upskill-event-manager/wordpress-dev/tests/e2e/TESTING-STRATEGY.md

E2E Testing Strategy for HVAC Community Events

This document outlines the testing strategy and implementation details for the E2E test suite, with a focus on certificate functionality testing.

Testing Architecture

1. Page Object Model (POM)

Our tests follow the Page Object Model pattern, which abstracts UI interactions into page-specific classes:

• BasePage.ts: Base class with common methods for all pages
• LoginPage.ts: Handles user authentication
• DashboardPage.ts: Interactions with the main dashboard
• CertificatePage.ts: Certificate generation and management functionality
• Additional page objects for other key pages

This approach provides:

• Reusable code for common UI interactions
• Centralized selectors for easier maintenance
• Better abstraction of implementation details

2. Test Organization

Tests are organized by feature area:

• certificate-generation.test.ts: Tests for generating certificates
• certificate-management.test.ts: Tests for certificate management operations
• optimized-certificate-tests.ts: Streamlined tests focused on specific features

3. Configuration and Utilities

• Config.ts: Centralized configuration parameters
• VerbosityController.ts: Controls logging and screenshot behavior
• playwright.config.ts: Playwright test runner configuration

Testing Challenges and Solutions

Multiple Playwright Versions

Problem: Multiple versions of Playwright and @playwright/test causing conflicts

Solution:

• Pin dependency versions in package.json
• Update to the latest stable version
• Remove duplicate dependencies

Configuration Issues

Problem: Complex configuration with dependencies that may not be properly initialized

Solution:

• Simplified configuration focusing on reliability
• Reduced dependencies on external utilities
• Clear separation of configuration and test code

Test Independence

Problem: Tests depending on global state or other tests

Solution:

• Self-contained tests that set up their own data
• Explicit cleanup of test data
• Clear test boundaries and responsibilities

Certificate Testing Strategy

1. Data Setup

For certificate testing, we create:

• Test events with known properties
• Test attendees with varied properties
• Checked-in status for some attendees
• Test certificates with different states (emailed, revoked)

2. Feature Testing

Our certificate tests verify:

• Certificate generation for checked-in attendees
• Certificate viewing functionality
• Certificate emailing operations
• Certificate revocation operations
• Certificate filtering (by event, attendee, status)

3. Attendee Search Testing

The attendee search feature is tested with multiple patterns:

• Full name search (e.g., "Ben Tester")
• Partial name search (e.g., "Ben" or "Smith")
• Full email search (e.g., "ben@tealmaker.com")
• Partial email search (e.g., "@gmail.com")
• Case-insensitive matching

Best Practices

1. Test Independence:

   • Each test should create its own test data
   • Tests should not depend on the state from other tests
   • Clean up test data when possible

2. Explicit Waits:

   • Use explicit waits rather than fixed timeouts
   • Wait for specific elements/conditions, not fixed times
   • Use appropriate timeouts for WordPress's slower operations

3. Error Handling:

   • Implement proper error handling in tests
   • Use try/catch blocks for potentially unstable operations
   • Take screenshots on failures for easier debugging

4. Selector Stability:

   • Use CSS selectors that are less likely to change
   • Prefer attribute selectors (e.g., input[name="log"]) over ID selectors (e.g., #user_login)
   • Use multiple selector strategies for critical elements with fallback mechanisms
   • Implement robust error detection with multiple selector checks
   • Centralize selectors in page objects for easier maintenance
   • Regularly validate selectors with debug tests when UI changes occur

5. Descriptive Naming:

   • Use clear, descriptive test names
   • Name page object methods according to user actions
   • Add comments for complex operations

Optimized Testing Workflow

1. Initial Setup:

   # Install dependencies
   npm install
   
   # Install Playwright browsers
   npx playwright install
   

2. Running Certificate Tests:

   # Run optimized certificate tests
   npx playwright test tests/e2e/optimized-certificate-tests.ts --headed
   
   # Run with debugging
   npx playwright test tests/e2e/optimized-certificate-tests.ts --headed --debug
   

3. Visual Verification:

   • Screenshots are taken at key points during test execution
   • Visual verification can be done by examining the screenshots
   • The HTML report provides a visual overview of test results

Future Improvements

1. Data Generation:

   • Create a more robust test data generator
   • Support for creating varied test scenarios
   • Better cleanup of test data

2. Test Coverage:

   • Expand tests to cover more edge cases
   • Add tests for error handling
   • Include mobile viewport testing

3. Performance Optimization:

   • Profile and optimize test execution time
   • Reduce unnecessary waits and operations
   • Improve parallel test execution where possible

4. Reporting:

   • Enhanced test reporting with more details
   • Integration with CI/CD systems
   • Slack/email notifications for test failures

5. Selector Resilience:

   • Debug scripts to verify selectors before running tests
   • Regular selector validation as part of CI pipeline
   • Automated UI change detection with selector recommendations
   • Selector versioning to handle multiple WordPress theme versions

6. Deployment Resilience:

   • Pre-deployment validation of critical selectors
   • Canary deployments with automatic rollback on test failures
   • Health check scripts for validating WordPress plugin environment
   • Automated recovery procedures for common failure scenarios
   • Snapshot testing for detecting unintended UI changes