API Testing

Under the right conditions, headless browser testing can speed up test results while reducing infrastructure needs. Headless browsers run web browsers without a graphical user interface, avoiding GUI overhead and speeding up tests that don't require rendering web pages visually. Some key benefits of headless testing include faster test execution, earlier testing in the development process, full scriptability and automation for large test suites, and lower resource usage. However, headless testing is not suitable when visual rendering, user interactions, or debugging are needed.

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API Testing

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Under the right conditions, headless browser testing is a great way

to speed test results while also reducing the infrastructure required

to run tests. In this article, we will take a look at four reasons why
you might consider using headless testing. Learn more about when
(and when not to) use headless testing here.

What is Headless Testing?

A headless browser is simply a web browser without a graphical
user interface. Common browsers such as Firefox and Chrome can
be run in headless mode, and there are a variety of browsers and
tools that are designed to be run without a head.

Why would you run a browser without a GUI (Graphical User

Interface)? After all, isn't the main purpose of a browser to allow
users to look at web pages?

It's true - browsers are designed to present the content of a website

visually, by means of a GUI, but a GUI imposes overhead in terms of
both time and resources. A headless browser allows you to make
use of its non-graphic features and at the same time avoid the GUI's
overhead. This can be particularly important when it comes to saving
time, since the time required to render even a relatively simple web
page can be significant.

Working with Headless Tests

There are a variety of ways that you can use a headless browser -
scraping web pages, for example, or even statistical analysis of
page and site content. More than anything else, however, a
headless browser can be just the tool that you need in order to
rapidly and efficiently test your site or web-based application for
both functionality and performance. Headless browser testing is
script-driven and easy to automate. For tests which do not
specifically involve the GUI, use of a headless browser may
significantly speed up and simplify the testing process.

Where Headless Testing

Works Best
When is a headless browser the best solution for your testing needs
- and what makes headless testing the right choice? Consider the
following:

Streamlined Testing
A typical browser running with a graphic interface has a demanding
job. Every time the user opens a new page, the browser must render
the entire page, including layout, fonts, visual effects, embedded
graphics and videos, and embedded content pulled from other sites,
adjusting the size and position of individual graphic elements as it
does so.

It All Adds Up
When you're browsing in an environment with a high-speed
connection, a fast, responsive server, and a client system with
plenty of resources, it's easy to forget that these processes take
time. The truth, however, is that each page that's fully rendered
does require a measurable amount of time, and in any process
where you need to move through a large number of pages rapidly
(such as automated testing), those increments of time can add up to
a significant delay.

The Big Slowdown

Servers, connections, and client systems aren't perfect, and it is still
not entirely uncommon for the arrival of key graphic (and functional)
elements in a page to be delayed. If the functionality for an element
isn't available until the graphic elements associated with it have
been fully rendered, the resulting slowdown can add even more
delays to your test process.

No Rendering, No Problem
With headless testing, you don't need to render anything (unless you
want to specifically perform graphics-related operations, such as
capturing GUI elements in the form of screenshots or PDFs). This
allows you to perform non-GUI tests without any of the delays
associated with page rendering, speeding up and simplifying your
test regime.

You can, for example, test functional elements such as buttons,

forms, links, etc., along with their associated code without rendering
them graphically. You can also test for non-graphic performance
(SSL, front- and backend code), load management, and response
time, as well as issues such as error handling, site architecture, and
access to remote resources.

Early Testing
Headless browsers are also ideal for testing features at a relatively
early stage of development, before their associated GUI components
are fully in place. This allows you to test for functional and
performance problems without having to wait for the visual elements
of the page to be put in place.

Catch Early, Fix Early

Since functional/performance issues can impact page design, early
testing of this kind can reduce potentially costly and time-consuming
redesign. Early testing can also uncover problems which may affect
site architecture, revealing potential bottlenecks, inefficient user
flow, and data management issues. By using headless testing at the
earliest possible stage, you can identify and implement the
necessary architecture changes at a point where they are likely to
have the least impact on other aspects of site development.

Scriptability
While it's true that most full-featured browsers can be run from the
command line, headless browsers are by nature fully scriptable; any
task which you can perform with a headless browser can be done
from the CLI or a script, making them in effect optimized for
automation.

This, combined with the advantages of speed, makes headless

browsers ideal for high-volume automated testing. You can script a
large and complex set of test regimes made up of commands which
are unlikely to introduce unwanted interruptions based on such
things as an unanticipated wait for a GUI interaction.

If It's Repetitive, Automate It!

You can use automated headless browser testing of this sort in
situations which require a very large number of repeated actions,
such as stress and load testing. You can also use automation to run
standard functional tests on code at an early point in the
development cycle, catching errors which may have been introduced
into existing features during an upgrade, for example.

Low Resource Overhead

It's no secret that most browsers are somewhat resource-intensive.
Each window or tab can take up hundreds of megabytes of memory,
not to mention a significant chunk of the processor's resources.
Much of this overhead is the result of the demands placed on the
system by the GUI. Not surprisingly, a headless browser typically
operates with considerably less overhead, making it easier to run on
a system with minimal resources.

Small-Footprint Testing
You can use low-resource containers or VMs for headless browser
testing, running automated tests in a cloud environment. This low
demand for resources makes it possible to maximize the speed,
variety, and volume of your tests. You can also use a minimal
physical machine (for example, an older system with no monitor
attached) to run automated tests in the production environment,
freeing up newer hardware for more resource-intensive tasks.

Headless Test Integration

Headless browsers don't require you to reinvent the wheel when it
comes to testing. Sauce Labs, for example, offers Sauce Headless ,
a platform designed specifically for cloud-based testing using the
headless versions of Chrome and Firefox. This allows you to
integrate early-pipeline headless tests with later cross-browser
testing, all within Sauce's rich and full-featured testing and analytics
framework.

Sometimes You Do Need a

Head
Headless testing isn't the universal testing solution, of course. If you
want to visually test page rendering, test user interaction with the
GUI, or test multimedia features, for example, you will need to use a
browser with full graphics capabilities. You will probably also need to
use a full browser for such things as testing user experience and for
debugging.

You can separate your testing tasks into those which do require a
full browser and those for which a headless browser will work, and
then design your test regime accordingly. Doing this will allow you to
make efficient use of your testing resources, maximize the number
and variety of tests that you can run, and optimize your use of the
time available for testing.

Michael Churchman started as a scriptwriter, editor, and producer

during the anything-goes early years of the game industry. He spent
much of the 90s in the high-pressure bundled software industry,
where the move from waterfall to faster release was well under way,
and near-continuous release cycles and automated deployment
were already de facto standards. During that time, he developed a
semi-automated system for managing localization in over fifteen
languages. For the past ten years, he has been involved in the
analysis of software development processes and related engineering
management issues. He is a regular Fixate.io contributor.