Getting Started with the Katalon Platform: Creating Your First Project

Welcome back! This chapter will show you the steps to start and create your first project in the Katalon Platform.

You will need to register a new Katalon account. We recommend you do this then verify the account before installing or using any Katalon solution to streamline your experience:

- Go to Katalon dot com

- Click on the ''Get started'' or ''Start free trial'' button or simply navigate to katalon.com/sign-up

- Input your username, email address, and password

- Click ''Start testing''

Then, go to your email box, verify your account, and follow the link to the Katalon Platform. Please note if you don't verify your account, it will get deleted in the next few days.

A quick survey will pop up. These simple questions will help Katalon get more insights into users and provide more relevant solutions.

Alright, you will then land onto the Katalon Platform. It automatically creates an organization and the first project for you. Some sample tests and execution data have also been generated and filled in for demonstration purposes.

In the next lesson, we'll briefly walk you through the Katalon Platform to help you understand how it takes care of every phase of a testing lifecycle. We'll also show you how to install Katalon Studio to start creating your first automated test cases.

Before going to the next section, it's important for you to note that, once you sign up and verify your new Katalon account, you'll have a 30-day free trial to use the Katalon Platform's advanced functionalities.

To be more specific, you will have a 30-day free trial to use Katalon Studio Enterprise, which allows you to use the full functionalities of Katalon Studio. Your trial will start when you log in to this product for the first time. We'll show you how to install it later. After the trial period ends, you can still use Katalon Studio (the free version as many users like to call it) but with limited features.

When logging in to Studio for the first time, you will also have a free trial to use Katalon Runtime Engine, which is an add-on of Katalon Studio for test execution via command-line interface or integration to run Katalon tests in CI/CD pipelines.

You will also be able to use Katalon TestCloud for on-cloud execution environments but only with a limited number of sessions.

This means you will have a 30-day period to try the whole Katalon Platform at full capacity and evaluate if it's a fit for your team. If you wish to continue using advanced features, you can either purchase or join the Community's programs to earn free licenses such as the current Kudos Rewards Scheme.

After signing up and verifying your Katalon account, you will go to the Katalon Platform. Please note again that it has automatically created an organization and the first project for you. Some sample tests and execution data have also been generated and filled in for demonstration purposes.

Right now, I'm viewing the test data and reports for the ''Demo'' project in ''My Organization_01''. You can always create a new project by going to Settings > Project Management and clicking on Create Project.

Before installing Katalon Studio to start creating automated test cases, let's have a quick walkthrough of the Katalon Platform to understand why we call it a center for testing operations and software quality.

On the Dashboard front page, you can view all the high-level information of the project, from test activities, release readiness, test case creation productivity, test quality to requirement and platform coverage.

For Test Planning, you can create releases, add test runs to them, and evaluate the release readiness based on the test execution results. In the Requirements tab, you can also integrate Katalon with Jira and view reports for test coverage and traceability matrix by linking test cases to business requirements. We'll discuss these topics in another course. Let's move on!

In Test Management, you can see all the test assets and artifacts, including test cases, test suites, test objects, and web services. These are stored in the Git repositories which are integrated with the Katalon platform. Particularly in the Test Case tab, you can select a test case and link it to a Jira ticket for test coverage and defect management.

In Configuration, you can integrate Katalon with Git repositories and other platforms. As you can see in the Script repositories, there are already 2 samples which have been integrated for demonstration purposes. Please note that Git integrations are required to use the Katalon Platform. We'll discuss this in detail in the next lesson.

After the Git integration, you can schedule test runs in Test Execution. In Schedule Test Run, you can select an integrated Git repository, what tests, when, and where to run. For the environments, you can choose on-cloud environments using TestCloud, or on-prem environments using Katalon Runtime Engine.

After executing tests, you can go to Reports to view all the centralized test results and analytics for different aspects. We also have a specific section for Visual Testing. Driven by AI, it helps you detect visual bugs with a seamless setup and very minimal false positives.

