Our 10 Most-Read Articles Of 2020

2020 is finally winding down—and it’s been a challenging year for a lot of us. But we’re pretty sure at this point that when the new year begins, this year will just – vaporize.

As we head into 2021, we sincerely hope you have time to relax, read, and recharge over the next few days – we will be doing that too. But before we shut down our laptops and wrap up 2020, we went back and looked at what you, our readers, were most captivated by this year.

We published a total of 210+ articles at Lambdatest this year. And we picked a few top-performing pieces from each of our main categories, so we are sure you’ll find something valuable to read or re-read, as the case may be.

So without further ado – here are our 10 most-read articles of 2020.

10. How To Test PDF Files Using Selenium Automation?

PDF documents are small-sized, highly secure files. Almost all businesses use PDFs for processing their files, the reason being a distinguishing feature of maintaining format regardless of the tool used to access PDF files. It’s no surprise that all our invoices, official documents, contractual documents, boarding pass, bank statements, etc., are usually in PDF format.

Even if you are a developer, you’ll come across scenarios when a PDF file needs to be verified or used to locate certain parts of data. You can either do this manually if you have time to spare or opt for automation testing. When it comes to handling tricky components of such files using automation, it might seem a bit too tricky. But that’s not the case. Test automation can make it easy to test PDF file formats.

In this blog post, we will be exploring the knotty topic of Selenium testing PDF files and come up with different solutions to handle a PDF document using automation. This post about Selenium testing PDF files explained everything about using Apache PDFBox, using PDFTextStripper, and using TestNG asserts. From extracting content from a specific page to validating its content, you can perform all those operations in LambdaTest.

9. Cypress Vs Selenium: How To Pick The Right Testing Tool For You?

Selenium is one of the most prominent automation frameworks for functional testing and web app testing. Automation testers who use Selenium can run tests across different browser and platform combinations by leveraging an online Selenium Grid. Though Selenium is the go-to framework for test automation, Cypress – a relatively late entrant in the test automation game has been catching up at a breakneck pace. Like Selenium, Cypress is also an open-source test automation framework for testing web applications. And that’s where the big Cypress vs Selenium fight begins!

In this blog, we have done a detailed Cypress vs. Selenium comparison to determine the core differences between Selenium and Cypress to make it easier for you to evaluate Cypress vs Selenium for your next test automation project!

8. Best Jenkins Pipeline Tutorial For Beginners [Examples]

Jenkins CI/CD has always been the go-to option for DevOps professionals and beginners. It has more than 16,000 stars on GitHub and 6,500 forks. Being one of the oldest players in the CI/CD market, Jenkins has huge community support with more than 1500 plugins to help professionals ship faster through their Jenkins Pipelines.

Whether you are just starting your CI/CD journey or are looking for a quick recap over Jenkins Pipeline, then you’re at the right place!

This Jenkins pipeline tutorial will provide all the information that you need to set up a Jenkins pipeline and a detailed explanation of the underlying concepts. You will also learn how to perform automation testing using Selenium in Jenkins Pipeline through an online Selenium Grid.

A well-defined Jenkins pipeline can help shorten production times and improve the quality of applications. It provides a definitive structure to your existing building process, committing, automation testing, and deployment.

Read – Comprehensive Guide To Jenkins Declarative Pipeline [With Examples]

7. Selenium C# Tutorial: Setting Up Selenium In Visual Studio

Getting started with Selenium and C# is easy if you know how to connect the right blocks for test code development. But what if you don’t? Well, this tutorial will help you set up Selenium in Visual Studio for automated browser testing of your web-application. But that’s not all – you will also find out why Selenium C# is the right call for test automation and how to run your first Selenium C# test automation script, and more!

6. How To Install TestNG In Eclipse: Step By Step Guide

TestNG or Test Next Generation is one of the most frequently used automation testing frameworks in Java. Inspired by JUnit and NUnit, Cedric Beust created TestNG with the idea of covering almost all types of testing models, be it functional or end-to-end. The annotations, functionalities, usability, features, and ease-of-use make TestNG a popular choice of framework.

In this article, you will learn how to install TestNG in Eclipse and set it up in your system to start building a framework for your test project.

5. Build An Automated Testing Pipeline With GitLab CI/CD & Selenium Grid

CI/CD has been gaining a lot of attraction & is probably one of the most talked topics for DevOps’ novices. With the availability of CI/CD tools available in the market, configuring and operating a CI/CD pipeline has become a lot easier than what it used to be 5-6 years ago.

