For organisations to compete in the modern business market and achieve customer expectations, testing is a crucial component of the digital transformation that is taking place today. Automation Testing has evolved into one of the software testing methodologies that has made testing simpler and easier for testing teams thanks to test automation technologies.
Professionals dissatisfied with the conventional methods of manually testing their software can use technologies like Selenium to automate tried-and-true QA testing approaches for validating their apps. If you’re new to Selenium and need convincing arguments for why businesses should transition to automation testing, this article has all the information you need right now.
Due to the abundance of options available when testing software, you might need to remember to include Selenium on your list of the best tools for testing mobile apps. You will find all the information you need in this post, including the prerequisites to begin automating Selenium testing.
Table of Contents
Understanding Selenium
Selenium is an open-source software suite that provides a set of tools and libraries for automating web browsers. It enables programmers and testers to create scripts or code that interacts with online components, executes commands, and checks the functionality of web applications.
Selenium has applications outside functional testing; these include web scraping, regression testing, and performance testing. Users may implement Selenium into their current testing ecosystems because of how effectively it connects with other testing frameworks and tools.
Selenium is an open-source project, and it has a sizable and vibrant community that supports it, contributes to its development, and exchanges resources. It has become a popular alternative for automating web application testing thanks to this community-driven strategy, enabling quicker and more effective testing procedures.
Selenium Automation Testing: An Overview
Selenium automation testing is a well-liked framework for automating web applications. To save time and effort on routine manual testing tasks, it offers a set of tools and libraries that testers can use to automate the execution of tests on web browsers.
At its core, Selenium is an open-source software suite comprising several components. The most popular one is Selenium WebDriver, which provides a programming interface for interacting with web elements, performing actions like clicking buttons, filling forms, and verifying page content. Testers can write tests in their preferred language thanks to WebDriver’s support for a variety of programming languages, including Java, Python, C#, and Ruby.
Selenium’s architecture follows a client-server model, where the WebDriver acts as a client that sends commands to a browser driver, which controls the browser and executes the desired actions. This architecture makes Selenium compatible with a wide range of browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer.
Best Practices For Selenium Automation Testing
Selenium is an indispensable tool for web application testing because it is a commonly used open-source framework for automating web browsers. It’s crucial to adhere to recommended practices for Selenium automation testing to ensure effectiveness and efficiency. Here are some essential rules:
1. Use a Reliable Test Framework
To structure and arrange your Selenium tests, pick a trustworthy test framework like TestNG or JUnit. You may efficiently develop and run tests by using a strong test framework, which offers crucial features like test dependency management, test parallelization, and reporting capabilities.
2. Use a Page Object Model (POM)
Use the Page Object Model design to make your Selenium tests easier to maintain and reuse. POM separates from the underlying page structure the test logic, making updates and revisions simpler. Your application’s pages should each have a corresponding page object that encapsulates the page’s interactions and components.
3. Use Explicit Waits
Explicit waits are essential for keeping your tests in sync with the application’s actions. You can tell Selenium to wait for particular circumstances before moving on to the next phase by using explicit waits. By using this method, you may ensure that the items you need to interact with are available, visible, or in the desired condition before taking any action.
4. Implement Test Data Management
Maintaining test integrity and repeatability requires effective test data management. Use data-driven methods to handle various test scenarios and keep your test data and scripts separate. It is simple to maintain and reuse test data when it is externalized into independent files or databases.
5. Perform Cross-browser Testing
It is necessary to ensure compatibility with your web application because Selenium supports a variety of browsers. To confirm that your application works properly in diverse situations, set up your tests to run on numerous browser setups, such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
5. Utilize Parallel Execution
Selenium tests can take a long time to run, particularly when working with big test suites. Utilize the test framework’s parallel execution features to execute tests simultaneously on many threads or machines. This greatly shortens the total execution time and enables feedback on test findings to be given more quickly.
6. Implement Logging and Reporting
Include tools for logging and reporting in your Selenium tests to gather thorough data on test execution. Comprehensive reports give insight into test coverage, success rates, and trends while logging aids in diagnosing and debugging test failures. Making relevant reports is made easier with the help of programs like ExtentReports and TestNG reports.
