New IDE for automating tests, Aqua, from JetBrains

Published on Nov 28, 2022

JetBrains Aqua, now in preview, is a new integrated development environment (IDE) that focuses on test automation and integrates a wide range of tools critical to an automation engineer’s daily routine, according to JetBrains. Among its features are multi-language support, an HTTP client and a Web inspector, database management, and Docker integration.

Multi-language support in Aqua is provided by JetBrains’ language-aware code completion, inspection, and refactoring technology.
Aqua also supports many common unit test frameworks, including JUnit, TestNG, Pytest, Jest, Mocha, and others. With Aqua, you can write, run, and debug your unit tests as well as review test results and jump from the results window to the test definitions. In addition to test statistics, Aqua also provides code coverage analysis.

Apart from unit testing, Aqua also supports UI tests on both the JVM stack and the Web. In addition, Selenium API and Selenide for CSS, XPath, and JavaScript are supported. JetBrains intends to add support for Cypress and Playwright to Aqua in a future version. Additionally, Aqua includes an integrated Web inspector that can generate unique CSS or XPath locators for page elements. Moreover, the Web inspector provides suggestions and highlights for the most important elements on the page.

Aqua includes a built-in HTTP client that can be used to create and edit HTTP requests and provide code completion, highlighting, and refactoring capabilities. API discovery is enabled through the integration of the tool with OpenAPI.

Aqua supports all major databases, including Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and others, and can be accessed directly from the IDE to run queries, export data, and manage schemas. Furthermore, you may be able to develop SQL scripts and verify application data using low-level data assertions.

Aqua supports connecting to external test management systems (TMS), such as TestRail and the Allure Framework, which can be used to annotate tests, link them to reporting tools, and track issues.
Aqua offers a “Local TMS” feature for smaller projects, which allows test data to be stored and managed locally.