Tags make it easy to keep your test suite in order. With tags, you can quickly locate a subgroup of traces and run it in one click. Also, you can keep track of bugs, flaky traces and different versions with ease. Many tags can be given to a trace to group it in multiple ways.

As an example use case, you can make a tag for traces that test a core feature of your application (e.g. shopping cart). With the tag, you can instantly find all traces related to the feature and run them at once. Thus, you know the feature works and can spend your time on further development.

In the following, you’ll find how to:

To tag multiple traces, navigate to All Traces and check the traces you want to tag. Next, type a tag in the text field at bottom of the screen and press enter (or select a default tag).

There are two ways to tag an individual trace. 1) Go to All Traces and click “Select tag” next to the trace’s name. Type in a tag and press enter (or select a default tag). 2) Go to the Editor and click “Select tag” in the upper-left corner. Type in a tag and press enter (or select a default tag).

To run all traces which have a specific tag, navigate to All Traces, type the tag in the “Filter by tags” field and press enter. Click “Run traces” at the bottom of the screen.

Usetrace has default tags to help group traces in a useful way. The four default tags are bug, smoke, regression, and flaky.

Bug: Use this tag for a trace which has failed and exposed a bug in the tested application. By searching for traces with the bug tag, you’ll find all bugs that need to be fixed in one simple location. With the bug tag, you can also keep track of the number of bugs as shown on the Dashboard.

Smoke: Use this tag for a small trace set of basic functions (e.g. signup, login) that you can run frequently, such as every time a change is made to the tested application. Running the traces with the smoke tag will quickly tell you whether core features work after an update.

Regression: Use this tag for a large trace set of existing features that you can run once all traces with the smoke tag have passed. By running traces with the regression tag, you’ll know whether everything in the application works for users after an update.

Flaky: Use this tag for a trace that sometimes fails, sometimes passes. With the flaky tag, you’ll see which traces are unreliable and need to be fixed or which functions in the tested application may have bugs. Once a bug fix is ready, a trace with the flaky tag can be run multiple times to see whether it has become stable. If so, you can change the flaky tag for a regression tag. Note: a trace with the flaky tag should generally not have a smoke or regression tag so as not to make smoke and regression tests unreliable.