The last thing we want to mention is the Administration. You can edit the settings for your organizations, teams, and projects. You can also manage the users, licenses, subscriptions, and billings of the Katalon Platform. We'll show you how to invite and manage users across your organization's projects later in the last chapters.

That's it for this lesson. You now get an overview of what the Katalon Platform is all about. It covers every phase in a software testing lifecycle, helping your team to enhance the collaboration on one single platform and ensure the quality of releases.

In the next lesson, we will show you how to install Katalon Studio to start designing automated test cases. Then, later connect those tests to the Katalon Platform to utilize on-cloud resources to escalate your testing efficiency.

Katalon Studio is a core component in the Katalon Platform that is used to create and execute automated tests in your local environment. For many testers and automation practitioners, it's usually a starting point to use Katalon solutions. The reason is that, in the first stage of applying automation to testing projects, these user groups mainly focus on generating automated test scripts.

To install Katalon Studio, there are two ways. From the Katalon Platform, click on the Download button in the top-right corner. Choose your operating system and click Download. Or you can navigate to the URL katalon.com/download and get it from here.

Wait a few seconds for the download to finish. Then, open it. Simple, right?

The Katalon Studio Activation dialog will pop up when you open it for the first time. Simply input your verified Katalon account credentials.

After clicking on Activate, another panel will appear, which is for the Katalon Studio and Platform integration. Simply choose your organization, team, and project on the Katalon Platform to connect. OK. You can always check and configure your Katalon Platform and Studio integration by going the Project > Settings > Katalon TestOps.

After the integration, all the test results executed on your local machine will be channeled back to the platform. Other members can then log in to such platform to view and access the quality of the tests as well as the application under test.

I will quickly choose to create a web testing project. A product-guiding tour pops up. You can take it if you want. We'll skip this for now.

If you want to create another testing project.

- Go to File > New > Project.

- Choose the type of your project

- Fill in other information if you want

- Then, click OK.

If you look into your local machine, you will find a new project file has been created. That's all it takes to install Katalon Studio. Since it's a ready-made framework, you can start using it right away to create and execute automated tests.

Studio is equipped with both low-code and scripting capabilities (using Java and Groovy) for test case creation for web, mobile, API, and desktop testing. It has a significant list of built-in keywords, object repository, and other utilities (like web spy or recorder) to help you create and organize your tests with greatly-reduced maintenance effort.

You can also add customized keywords, use the Test Listener or test hook, and integrate with other tools to expand the capabilities of Katalon Studio.

We will have different courses to help you dive deeper into how to use specific features. Right now, since our focus is understanding the whole Katalon Platform, let's just keep everything at a high level.

That said, I will create and run simple test cases to demonstrate how things work. I'll use the Web Recorder to quickly make two simple tests to verify the Login and Booking-an-appointment functionalities of a sample website.

You can watch our available courses: Record and Playback and Using Built-in Keywords to learn how to use these methods for generating automated tests.

The first Login test case is done. You can see that our actions are captured and converted automatically into scripts. Let's continue with the second one.

Alright, after creating the two test cases, let's put them into a test suite which is used to gather relevant test cases for a particular purpose. Simply drag and drop them in. Now, I'll run this test suite using my local resources to make sure it works fine.

During the runtime, you can keep track of the executed steps in the Log Viewer and Console Log. Both tests passed! Since we have integrated Katalon Studio with the Katalon Platform. The test results are updated there.

In the next chapter, we'll show you how you can leverage the cloud resources of the Katalon Platform to improve your team's collaboration and communication for better testing efficiency.

Hi, welcome and welcome back. In the previous chapter, we installed Katalon Studio, created and executed some tests. At this point, everything happened on your local machine and environment.

In this chapter, we'll perform a simple and typical testing workflow using the whole Katalon Platform to demonstrate the benefits it can offer your team.

The workflow goes like this:

- Testers or automation engineers can use Katalon Studio to create automated tests locally.

- They then upload their newly-created tests to a Git repository which is connected to the Katalon Platform.

