Testing with the Virtual Machine

When considering what a Virtual Machine (VM) can do, remember you’re interacting with an emulation of a computer system that represents what your users will use to access your website or app.

Uploading/Downloading Files to the Virtual Machine

You can create repeatable steps to download files from an online file storage site (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) to the VM to then interact with those files as needed within your own application.

To upload a file from the VM:

1. Navigate to the URL where the file is stored
2. Download the desired file
3. Wait for the file to complete the download process
4. Navigate to where you would like to upload the file
5. Click the Downloads folder
6. Select the file you would like to update

Using Preloaded Image Files

If you just need to perform an action like accessing an image file to upload within your test, our VMs come with stock images already available within the Pictures folder.

To do this:

1. Click on your site where you would like to upload the image
2. For Windows, click Pictures. For MacOS, you can find the jpeg files under Documents
3. Select and Click the desired image
4. Press “Open”

Navigating Between Tabs and Windows

Our VM allows for the opening of multiple tabs and windows within the browser.

Use the Navigate action and open a new tab to a specified URL or use the Click actions to open a second window to interact with during the same test.

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Example:

Using our emails and inboxes to create an email address and navigating to the inbox in a new tab.

Opening a Desktop Browser While Using a Mobile VM

When running a mobile test, you can open and interact with a desktop browser within the same test. This is helpful anytime you need to verify something on another device, like a new account setup or a purchase being made. This type of action would be best performed with our manual testing community, since it involves using a mobile browser.

To do this:

1. Instruct the tester to click the corresponding internet browser (Safari for mac, Chrome for Android).
2. Instruct what URL the tester should navigate to.
3. Continue testing steps as normal.
4. Instruct tester to close the web browser once it’s no longer needed for the test.

Downloading a Desktop Application

Many users want to test their desktop application, which requires downloading before any user interaction. This is possible within our VMs, as long as you create the steps to first download it. Custom VMs with desktop applications already downloaded are available for Enterprise customers.

If you have any questions, reach out to us at [email protected].