In this article, we configured a CI/CD pipeline with GitLab CI/CD and executed Selenium testing over it through LambdaTest, an online Selenium Grid of 2000+ real browsers. With this, you can now successfully execute Selenium testing to perform all kinds of checks before the release gets deployed. GitLab CI prepares the release process for you, and it takes away all the hassle from doing those last-minute checks by allowing you to integrate with an online Selenium Grid of 2000+ real browsers, ensuring a seamless UI for your web-application.

This is how you can build a robust CI/CD pipeline for your company or team there.

4. How To Download & Upload Files Using Selenium With Java

While Selenium testing, you may have come across a requirement to either download or upload files in Selenium. Almost every web-application over the internet has a feature that allows users to either download or upload a file. Suppose you are an automation tester who has a routine set around Selenium testing. In that case, there is a good chance for you to run into a requirement where you may have to test a feature around downloading or uploading files in Selenium WebDriver.

Selenium testing can help you automate the download & upload file functionality of your web-application easily. Working on the upload file feature of Selenium is very easy if you have understood the difference between Remote WebDriver and WebDriver Interface. However, it is always recommended to go for a cloud-based Selenium Grid to save time and resources.

3. Top 7 Programming Languages For Test Automation In 2020

Picking up a programming language for test automation can be incredibly challenging, even for the most experienced testers. To make it a little easier for you, we have highlighted the top 7 programming languages for test automation in this blog. The languages that we listed are, by far, the most preferred languages for automation testing. They have support for a good number of automation testing frameworks and a large user community.

If you are looking for guidance to help you out with your test automation journey or if you are already proficient in automation testing through a single programming language and are thinking about venturing into new programming languages for test automation, along with their respective frameworks. Well, lucky for you, you landed in the right place!

You can start your automation testing adventure with any of these programming languages.

2. 11 Best CSS Frameworks To Look Forward In 2020

Cascading Style Sheets or simply CSS are web design tools that separate document content from document presentation. This results in a dramatic decrease in the file transfer size. Once you apply a change to the site’s CSS style sheet, it can automatically reflect on all the pages alike. CSS offers excellent design consistency and offers a wide array of formatting options.

We have compiled a list of the 11 Best CSS frameworks in 2020 based on the State of CSS report for 2019. This article covers these best CSS frameworks and answers your questions, such as why to pick a particular framework, what is missing, and who should use it.

Though all frameworks that we have mentioned have their own set of pros and cons, we all know that CSS for web design is here to last.

And, drum roll, please for the most-read blog of LambdaTest this year:

1. 13 Best JavaScript Frameworks For 2020

According to Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2020, JavaScript is the most commonly used language for the 8th year straight, with 67.7% of people opting for it. However, you’ll come across various JavaScript frameworks, each with its advantages and usage. With so many choices for the JavaScript frameworks for frontend, backend development, or even testing, it isn’t easy to choose the right framework for your requirements.

In this article on the best JavaScript framework for 2020, with StateOfJS 2019, Stackoverflow’s Developer Survey 2020, and NPM trends, we have a list of best JavaScript frameworks for frontend, backend, and testing, which will help you in picking the right framework.

With the trend still going towards it, JavaScript will continue to be the dominant force powering the development of all kinds of web applications.

Bonus: The most-viewed webinar of 2020

In addition to publishing 210+ articles on the blog, we conducted a few webinars, launched a community, a learning hub, newsletter Coding Jag, and certification to help developers and testers level up.

Here’s our most attended webinar of the year 2020

Get True Cross Browser Test Coverage With TestCafe & LambdaTest

We hosted this webinar in collaboration with DevExpress on 2nd December 2020. The host, Mudit Singh- Director of Product & Growth at LambdaTest, got together with Paul Usher from DevExpress. Paul is the Technical Evangelist at DevExpress, the team responsible for creating TestCafe. We had a full-house during the webinar, and we even created a detailed blog around this webinar.

See you next year!

Well, that’s all for now. To all our readers and customers, thank you for your support throughout this crazy year. We’ll be back with more blogs in the new year; until then, enjoy the holiday season and have a wonderful new year! ? ?

What was the best article you read in 2020? Please chime in the comment section below and let us know.

Harshit Paul

Harshit works as a product growth specialist at LambdaTest. He is also an experienced IT professional, who loves to share his thoughts about the latest tech trends as an enthusiast tech blogger.

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