- Other team members, like the team lead, can link those Katalon tests to business requirements on Jira and schedule those tests in cloud environments using TestCloud.

- All the test results will then be channeled and centralized in one place where all team members, especially product managers or release managers, can easily get access to and evaluate the software quality.

All of these activities happen in one single platform, hence, enhancing the collaboration and communication within your team.

Following what we have just said, to plan, manage, and execute automated tests created in Katalon Studio on the platform, Git integration is required.

But why is it required?

We believe there has been a common industrial practice to move to the cloud and use Git repositories for software development. It enables businesses and teams to enhance collaboration, move fast, and scale up. Take GitHub as an example, as of June 2022, it is reported having over 83 million users and more than 200 million repositories, including at least 28 million public repositories.

We developed the Katalon Platform to be tightly tied to the software development and testing lifecycle, so Git integration is required.

When teams move to the cloud and integrate their repositories with the Katalon Platform, they can leverage cloud-based resources to optimize and streamline their test project setup, management, and collaboration. No more wasted time and effort spent on setting up local test environments, handling maintenance, or sharing artifacts across different teams.

No worries! The integration is simple. Go to Configurations > Connect Git Repository > Create a new Git repository. Choose the source type, and enter the URL to your existing repository, username, and personal access token. If you've already used a script repo, this should be easy.

In case you've never used it before, no worries; we'll guide you on creating one quickly with Github as an example. After signing up for an account, click on the ''+'' icon in the top-right corner.

There are two types of repositories that you can choose from, which are user-owned and organization-owned. An organization normally includes many repositories with sophisticated security and administrative features.

Let's start with a simple user-owned repository. You can move it to an organization later. More information can be found on GitHub documentation.

Alright, choose the option ''New repository.'' Fill in the name and description. Choose ''private'' and ''Add a README file.'' Then, click on ''Create'' and you get yourself a repository. Very simple, right?

Go back to the platform, and input the required information for the Git integration. For personal access token, you can go to the section ''Upload test scripts from a Git repository'' on Katalon documentation to learn how to get the token for your type of repository.

For Github, click your user profile > setttings > developer settings > personal access token. Let's go for the Classic Tokens option. It provides more high-level permissions than the Fine-grained Token Beta option.

Choose the expiration date and scopes of your token. Then, hit ''Generate". Please note that the token is like your password. Don't give it to others without trust. You can always delete a token before it expires.

Back to the platform, after filling in all the requirements, choose the branch, fill in the description, and click ''Create." The Git integration is done! The new repository will appear in the Script Repository and also the Test Management in the Katalon Platform.

That's it for this chapter. Everything is set! In the next lesson, we'll demonstrate a simple testing workflow within the Platform, from uploading Katalon Studio tests to Git to scheduling test runs on cloud environments and viewing reports. See you.

In the last lesson, we created a new Git repository and integrated it with the Katalon Platform. Now, let's perform a simple testing workflow.

If you already have a Katalon project stored locally, simply upload the file to your repository. If you have already used Git, this should be easy.

In this video, we'll do everything from scratch. So, our repository is currently blank.

Open Katalon Studio. Then, go to Preferences > Katalon > Git. Make sure the Git integration is enabled. You can also go to Team > Git for more advanced configuration.

Now, click on the Git icon on the toolbar and choose Clone project. Then, input the URL to your repository, your username, and the personal access token as password. Save authentication. Click Next.

Select the branch and Next again. Choose the local destination to store the cloned repository. Then Finish.

Now we have connected to the repository. You can see here, we have created a new project locally following the path shown here. If you go to Git, it's still empty. It's because we haven't committed anything yet. Let's create something real quick and upload our project in Katalon Studio to Git.

Alright, I have created some sample tests and executed them successfully. We will upload these tests to our connected Git repo and schedule executions on cloud environments through the Katalon Platform. Click on the Git icon on the toolbar and select Commit. Move all unstaged to staged changes, write the message, and hit Commit and Push.

