Test.Bash(); 2021 - What Are Your Favourite Three Tools and Why? - Neil Studd

Our first session that is on the topic of favourite tools come from our podcast aficionado @neil in which he’s shared his favourite three tools and why.

We’ll use this Club thread to share resources mentioned during the session and answer any questions we don’t get to during the live session.

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Neil’s Twitter and LinkedIn links -

Twitter: https://twitter.com/neilstudd
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilstudd/
Neils’ blog: Test.Bash() 2021 Resources - Neil Studd's Words

Tools mentioned during the talk -

Postman Monitors: https://learning.postman.com/docs/designing-and-developing-your-api/monitoring-your-api/intro-monitors/

Scriptr: https://www.scriptr.io

PageProbe Chrome Extension: PageProbe - Automatic Page Monitor - Chrome Web Store

Sergio Freire mentioned about RestMan - RestMan - Chrome Web Store

Questions answered during the talk:

  1. With all the tools you have used, from a work perspective, which one gave you the best value, or found the best bug/issue you have seen?
  2. How do you keep up to date with new tools?
  3. Any security concerns with PageProbe on a work machine?
  4. How good are the 3 tools at distinguishing between triggers from automated tests vs manual vs CI/CD?
  5. Have you been blacklisted in any site?

Questions we didn’t get chance to cover during the talk

  1. Can Pageprobe run in headless mode?
  2. How do you manage the time to investigate new tools while still functioning as a parent and an essential team member?
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Thanks for everyone’s questions - please feel free to keep them coming at any time!

Can PageProbe run in headless mode?

I’ve not had much experience with running headless, but my understanding from a long-running ticket in Chromium’s issue tracker is that Chrome doesn’t support extensions in headless mode, which would eliminate PageProbe. There’s a possible workaround suggested on this StackOverflow question involving launching Chrome on an in-memory virtual display, which would allow for extensions; however, the extension itself would likely prove a pain to install and configure.

How do you manage the time to investigate new tools while still functioning as a parent and an essential team member?

We did manage to sneak this one in at the end of Q&A, so it should be visible in the on-demand video :slightly_smiling_face: In summary, much as you saw in the examples that I gave in my talk, I try to find occasions in my day-to-day life where experimenting with tooling might solve a problem or remove some inconvenience. This makes it easier to justify doing investigations in my spare time (although I’m one of the worst people in the world for sacrificing important things like sleep, to invent more free time!)

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