Introduction to Step 27
We’re thrilled to introduce Step 27, a release filled with powerful enhancements and new features. Among the highlights are a complete redesign of the execution view as well as new dedicated reporting view for schedules, improved agent image customization and Automation Packages features.
Explore the details below to discover the highlights of the release. For an exhaustive list of the changes, check out the release notes.
New Execution Reporting
Say hello to next-generation reporting! The execution view has been completely redesigned, offering a powerful and scalable interface for analyzing and exploring execution results with new insights, optimized performance and advanced filtering and drill-down features. Designed to support functional testing, load testing, synthetic monitoring, and RPA, this update available as beta is just the first step toward fully customizable reporting — stay tuned for more!
Key features
- Report overview presents a structured, single-page summary of execution results, featuring individual panels for test case summaries, error insights, performance metrics, and more—offering key information at a glance.
- Aggregated report shows detailed, aggregated and comprehensive results following the execution workflow as designed in your plan.
- Time-series based enhance reporting performance and capabilities
- Time based filters to tailor the whole report for specific time ranges
- Drill-down capabilities to show for instance results for a specific test case of a specific iteration
How it works
The beta reporting is enabled by default, simply execute any of your plan or checkout the execution reporting page and schedule executions reporting for schedules for more details.
New Schedule Reporting
A major enhancement for synthetic monitoring and recurring automation workflows, the new Schedule Execution Report introduces cross-execution analysis, allowing you to track and compare scheduled executions over time.
Key features
- Dedicated schedule report view provides a historical perspective on execution trends.
- Cross-execution analysis helps identify patterns, anomalies, and trends across multiple scheduled runs.
- Time-based visualization enables deeper insights into execution stability and performance fluctuations.
This is just the beginning—expect more enhancements in future releases!
How it works
You can access the schedule report from either the schedule or monitoring views:
Agent image customization
Step 27 simplify the use of custom docker images for executing your automation code on your own docker image, limiting the requirement to a Java runtime environment.
Key features
- Custom agent docker image supported for all kubernetes setups using permanent agents and agents auto provisioning
- Minimal requirement: only a Java runtime (11, 17 or 21) is required; the agent binary must not be included anymore
- Support for all Step agent types: Default (Java, Cypress, Selenium, Playwright, etc.), .NET, Node.js
How it works
For agent auto provisioning. specify the required agents in the Plan editor or directly in your YAML Plan:
For permanent agents configuration in Kubernetes, you can simply modify the agent images in your values file
Automation Packages
The latest release enhances Automation Packages with multi versions support as well as JUnit XML report generation for better integration with CI/CD workflows.
Key features
- Multi-version support: Deploy multiple versions of the same Automation Package and control which to use with activation expressions.
- JUnit XML reporting: Generate GitLab-compatible JUnit XML reports for isolated executions using the Maven plugin or Step CLI.
How it works
Once integrated with your gitlab pipeline, you can find your results for each pipeline executions in the test section:
Plan design and control flow
This release brings major Plan Design & Control Flow improvements, enhanced initialization and clean up hooks available for all nodes of the plan.
Key Features
- Unified Before/After sections: Replace legacy controls with initialization and cleanup sections for all plan controls.
- Improved PerformanceAssert placement: Must now be defined in the After section for better clarity.
- Drag-and-drop plan building: Easily add controls, keywords, and plans with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
How it works
Simply select a node in the plan to highlight the available sections, or use the new drag and drop feature from the components panel to directly place a new component at the right location.
