actually are and what problems are associated with the classic approaches.

Jonas Menesklou
January 3, 2023
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Achieving Maximum Code Coverage in Tests: What Is It, and Why Should You Do It?

When writing tests, it is important to ensure that you are covering all of your code. This will help ensure that your tests are effective and catch any errors or bugs in your code. In this blog post, we will discuss what code coverage is and why you should strive for maximum coverage in your tests. We will also provide some recommendations on how to achieve this.

Johannes Dienst
January 3, 2023
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The Top 10 Automation Tools for Mobile Applications

Choosing a best-suited automation tool for mobile apps testing becomes reasonably important for improving application speed and getting a better response. This blog highlights the most efficient mobile app testing tools used to carry out various application testing processes efficiently and effectively.

Johannes Dienst
January 3, 2023
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Top 10 Automation Tools for Web Testing

Effective testing is only possible when the most appropriate and readily available tool is identified. This blog will walk you through some of the most popular automation solutions available in the market for Web Testing.

Johannes Dienst
January 3, 2023
Left side text Top 10 Automation Tools for Desktop Applications. MacBook with open Intellij and smartphone lying on the keyboard. White thermo mug left from it.

Top 10 Automation tools for Desktop Applications (Windows)

Choosing a best-suited automation tool for the Desktop apps becomes reasonably important when the developers work over sophisticated legacy systems in complex enterprise environments. This blog discusses the finest Automation tools that automate the desktop app’s functional testing.

Johannes Dienst
January 10, 2024
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API Testing - Dos and Don’ts

Testing APIs is an integral part of the testing process. Testing business logic pertains to the interaction between a user interface and underlying data and is part of the business layer. An API test pertains to a process of verifying the functionality, performance, and robustness of an API.

Johannes Dienst
January 3, 2023
Woman standing inside an application window looking undecisive. Around her a 404 page, an empty application window, an magnifier icon and a stop icon

Automated vs Continuous Testing

The terms “automated testing” and “continuous testing” are frequently used together. Although they work well together, they are not identical. Each of the two methods of automated testing and continuous testing have a significant impact on DevOps and Continuous Delivery.

Johannes Dienst
January 3, 2023
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A Beginners Guide to Test Automation

In automation testing, you must know which test you need to automate or select the appropriate tool for your automation testing. Automation testing provides you with a wide dimension to explore new opportunities in testing and product development.

Johannes Dienst
January 3, 2023
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UI Test Automation vs Visual Testing

A few years back, most of the testing cycles were performed by replicating the ideal testing environment. And to complete the testing, engineers used to require many manual UI tests following test scripts. But it was very time taking, and time-to-market was often affected by this. But now, companies are working with rapid development models and follow short release cycles. Companies have also replaced the conventional methods of manual testing with automation. UI test automation has become a norm.

Johannes Dienst
January 3, 2023
Engineer sitting on a desk with laptop smirking at his phone. Bis Display in the background with an arrow to a big smartphone. An Engineer takes a card out from it.

Testing Microservice Architectures

The microservice architecture paradigm is constructing an application by breaking it into small independent services. Each operates in its process and communicates with the others through a most typically HTTP API. These services are entirely autonomous in their deployment and operation.Testing a microservice architecture has its own challenges and strategies which we will outline in this blogpost.

Johannes Dienst
January 16, 2023
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Machine Learning in Testing

Having a reliable QA strategy is important for the smooth functioning of the software. While there are software testing methods that utilize the latest technological advancements to pinpoint bugs, save time, and run various test scenarios, adding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to the QA process takes it to a next level enabling businesses to enhance their testing process.

Johannes Dienst
January 3, 2023
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Top 4 Factors to Consider While Testing your Mobile Apps

Mobile app testing has some specific characteristics beyond cross-browser testing that are hard to tackle. Let’s talk about the most important factors you need to consider while testing your mobile apps.

Johannes Dienst
January 3, 2023
Four testers that analyse a webpage with heading Browser versions and its compatibility with your Website

Browser Versions and its Compatibility for your Website

The majority of your website’s visitors will access it using a browser. Your website code is interpreted differently by each browser, which means that it may seem different to visitors who use different browsers when they visit your website. For example, you should avoid relying on a browser to detect a content type or encoding correctly when you did not specify one.

Johannes Dienst
January 3, 2023
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Different Types of Automation for Web Application Testing

We are living in the tech era, and we are dependent on many web applications. The best testing efforts are required to create a quality and efficient web application. Testing web applications is altogether a tedious task, and it also consumes time. It is important to adopt automation testing to reduce such efforts, as it saves a lot of time and effort for the testing team. Testers can pay attention to more human perspective-related tasks and can leave repetitive tasks to automation.

Johannes Dienst
January 3, 2023
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The Top Automation Tools for Web, Mobile and Desktop

Automating software testing is gaining traction in the industry due to its several advantages. In addition to saving time, automation also eliminates the possibility of human error. It is possible today to automate a wide range of test scripts using various tools. However, it is crucial to use the right testing tool to succeed with your testing efforts.

Johannes Dienst
January 3, 2023