Congrats on the launch Russ - really excited to see how this works out!
Launch HN: Rainforest QA (YC S12) – No-Code UI Test Automation
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Re: Launch HN: Rainforest QA (YC S12) – No-Code UI Test Automation
#22Not a question, but I just want to thank you for "inventing" review apps back in the day, the idea of having a full version of your app running for a branch was pretty game changing for the companies I worked at.
Re: Launch HN: Rainforest QA (YC S12) – No-Code UI Test Automation
#23Does this work for SPAs?
Re: Launch HN: Rainforest QA (YC S12) – No-Code UI Test Automation
#24Not a question, but I just want to thank you for "inventing" review apps back in the day, the idea of having a full version of your app running for a branch was pretty game changing for the companies I worked at.
Awesome! IMHO it was more of a refinement of the concept of deploying each commit; doing it at a PR and push level worked better. Open-sourcing it, and getting Heroku to bake it in was the icing on the cake for us!
Context for everyone else: early 2014 we open-sourced https://github.com/rainforestapp/fourchette, which was an pioneer of Heroku Review Apps (https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/github-integration-rev...), and generally the concept of doing this on pull requests over just per branch or commit.
Re: Launch HN: Rainforest QA (YC S12) – No-Code UI Test Automation
#25Congrats on the launch Russ - really excited to see how this works out!
Thanks Peter! Loved having your support over these years!
Re: Launch HN: Rainforest QA (YC S12) – No-Code UI Test Automation
#26Does this work for SPAs?
Yes, zero issues - as we test like a human would. Rainforest looks at the screen, uses the keyboard and mouse to interact with the software under test. For an SPA, that stack is likely windows, chrome and your SPA inside Chrome.
Re: Launch HN: Rainforest QA (YC S12) – No-Code UI Test Automation
#27What is the benefit of "no-code"?
The benefit of using code is that you have to know what you are doing. Having experienced what happens when people build data driven systems out of building blocks, with out a thorough understanding of what they are doing (brittle, failing is strange ways under load, general unreliability and low quality) I am suspicious
Re: Launch HN: Rainforest QA (YC S12) – No-Code UI Test Automation
#28What is the benefit of "no-code"? The benefit of using code is that you have to know what you are doing. Having experienced what happens when people build data driven systems out of building blocks, with out a thorough understanding of what they are doing (brittle, failing is strange ways under load, general unreliability and low quality) I am suspicious
At least for testing, and traditional automation (aka code) the bar is knowing what you're doing AND knowing the product enough to be able to test it effectively.
We remove the code requirement, making testing accessible to more folks - i.e. product managers and product designers who have great knowledge of the product, but don't want to or can't code. Also, this doesn't tend to exclude developers either. Currently our user base is roughly 1/3rd engineers, 1/3rd product managers/designers, and 1/3 QA folks.
Re: Launch HN: Rainforest QA (YC S12) – No-Code UI Test Automation
#29Ok, I'll bite. How do you integrate with the tested software?
Do you a) run the tested software inside your VMs (if so, what's the integration API?) or b) expect your clients to run it (if so, how can the client authenticate your test access?)
Re: Launch HN: Rainforest QA (YC S12) – No-Code UI Test Automation
#30>>> slow down or pause the release process to do QA, or move faster at the expense of product quality This is a constant dilemma for Solopreneurs/very small teams. I was just thinking last week - can I find an affordable automated testing platform (need to run tests on new features that I've added to my latest project - an Electron App).
Follow up question - does this work for Electron Apps? Either way, still happy to try it for other Web App projects if I do another Web App