---
title: 'An alternative to mabl''s low-code automation framework: TestingBot'
description: Convert Mabl tests to be used with TestingBot's cloud-based browser grid.
  Improve performance, test coverage and reliability.
source_url:
  html: https://testingbot.com/resources/articles/mabl-alternative-testingbot
  md: https://testingbot.com/resources/articles/mabl-alternative-testingbot.md
---

![An alternative to mabl's low-code automation framework: TestingBot](https://testingbot.com/assets/resources/articles/41.webp)

# Learn how to export mabl tests to TestingBot

Convert Mabl tests to be used with TestingBot's cloud-based browser grid. Improve performance, test coverage and reliability.

By [Jochen D.](https://testingbot.com/about/jochen-d)2024-08-12

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Mabl is a test automation platform that offers a low-code interface for anyone to create and run automated browser and mobile tests. Mabl uses AI-powered test automation to handle dynamic content and UI changes more gracefully.

Once signed up through Mabl, you can download a standalone application to record and run tests. There is a UI tool called mabl Trainer that allows you to record tests.

Compared to TestingBot, Mabl has a more limited browser and device coverage. It uses a Proprietary Testing Framework, while TestingBot supports open-source frameworks such as Selenium, Appium, Playwright and [other test frameworks](https://testingbot.com/support).

In this article, we'll go over the techniques you can use to transition from running tests on mabl to using TestingBot's extensive browser and device grid.

- [Converting Mabl tests to Playwright](https://testingbot.com#playwright)
- [Converting Mabl tests to Side](https://testingbot.com#side)
- [A great Mabl alternative: TestingBot](https://testingbot.com#alternative)

## Converting Mabl tests to Playwright

Mabl provides a `mabl` CLI utility which you can install to interact with the Mabl framework through commandline. This CLI utility provides functionality to exports tests in various formats, including as a Playwright test or in [.SIDE](https://testingbot.com#side) format (Selenium IDE).

To convert a Mabl test to Playwright, you can follow the steps below:

1. Install The Mabl CLI: `npm i -g @mablhq/mabl-cli`

2. Log into the The Mabl CLI: `mabl auth login`

3. Now you can fetch a list of tests that are available to export: `mabl tests list`

4. For each test, fetch its `id` and pass it to the export command: `mabl tests export --format playwright {id}`. For example, if there's a test `WfoA52mEnMoBVz9JoPHACA-j`, the command to export would be `mabl tests export --format playwright WfoA52mEnMoBVz9JoPHACA-j`

5. A new `.spec.ts` file will be generated with the converted mabl code to Playwright code.

You can now use these new `.spec.ts` files with [playwright-test](https://testingbot.com/support/web-automate/playwright/playwright-test) and TestingBot.

Create a file called `playwright.config.js` with the following contents:

```javascript
import { defineConfig } from '@playwright/test'
import { getConnectWsEndpoint } from './testingbot.config'

/**
 * See https://playwright.dev/docs/test-configuration.
 */
export default defineConfig({

  testDir: './tests',

  /* Maximum time one test can run for. */
  timeout: 30 * 1000,

  /* Fail the build on CI if you accidentally left test.only in the source code. */
  forbidOnly: !!process.env.CI,

  /* Retry on CI only */
  retries: process.env.CI ? 2 : 0,

  /* Opt out of parallel tests on CI. */
  workers: process.env.CI ? 1 : undefined,

  /* Reporter to use. See https://playwright.dev/docs/test-reporters */
  reporter: 'html',

  /* Shared settings for all the projects below. See https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-testoptions. */
  use: {
    /* Base URL to use in actions like `await page.goto('/')`. */
    // baseURL: 'http://localhost:3000',

    /* Collect trace when retrying the failed test. See https://playwright.dev/docs/trace-viewer */
    trace: 'on-first-retry',
  },

  projects: [
    {
      name: 'playwright-chrome@latest:Windows 10',
      use: {
        connectOptions: { 
          wsEndpoint: getConnectWsEndpoint({
            browserName: 'chrome',
            browserVersion: 'latest',
            platform: 'WIN10'
          }) 
        }
      },
    },
    {
      name: 'playwright-firefox@latest:Linux',
      use: {
        connectOptions: { 
          wsEndpoint: getConnectWsEndpoint({
            browserName: 'firefox',
            browserVersion: 'latest',
            platform: 'LINUX'
          }) 
        }
      }
    }
  ]
})
```

