Python Test Automation Tools and Frameworks

As software development, the importance of robust test automation has become increasingly evident. With its simplicity and powerful libraries, Python is a popular choice for engineers looking to streamline their testing processes. However, selecting the right tools and frameworks can be daunting given the vast array of options available.

This guide provides a comprehensive curated list of Python test automation frameworks, tools, libraries, and software to help you easily bootstrap your test automation efforts.

Why Python for Test Automation?

Python’s popularity in test automation is no coincidence. Here’s why it’s a top choice:

• Ease of Use: Python’s readable syntax makes it accessible for both beginners and seasoned developers.
• Rich Ecosystem: Python offers a vast selection of libraries and tools, reducing the need to build from scratch.
• Community Support: A strong community ensures continuous updates, support, and shared knowledge.

Top Python Test Automation Frameworks

xUnit Frameworks

Frameworks

1. unittest: A library included with Python for creating unit tests.
2. unittest2: A backport of the unittest module, including features introduced in Python 2.7 and later.
3. pytest: A mature, full-featured testing tool for Python that facilitates writing better programs.
4. test-junkie: A highly configurable modern testing framework for Python.
5. nosetests: An extended testing framework for Python, improving upon the built-in unittest.
6. slash: A testing framework written in Python designed for more advanced use cases.
7. lemoncheesecake: A Python framework designed for functional testing, offering rich reporting features and support for various test suite organizations.

Extensions

1. proboscis: Extends unittest and nose with features from TestNG, providing additional functionality for test organization.
2. grail: A library that facilitates the creation of test scripts based on defined steps.
3. testify: Enhances the unittest framework with additional setup options, PEP8 naming conventions, and improved test logging/reporting.
4. trial: An extension of unittest supporting asynchronous unit tests and new result types, including 'skip' and 'todo'.
5. subunit: Adds support for running unittest test cases in separate processes to prevent destabilization and allow integrated test environments.
6. testresources: Manages expensive resources needed by multiple tests, optimizing test run order to reduce resource construction and release.
7. testtools: Offers useful extensions to unittest, derived from custom extensions used by projects like Twisted and Bazaar.
8. Sancho: Runs tests and provides output for failed tests, but does not count tests passed or failed, targeting projects with less maintained failing tests.
9. zope.testing: A powerful test runner that includes post-mortem debugging of test failures, profiling, and coverage reporting.
10. pythoscope: A tool that automatically generates unit tests for legacy systems written in Python.
11. testlib: Enhances unittest with additional assert methods, support for module-level setup/teardown, and a skip test feature.
12. dutest: An object-oriented interface to retrieve unittest test cases from doctests, allowing selective test discovery across a package hierarchy.
13. green: A clean, colorful test runner for Python unit tests, comparable to nose or trial.
14. ddt: Provides data-driven tests with unittest.
15. pytractor: An extension to Selenium bindings for Python, designed to facilitate testing of Angular.js applications.
16. stestr: A parallel Python test runner built around subunit, optimized for speed and efficiency.
17. pytest-django: Integrates pytest with Django, allowing comprehensive testing of Django projects and applications.
18. pytest-asyncio: Facilitates testing of asyncio code using pytest.

TDD (Test-Driven Development) / ATDD (Acceptance Test-Driven Development) / BDD (Behavior-Driven Development)

BDD Tools

• behave: A BDD framework for Python that allows tests to be written in plain English.
• lettuce: A BDD framework inspired by Cucumber. It emphasizes natural language specifications.
• lettuce-tools: A set of tools and utilities that extend Lettuce’s out-of-the-box features to fill gaps detected in various projects.
• contexts: A framework for descriptive testing in Python, using a context-driven approach.
• mamba: A Python BDD framework designed to be simple and intuitive, inspired by RSpec.
• pyvows: An asynchronous BDD framework for Python.
• pytest-bdd: A BDD plugin for pytest, allowing the use of feature files written in Gherkin.
• pytest-play: An ATDD pytest plugin that allows you to automate actions, assertions, and test metrics by executing plain YAML files.
• robotframework: A generic test automation framework for acceptance testing and ATDD.
• awesome-robotframework: A curated list of awesome Robot Framework resources and libraries.
• radish-bdd: A BDD framework with additional features to support more complex scenarios.

