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Hassan_Ballan's avatar
Hassan_Ballan
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4 months ago
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SaaS Platforms Like Salesforce – Automation: Feasible or Futile?

I recently had a conversation with a company evaluating QA options for their Salesforce-based SaaS platform. When I brought up automation, they said:
“We decided not to consider automation — Salesforce uses dynamic IDs and it's impossible to automate.”

That response struck a chord with me. In my experience, automation is absolutely possible; challenging, yes, but far from impossible. I've led a long-term Salesforce automation project using TestComplete, and while it’s not plug-and-play, a well-structured framework can make it work reliably.

That said, Salesforce isn't the only platform that gets labeled “too hard” to automate. I've heard similar concerns about other complex SaaS applications; where dynamic elements, complex DOMs, and frequent UI changes can make test automation feel like a losing battle.

I'm curious to compare notes and learn from others in the community:

  • Have you successfully (or unsuccessfully) tried automating SaaS platforms like Salesforce?
  • What were your biggest blockers?
  • What strategies, or design patterns worked for you?
  • Are there SaaS platforms you consider not worth automating?
  • Any lessons or hard-won insights you’d share?

Would love to hear how others are approaching (or avoiding) automation for these types of platforms.

Looking forward to a lively exchange.

web testing

2 Replies

  • mortenb123's avatar
    mortenb123
    Contributor
    4 months ago

    The main problem is their html/javascript attributes used dymanic uuids, so from one release to the next everything changes. This is also why playwright moves away from XPATH and CSS locators to using more role locators matched by text.

    We have automation towards authentication services which generates new DOM on demand. It is some work every time they changes their layout. But it is doable. 

    But salesforce has tons of apis you can rather use. You update like a customer profile and verify the changes via api.

    I've been undetected cromedriver mode for recapcha: https://github.com/seleniumbase/SeleniumBase/blob/master/help_docs/uc_mode.md

  • Hassan_Ballan's avatar
    Hassan_Ballan
    Icon for Champion Level 3 rankChampion Level 3
    4 months ago

    Drawing from my experience, I put together a more in-depth look at how I successfully scaled Salesforce test automation using TestComplete 👉 Pro Tips from the SmartBear Community: Scaling Salesforce Testing with TestComplete

    It expands on the mentioned challenges, and covers the framework, strategies, and lessons learned throughout the journey.

    Hope it’s helpful to anyone navigating automation for complex SaaS platforms like Salesforce.