Gmail webdrive update#

If you instead grabbed a hammer, that person may look at you a little funny.

While the screw is a simple machine, it still requires a specialized tool and a smart approach. If someone handed you a screw and told you to join two pieces of wood together, you'd go looking for a screwdriver. I used to spend weeks trying to integrate my tests with a third-party tool that promised to make things easier, and all it added was yet another layer of trouble.Īnd after all this effort, **no one really cared**, because the tests were too fragile and too far removed from the development lifecycle. I used to write test after test after test, but no one would use them because they'd never consistently pass. Once you understand that there is no 'perfect' tool and that you have to solve the testing puzzle for yourself, you become empowered to make smart choices about where to focus your efforts, instead of trying to do everything all at once. When I finally approached the problem with honesty, instead of searching for a non-existent magic solution, I understood that websites are complex and that's okay. So long as I got that right, I'd find success.Īfter going through tool after tool and never gaining any real value, I knew something was wrong. When I first started out, I thought that getting testing right was simply a matter of picking out the right tool for the job. A test suite that's never run because it's too flakey and too difficult to integrate with the everyday processes of the team.Tests that are confusing to understand and nearly impossible to debug.

Gmail webdrive update#

Fragile tests that are constantly breaking with every update to the site.We can't pretend this complexity doesn't exist, because when you do, you end up with: Tools are too often sold as antidotes to the complex nature of sites, promising to simplify testing to just a few actions. The truth is, there are no magical tools out there that can remove the overall complexity of testing websites, only ones that pretend to hide it behind bells and whistles. Yet too often this complexity turns into an overcomplicated solution. Websites are complex systems, and as a result, you need advanced tools to test them.