Over the years, Selenium has gained recognition as an efficient web automation testing tool across organizations globally. Its popularity lies not only in being an open-source tool but also in supporting various browsers, operating systems and relevant platforms to conduct testing activities rewardingly.
Through the implementation of the selenium tool, software development methodologies can be worked out in shorter time frames and also bug-free releases can happen at a rapid pace.
The latest version of Selenium has taken the testing activities to an all-new level with exciting and key features that can actually improvise, streamline and gradually improve the quality of the testing processes.
High-quality web applications can be expected through the application of the selenium automation tool. Another great aspect of this tool is that there is no licensing cost involved. This article provides a detailed guide on the selenium automation tool.
What is selenium?
It is an open-source web automation testing tool through which web applications are validated across different platforms and browsers. It supports popular programming languages such as Python, Perl, Ruby, C#, Java etc., in order to create selenium test scripts. When a selenium automation tool is used for the purpose of carrying out testing activities, then this entire activity is referred to as “selenium testing.”
How Selenium works?
Selenium works based on a client-server architecture. There are four important factors in particular that actually make the selenium automation tool work. Following are those four factors:
1. Selenium Client Library: It acts as a client and the capability of multi-language support is facilitated. Testers can choose the language based on their comfort level and initiate writing automation scripts. When the script code is written in IDE by using any one language such as JavaScript, Ruby, Python, C#, Java etc., then the script needs to be sent to the JSON Wire protocol through the API platform.
2. JSON Wire Protocol: It acts as a connector so that the communication is facilitated between client and server smoothly in order to clearly understand each other’s requirements. By using the web platform, data is transferred between client and server. Whenever scripts are written in the IDE (POST/GET), JSON will act as a connector between client and server.
3. Browser Driver: The real browser interacts with the browser driver in order to deliver automation script instructions to the real browser so that it can be transformed into an action.
4. Real browser: It is all about selenium supporting browsers such as Firefox, Explorer, Chrome, Safari and edge for carrying out the testing activities productively.
Different versions of Selenium:
1. Version 1: It was released into the market in 2006. It comprises selenium IDE (Integrated Development Environment), selenium RC (Remote Control) and selenium grid.
2. Version 2: It was released into the market in 2011. It comprises selenium IDE, selenium webdriver 2.x, selenium RC and selenium grid.
3. Version 3: It was released into the market in 2016. It comprises selenium IDE, selenium webdriver 3.x and selenium grid. The support for all selenium RC scripts has been removed in this version.
4. Version 4: Selenium 4 is the latest version and has been launched into the market in 2020. It has a lot of key features that are in line with the current testing scenario such as enhanced selenium grid architecture, high-end selenium IDE, relative locators etc. It follows the W3C standard protocol. It has replaced OpenTracing with OpenTelemetry. The same HTTP client is re-used instead of creating a client per session.
Selenium automation framework:
What is selenium framework?
The objective of the selenium framework is to reduce code maintenance, reuse the code and also help and provide the required support to multiple users so that they can work on the same piece of the program.
The need for using selenium framework:
- Code reuse can be scaled up
- Higher code readability
- Code maintenance is simplified
- Script maintenance cost and tests’ time execution is reduced
- Providing an easy and in-depth reporting format.
Following are the three important types of selenium automation framework:
1. Data Driven Framework: It is a method where data sets are separated from the test case. When there is a separation of data sets from the test case, a specific functionality can be easily modified without changing the code. Test cases and suites are fetched from external files such as .xml, .csv, .xls and some specific data tables.
2. Keyword Driven Framework: In this method, the automation testing speed is increased in order to separate keywords for a common set of instructions and functions. All the instructions and operations that need to be performed are written in an external file such as an excel sheet. Those functionalities that users want to test are easily specified and controlled.
3. Hybrid Framework: In this framework, both data driven framework and keyword driven framework are leveraged. Test cases can be created by manual testers by just looking at the object repository, test data and keywords without coding in the framework.
The role of automation testing:
The application of automated testing can increase the scope and depth of tests in order to improve the quality of software applications. Through automation testing, the internal program states, file contents, data tables and memory contents of an application can be studied and analyzed in order to ascertain if the product is behaving as expected. A huge number of various complex test cases can be easily executed during every test run through the implementation of test automation, thereby providing test coverage that is not at all possible with the platform of manual testing.
During the process of software development life cycle, software tests have to be repeated in order to ensure quality. Whenever modification of source code takes place, software tests should be repeated. Whenever software is being released, it has to be tested on different hardware configurations and operating systems. To carry out these tasks manually, a huge amount of time will be consumed and it will prove to be costly. When it comes to automated tests, once it is created, it can be run over and over again at a much faster pace without any additional costs involved.
Conclusion: If you are looking forward to implementing selenium testing for your software development project, then do visit online a globally acclaimed test automation company that will provide you a viable testing strategy that will hugely benefit your project-specific needs.