Writing stable autotests ​

Recommendation for ComplexQA autotest authors: how to reduce brittle Playwright steps on a verified team domain.

Why ​

An unstable locator, a new-tab click, and a long pause instead of waiting for an element cause false failures in an autotest run. A stable scenario uses precise Targets, explicit waits, and status READY only on finished CASE items.

How to work ​

1. Prefer ROLE, LABEL, and TESTID over CSS with substring *=.
2. Wait for the element before an action: waitForSelector or toBeVisible, not a long waitForTimeout.
3. Do not click links with target=_blank. Open the address with goto and a full https URL on a verified host.
4. Move repeated locators into the object repository.
5. Set status READY on a CASE only after the scenario and syntax are checked.
6. Take login and password via TEST_ACCOUNT, not INLINE.

Full step flow: Autotest step authoring. Typical false failures in the report: How to author autotest steps without false failures.

What to avoid ​

Example: brittle pause ​

{
  "action_name": "waitForTimeout",
  "value_text": "10000",
  "value_source_type": "INLINE"
}

Example: wait for an element ​

{
  "action_name": "waitForSelector",
  "target": { "kind": "TESTID", "value": "results-table" },
  "timeout_ms": 15000
}