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JetBrains Releases New Version of Aqua IDE for Test Automation

• By John K. Waters
• June 27, 2023

Software development toolmaker  JetBrains has released a new version of its IDE for test automation, Aqua, adding support for the open-source Playwright and Cypress web app testing frameworks. 

The Prague-based company makes a number of IDEs, including the popular IntelliJ IDEA for Java developers and PyCharm for Python devs. The company is also the creator of Kotlin, a cross-platform, statically typed, general-purpose high-level programming language with type inference.

Aqua, which was designed to allow QA engineers to develop a wide range of automated UI and API tests, supports Java, Kotlin, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, and SQL, and provides intelligent coding assistance for each of those languages.

The company initially released Aqua with support for the Selenium API and Selenide. Selenium is a widely-used open-source testing framework for automating web browser interactions. Selenide is a framework for test automation powered by Selenium WebDriver. According to Oscar Rodriguez, product marketing manager in the JetBrains Aqua group, the addition of support for Playwright and Cypress was a response to user requests. He said they were among the most requested testing frameworks.

"We have been working hard to provide first-class support for the most popular testing frameworks," Rodriguez said in a statement. "The test automation engineers who already tested the IDE contacted us asking to add the Playwright and Cypress support... and we are excited to announce the new version of Aqua includes its full support. The IDE is still in active development, and we continue implementing new features and improvements."

This version of JetBrains Aqua provides engineers with the ability to develop more reliable tests that require less maintenance, the company says. The IDE also "covers every aspect of test automation daily work," including: 

• A database management feature that makes it possible for users connect to multiple databases, and to prepare and verify the application data.
• An editor-based HTTP client that runs complex HTTP requests and assertions, allows sharing with the team, and running them on the CI/CD.
• Docker support that runs, monitors, and configures containers; downloads and builds images; and runs multi-container applications using Docker Compose.
• And embedded Web Inspector feature that allows users to view web applications in Aqua and capture page elements required for automated tests VCS, Terminal, and more.

With the added support for Playwright and Cypress in this release, users can smoothly run tests, explore results, find issues, configure test runners, and search specific test cases, the company says. The new version also provides a debugger out of the box inside the IDE, enhances the code editing experience with an enhanced code insight, and supports specific functions and expressions of the frameworks.

JetBrains introduced Aqua in a preview in November 2022. Test automation engineers can download the latest preview build via the Toolbox App or its website, and the company welcomes their feedback.