I’m working on an ASP.NET Core app that targets dnxcore50 and runs great across different operating systems. The problem is when it comes to UI testing. I need a way to test the user interface without opening actual browsers since I want the tests to work on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Has anyone found a good solution for automated UI testing that doesn’t require installing browsers on the server? I’m looking for something similar to what Selenium does but without the browser dependency issues.
I faced a similar challenge while working on my ASP.NET Core application. Utilizing the HtmlAgilityPack alongside integration tests turned out to be an effective approach. This method allows you to invoke the controllers directly, enabling you to parse the HTML responses without needing any browser dependencies. It’s an excellent solution for testing UI structure, form submissions, and even CSS classes. Additionally, I leveraged ASP.NET Core’s TestServer to simulate HTTP requests, ensuring that routing and middleware functionality were thoroughly validated. This strategy provided extensive UI coverage without the complexities associated with browser-based testing.
phantomjs is solid if you’re okay with older tech. it’s fully headless and won’t need any gui dependencies. I’ve run it on ubuntu servers for asp.net core testing without issues. you could also skip the browser entirely - just test your razor views directly with xunit. render them to strings and check the html output.
Try Playwright with headless mode for cross-platform testing. Yeah, it still uses browser engines, but runs completely headless and works without GUI dependencies on Linux servers. The big plus? Playwright bundles its own browser binaries - no need to install browsers system-wide. I’ve deployed this setup on Docker containers across different CI/CD platforms without issues. Another option I’ve used is combining ASP.NET Core’s WebApplicationFactory with AngleSharp for DOM parsing. You get proper integration testing where you can validate rendered HTML structure, JavaScript execution results, and CSS computations - all without installing any browsers. Tests run fast and stay reliable across environments.