February 2023 Summaries

Playwright Test (PWT) is now generally available, offering multiple test cases in a single check, web-first assertions and locators, creation of automated trace files and video recordings, and a new UI that accurately reflects the structure of PWT test cases. The new release also introduces a rich test-results.json artifact, making it easier to track down problematic incidents and view test results. With PWT, users can create browser checks with templates, explore test steps and actions, and easily create videos and traces, all within a polished new UI that provides a better user experience. The general availability of PWT is part of Launch Week 2 for Checkly, which also includes other new features and announcements.

Checkly is launching several new features and enhancements during Checkly Launch Week 2, starting from February 27th to March 2nd. The company introduces a revolutionary new "Monitoring as Code" (MaC) workflow and CLI that allows developers to code, test, and deploy their testing and synthetic monitoring in one seamless workflow, fully harnessing the power of Playwright for browser checks. Other highlights include updates to public dashboards with improved readability and accessibility, a new analytics API for generating reports, and a successful completion of SOC 2 Type 2 examination, demonstrating the company's strong commitment to customer privacy, security, and data protection.

Checkly is a synthetic monitoring platform that has developed a new CLI (Command-Line Interface) called "the bastard child of Jest and AWS CDK" which allows developers to write their Playwright-based E2E Checks and API checks using TypeScript/JavaScript, test them against the global infrastructure, deploy them from local boxes or CI pipelines, and store them in source control alongside application code. The CLI is designed around a "constructs architecture", where Checks are organized into files with specific extensions, inheriting properties from Project, Check Group, or can be overridden at an individual level. The CLI integrates with GitHub sync for Browser Checks, Pulumi as an alternative to Terraform, and allows developers to define Checks using TypeScript classes that describe Checkly resources. With the CLI, users can deploy their Checks to the Checkly cloud, where they will run in parallel and report back results to the terminal with logging and debug info when a Check fails. The vision for Checkly is to make monitoring as code workflow the primary way to add E2E testing and monitoring to application stacks.

The text discusses the challenges of relying on third-party resources for web applications, including performance issues and potential downtime due to external factors such as ad blockers or service provider outages. The author suggests several strategies to mitigate these risks, including self-hosting assets, implementing asynchronous and fail-safe code, testing and monitoring frontend performance, and running end-to-end tests with resource constraints. The text also introduces Playwright, a tool used for testing and monitoring web applications, and provides examples of how to use it to simulate slow or blocked third-party resources and block requests altogether.

Checkly allows users to create Private Locations to monitor resources deployed inside their own network, which are not accessible from public locations. To do this, users can deploy an agent inside their network using Checkly's Private Locations agent. This enables monitoring of private resources such as AWS RDS, Elasticsearch, and Elasticache, with reduced latency compared to public locations. Users can install and run the Checkly agent locally or use Terraform to create a container instance in AWS, and then add checks to monitor specific resources. The Checkly Terraform Provider allows users to easily create checks for private resources using a YAML file, which is configured using Goss. Additionally, users can create dashboards to visualize their check results, making monitoring infrastructure an appealing and cost-effective solution.

The recent Checkly community AMA session discussed various aspects of end-to-end testing with Microsoft's Playwright tool. The discussion covered handling parallelism in tests, tips to avoid flaky tests, and how to emulate custom keyboard interactions. Additionally, the session touched upon guaranteeing application stability, catching JavaScript errors during long test flows, and leveraging fixtures for error tracking. The AMA also emphasized the importance of testing beyond just end-to-end testing, highlighting the value of continuous monitoring and shipping stellar products with tools like Checkly.