Create and record a test

Make a test and record its steps with the extension.

In short

A test is one test: a name, a start path, ordered steps, parameters and a status. Create one and record its steps by doing the task once in your browser with the {{brand}} extension.

Before you start

• Who: recording and creating tests need Edit on the site.
• Plan: a screenshot a recording keeps counts toward your plan's storage, and your plan's test limit applies (Plan & usage).
• First: install and trust the {{brand}} extension, and make sure the start environment and allowed origins are right.

Create a test

1. Press "New test" and type a name. Under More options, set a description and the start path (/ unless you change it).
2. Press "Create & record" to go straight to the recorder, or create it and record later.
3. Change the status from the pill in the test's title row: "Draft", "Ready" or "Archived".

Record the steps

1. Open the test and press "Record". The page checks the extension, the start environment and the origins it may capture on; the Allow button adds the start page's origin.
2. Press "Start recording". The recording stays open while you work: every step it captures gives it another 30 minutes, up to 4 hours. If you stop to read, "Keep recording" appears in its last five minutes and gives it more time.
3. Open the site in a tab and do the task once. Each element you act on flashes a red outline.
4. Press "Stop & review" to see the new steps marked New. "Stop" keeps them unmarked; "Stop and delete these steps" discards this recording's steps and keeps the earlier ones.

Good to know

• A recording captures clicks, double-clicks, typing (one step per field), selections, checkboxes and radio buttons, the Enter, Escape and Tab keys, and page changes. It also takes a screenshot of what is visible.
• It captures on the site's allowed origins only, inside frames of those addresses too, and adds a step when you move into a frame or to another tab. A file you pick becomes an upload of that name (never its content), and a drag and drop becomes a drag. Hovering, scrolling, waiting and checks you add by hand afterwards.
• Passwords are never captured: they become {{secret}}.
• One recording can be open per test. Install and trust the extension first.
• Search (Ctrl+K, or ⌘K on a Mac) finds tests by name. "Delete test" removes it with its runs; "Undo" in the message that follows brings it back, for ten minutes.

If something goes wrong

• No steps arrive: use the site in a tab on an allowed origin while the recording runs.
• "The recording session has expired.": start a new one; the steps already sent stay.
• "… is not one of the site's allowed origins.": add the origin in Site settings.
• "The site has no allowed origins to record on."

Related

• /help/ui-tester/review-steps
• /help/settings/record-a-ui-track
• /help/settings/extension-privacy