Autonomous Ethical Hacking, New Playwright, Robot Framework Certification TGNS150

Have you seen the new feature of Playwright? What automation certification was just announced and why? Should know more about autonomous ethical hacking? Find out in this episode of the Test Skill new show for the week of March 9th. Grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea and let's do this. First up is all about Playwright. Hey, before we get into the news, I want to thank this week's sponsor, Zap Test AI, an AI driven platform that can help you supercharge your automation efforts. It's really cool because their Intelligent copilot generates optimized code snippets while their Plan studio can help you effortlessly seamlessly streamline your test case management. And what's even better is you can experience the power of AI in action with their risk free 6 month proof of concept featuring a dedicated Zap expert at no upfront costs. Unlock unparalleled efficiency and ROI in your testing process. Don't wait. Schedule your demo now and see how it can help you improve your test automation efforts using the link down below. Playwright has just announced the release of version 1.51, which introduces several significant enhancements and key features in this update include the Copy prompt functionality that simplifies debugging by allowing users to copy concise instructions, error details, and a snapshot of the page for failed test. This feature is designed to really help testers quickly understand issues in their code. Also, the update brings integration for Firebase authentication. The update also enhances git integration with the focus on capturing git diffs more effectively for better tracking of code changes that may affect test outcomes. It also improves test functionality by allowing for designated timeouts on test steps and the ability to skip steps based on mobile emulation needs. Snapshots have also undergone improvements as well while offering various methods for updates. So a lot of cool new features and enhancements that if you're using Playwright, you definitely should check out, and you can find that in the links down below. Next up is Webinar of the Week. So if you've been involved in automation for any amount of time, you know how proper test data management isn't just a nice to have. If you're like most of the testing teams I hear from, you faced these scenarios before test runs failing because of corrupted or missing test data, hours spent manually creating test data sets that are used once and forgotten. But tests that work perfectly in QA but mysteriously break in production because of data inconsistencies. These aren't just annoyances, they're productivity killers that undermine confidence in your automation efforts. And that's why I asked the folks at Data Gaps to help create a webinar for the Guild community on how to supercharge data quality in automating the testing of extract, transform and load pipelines and business intelligent projects. So you definitely want to register now and discover why AI driven testing is so important and also how it's going to help you to overcome data integration challenges in BI and ETL environments. You're also going to learn how you can use a Genic AI for seamless validation and also a real world impact study that shows how leading organizations are drastically improving their testing processes using this method. So don't miss it. Register now using link down below and hope to see you there. Another thing I know a lot of testers struggle with is creating Playwright reports with dynamic charts. So I found this other article once again on LinkedIn. This by Abigail talks all about Playwright reports enhanced with custom charts and business friendly test steps. So in this detailed tutorial on creating custom reports in Playwright that converts technical test results into business readable documentation with interactive charts. This approach focuses on generating comprehensive test reports that serve both technical teams and non technical stakeholders by displaying test steps in natural language alongside performance analytics. Abigail also talks about how you can create custom charts when you want to publish test results and things like Slack or Microsoft Teams. And she goes over the implementation involved in creating a custom reporter class that processes test results and generates HTML documents with embedded charts. She also goes over how this can help you capture performance metrics, generate visual charts that display test status summaries, identify the top 10 Tests with the longest execution times, information really valuable for optimizing your testing efforts. All right, the role of autonomous AI agents is everywhere. A few weeks ago we went over how someone mentioned how it thinks it's going to replace automation. But here's another perspective, and this is by Tim, who has his take on autonomous AI agents. So unlike conventional chatbots that merely respond to queries, these agents actively take initiative, making decisions and interacting with systems without human intervention. And as you probably know, a lot of major tech companies have recently launched significant advancements in the space. For example, Anthropic introduced Computer Use and Model Context Protocol, which we went over last week while OpenAI released Operator and Google unveiled Project Mariner. And current benchmarks show that these