Assertions Libraries

Assertions are used to check if the conditions in the tests are true or false. Here are some popular Python assertion libraries:

• pyshould: Provides should-style assertions based on PyHamcrest.
• pyhamcrest: A library of matchers for building test assertions.
• sure: A flexible assertion library for Python.
• assertpy: A fluent API for making assertions in Python, supporting both Python 2 and 3.

Mocking Libraries

Mocking is used to simulate the behavior of real objects. Below are some Python mocking libraries:

• mock: A library for mocking and patching objects in tests.
• Ludibrio: An elegant framework for test doubles in Python (mocks, stubs, spies, and dummies).
• responses: A utility for mocking HTTP responses in Python.
• doublex: A powerful framework for creating test doubles in Python.
• freezegun: Allows you to “freeze” time in your tests by mocking the datetime module.
• HTTPretty: A library for mocking HTTP requests in Python.
• httmock: A library for mocking HTTP requests, designed to work with Python’s requests library.
• pretenders: Fake servers for testing HTTP interactions.
• mock-server: A simple mock server for REST and XML-RPC APIs with an admin panel based on Tornado.
• VCR.py: Automatically records and mocks your HTTP interactions for faster, more reliable tests.
• model-mommy: A Django utility for creating objects for testing purposes.
• django-test-plus: Provides useful additions to Django’s default TestCase.
• Mockintosh: A mock server generator capable of generating RESTful APIs and communicating with message queues to mimic asynchronous tasks.
• pytest-mock: A pytest plugin that provides a fixture for using the unittest.mock library.

These tools and libraries provide a wide range of options for implementing TDD, ATDD, and BDD in Python, catering to different testing needs and preferences.

Test Data Manipulation

Data Generators

• faker: A Python package for generating fake data such as names, addresses, and dates. Useful for creating test data for various applications.
• fake2db: Generates fake data and populates a database with it. Ideal for creating realistic test databases.
• ForgeryPy: An easy-to-use library for generating forged data, inspired by the Ruby library Forgery.
• radar: Generates random datetime and time values, useful for testing scenarios that require temporal data.
• fauxfactory: Provides tools for generating random data for various data types and use cases.
• mimesis: A fast and easy-to-use package for generating large volumes of fake data in various languages and formats.

Testing and Data Manipulation

• robotframework-faker: A wrapper for Faker integrated with Robot Framework, allowing for the generation of fake data in Robot Framework tests.
• hypothesis: A property-based testing library that generates test cases based on properties of the input data, inspired by the Haskell library QuickCheck.
• factory_boy: A replacement for fixtures, based on the Ruby library Factory Girl. It helps create complex test data in a clean and maintainable way.

These libraries and tools are invaluable for generating and managing test data, making it easier to create comprehensive and effective test cases.

Code Analysis

Linters and Style Checkers

• ruff: An extremely fast Python linter written in Rust. It performs static analysis to enforce code quality and style.
• Flake8: A modular source code checker that combines pep8, pyflakes, and mccabe (complexity checker).
• pylama: A code audit tool for Python and JavaScript that integrates several linting tools.
• Pylint: A comprehensive source code analyzer that checks for errors, enforces a coding standard, and looks for code smells.
• wemake-python-styleguide: A highly opinionated linter that enforces strict Python style guidelines.
• hacking: A collection of style checks for OpenStack projects, implemented as flake8 plugins.

Code Coverage and Visualization

• coverage: A tool for measuring code coverage of Python programs. It tracks which parts of your code are executed during tests.
• pytest-cov: A pytest plugin that integrates with coverage to provide code coverage reports during test runs.
• pycallgraph: Visualizes the flow of your Python application by creating a call graph of function calls.