You will also need to create a `testingbot.config.js` file, which will contain code to connect to our Playwright server:

```javascript
export function getConnectWsEndpoint(userCapabilities) {
    const defaultCapabilities = {
        'tb:options': {
            key: process.env.TB_KEY,
            secret: process.env.TB_SECRET
        }
    }
    const capabilities = { ...defaultCapabilities, ...userCapabilities }
    const connectUrl = `wss://cloud.testingbot.com/playwright?capabilities=${encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify(capabilities))}`
    return connectUrl
}
```

You can now move all generated `.spec.ts` files to a new directory called `tests`.

Finally, you can run the exported mabl tests on TestingBot:

```bash
TB_KEY=.. TB_SECRET=.. npx playwright test
```

## Converting Mabl tests to Side

Similar to [converting mabl tests to Playwright](https://testingbot.com#playwright), it is also possible to convert mabl tests to `.side` files, which are used by Selenium IDE.   
 Selenium IDE is an open-source browser extension that allows you to record your actions in a browser, add assertions and run these as tests at a later stage with Selenium.

Selenium is a popular, open-source test framework that supports running automated browser tests on a wide variety of browsers. By using Selenium in combination with Selenium Grid, you can run tests simultaneously across various browser configurations (browser name + browser version + operating system). TestingBot offers a cloud-based Selenium grid that allows you to run Selenium tests in parallel, on a [wide number of browsers and devices](https://testingbot.com/support/web-automate/browsers).

To convert mabl tests to `.side` formatted files, please follow these steps:

1. Install The Mabl CLI: `npm i -g @mablhq/mabl-cli`

2. Log into the The Mabl CLI: `mabl auth login`

3. Now you can fetch a list of tests that are available to export to Selenium IDE format: `mabl tests list`

4. For each test, fetch their `id` and pass it to the export command: `mabl tests export --format side {id}`. For example, if there's a test `WfoA52mEnMoBVz9JoPHACA-j`, the command to export would be `mabl tests export --format side WfoA52mEnMoBVz9JoPHACA-j`

5. A new `.side` file will be generated with the converted mabl code to Selenium IDE code.

For each of these new `.side` files, you can choose to import these in your Selenium IDE extension or you can [upload these to TestingBot's Codeless Automation](https://testingbot.com/support/web-automate/codeless-automation/add-test) feature. TestingBot's codeless automation will run your Selenium IDE tests at the interval you specify, on various browsers. For each test run, you will get back the result, a video, screenshots and log files generated during the test. You can [receive alerts when a test fails](https://testingbot.com/support/web-automate/codeless-automation/alerts), through SMS, e-mail and Slack hooks.

> TestingBot currently does not support `controls` or `if/else` commands in Codeless Automation. The generated SIDE files might contain this, so please make sure to refactor/remove these if necessary.

## A great Mabl alternative: TestingBot

TestingBot offers a great alternative to using Mabl for automated browser testing. Here are some of the reasons why you might want to switch from Mabl to TestingBot:

- TestingBot offers better pricing for automated tests.
- Mabl's low-code test creation can be exchanged with Selenium IDE test recording and [TestingBot's Codeless Automation](https://testingbot.com/features/ai-testing).
- Run tests on physical mobile devices, not using Mabl's Chrome Mobile Emulation.
- Run tests on different operating systems, multiple browser versions and beta/dev versions.
- Auto-healing tests is a hyped topic and does rarely work acurrately.

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