Helium
Dev tools
web automation library
SHOW HN2013
48points
65comments
#526of 1,739 in 2013
Top 31%of 2013 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
3 positive, 18 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 6 critical, out of 28 comments about the project. Thread score -0.14.
Pricing: 1 for, 5 againstIdea: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Interesting and clean approach to simplifying Selenium
From 2 comments
Hey, looks nice. Wonder how lib is detecting inputs by "user-visible labels". Looks by html structure, or uses some "magic" methods?
lfx on HNthis seems an iteresting project...how does the click() function work? Is it possible to automate other actions beside the ones in the example?
Taurenking on HN
Objections
Per-machine licensing is impractical for developers working across multiple machines
From 1 comment
First of all let me say that I have no problem with paying for software, even closed source or otherwise. I already pay a chunk of personal money for JetBrains tools and stuff…
teh_klev on HN
Pricing is too high and subscription model is unappealing
From 1 comment
I hope you succeed with your project, but sorry, I feel that your pricing is batshit insane, pardon my French. $200 per year subscription for 1 machine for the basic license with…
oblio on HN
Closed source development tool is unfavourable on HN
From 2 comments
Closed source development tools with a EULA? What is this? 1995?
mapleoin on HN@mherrmann - There are various ways you could monetize Helium and be open source - here are a few ideas. All of them assume that you will be open sourcing your code. The reason…
adambenayoun on HN
Requests
Open source the code
From 2 comments
@mherrmann - There are various ways you could monetize Helium and be open source - here are a few ideas. All of them assume that you will be open sourcing your code. The reason…
adambenayoun on HNI read through the comments and see you are catching a lot of flack for being closed source and daring to charge. My advice, do what you think makes sense for your company. You…
Edmond on HN
Floating licenses not tied to one machine
From 1 comment
First of all let me say that I have no problem with paying for software, even closed source or otherwise. I already pay a chunk of personal money for JetBrains tools and stuff…
teh_klev on HN
Support CSS selectors as fallback
From 1 comment
I would suggest also allowing CSS selectors as a fallback. Text changes often whereas a selector will change less often, producing a more reliable point of interaction. I would…
briancray on HN
Questions
How does it locate elements by visible labels
From 1 comment
Hey, looks nice. Wonder how lib is detecting inputs by "user-visible labels". Looks by html structure, or uses some "magic" methods?
lfx on HN
What does it offer beyond Selenium or Capybara
From 3 comments
A question (not meant facetiously) but what's the benefit of this over say, Capybara/webrat, which already has the click and fill_in human readable methods? The block of example…
hipsters_unite on HNTrying to figure out what this gives me that Selenium doesn't? If I already have a large code base using Selenium why should I switch?
devspade on HNHi, I like the idea and I used watir [0] in the best to do a lot of automation but I fail to see what's different with Helium. Can you please tell me what are the differences…
duked on HN
Alternatives named
Capybara
From 2 comments
A question (not meant facetiously) but what's the benefit of this over say, Capybara/webrat, which already has the click and fill_in human readable methods? The block of example…
hipsters_unite on HNI'd be curious to hear which other open source frameworks "do the exact same thing". I spent hours compiling a list of competition products, and none can really offer an approach…
mherrmann on HN
CasperJS
From 1 comment
Using CasperJS, you get more or less the same. http://docs.casperjs.org/en/latest/modules/casper.html#clicklabel
egeozcan on HN
Watir
From 1 comment
Hi, I like the idea and I used watir [0] in the best to do a lot of automation but I fail to see what's different with Helium. Can you please tell me what are the differences…
duked on HN