Are you a pure programming lover? Or you are someone who dares not to challenge programming?

I’d prefer to choose the latter as testers. The reason is that the people who are not programmers tend to focus more on how users would look at the system. The problem is then how to let them make automated tests.

Letting testers do even low code tests could be a bit overwhelming. The only real solution seems to record and replay. But most of the tools just record to Python or JS codes. And I do not want source codes presented in faces of testers.

How to solve this dilemma?

My answer is a self-made browser plugin! I call it the CommandRecorder.
The CommandRecorder simply records user actions and replay them in order. The codes that are generated are in Japanese! Accompanied is a test runner which is hidden behind a GUI program. The testers just need to select which case file and which sheet to run.

The test case books are in Excel file format. An Excel file has some good features that a plain text file cannot provide.
E.g.,
– Excel sheets can use powerful formulae.
– Cells are well aligned.
– To repeat a pattern, you just need to drag.
– Data areas by purpose can be cleanly separated by sheets.
– Editing are straight forward, you don’t have to know structuring grammars.

The only difficulty of using Excel files is there lacks an effective comparison tool for finding version differences. But what the hell! I just need to find time to make one.

And more, have you noticed the output of the CommandRecorder is in Japanese? Yes, a natural language! This makes the resulting code very easily understandable. Even one who is completely unaware of the system and unaware of any programming language can understand what a test does. This largely flattens the learning curve.