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JetBrains Launches 'Aqua' Test Automation IDE

• By John K. Waters
• May 16, 2024

Software development toolmaker JetBrains has officially launched Aqua, its first integrated development environment (IDE) specifically designed for test automation. The company is billing its newest IDE as a revolutionary tool aimed at streamlining the testing process for software development teams.

Aqua has been engineered to simplify and enhance the creation of automated tests for user interfaces, APIs, and other application components, the company says. It supports a wide array of programming languages used in test automation, including Java, Kotlin, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, and SQL. And it offers intelligent coding assistance tailored to each language.

Initially introduced in a preview release in November 2022, Aqua focused on supporting the Selenium (WebDriver) set of open-source APIs and the Selenide wrapper for Selenium for writing of UI Tests. By 2023, JetBrains expanded Aqua’s capabilities to include support for other popular frameworks, such as Playwright and Cypress.

The IDE is available now under a commercial license, with a free version aimed at beginner test engineers to foster community growth.

Equipped with tools such as a robust test runner, an intuitive debugger, and advanced code completion and refactoring capabilities, Aqua supports a wide range of testing frameworks. This makes it a comprehensive solution for any automation project.

"Since Aqua's preview launch, we've received significant feedback from users who appreciate the IDE tailored specifically for test automation engineers," said Sergey Kozlovskiy, Product Marketing Manager for JetBrains Aqua, in a statement. "Users have highlighted the support for major languages and frameworks and the convenience of our Web Inspector feature, which integrates an embedded browser within the IDE, eliminating the need to switch to Chrome DevTools."

Aqua aims to help engineers develop more reliable automated tests that require less maintenance. The IDE covers various aspects of daily test automation work, including:

• Database Management: Allows users to connect to multiple databases, prepare, and verify application data.
• Editor-based HTTP Client: Allows users to run complex HTTP requests and assertions, share them with the team, and run them on CI/CD pipelines.
• Docker Support: Allows users to run, monitor, and configure containers, download and build images, and manage multi-container applications with Docker Compose.
• Embedded Web Inspector: Makes it possible to view web applications within Aqua and capture page elements needed for automated tests.
• Test automation engineers can download the latest version of Aqua via the JetBrains Toolbox App or directly from the Aqua website. User feedback is encouraged to help further refine the product.

Prague-based JetBrains makes a lineup of more than 30 intelligent software development tools, including the popular IntelliJ IDEA IDE for Java developers and PyCharm for Python devs. The company is also the creator of Kotlin, a popular cross-platform, statically typed, general-purpose high-level programming language with type inference. The company's tools are used by more than 11.4 million professionals and 88 of the Fortune Global Top 100 companies.