User experience is becoming more and more critical to the success of applications every year, making the world of front-end testing a fast-moving and exciting place. Along with our partners at Netlify, we were excited to host our second annual Front-End Test Fest last month. The event featured expert speakers from global brands, lively Q&A sessions as well as games and fun. It was hosted by Angie Jones, Head of Developer Relations at Block, and Cassidy Williams, Head of Developer Experience and Education at Remote.
We’ve rounded up all the videos in one place, so feel free to dive right in, or keep reading for a recap of the event.
Front-End Test Fest 2022
The event began with opening remarks from hosts Angie and Cassidy, before Andrew Knight (AKA the Automation Panda) took the stage to present the opening keynote.
OPENING KEYNOTE: The State of the Union for Front End Testing – Andrew Knight
Web development moves fast, and new techniques are constantly emerging with promises of better performance and simpler maintenance. The JAM stack, server-side rendering frameworks, and APIs for all the things are on the rise. How can we most effectively test our web apps when they follow these new patterns? In this talk, Andrew Knight, Developer Advocate at Applitools and Automation Panda, explores seven major trends in front end testing to help unlock the best approaches, tools and frameworks you can use. Andrew considers the value of new techniques like component testing and visual testing, and touches on the future with a glance at autonomous testing. Check out this exciting “state of the union” on current trends in front end testing!
How to Avoid Common Mistakes When Writing Your Cypress Tests – Filip Hiric
Filip Hric, QA Lead at Slido and Cypress expert, knows the pain of a failed, flaky test. Cypress is a great tool, but it’s only as effective as the tests you design with it. In this talk, Filip shows you a few powerful tools that are built into Cypress that can help you navigate the rough terrain of flaky tests so you can start designing tests that are evergreen and stable. He discusses common mistakes, the proper use of commands and plenty more. Check out his great presentation.
Coffee Break!
One of the nice things about the conference was the “coffee breaks” between the sessions, that gave attendees a chance to “mingle” with some of the speakers. Gleb Bahmutov (Senior Director of Engineering, Mercari US), Tiffany Le-Nguyen, (Sr. Frontend Engineer, Netlify) and Nick Taylor (Staff Software Engineer, Netlify) were available at the morning break.
Shifting Accessibility Testing to the Left – Marie Drake
Why are there still so many websites that are not accessible? Many companies still view accessibility testing as an afterthought or something that will be difficult to implement. In this talk, Marie Drake, Quality Engineering Manager at Zoopla, busts some of these myths around accessibility testing and explains how you can shift it to the left. She also covers the many benefits of improving accessibility, and how to integrate accessibility testing into development and testing workflows. Watch the talk right here.
Expert Panel: Trending Tools and Frameworks – What’s Hype and What’s Not
Cutting through the marketing noise to understand what’s hype and what’s real can be a challenge. In this panel, you’ll hear from leaders Skyler Brungardt, Sr. Manager of Digital Experience & Commerce at Gap, Dan Giordano, Sr. Director of Product Marketing at Applitools, and Tiffany Le-Nguyen, Sr. Frontend Engineer, and Nick Taylor, Staff Software Engineer, both from Netlify.
Take a look at this panel for an exciting conversation based on hands-on experience with the latest tools and frameworks being used at leading companies. The panel was expertly moderated by Joe Colantonio, the founder of TestGuild.
Lunch Break: Making Music with (Live) Code – Dan Gorelick
This was a fun one. For the lunch break, independent developer and artist Dan Gorelick gave a live musical performance using only code. Using the coding framework TidalCycles, Dan briefly introduces us to the technology and how it works before improvising a great live show. Check this one out for a bit of musical theory, conversation around how to combine code with musical ideas, and just for some fun music.
Slice and Dice Your End-to-End Tests – Gleb Bahmutov
In this presentation, Gleb Bahmutov, Senior Director of Engineering at Mercari US, shares some practical tips and tricks for reliable end-to-end testing at serious scale. Using parallelization and a bit of custom tinkering, his CI system has his team running 500+ end-to-end front-end tests – and running them quickly. Want to get developers and other stakeholders quick, high-quality feedback from your E2E tests? Watch this talk.
Increasing Automated Test Flow in a Monorepo – David Lindley, Ben Hudson
David Lindley and Ben Hudson, Software Engineering Manager and Senior Software Engineer at Vodafone UK, respectively, talk about the challenges and benefits involved in one of their global projects – a shared React component library situation in a monorepo. The library has 220+ shared components and developers across the globe contribute to it, so ensuring quality is critical! David and Ben share how they overcame issues that came up as they progressed, including how they used dependency checking to make sure they test only what is needed, speeding up test flow. See it here.
Coffee Break!
Another opportunity to schmooze with the speakers! Andrew Knight (Developer Advocate and Automation Panda, Applitools), Adam Murray (Developer Experience Team Lead, Cypress.io) and Ben Hudson (Sr. Software Engineer, Vodafone UK) were hanging out to chat in this afternoon break.
Getting Started with Component Testing in Cypress – Adam Murray
In the latest Cypress 10 release, the Cypress team has added something new – official component testing (previously, it was an experimental feature). In this hands-on talk, Adam Murray, Developer Experience Team Lead at Cypress, helps you get going with it. He starts at the very beginning, showing you how to install Cypress 10, configure it in a new application, and add your first component tests. Adam goes on to cover more advanced topics like cy.intercept() as well. Take a look.
CLOSING KEYNOTE: Looking Forward – Trends That Will Shape Modern Web Development – Jason Lengstorf
The web ecosystem is changing quickly, and it can feel hard to keep up with all the changes. In this fascinating closing keynote, Jason Lengstorf, VP of Developer Experience at Netlify, delivers some comfort – things are perhaps not as “new and different” as they seem. Jason looks forwards and back at the landscape of the web, discussing not only where we’re going but how it all builds on historical trends. Check it out here.
After the closing keynote, Angie and Cassidy delivered the closing remarks as the event concluded.
Thank You!
We want to extend a huge thanks to everyone involved in making this event such a huge success. The list could go on, but we’ll start with Angie and Cassidy for being rock star hosts, our brilliant speakers for sharing their wisdom and experience, and of course to every attendee for adding your voices and presence. Thank you – we could never have delivered an event this great without all of you.
If you liked these videos, you might also like our videos from our previous virtual events too – all free to watch. Happy testing!
