AET in software refers to a specialized system primarily designed to automate the process of detecting visual changes on websites and conducting fundamental health checks to ensure their quality and integrity.
Core Functions of AET
AET serves as a robust tool within the quality assurance and web development lifecycle, focusing on two primary areas:
- Visual Change Detection (Visual Regression Testing): AET meticulously scans and compares web pages over time or across different deployment stages to identify any unintended visual discrepancies. This is crucial for catching user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) regressions that might occur after code deployments, styling changes, or content updates.
- Web Page Health and Compliance Checks: Beyond aesthetics, AET performs a series of critical technical assessments to ensure web pages adhere to established standards and best practices. These checks include:
- W3C Compliance: Verifying adherence to World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards for web technologies, ensuring cross-browser compatibility and maintainability.
- Web Accessibility: Assessing whether web content is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for people with disabilities, aligning with guidelines like WCAG.
- HTTP Status Codes: Monitoring the response status codes (e.g., 200 OK, 404 Not Found, 500 Internal Server Error) to identify broken links, server issues, or incorrect redirects.
- JavaScript Error Checks: Detecting and reporting any runtime JavaScript errors that could impair website functionality or user experience.
- Other Potential Checks: While specific details vary, such systems often include checks for broken images, missing assets, console warnings, and overall page load performance.
Why is AET Important for Web Development and QA?
Implementing a system like AET brings significant benefits to software projects, particularly those involving dynamic web applications:
- Automated Quality Assurance: It automates repetitive and time-consuming manual checks, allowing quality assurance (QA) teams to focus on more complex testing scenarios.
- Early Defect Detection: By regularly monitoring for visual regressions and health issues, AET helps identify problems early in the development cycle, reducing the cost and effort of fixing them later.
- Consistency and Brand Integrity: Ensures that the website's visual appearance and functionality remain consistent across different updates, protecting brand image and user experience.
- Compliance and Best Practices: Helps maintain adherence to web standards and accessibility guidelines, crucial for legal compliance and reaching a wider audience.
- Improved User Experience (UX): By flagging issues like broken links, JavaScript errors, or accessibility barriers, AET contributes directly to a smoother and more reliable user experience.
AET Capabilities at a Glance
| Capability | Description | Key Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Visual Regression | Automatically detects unintended pixel-level or layout changes on web pages. | Prevents visual bugs and maintains UI consistency across deployments. |
| W3C Compliance | Verifies adherence to World Wide Web Consortium standards for HTML, CSS, etc. | Ensures cross-browser compatibility and long-term maintainability. |
| Web Accessibility | Checks for issues that might hinder access for users with disabilities (e.g., missing alt text, keyboard navigation). | Promotes inclusivity and meets legal requirements for digital accessibility. |
| HTTP Status Codes | Monitors server responses for errors (e.g., 404 Not Found, 500 Internal Server Error). | Identifies broken links, server issues, and improves site reliability. |
| JavaScript Errors | Scans for runtime JavaScript errors that can impact interactive features. | Ensures core website functionality works as expected for all users. |
