Salesforce DX Integration
Provar and Salesforce DX can be used together to generate a scratch org, push the latest Salesforce customizations, and run Provar tests inside the scratch org to get functional testing insights. This allows immediate feedback during a development cycle or when a scratch org is used as a system integration test environment.
As part of our ongoing commitment as the only Salesforce-first test automation tool, we support the integration of Provar with the Salesforce CLI using ProvarDX.
ProvarDX (Provar Developer eXperience) is a free, open-source extension that uses your local Provar installation licenses. ProvarDX is designed to integrate Provar seamlessly into your Salesforce developer environments so tests can be executed supporting local development using scratch orgs. This provides a richer set of tools than ConfigureDX, designed purely for customers running Provar tests on scratch orgs under ANT.
ProvarDX Consists of the Following Elements:
- A Salesforce CLI plugin that allows you to execute Provar test cases from a command line without requiring the installation or use of ANT. ProvarDX can be used instead of ANT as part of your CI/CD pipeline to run Provar tests.
- An optional Visual Studio Code Extension that provides access to the most useful ProvarDX CLI commands using the Visual Studio Code command autocomplete menu.
- A Provar Desktop right-click option (Export as ProvarDX) to allow you to export one or more tests (or test plans) as a property file for execution using ProvarDX.
Both ANT (via ConfigureDX) and ProvarDX support using scratch orgs for test execution. However, ProvarDX has several advantages, including:
- The ability to override Provar Salesforce connections using the DevHub org alias as the connection name instead of requiring you to use the original Salesforce username as the alias. This subtle change lets you be very clear in your scratch org names and use meaningful aliases (such as Sales User, Service Admin, Metadata Admin, etc.) instead of john.doe@crafy-otter-hvfpug.com.
- ProvarDX works on scratch orgs and sandboxes, allowing you to use a single solution regardless of whether you follow a source-driven, hybrid, or org-driven Salesforce application lifecycle.
- ProvarDX does not require you to generate passwords for your scratch orgs. ProvarDX™ does this for you when it needs one.
- With ProvarDX, you can override property settings on command line execution using parameters.
- ProvarDX is consistent with the Salesforce CLI, requiring a single set of skills to maintain and operate. Updates are also synchronized with the Salesforce CLI.
Everything in this guide applies to teams following source-driven development using scratch orgs and those following org-driven development using sandbox orgs.
Why ProvarDX?
Provar is designed to help our customers quickly create robust, reusable tests that are intelligent regarding Salesforce org metadata and reusable across multiple user types, environments, and user interfaces.
Provar can uniquely run across multiple environments in a typical software development lifecycle. To align with Salesforce’s source-driven development approach using scratch orgs, and traditional org-driven development, we’ve delivered ProvarDX to make this integration seamless for our users.
- Admins and developers use scratch orgs and/or developer sandboxes to make atomic changes, which they want to verify before pushing to continuous integration.
- CI tools hooked into a version control system (e.g., Git) trigger publication and run Provar regression tests to validate the changes. Issues notified to the development and QA team for correction or update of test cases to match changes in behavior.
- CD pipeline invoked as needed to deploy application changes to each environment. Provar regression and smoke test plans executed as appropriate to validate correct deployment package deployment, plus check for legacy issues or primary business scenarios that are working as expected.
As you can see, with ProvarDX, we’re unlocking those test cases already developed using Provar Automation so that Salesforce administrators and developers can run a suite of tests to verify their changes much earlier in the development process. We’ve chosen to do this using the same tooling that Salesforce provides, Visual Source Code and the Salesforce Command Line Interface (CLI).
Note: This does not eliminate the need for developers to write unit tests for their apex code and Lightning components.
Want to Learn More About SalesforceDX and Salesforce CLI?
If you’re new to SalesforceDX and the Salesforce CLI in general, take a look at the following resources from Salesforce:
- SalesforceDX Integration using ANT (ConfigureDX)
- Trailhead: Quick Start SalesforceDX
- Trailhead: Developer Tools Installation
- Trailhead: App Development with SalesforceDX
- Trailhead Application Lifecycle Model
Ready to get Started with ProvarDX?
If you’re ready to get started with ProvarDX, check out the documentation below:
Or visit our ProvarDX course on the University of Provar!