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JetBrains (formerly IntelliJ Software ) is a Czech software development company that specializes in tools for programmers and project managers. Jetbrains has developed many popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) such as Intellij IDEA, Pycharm, WebStorm and so on. Their IDEs support various programming languages such as Java, Groovy, Kotlin, Ruby, Python, PHP, C, Objective-C, C++, C#, F#, Go, JavaScript, and SQL. And Aqua is their newest addition to their existing lineup. It is a powerful IDE developed by keeping Test Automation in focus. It is a treat for QA and test engineering professionals in modern software development. Being a leading automation testing company, we are always on the lookout for new tools and technologies that can help us enhance our testing process. So in this blog, we will be focusing on Jetbrains Aqua and its features that make it a great IDE for testers.
There are a lot of features in Aqua that a test automation engineer needs on a daily basis, which includes
- A Multi-language IDE (with support for JVM, Python, JavaScript, and so on)
- A new, powerful web inspector for UI automation
- Built-in HTTP client for API Testing
- Database management functionality
Intelligent Coding Assistance
As with other JetBrains IDEs, Aqua checks your code on-the-fly for quality and validity. If issues are found, the IDE suggests context actions to help you resolve them. As of writing this blog, Aqua provides intelligent coding assistance for Java, Kotlin, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, and SQL. To use the context action, click the light bulb icon (or press Alt+Enter).
In addition to that, clicking Shift twice allows you to search across classes, files, Action, and Database.
Starting a New Project
Creating a new project is so cool in Jetbrains Aqua as you can choose the build tool (Maven or Gradle), Test runner (JUnit or TestNG), JDK, and language for the project. To make it even easier for you, JetBrains Aqua even provides you with a sample script when you are creating a project for the first time.
Aqua supports JUnit, TestNG, Pytest, Jest, Mocha, and other popular frameworks for writing, running, and debugging unit tests. Code insights are also provided by Jetbrains Aqua for CSS, XPath, and many other libraries used in UI testing.
You can choose the page object pattern you want to use in the IDE and Jetbrains Aqua will use the corresponding pattern when adding the locators. Though the URL field is optional, it will be useful when identifying the locators.
Web Inspector
Now that there is an inbuilt Web Inspector in Jetbrain Aqua, you can explore the web application you want to perform automation for and collect the required page elements. Aqua provides CSS or XPath locators for the chosen elements on the webpage and aids in adding it to the source code.
The best part is that it will assign a valid name to the web elements you chose instead of assigning a random name. It is known by all that an element might have more than one unique Xpath or CSS for a web element. So the Web Inspector will fetch all the available variations as shown in the below screenshot.
If you are working with multiple sites, the web inspector has a history feature that will come in handy. You can use it to select the site you want from the drop-down in the search bar as shown below.
HTTP Client
Every web service will send and receive numerous HTTP requests. As Jetbrain Aqua has an inbuilt HTTP client, you will be able to create and edit the requests. So you will be able to perform API tests where you can use commands such as get, post, put, etc in the IDE to check the response body and response code.
In the above image, we have used the GET command and got 200 as the response code.
Database Management
If you have been performing automated data analytics testing, you’ll definitely love this new feature in Jetbrain Aqua. Using Aqua, you’ll be able to handle multiple databases, develop SQL scripts, and perform data assertions to a certain extent right from the IDE. So you’ll be able to connect to live databases, run & validate the required queries, export the data, and manage the schemes with the help of a visual interface. Some of the well-known databases that you can access are Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and so on.
If you take a look at the above image, we have connected to an SQL server and used the Select command to extract the required details.
Conclusion
Even if you have existing projects in Maven, Eclipse, and Gradle, you can import those projects to Jetbrains Aqua and make use of all these new features. As one of the leading automation testing companies in the industry, we are excited to use Jetbrains Aqua in our projects. Hopefully, we have explained the features of Jetbrains Aqua in a way that has encouraged you to use it as well. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated with all the latest test automation tools, methods, and so on.
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