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Quick start: find your first bugs

Go from a new account to a list of real bugs in five steps. Create a project, explore your app, generate test cases, run a few tests and review the issues.

Updated 4 min read
In this article

This is the shortest path from a new account to a list of bugs. Each step starts the next one by hand, and links to a full article if you want the details.

Before you start

  • You have a TestOptim account and an active plan or trial. See Start your free trial or choose a plan.
  • You're the organization Owner or an Admin. Only they can create projects.
  • You have the URL of a web app to test. Solo, including the trial, explores 30 pages a month, so a mid-size app may reach that budget in one exploration. A staging copy is best, because the agent clicks buttons and submits forms. The examples below use a small demo todo app.

1. Create a project

  1. In the sidebar, select Projects, then New Project. (Right after you start a trial, the Create a project button takes you there.)
  2. Enter a Project Name and the Website URL. A bare host like myapp.com is fine.
  3. If your app needs a login, select Add profile and enter a test account's username and password. See Add login credentials so TestOptim can sign in.
  4. Select Create project.
The New project form filled in with a name and URL
Name the app and add its URL

You land on the project's Knowledge page. Nothing has started yet. See Create your first project.

2. Explore your app

  1. On Knowledge, select Start exploration. If you added more than one credential profile, the button reads Explore as... and lets you pick one.

    The Knowledge page with the Pending badge and the Start exploration button
    Start exploration on the Knowledge page

  2. Watch the Agent Activity log. The agent signs in, opens pages and counts the pages it visits.

    The Agent Activity log with the Exploring badge and a rising page count
    The agent works through your app

  3. Wait for the Exploration Complete dialog. A small app usually takes 5 to 15 minutes, and a run stops on its own after 30 minutes with whatever it found so far. You also get an email when it finishes, so you can close the tab.

    The Exploration Complete dialog with the buttons I'll do this later and View Test Cases
    Exploration is finished

    Test case generation is a separate step, which you start yourself in step 3.

The page now lists the Pages, Flows and Entities it found. If the agent noticed bugs on the way, they're already in Issues. See Explore your app and Review what exploration found.

3. Generate test cases

  1. Select Test cases in the sidebar, or View Test Cases in the dialog.

  2. Select Generate Test Cases. The button is only available after an exploration has produced knowledge.

    The empty Test Cases page with the Generate Test Cases and Add manually buttons
    Generate Test Cases

  3. Wait for the Test Cases Generated dialog. This usually takes a minute or two.

    The Test Cases Generated dialog with the buttons I'll review first and Run Tests
    Your test cases are ready

Choose I'll review first to read them before running anything. See Generate test cases.

4. Run a few tests

  1. On Test cases, run one test case with the play button on its row, or tick a few and select Run on the bar that appears. Or select Run all to run every test case.
  2. Open Test runs to follow the run. The run page shows a Live Activity log, and a recording is available once it finishes.
A completed test run with severity counters, the live activity log and the Issues Found list
A finished test run

Warning

Every test case you run uses one test execution from your monthly limit, and Solo includes 100. A suite of dozens of test cases can use most of it in one go. Start with a handful, then run more once you know what to expect.

See Run your tests and Read test run results and watch recordings.

5. Review the issues

Select Issues in the sidebar. Each bug found by exploration or by a test run has a severity, a category, the page it was found on and a status. Select one to see the steps to reproduce it, what was expected and what happened.

The Issues list with severity, category and Open status for each issue
Issues found by exploration and the test run

When your team fixes a bug, mark it fixed and TestOptim re-checks it on the live app. See Review issues found by TestOptim and Mark an issue fixed and let TestOptim verify the fix.

Note

A project runs one AI job at a time, so you can't start a test run while an exploration or test generation is still running. If you see "already in progress", wait for it to finish.

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