Windmill is an open-source framework for automated testing of dynamic Web apps, which originated at the Open Source Applications Foundation.

The Windmill team recently released version 0.8.2, with some great new features:

• Integrated Firebug Lite support
• wxWindmill contrib application
• Enhanced ‘smart’ recorder
• Auto element-scroll-into-view to simulate actual use more closely

The core team is hard at work on more new-feature goodness, as well as relentlessly squashing bugs as they crop up. You can usually find them in IRC (#windmill on Freenode.net), or follow their progress on the developer mailing list. They recently migrated to brand-new infrastructure and a shiny new Web site.

Check out their introductory screencast to see the newest Windmill release in action.

There’s also a Windmill Book that provides step-by-step instructions on how to get started. Windmill has a cross-platform recorder that will allow you to record and play back tests. Tests can be written in JSON, Python, or JavaScript.

Written By:

Matthew Eernisse

Matthew lives in Houston, Texas, USA, and works for the Open Source Applications Foundation building the web UIs for Scooby, a next-generation web-based calendar client, and Cosmo, a calendar server. In his abundant free time, he writes about AJAX, JavaScript, Ruby, and PHP at Fleegix.org, and operates EpiphanyRadio, a webcast radio station. Matthew plays drums and speaks fluent Japanese.