Four Types of Testing for React Native Apps
React Native is a Javascript-based framework that is applicable for building mobile apps. The framework is helpful for cross-platform mobile app development for both Android and iOS. React Native enables you to create truly native apps without compromising with the end users’ experiences. It is among the most commonly used libraries to build mobile applications today. It helps to develop native apps from the same code and uses Javascript, which contributes to its popularity. Adopting this framework for app development enables businesses to save money, time, and resources.
React Native framework allows the developers to build cross-platform apps. It brings the best native compatibility and JavaScript-based user interfaces, leveraging modern web techniques to mobile platforms. Since the framework develops cross-platform apps, depending solely on manual tests will tend to consume more time. Hence, automating react native app testing helps to yield more valuable test results. React native framework helps create multiple apps that need to be subjected to the same test cases numerous times. Therein lies the importance of automation testing. Test automation facilitates a seamless testing process and executes repetitive and tedious tasks. It is suitable for regression testing, enables 24/7 test execution, supports CI/CD processes, and helps to increase test coverage.
Appium is a popular framework for react native apps. To set up Appium on these applications, you need to follow the given steps:
- Install Appium on the app. You can use the Yarn package manager to install the appium package in the app. Verify installation with the help of the appium-doctor tool.
- Set up the test server. The tester must provide the parameters to run the server, like the port and host.
- Set up the test and device configurations. It is concerned with providing the desired capabilities. Once the testers complete these tests, they can write and execute automation test cases.
There are various kinds of tests for React Native apps. For starting with these tests, you need to write testable code. Writing your code in multiple small modules instead of writing your entire program in a single extended file with volumes of code allows you to test more comprehensively. Easily maintainable and extensible code is easy to debug and refactor. Once you write clean, modular code, you can move ahead with writing tests for your React Native apps.
Unit tests
Unit testing helps to validate individual units or components of the software. It helps to verify if each software unit code performs as expected. These tests cover the minor parts of code, such as individual classes or functions. Unit testing involves checking the JavaScript objects and methods present at the component level. Smaller tests offer a granular view of your code performance. Unit tests are correlated with the functional correctness of independent modules. Generally, the developer performs these tests. The various objectives of unit testing are isolating a section of code, verifying code correctness, and testing every function and procedure. It helps to fix bugs early in the development cycle and save costs in the long run. Unit tests enable the developers to understand React Native apps’ code base to make immediate changes. It also supports code reuse.
Component Tests
React components determine your app’s rendering. End users will directly interact with their output. Even if your testing coverage is elaborate, if you skip component tests, you may end up delivering a broken UI to your target users. The react-test-renderer package helps to test components outside of its native environment conveniently. Component testing helps to independently verify test objects as a component without integrating with other components. For testing React components, two things you should test are interaction and rendering.
Integration Testing
Integration testing divides code into blocks consisting of several units. It checks the software parts gradually before it assembles them into a complete system. It helps to verify data communication among different modules. Integration testing ensures that integrated modules work correctly as intended. Integration testing is a crucial aspect of React Native app testing. It helps to execute critical user-based scenarios effectively and ensure that internal modules and components interact correctly. The tester must conduct regression testing on important connection points.
End-to-end Testing
When executing the end-to-end tests (E2E tests), you do not consider the React components, Redux stores, React Native APIs, or business logic. E2E tests help to verify the app’s workflow from start to end. It replicates real user scenarios to validate the app system for integration and data integrity. The failure of any subsystem can cause the app to crash. End-to-end tests help to test app workflow; it enables the tester to gauge the application’s overall health. The QA can expand test coverage, detect bugs faster, shrink time-to-market, and reduce costs with these tests. The testers must put themselves in the shoes of the end-user to execute these tests.
To Conclude:
These are the four popular kinds of testing for React Native apps. It helps to efficiently identify and remove bugs and glitches before they can cascade into more significant failures. It verifies the app from an end-user perspective and optimizes it for actual world usage.