7. Maintain Test Stability
Maintain the stability and dependability of your tests by using adequate synchronization, distinct and trustworthy locators, and suitable handling of dynamic aspects. Hardcoded waits should not be used because they can cause tests to fail. Review and update your test scripts frequently to reflect changes to the application.
8. Continuous Refactoring and Optimization
Refactor your test scripts frequently to make the code easier to read and manage. Follow best coding practices, reduce code duplication, and make your code more modular. This method reduces the amount of work necessary for test maintenance and makes it simpler for team members to work together.
9. Integrate with Continuous Integration (CI)
For smooth and automated test execution, integrate your Selenium tests with a CI platform like Jenkins or TeamCity. This guarantees that tests are launched immediately in response to code modifications, giving quick feedback on the functionality and stability of the program.
Getting Started with Selenium Automation Testing
Testers can automate web browsers on various platforms with the help of the robust and cost-free Selenium automation framework. It has many features, including support for multiple languages, cross-browser compatibility, and simple integration with various testing frameworks.
You may save testing time, increase test coverage, and boost the general quality of your online applications by utilizing Selenium automation testing. Let’s plunge in and explore the fascinating Selenium automated testing realm!
Setting Up Java
- Java Development Kit (JDK) installation is necessary for Eclipse IDE to function on your computer. Therefore, before using the Eclipse IDE, it must be installed and configured. By going to the Java Downloads website, you can download JDK.
- Download the JDK file for your computer’s operating system. Make sure to configure the environment variables after installing Java. By entering the following command into the command prompt along with Java -version, you can determine whether the installation process was successful.
- The Eclipse IDE must be downloaded from the Eclipse IDE for the Java developers page after the JDK has been successfully installed and set up on your PC.
- After downloading the zip file to the place where you want to begin the IDE, extract it there. The “eclipse.exe” file in the Eclipse folder can be opened by simply double-clicking it.
Setting up the Selenium Library
The Java Client Driver for Selenium will now be downloaded. The official page of the Selenium website offers a download for this.
Setting in a Browser Driver
You must now download the browser drivers to instantiate the browser.
- Go to the Browsers area of the Selenium website to obtain drivers for additional browsers.
- The executable path of a given browser must be specified specifically to launch it. When you’re done, create the driver instance, then carry on with the code execution.
This is a challenging operation because we have to perform these steps for every version upgrade. The “WebDriverManager” class from Selenium can be helpful in this circumstance. To execute Selenium automated testing, you can download the driver’s binary file (or.exe files) using WebDriverManager.
Run Selenium Test on Cloud Selenium Grid
We must be certain that we have a parallel testing method as the complexity of our application rises. Running several tests simultaneously allows them to be completed more quickly. Your tests will complete more quickly the more evenly dispersed they are among several machines.
The Selenium Grid enables parallel execution by directing commands from a hub server to distant Web Browser instances. Thanks to the Grid, you can test your website using many browsers and operating systems. However, running the Selenium test on several OS and browser combinations is a more realistic scenario.
LambdaTest is a unified intelligent cloud-based digital experience testing platform that offers a Selenium Grid that enables developers and testers to conduct concurrent tests across over 3000+ distinct browsers and operating systems, as opposed to depending on local Selenium. With LambdaTest Selenium Grid, you can effortlessly distribute your Selenium tests across a scalable cloud infrastructure, running them in parallel across multiple browsers, versions, and operating systems.
Conclusion
In conclusion, software testers can use Selenium Automation Testing as a strong tool to verify the dependability and quality of web applications. This starting guide has given a thorough explanation of Selenium, its elements, and important ideas. Users may easily generate test scripts and run automated tests by following step-by-step instructions.
Selenium is a great option for automated web application testing due to its adaptability, cross-browser interoperability, and support for many programming languages. Selenium gives testers the power to find bugs early, increase test coverage, and improve the overall quality of software. Thus, through continuous integration and sophisticated reporting features. Testers may speed up their testing procedures, minimize human labor, and provide end users with high-quality web apps by understanding Selenium automation testing.
