Comparative Study of Open Source Capture and Replay Tools

Graphical user interface (GUI) is becoming more and more important due to its widespread use in software products and computers. However, testing GUI still remains a big challenge to ensure the quality of the system and therefore to improve the user satisfaction. Manual testing permits ad hoc testing, nevertheless it often results in large amounts of manual labor and thus increases cost. Using capture and replay tools to support the testing process helps to overcome the problems of the manual testing. In this paper we compare five open source capture and replay tools in terms of ease of use, and capture and replay features. We compare the tools Abbot, Jacareto, JFCUnit, Marathon and Pounder, assessing generic, and capture and replay characteristics. After evaluating each tool, we selected the one that showed the best results in almost all criteria. The findings of this study may serve as guidance for novice testers or companies that consider employing open source capture and replay tools to automate the GUI testing process.