agents achieve about 58% success on complex web tasks and 87% on simpler operations. And he also goes over the Model Content Text protocol a little bit more. But despite these advancements, traditional scripted test automation isn't becoming obsolete. According to Tim, this report indicates that AI agents cannot match the speed, reproducibility and the accuracy of predetermined scripts. So I know you probably heard a lot, a lot about this, but maybe it's time to definitely check out more of a hybrid approach to using automation with AI agents to see if it can help you with exploratory testing and complex scenarios as well. So definitely check it out using links down below. So speaking of mcp, I have a new tool that's built on top of it. Last week I pointed out the new mcp, which is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context LLMs and I mentioned how it could possibly impact automation testing. And just a few days ago I found this new tool. It's the MCP Accessibility Scanner, which integrates AI powered accessibility testing with Claude Desktop leveraging Anthropic's Model Context protocol. And this tool, developed by justice, combines Playwright for Web Automation and AXE Core Accessibility Compliance Testing. By utilizing mcp, the scanner enhanced AI Assisted Accessibility Analysis provides automated insights that streamline your testing workflows and I think this implementation demonstrates the practical application of MCP's AI standardization in software testing, potentially improving how teams detect and resolve accessibility issues. So last week, once again I had the pleasure of hosting robocon Online and I'm always learning something new and this is one of the biggest announcements I heard at this event and that is Robot Framework foundation has officially launched the Robot Framework Certification Professional Certification aiming to validate proficiency in the Robot Framework ecosystem and in the broader field of automation. This globally recognized credential is designed for individuals seeking to demonstrate the expertise in designing, developing and managing their robot framework automation solutions. And so Robot Framework does things differently. They are a non nonprofit organization and they really wanted to create something of value that's really going to give you help in learning Robot framework and getting more jobs. I know in certain countries these certifications hold more weight, so if that's you, it's definitely something you should consider to check out the RFCP certification to formally validate your skills in the robot framework and you can find a link for it down below. Let me know how it goes because I heard it is wicked hard to pass. And as you know I'm always looking for new tools. So here's an announcement by Test Sigma who just announced or introduced a free accessibility checker tool for websites and mobile applications and this tool enables users to assess their digital platforms for accessibility issues, delivering detailed reports that highlight potential barriers for individuals with disabilities. And this initiative aligns with the upcoming European Accessibility act which mandates that by June 28, 2025, it's only a few months away. Digital products and services within the Europe European Union must be accessible to all users. And in this week's File the Money segment Dynatrace has just announced they acquired database observability company Metis. So if you don't know, Metis technology offers automated recommendations for SQL statements, vector search queries, indexes and database schemas, areas that traditionally require specialized expertise. This integration aims to simplify database management for developers and server liability engineers working with cloud native databases like post, post, reg, SQL, MySQL, my whole career databases have been the backbone of applications, but they can also be a major source of performance bottlenecks. And that's why acquiring this company, which helps troubleshoot these type of issues, really is a awesome step up. They're making database troubleshooting as seamless as any other part of your DevOps workflow. So last up in security News, a recent project demonstrates how AI agents can be deployed to automate vulnerability assessments and and penetration testing. So in this project, detailed in a Medium article by Tony leverages multiple AI agents working in collaboration to identify security weaknesses in web applications. And he goes into detail how the system built using CREWAI employs specialized AI agents assigned to different security analysis roles. So he has an industry analyst examining standard security protocols, a front end security analyst detecting client side vulnerabilities, a network security analyst evaluates data transmission security in a briefing coordinating compiles the findings, and he has a real world demonstration that performs a comprehensive security assessment example that detects several vulnerabilities including cross site scripting issues, authentication bypass vulnerabilities and context spoofing risk. All right, for links of everything of value we covered in this news episode, head on over to those links in the comments down below. So that's it for this episode of the Test Skill New show. I'm Joe and missions help you succeed in creating end to end full stack pipeline automation awesomeness. As always, test everything and keep the good Cheers.