Comprehensive Analysis on Test Automation: Key Features and Insights of Reporting Tool
- Padmini Elangovan
- Apr 30
- 7 min read
Popular Test Reporting Tools:
Let’s begin by understanding what is a Test Automation Report. Automation reports are artifacts that contain detailed information on the test execution. Automation reports do more than simply indicate test success and failure, they also help identify the root cause of issues. Let’s look into some popular automation test reporting used in testing frameworks,
Allure:
Allure is an open-source framework that is designed to create clear, comprehensive and user friendly test execution reports. Allure report is ideal for team looking for quick and interactive interface. Allure generates detailed insight into test execution through timelines, graphs, defects, behaviours, and provides clear visualization of the overall test summary.
Report generation in allure occurs in two steps,
The testing framework integrates with a lightweight library called allure adapter, which captures the details of the executed tests and stores it to XML files. This adapter gathers information such as test results, parameters, logs, execution time, environment, and metadata.
The XML files are transformed into HTML reports. The transformation step can be performed using,
Command line tool (allure generate)
Plugin for CI (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions)
Build tools (like Maven, and Gradle)
Advantage:
Allure supports multiple programming languages such as Ruby, Python, Scala, Java, PHP, C#, and more. It’s also compatible with different frameworks like TestNG, Cucumber, JUnit, Cypress, and more.
Easy to integrate with best CI/CD tools like Jenkins where report generation is an integral part of post build actions.
The AllureReport helps compare past test runs and display trends over time to track the performance.
Disadvantage:
Allure reports are not easily accessible, we need to convert XML files to HTML manually.
Additional setup or plugin is required to generate an allure report.
Extent:
ExtentReport is a java based reporting library used for generating visually rich and interactive test execution report. The Extent library allows to create customizable report by adding logs, events, screenshots, device information, tags, author, and much more information that enhances the report.
The extent report is available in two different editions,
Community Edition:
Extent community edition is an open source reporting tool ideal for small projects and is freely available. It provides basic reporting features for generating HTML reports with logs, charts, media attachments, and supports basic filtering and customization options.
Professional Edition:
Extent professional edition is a paid version that comes with additional enterprise features. This edition offers enhanced customization options, advanced analytics and team collabration feature.
Advantage:
Extent supports multiple reporting outputs, such as HTML, emailable reports, PDF or even send the test result to database.
Extent reports can be highly customizable with themes, charts, and graphs.
Extent reports offer a filter option to group and view test cases by tags, categories, or authors.
Disadvantage:
The Extent report officially supports only Java language.
Extent reports require additional configuration to set up the dashboard, category, and author.
The extent report reflects only a single test run and does not display historical analysis. It does not display trend comparison over time across multiple test executions to achieve this analysis it requires manual configuration or external tools.
ChainTest:
ChainTest is an open source framework that offers extensive reporting capablities that stays up with testing environment. ChainTest Report is developed as a successor of Extent reports, offering additional features such as real time analytics, historical results tracking, interactive dashboard, and also provides seamless integration with CI/CD pipelines.
There are three types of chaintest reports available,
Static Report:
The simple static report is basic HTML report designed for small test suites that contains detailed overview of test results, logs, screeshots on failure.
Emailable Report:
The Emailable report provides high level information that can be easily shared with the stakeholders. This Report shares test status summary updates and is commonly used in the CI/CD pipeline.
ChainLP Report:
The ChainLP Report is a web based report designed for tracking test and analyze historical data with interactive dashboard. This report provides visual metrics that helps in comparing multiple test execution result.
Advantage:
ChainTest supports multiple programming languages such as Java, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, and more.
ChainTest offers a filter option to group and view test cases by status, tags, device, categories, or authors.
The ChainTest Report helps compare past test runs and displays trends over time to track the performance.
Disadvantage:
ChainLP web based reporting requires additional server configuration setup.
As Chaintest is a newly established reporting tool, it has limited third-party integrations, and some advanced features are still in the development phase.
TestNG:
TestNG is a testing framework that supports Java and provides inbuilt reporting capabilities. It generates HTML and XML reports after each test run, summarizing the test execution result. TestNG reports can be customized using a listener and reporter interface, which allows to capture of test events.
There are three types of reports generated by TestNG,
Static Report:
The static TestNG HTML report contains a detailed summary of the test execution including the logs, test execution time, and test status.
Emailable Report:
The emailable report contains high level summary for the test execution and used to share the test results with team members or stakeholders via email.
