Automatically test the accessibility of your web application with QF-Test 9
In this video we show you how you can use QF-Test 9 to test the accessibility of your website or web application. It’s quick and almost completely automatic! We will also demonstrate some of the other abilities QF-Test has gained with version 9.
QF-Test 9 introduces accessibility testing for web applications to ensure compliance with WCAG and other standards, based on the proven axe-core library but including additional features like testing the color contrast of graphical elements and a highly informative visual report. QF-Test power users will be thrilled that variables are no longer limited to strings. You can now also store lists, UI components, images and arbitrary other data structures.
Transcript
Hi! In this video we will show you how you can use QF-Test 9 to test the accessibility of your website or web application. It’s quick and almost completely automatic! Also, we will demonstrate some of the other abilities QF-Test has gained with version 9. QF-Test is the tool for professional UI test automation.
In terms of accessibility, a lot has changed with QF-Test 9. Firstly, we have significantly improved the usability and accessibility of QF-Test itself: Using QF-Test with a screen reader or just a keyboard works much better now than before.
Secondly, QF-Test can now assist you with making your own applications more accessible. Version 9 introduces a whole new suite of accessibilty checks. With them, you can fully automatically test your web application for conformity to WCAG (« wee-cag »/ »double-u c a g »), the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines – an important step towards compliance with the European Accessibility Act and other laws.
As always with QF-Test, it could not be easier to get started with the new accessibility testing tools.
Every good test in QF-Test starts with the Quickstart Wizard. In here you will find a new entry for our accessiblity tests.
Basically, we only need to enter a URL and off we go. Using QF-Test 9, you can test the accessiblity of any website or web application.
In the next step, you can optionally define exactly which checks QF-Test should perform. QF-Test version 9 can run every check included with the well-known and trusted open-source library « axe-core ». In addition, we offer color contrasts checks of graphics. Our goal is to introduce support for more aspects of accessiblity testing in future versions of QF-Test.
But for now, wo don’t need to do anything else. With one click, QF-Test now launches a browser and thoroughly puts our app through its paces.
The best part of this feature, however, is the reporting built into QF-Test. For every test run, QF-Test generates a comprehensive technical run log.
In addition, there’s a clear and interactive HTML report. It visualizes which elements of your application failed which checks using lots of screenshots. It also offers tips on how to fix many of these issues.
On the occasion of this update, we also upgraded the HTML report. Next to some visual upgrades, it now offers a dark mode, same as QF-Test itself. We also greatly improved the navigation through screenshots and messages.
QF-Test 9 also includes a new example test suite which you can use as inspiration for your own tests. It’s the only sample suite in QF-Test which will generate errors when run. But don’t worry: In this case, this is on purpose – so you can get a realistic impression of what a typical QF-Test accessiblity report looks like.
As with all features, you can find detailed information about everything new in QF-Test in the included manual. And in this version, we have completely overhauled the HTML manual.
It now includes an intuitive navigation sidebar, so you always know where you are in the manual.
We also added a lightning-fast search engine to the manual. Using it, you can effortlessly find what ever you are looking for – even without an internet connection.
The new manual is much more readable and more informative. And most importantly, it also includes a cool dark mode.
One chapter of the manual that has gotten especially interesting in QF-Test 9 is the one on « Variables ». With this update, we have extended our variable system by object variables. Now, you can no longer just store strings in QF-Test variables, but lists, UI components, images and any other data structure you want.
This addition makes QF-Test more powerful than ever. For example, object variables allow you to define a variable as encrypted and keep it encrypted throughout your whole suite, and it’s true value will never be logged.
In many places in QF-Test, you can now choose a desired object type when defining a variable. And many procedures across the qfs.qft standard library will now optionally return objects.
We also developed powerful new scripting APIs such as « rc.vars ». With « rc.vars », it becomes incredibly intutive to read and write QF-Test variables.
And of course, all of these additions are backwards-compatible. Your existing tests will perform exactly as before and you only have to dive into this topic once you are ready for it. But we are confident that especially our power users will quickly learn to use the new object variables in QF-Test 9 to great effect.
Our UI inspector is still the best tool to keep tabs on how QF-Test sees your application in real-time. With QF-Test 9, we have enhanced the UI inspector with a search and filter function.
Using it, you can get a better overview about which component classes show up where in your application. Especially with more complicated component hierarchies, this feature can be invaluable.
Another very neat little addition to QF-Test 9 is the ability to set options only for the scope of a specific node.
Often, you only need an option for a brief moment to override an otherwise useful default behavior of QF-Test. Thanks to the new « option » doctag, you can now summarize the annoying « set option », « perform action », « reset option » steps into one action.
You can not only set the doctag on individual nodes, you can also set it on an entire test step – or any other sequence. The option will then apply for all nodes that are part of that sequence.
And that’s not even everything that’s new in QF-Test 9. There are a ton of smaller improvements and features. Visit our website and take a look at the full release notes to learn about all the details.
Not convinced yet? Try QF-Test 9 for yourself today! You can download QF-Test for free at www.qftest.com and start testing right away.