Type Inferencing and Analysis

• pysonar2: A type inference and indexer for Python that helps with type analysis and code navigation.
• prospector: An analysis tool that provides information about errors, potential problems, convention violations, and code complexity.

These tools are essential for improving code quality, enforcing coding standards, and understanding code structure and coverage.

Web UI Test Automation

Libraries

• selenium webdriver: A popular tool for browser automation that supports various web browsers.
• splinter: A tool for testing web applications with a simple API for finding elements and performing browser actions.
• mechanize: Provides stateful programmatic web browsing capabilities.

Frameworks and Wrappers

• play_selenium: A pytest-play plugin for driving a browser with Selenium using plain YAML files.
• py.saunter: An opinionated automation framework for Selenium RC and WebDriver libraries.
• moz-web-qa: A pytest plugin providing additional features for Mozilla's WebQA projects.
• testutils sst: A web test framework that generates functional browser-based tests using Python.
• wtframework: A framework for configurable web tests in Python.
• holmium.core: Provides Page Object and utilities for Selenium test cases.
• robotframework-selenium2library: Web testing library for Robot Framework, utilizing Selenium.
• gocept.selenium: API for Selenium remote control, integrating with various WSGI applications.
• webium: Page Object pattern implementation library for Python.
• robotframework-anywherelibrary: Cross-platform testing library for Robot Framework, leveraging Selenium and Appium.
• robotframework-pageobjects: Page Object pattern implementation for Robot Framework and Selenium.
• elementium: Provides jQuery-style syntax for browser testing.
• slickqa: A wrapper around the Python WebDriver client bindings.
• selene: Provides concise UI tests with support for Ajax, PageObjects, and widgets.
• hitch: High-level integration testing framework for service-based applications.
• Needle: Tool for visual testing with Selenium and nose, comparing CSS-rendered screenshots.
• PyPOM: Python Page Object Model library for Selenium and Splinter tests.
• pypom_form: PyPOM-based Page Object Model for schema-based forms.
• POM: Page-Object-Model microframework for easy and enjoyable web UI testing.
• websmith: Domain Specific Language (DSL) for web testing.
• pages: Lightweight Page Object and component library for UI tests.
• seleniumbase: Framework for building test automation with Selenium WebDriver, compatible with pytest or nose.
• Toolium: Wrapper for Selenium and Appium, providing a unified framework for web and mobile testing.
• Golem: Complete test automation tool and framework based on Selenium WebDriver, designed for robust and maintainable test suites.
• Pylenium.io: A library combining features of Selenium, Cypress, and Python for UI testing.
• Playwright: Automation library for Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit browsers with a unified API.

Extensions

• webdriver_manager: Simplifies management of binary drivers for different browsers.
• pytest_splinter: Integrates pytest with Splinter and Selenium for browser interactions in tests.
• lettuce_webdriver: Selenium WebDriver integration for Lettuce.
• Browsermob Proxy: Python wrapper for BrowserMob Proxy.
• FireRobot: Firefox extension for creating Robot Framework/Selenium tests.
• pytractor: Extensions for testing AngularJS applications with Selenium.
• Selenium-Requests: Extends Selenium WebDriver with the Requests library for handling cookies and request headers.
• selenium-respectful: Minimalist Selenium WebDriver wrapper designed to work within rate limits for multiple websites.
• Mailosaur: Python client for email testing and automation via Mailosaur.
• gauge: Lightweight cross-platform test automation tool with Python language driver support.