If you go to your connect Git repository, you will now see all the files - our testing project - have been uploaded. The same thing happens on the Katalon Platform. always hit refresh to get the latest updates from your Git repo. Now, go to Test Management and you can see two new test cases and a test suite have been added.

We can then schedule to run these tests on cloud environments by going to Test Execution > Schedule Test Run. I'll choose the suite we've just uploaded. Turn off the Repeat toggle to run it immediately. For where to run, I'll choose TestCloud and specify the environments. Then, click on Run. A new test run has also been created in the Test Run List tab.

This is one of the ways the Katalon Platform enhances collaboration within a team. Automation engineers can set up Katalon Studio, design tests, and upload them to the Platform. Test leads or managers, or even business people, can then go in, schedule the test runs they want, view the reports, and evaluate the current state of quality.

The communication is also streamlined. The process of sharing reports and other test artifacts used to take a lot of time and effort. Team members had to manually export separate reports and share them with others via email.

Now, test results and analytics are automatically centralized and available in the platform. Depending on the roles, team members simply go to Katalon to get the reports, metrics, or information they need on the Dashboard or Report page.

To invite other users to your organization and projects in the Katalon Platform, they must have Katalon accounts. Make sure you notify them of this. Here's a quick reminder of the steps:

- Go to Katalon dot com

- Click on the ''Get started'' or ''Start free trial'' button or simply navigate to katalon.com/sign-up

- Input your username, email address, and password

- Click ''Start testing''

Remember to verify the account otherwise it will get deleted in a few days.

Then, from your side, go to Settings > User Management > Invite Users. Then, input the users' email addresses who you want to invite. These users will be updated in the Pending Invitations tab.

From the invited users' side, they will receive an invitation link via email. Please note the link will only stay valid for 24 hours. They will then land on to the Katalon Platform, log in if needed, and accept the invitation.

Once you have a list of users joining in your organization, you can assign them to different roles or assign them to different teams and projects.

Please note that an organization in the Katalon Platform can have many teams. One team can do multiple projects within an organization. But one project can be assigned to one team only.

So, to assign a user to an existing project, they must be assigned to the team who handles such project, following the steps:

- Go to Settings > Team Management

- You can go to the Project section to double check which team is doing the project. For example, now I want to add users to the Second Project. I will need to add them to the Second Team.

- Then, choose the team you want > select ''Go to details''

- It will take you to the page where you can manage such team. In this case, it's the Second Team.

- Go to the Users section and add the user you want

That's it. When the user you added goes to the Katalon Platform, they will see the organization as well as the project they are assigned to in the top left corner.

You can further create a new project for this team by going to the Project section and creating a new one. In this case, I will create a Third Project and assign it to the Second Team. Now you can see this team is handling two different projects. You can also go to Settings to update the team's name or delete it. All the changes have been updated here.

One last thing we want to guide you is the exclusive support management for paid Katalon licenses. We have a Support Portal - Katalon Help Center where your team members can raise a ticket and receive dedicated support from our technical team.

Simply go to Settings > Support Management. Please note that the support slots are limited, which equals the number of licenses that you purchased. And the organization owner can assign the slots to the team members within the organization.

Check the available slots and then assign them to the users you want. Once assigned, users of your organization can go to the Katalon Help Center, log in, and raise a ticket for technical questions.

For more instructions on administration in the Katalon Platform, you can go to Katalon Documentation > Administer > then Administration Tasks to view the steps for your needs, for example, how to grant licenses to a user within your organization.

That's all for this getting-started course! To recap, you've learned about:

- The core components of the Katalon Platform

- How to install Katalon Studio, and create your first project

- How to integrate the Katatlon Platform with Git and perform a simple testing workflow

- And finally the steps to invite and manage users within your organization

So, what's next? Set up your first project, install Katalon Studio, and start creating your automated test cases. Remember, when starting with the Platform, you'll have a 30-day trial to use Katalon Studio Enterprise and TestCloud. Make use of this window to explore and evaluate the Katalon Platform.