XML Report:
The TestNG XML reports are useful for integration with other tools and also contain detailed information on each test case.
Advantage:
TestNG reports are automatically generated with each test run, providing basic reports summarizing the test execution.
TestNG doesn't require any additional libraries or plugins to generate reports. It comes as a built-in reporting tool as a feature in the TestNG framework.
Disadvantage:
TestNG reports can be generated only within the TestNG framework, which is specifically designed only for Java programming language.
TestNG reports do not include charts, filters, or graphs making them less interactive with limited features for analysis.
The TestNG report reflects only a single test run and does not display historical analysis.
JUnit:
JUnit is a unit testing framework that provides a build in reporting feature that generates lightweight XML report, which can also be converted to HTML reports. Junit report includes summary of the test execution making it easy to interact with CI/CD tools.
There are two types of JUnit Reports available,
XML Report:
The JUnit XML report does not require any additional configuration to generate a report after each text execution. It is supported by several built tool such as Maven, Gradle and Ant.
HTML Report:
The JUnit HTML report is created by converting the default XML file into HTML format with plugins or build tools.
Advantage:
JUnit report is integrated seamlessly with CI tools like Jenkins, Gitlab, and Bamboo to display test results in a user-friendly dashboard.
Junit helps identify patterns and dependencies between tests through annotations like @Before, @Beforeclass, which define the order of execution.
JUnit report is a lightweight report that can be easily generated, stored, and analyzed with minimal overhead.
Disadvantage:
JUnit reports can be generated only within the JUnit or TestNG framework, which is specifically designed only for Java programming language.
JUnit XML report doesn't provide interactive features like charts or graphs and also offers basic information on test result.
Cucumber:
Cucumber reports are generated as part of the Cucumber BDD framework providing detailed scenario-level results, ensuring easy debugging. Each step's result status is logged, along with error messages offering insight into the test execution. Cucumber reports can be integrated seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines and is easy to analyze the test execution.
Cucumber offers multiple reports in various formats, such as
HTML Report:
The Cucumber HTML report provides detailed information on the test scenarios and test steps, displaying the result in a more readable format.
JSON Report:
The JSON Report provides the test execution information in machine-readable format. This report is integrated with CI tools to convert as an interactive format for better analysis.
XML Report:
The XML Cucumber report provides test execution results in a structural format similar to the JUnit report. It can be easily integrated with a CI/CD tool for converting to a more readable or interactive format.
Pretty Report:
The Pretty format is a text based report displayed directly in the console during the test execution. This report is ideal for a developer or tester who wants a quick insight of the execution without need of seperate report file.
Advantage:
Cucumber Report supports multiple programming languages, including Java, JavaScript, Ruby, Python, .NET, and more.
Cucumber supports report generation in various formats like HTML, JSON, JUnit, XML, and more.
Disadvantage:
Cucumber reports can be generated only within the Cucumber Behavior Driven Development framework.
The Cucumber Report doesn't provide interactive features like charts or graphs, it focuses more on the textual information about each test scenario.
TestRail:
TestRail is a commercial test case management tool that offers various customizable reports and metrics, making it easy to share with team members or stakeholders. TestRail can be integrated with the test automation framework via REST API, mapping test cases to automation scripts to automatically update test results.
Types of report categories available in TestRail available,
Defect Report:
The defect report provides detailed defect analysis which is useful to identify high-risk issues. The Defect report provides detailed defect analysis which is useful to identify high-risk issues.
Results Report:
The test result reports provide detailed outcomes of executed test cases, which ensures overall test coverage and trend.
Run Report:
The TestRun reports provide a detailed analysis of test performance, including execution time, number of tests, success rate, and more.
User Report:
The User report outlines user specifed test data, including test execution history, performance metrics, and results, which helps to track individual contributions.
Advantage:
The TestRail offers multiple varieties of reports, allows to generate the relevant reports based on the requirements.
TestRail helps manage test cases and also provides result tracking, including test steps, and actual, and expected results.
Disadvantage:
TestRail is a paid test case management tool suitable for large teams or organizations.
TestRail is not a built-in automation tool, it requires manual integration with an automation framework with Rest API.
I hope this blog helps you dive deep into the popular test automation reporting tools. Based on your project requirement, you can choose the right reporting tool that aligns with the project's needs.
‘If learning is an act of exploration, then technology equips the explorer for the journey of a lifetime.’
Keep learning!!!📖