Mobile Test Automation

Tools and Frameworks

• appium: An open-source test automation framework that supports native, hybrid, and mobile web apps. It uses the WebDriver protocol to drive iOS and Android apps.
• Winium.StoreApps: An open-source tool for automating Windows Store apps. It is an implementation of Selenium Remote WebDriver.
• robotframework-androidlibrary: A Robot Framework library for automating Android applications.
• robotframework-appiumlibrary: A Robot Framework library for integrating with Appium to automate mobile applications.
• robotframework-ioslibrary: A Robot Framework library for automating iOS applications.
• uiautomator: A Python wrapper for the Android uiautomator testing tool, compatible with Android 4.1+ and operates via adb.
• ATX: An automation tool supporting iOS, Android, WebApps, and games.
• Airtest: A cross-platform automation framework primarily for games, but also applicable to native apps.

Windows UI Test Automation

• Winium.Desktop: Open-source tool for automating Windows applications based on WinForms and WPF platforms, using Selenium Remote WebDriver.
• PyAutoGUI: Cross-platform module for GUI automation to control the keyboard and mouse from Python scripts.
• robotframework-autoitlibrary: Windows GUI testing library for Robot Framework.
• autopy: Simple, cross-platform GUI automation toolkit for Python.
• UISoup: Library for UI-related testing on Windows and Mac OS (Python x86 only).
• pywinauto: Python library for Windows GUI automation, supporting 64-bit Python 2 and 3.
• SikuliX: OpenCV-based GUI test framework that uses image recognition to locate and interact with items; supports Python 2.7.
• AutoItDriverServer: Selenium server to control AutoIt via WebDriver API.

Unix / Linux UI Test Automation

• ldtp: Cross-platform Linux desktop GUI application testing project.
• fMBT: Python libraries for multiplatform GUI testing.
• SikuliX: Also available for Unix/Linux for GUI automation using image recognition.

MacOS UI Test Automation

• PyAutoGUI: Cross-platform module for GUI automation to control the keyboard and mouse from Python scripts.
• ATOMac: Python library for GUI testing of Mac applications via the Apple Accessibility API.
• SikuliX: OpenCV-based GUI test framework for MacOS.

REST API Testing

• Rester: Framework for testing RESTful HTTP APIs.
• pyresttest: REST testing and API microbenchmarking tool.
• siesta: Python REST client.
• play_requests: pytest-play plugin for HTTP calls using YAML files.
• gabbi: Tool for running HTTP tests with requests and responses in YAML files.
• Schemathesis: Property-based testing tool for OpenAPI & Swagger specs with pytest and unittest integrations.
• httprunner: Powerful HTTP(S) testing framework with HAR support.
• tavern: Command-line tool and Python library for testing RESTful APIs with YAML-based syntax.

Virtual Environments

• virtualenv: Tool to create isolated Python environments.
• virtualenvwrapper: Extensions to virtualenv for managing multiple environments.
• tox: Virtualenv management and test command line tool for multiple Python versions.
• PyVirtualDisplay: Wrapper for Xvfb, Xephyr, and Xvnc for GUI testing and screenshots.
• pew: Tools for managing multiple virtual environments.
• Vex: Run commands in named virtual environments.
• PyRun: One-file, no-installation-needed Python version.
• pyenv: Simple Python version management tool.
• Tapper: Comprehensive test infrastructure.
• Poetry: Dependency management tool for Python projects.

Performance, Stress, & Load Testing

• Multi-Mechanize: Open-source framework for performance and load testing.
• locust: Scalable user load testing tool written in Python.
• Yandex.Tank: Load and performance benchmark tool.
• pytest-benchmark: Pytest fixture for benchmarking code.
• Airspeed Velocity: Python benchmarking tool with web-based reporting.
• The Grinder: Load testing framework for various protocols with distributed test capability.
• Tsung: Open-source multi-protocol distributed load testing tool for HTTP, SOAP, databases, and more.
• taurus: Automation-friendly framework for Continuous Testing.
• molotov: Simple Python 3.5+ tool for writing load tests.
• Awesome pytest speedup: Checklist of best practices to speed up pytest suites.

