Reports & Diagnostics

Report types

OrbitTest writes human-readable HTML, machine-readable JSON, and CI-friendly JUnit. The HTML report is for debugging. JSON is for custom tooling. JUnit is for CI test result integration.

Evidence artifacts

Screenshots, traces, console errors, failed requests, slow network calls, and page state make failures actionable. Evidence should answer what the test did, what the page showed, and what the browser reported.

Smart Report

Smart Report is most useful on failures. It collects browser evidence that often explains issues without requiring a manual rerun: JavaScript exceptions, console errors, failed requests, and navigation state.

Practical checklist

• Keep the workflow readable enough that a QA engineer, developer, or product teammate can understand the intent without opening application source code.
• Prefer user-visible names, stable configuration, and clear evidence over hidden assumptions or brittle implementation details.
• Run the smallest useful check locally before adding it to CI, then verify that failures produce screenshots, logs, traces, or reports that explain what happened.
• Review this part of the suite regularly so outdated examples, stale setup, and obsolete workarounds do not reduce trust in the automation.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Do not add automation only to increase test count. Each page and test should protect a clear user journey, release risk, or debugging need.
• Do not hide important behavior inside helpers so deeply that the test no longer explains what the user is doing.
• Do not rely on fixed sleeps when the application can expose a meaningful ready state such as visible text, URL change, element availability, or completed evidence capture.
• Do not ignore failing artifacts. A report, screenshot, trace, or log entry should feed back into better product code, better waits, or clearer test data setup.