VFA is a Java based BDD (Behavior-Driven Development) framework from the same folk who created Video First (a UI testing platform which uses video to capture and share UI tests).

VFA enables developers and testers to quickly and easily create beautiful automated tests with zero loss of power or flexibility. It focuses on E2E (end-to-end) user interface tests but also supports testing e.g. API endpoints.

The best way to show VFA in action is with an example. The following test searching for the film "The Green Mile" on the IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase) website.

import static io.Vfa.*;                                  // Import static step methods e.g. given()

import io.Feature;
import io.Scenario;
import io.WebActions;

import javax.inject.Inject;

@Feature                                                 //  @Feature marks class as a VFA feature 
public class SearchFilms {

    @Inject
    private WebActions web;

    @Scenario                                            // @Scenario marks method as a VFA scenario
    public void search_for_film_The_Green_Mile() {
        given("a user is at the homepage");              // Static method creates high-level VFA step
        web.open("https://www.imdb.com");                // This method runs a low-level VFA action 

        when("the user types the \"The Green Mile\" into search box");
        web.type("id=suggestion-search", "The Green Mile");

        and("the user clicks the search icon");
        web.click("#suggestion-search-button");

        then("I expect the see the results page");
        web.text_contains(".findHeader", "Results for");
        web.text_contains(".findSearchTerm", "The Green Mile");

        and("the top result only contains \"The Green Mile\"");
        web.exists("xpath=.//td[@class='result_text']/a[text() = 'The Green Mile']");
    }

}

This can be run from your IDE (we highly recommend IntelliJ IDEA) just like any JUnit test. The following will be displayed in the console: -

Feature: Search Films

  Scenario: Search for Film The Green Mile

    Given a user is at the homepage                             : open ("https://www.imdb.com") ✔
     When the user types the "The Green Mile" into search box   : type ("id=suggestion-search", "The Green Mile") ✔
      And the user clicks the search icon                       : click ("#suggestion-search-button") ✔
     Then I expect the see the results page                     : text_contains (".findHeader", "Results for") ✔
                                                                : text_contains (".findSearchTerm", "The Green Mile") ✔
      And the top result only contains "The Green Mile"         : exists ("xpath=.//td[@class='result_text']/a[text() = 'The Green Mile']") ✔

VFA outputs standard BDD format i.e. Feature (e.g. Search Films) -> Scenarios (e.g. Search for Film The Green Mile) -> Steps (e.g. Given a user is at the homepage).

A unique feature of VFA are actions (e.g. open ("https://www.imdb.com")) and how they are displayed i.e. high level steps are shown on the left (which anyone can understand) and lower level actions are displayed on the right-hand-side ( useful for engineers / testers).

The above test can be executed like any JUnit test. During the execution, JSON files are generated that can then be used afterwards to generate test reports.

VFA is the result of many chats with lots of testers and engineers about their experiences creating and running E2E user interface tests. These problems included: -

todo

VFA is published under the Apache License 2.0, see https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 for the full licence.

See CONTRIBUTING