Security Checking

• sparta: GUI application for network infrastructure penetration testing.
• OWASP ZAP: API for OWASP ZAP features from Python scripts.
• pythem: Multi-purpose pentest framework for security researchers, runs on GNU/Linux OS.
• SQLMap: Open-source tool for detecting and exploiting SQL injection flaws.
• fsociety: Penetration testing framework with a collection of hacking scripts.

Continuous Integration

• buildbot: Automates the compile/test cycle for software projects.
• jenkins: Extensible open-source continuous integration server.
• travis-ci: Free hosted continuous integration platform.

Reporting

• ReportPortal.io: Advanced results management and analytics for test automation, with machine learning support and real-time integration.
• allure pytest: Allure adapter for PyTest framework.
• HTMLTestRunner: Extension for Python’s unittest module to generate HTML test reports.
• unittest-xml-reporting: Test runner for saving results to XML files.
• PrettyTable: Library for generating table reports in the console.
• pytest-html: Plugin for generating HTML reports for PyTest results.

Documentation Generation

• Sphinx: Python documentation generator.
• MkDocs: Markdown-friendly documentation generator.
• Pycco: Literate-programming-style documentation generator.

Editors, IDEs, & Consoles

• PyCharm: Smart code editor with extensive support for Python.
• PyDev: Full-featured Python IDE based on Eclipse.
• Sublime Text: Sophisticated text editor for code, markup, and prose.
• IPython: Command shell for interactive computing, initially developed for Python.
• VSCode: Versatile editor with numerous plugins for Python.

Useful Libraries for Test Automation

HTTP and Web Testing

• requests: An easy-to-use HTTP library for making requests in Python.
• WebTest: For testing WSGI-based web applications.
• BeautifulSoup: For parsing HTML and XML documents, useful for web scraping.
• Soupy: A wrapper around BeautifulSoup for easier complex queries.
• PyQuery: Allows jQuery-like queries on XML documents.

XML and HTML Processing

• lxml: Feature-rich library for processing XML and HTML.
• suds: Lightweight SOAP client for consuming web services.

Utilities

• waiting: Utility library for waiting for predicates.
• Comcast: Simulates poor network conditions for system testing.
• dateutil: Extensions to the standard Python datetime module.
• python-tesseract: Wrapper for Tesseract OCR.

Development and Deployment

• fabric: Streamlines SSH usage for deployment and administration.
• fig: Fast development environments using Docker.

Code and Test Management

• gitapi: Pure-Python API for git.
• tappy: Tools for working with the Test Anything Protocol (TAP).
• pytest: Framework for writing simple and scalable test cases.
• pytest-benchmark: Benchmarking for Pytest.

Remote Management and Automation

• pywinrm: Client for Windows Remote Management (WinRM).
• Pyro4: Enables network communication between Python objects.
• Pexpect: For controlling other applications in Python.

Logging and Reporting

• Loguru: Library for enjoyable logging in Python.
• prettyprinter: Syntax-highlighting, composable pretty printer.
• jsonschema: JSON Schema validation for Python.
• HTMLTestRunner: Generates HTML test reports.
• ReportPortal.io: Advanced results management and analytics for test automation.

Screen Capture and Interaction

• pyscreenshot: For taking screenshots across platforms.
• Python MSS: Fast, cross-platform screenshot module.
• keyboard: Hooks and simulates global keyboard events.

Additional Tools

• fabric: Python library for SSH-based deployment and administration tasks.
• errbot: Chatbot that integrates with various chat services.
• PyPattyrn: Makes it easier to implement design patterns in Python.
• Spyne: Toolkit for exposing online services with defined APIs using multiple protocols.
• devtools-proxy: Proxy for Chrome DevTools, compatible with Selenium and ChromeDriver.

Conclusion

Navigating the world of Python test automation can be challenging, but with the right frameworks, libraries, tools, and software, you can build a robust testing strategy that ensures high-quality software delivery. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to enhance your existing processes, this curated list should provide solid foundation to help you on your journey.