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Testing for JavaScript applications on Azure

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This article outlines testing strategies for JavaScript applications deployed on Azure. Each section provides insights into tools and practices for helping to ensure application quality and performance in Azure environments.

Inner and outer test loops

Inner and outer test loops are foundational concepts in software testing, especially for applications deployed on cloud platforms like Azure:

  • The inner loop refers to a local environment where developers frequently run unit and integration tests during the development phase. This loop focuses on quick feedback and iteration.

  • The outer loop encompasses tests that developers run in continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, staging, and production environments. These tests often take advantage of Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.

These tests include end-to-end (E2E), performance, and security tests. They validate the application's behavior in environments that closely mirror or are identical to the final production environment. Efficient testing strategies use both loops to help ensure comprehensive coverage and quality assurance before and after deployment.

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Testing with and without Azure cloud services

Local testing without Azure involves simulating Azure services. You can use this approach to test changes quickly without incurring the costs or network latency associated with real Azure services.

On the other hand, cloud-based testing with Azure takes advantage of actual Azure resources to validate the application's integration, security, and performance in a cloud environment. This method is crucial for final validation in a production-like setting. It helps ensure that the application behaves as expected with live Azure services.

Emulators and development containers enhance local development with Azure services differently. Emulators mimic Azure services for cost-effective, early-stage testing without Azure charges, but they might not fully replicate live service features. Development containers replicate the production environment more closely, including application dependencies and services, to help facilitate a seamless transition to production. Development containers suit complex applications but require more setup than emulators.

Emulators

Emulators help you streamline development and testing workflows when you're integrating apps with Azure services. These lightweight, local versions of Azure services allow for rapid prototyping and testing without the need for an active internet connection or incurring costs associated with real Azure resources.

Emulators provide a high-fidelity simulation of Azure services. You can use them to catch and resolve issues early in the development cycle. This approach reduces the complexity and time required to test Azure-integrated applications in development.

Emulators include:

Development containers

Development containers offer a powerful alternative to using emulators for local development, especially in working with Azure services.

By running services in containers, you can create a local environment that closely mirrors the production environment to provide consistency across development, testing, and deployment stages. This approach facilitates smoother integration with Azure SDKs. It also enhances the reliability of testing by simulating real-world conditions more accurately.

You can configure containers to replicate the settings and data of Azure services. In this way, containers provide a robust platform for developing and testing applications without the overhead of connecting to live Azure services. This method is beneficial for complex applications that require multiple services, because it allows for easy orchestration, cleanup, and management of dependencies.

Development containers include Azure SQL Database.

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Unit testing

Unit testing in JavaScript applications that are integrated with Azure SDKs often requires selecting appropriate frameworks like Jest or Mocha. These frameworks facilitate the testing of individual components or functions in isolation.

Tools such as Sinon.JS or jest-mock can simulate Azure SDK responses, so you can test the logic of your applications without actual calls to Azure services. This method is useful for testing error handling, edge cases, or specific data conditions.

For more information, see the Azure SDK tests section later in this article.

Integration testing

Integration testing assesses the interaction between your application and Azure services, to help ensure that components work together as expected.

You can set up automated integration tests by using Azure Pipelines in Azure DevOps or workflows in GitHub Actions. This approach automates the deployment and testing of components in a cloud environment. It helps identify problems that might not be apparent during unit testing, such as network latency or service configuration errors.

Continuous integration testing

CI testing involves automatically running tests every time a change is made to the codebase. CI tools like Azure DevOps provide integrated environments for automating builds, tests, and deployments. Configuring pipelines to include automated tests helps ensure that every change is verified, which reduces the likelihood of bugs and regressions.

Proper pipeline configuration is crucial for efficient CI processes. It includes setting up triggers for automatic test execution and configuring environments for various stages of testing.

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Azure Test Plans

Azure Test Plans offers a comprehensive suite for manual and exploratory testing within Azure DevOps.

This service can help in scenarios that require human judgment or are difficult to automate, by providing a structured approach to manual testing. Teams can use it to plan, execute, and track test activities, including capturing rich data like screenshots and videos to aid in bug reporting. Integrating Azure Test Plans into your CI/CD process provides a holistic testing strategy that covers both automated and manual test cases.

End-to-end testing

End-to-end testing validates the complete operation of an application in an environment that simulates real user scenarios. By using frameworks like Playwright, you can automate browser-based tests to interact with your applications as users would.

Scenario-based testing involves creating test cases for complete user flows, such as signing up, performing a task, and signing out. You can use this testing to verify the application's functionality and user experience on Azure, which helps ensure that all components work together seamlessly from end to end.

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Performance testing

Performance testing is essential for applications deployed on Azure to help ensure that they can handle expected loads and perform well under stress.

Benchmarking involves measuring the performance of your application against defined metrics or standards. You can use the Azure Load Testing service to simulate high traffic and analyze an application's scalability and resilience. This testing helps identify bottlenecks and areas for optimization, so that the application can meet user demands.

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Security testing

Security testing on Azure involves identifying potential vulnerabilities in your application to prevent unauthorized access or data breaches.

Vulnerability scanning tools are essential for automatically detecting security weaknesses in your code or configurations. By integrating GitHub Advanced Security features with traditional Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools, you can improve the security posture of applications deployed on Azure. Key features include:

  • Code scanning: Identifies vulnerabilities within the codebase before deployment.
  • Secret scanning: Helps prevent the exposure of sensitive data.
  • Supply chain monitoring: Helps protect against potentially compromised dependencies.

These integrated security measures can help you identify vulnerabilities early, prevent data breaches, and ensure the integrity of your application's supply chain.

Penetration testing simulates cyberattacks against your application to evaluate its security posture. Azure provides guidance and tools for conducting these tests, to help ensure that applications deployed on the platform are secure against threats.

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Compliance and governance testing

Ensuring that applications comply with legal, regulatory, and policy requirements is crucial, especially in cloud environments. Regulatory compliance testing verifies that your application meets standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, or SOC 2.

Azure offers policy and compliance tools, such as Azure Policy and Azure Blueprints, to help automate and enforce compliance across your Azure resources. These tools simplify the process of maintaining governance and compliance standards in your application deployments.

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Accessibility testing

Accessibility testing is essential for making software inclusive and compliant with legal standards. Tools like Accessibility Insights help identify and fix accessibility issues in web and mobile apps. Integrating Accessibility Insights into development workflows facilitates automated and manual checks by offering guidance and reports based on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards.

A/B testing

A/B testing, or split testing, is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage or app against each other to determine which one performs better. Azure provides the following services that support A/B testing:

  • Azure App Service: Offers deployment slots to allow for staging environments where you can test app versions without affecting the live app.

  • Azure Container Apps: Offers a flexible environment for running microservices-based applications. You can implement A/B testing in this environment to test app versions.

You can use these services to deploy variations of your applications and then gauge user response and effectiveness.

Azure SDK tests

For developers who work with Azure services, gaining proficiency with the Azure SDKs is essential for crafting robust and scalable applications. The following Azure SDK tests, hosted on GitHub for the JavaScript SDKs, are invaluable resources:

Exploring these tests offers insights into seamless Azure service integration, showcases best practices for Azure resource interaction, and aids in ensuring efficient and secure implementations. Explore a broader range of SDK examples for a comprehensive understanding.