Selenium is the most commonly known name for automation testing tools. It has been a widely accepted and favored tool by testers and developers. There are many Selenium-based automation testing tools on the market, but Selenium remains at the top for several reasons.
In this article, we will understand some basics before we move ahead with the reasons why Selenium WebDriver is more relevant for automation testing in the coming year, 2023. So let’s first start with what Selenium is.
Selenium
Selenium is a powerful set of tools that can help quickly develop automated tests for web applications. It offers a variety of testing functions designed specifically for testing web applications. These reliable functions make it easy to position UI elements and compare expected outcomes against actual application behavior.
Selenium uses various scripting languages, like Python, Java, C#, etc., to facilitate test automation. It allows the testers to write automated tests in any language they are familiar with. Automating repeated test cases using the Selenium system can help speed up the process of creating test cycles while reducing buggy releases. Selenium can ensure stable, bug-free release deployments when combined with a Continuous Integration or Continuous Delivery pipeline.
Selenium is an automated testing tool that is functional for all major browsers and operating systems. It is the most commonly chosen technology for automating functional regression and creating and managing automated test suites.
Selenium Toolset
Selenium is one of the most popular open-source, cross-browser automation testing frameworks among testers around the world. This framework is widely used for automating tests on different web browsers. As mentioned earlier, Selenium is not a single tool but has a wide range of tools that cater to different organizations’ needs to facilitate the testing process. Following are the different components of Selenium.
Selenium Integrated Development Environment ( IDE )
The IDE is a Firefox/Chrome add-on designed to speed up the process of creating automation scripts. It captures the user interaction in the web browser and exports them into reusable scripts. It lagged due to not supporting parallel execution and slower execution time.
Selenium WebDriver
WebDriver aids in the development and execution of test cases by communicating natively with the web browser application. WebDriver supports various programming languages, including Python, Ruby, PHP, and Perl, for writing test scripts. It may also be linked with test management frameworks like TestNG and JUnit. It has a straightforward and easy-to-understand architecture, which does not require a separate server to build and test cases like RC,
Selenium Grid
Selenium Grid allows the distribution of commands to several devices simultaneously, enabling simultaneous execution of tests across several browsers and operating systems. Grid is highly flexible and allows it to connect with other suite components for concurrent operation.
Here we will explore Selenium WebDriver and why it will still be relevant in the coming year.
Selenium WebDriver
At present, Web testing has become more complex with multiple features on websites and the increasing popularity of mobile devices. Furthermore, nowadays, organizations are making mobile-friendly websites. So testers need to take into account how a website will work on different devices such as desktops and mobile. Therefore to test the browser compatibility of a website across multiple devices, Selenium Webdriver was introduced.
Selenium WebDriver has many features unavailable in the earlier versions of Selenium. Moreover, it can test dynamic websites where the content on a page changes frequently depending on user input, like clicking on buttons or performing other functions.
Webdriver works by simulating a real user who interacts with a webpage as they would. Additionally, it has a user-friendly open-source API (Application Programming Interface) for developers. It can also be used alongside other testing frameworks like JUnit to make automated testing with Selenium more manageable and convenient for those involved. It is an important part of the Selenium family.
It supports many browsers like Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Safari. It also supports multiple programming languages such as C#, Java, Perl, PHP, and Ruby for test scripts.
Selenium Webdriver Architecture
Selenium WebDriver is not a stand-alone tool. It involves different components that are required to perform tests. Below are four major components of Selenium Webdriver.
Selenium Client Libraries
Selenium developers have developed Client Libraries or language bindings to provide multi-language support. The client libraries have allowed users to write automation scripts in the language they are more familiar with, and Selenium will work on the rest.
For instance, if a user needs to use the browser driver in PHP, the user will use PHP bindings, and the rest of the task will be completed. Selenium has made all client libraries available for free on its official website. Anyone with a basic understanding of working with any programming language can use language bindings and get started.
JSON Wire Protocol
The JavaScript Object Notation(JSON)Wire Protocol is an open standard for exchanging data on the web. It allows transferring data between a client and a server over the internet.
Browser Drivers
Selenium uses specific drivers for each browser to build a secure connection without revealing the internal logic of the browser’s functionality. They are used to interact with browsers as well as convey automation script instructions to them. Each browser has its collection of Web drivers to execute a test script. Some of the Browser Drivers are HTML Unit Driver, Firefox Driver, Internet Explorer Driver, and Chrome Driver.
Browsers
One of the best features of Selenium Webdriver is that it works for all popular browsers, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari. Each browser has its own Webdriver For executing automation scripts.
Reasons for the popularity of Selenium WebDriver
Selenium always flags first in the conversation when talking about all the available automation testing frameworks. It is one of the best automation testing frameworks widely used among developers across the world. We have already discussed what Selenium WebDriver is. Let’s discuss the reasons for its popularity and its benefits in automation.
Open source
One of the key reasons Selenium WebDriver is so popular is that it is an open-source tool that is publicly accessible for free. The Developers can download it directly from the official site and perform automation testing on multiple web browsers without paying any upfront fees.
Selenium, a community-based platform, provides a powerful support system for testers and developers who need help performing Selenium WebDriver automation testing flawlessly. The community constantly resolves user queries and other issues by improving the tool.
The open-source nature allows customization of the code structure and enhances the functionalities of various features and classes.
Multi-browser Compatibility
Selenium WebDriver has expanded its benefits of automation testing by providing support for automated cross-browser testing. It supports multiple major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, IE, Edge, and many more to test on. Multi-browser Compatibility allows many users to access and use the web application in their preferred browser.
Selenium WebDriver interacts with the website and its web components in a browser just like a real user would use the browser’s native support to communicate directly without needing extra software or hardware.
Easy Implementation
Another reason Selenium WebDriver is widely praised is the User friendliness, allowing it to help create and execute scripts effectively. Being an open-source tool, it lets the users script their versions of personalized extensions, which helps them develop actions that can further be customized or manipulated at advanced levels.
Reusability
The automation scripts created using Selenium WebDriver can be reused and executed across multiple browsers and operating systems. It makes it possible for testers to run multiple testing scenarios with WebDriver since it covers all aspects of functionality testing, broadening the testing scope.
Advanced Browser Interactions
WebDriver also allows you to simulate advanced interactions like clicking the browser’s back and front buttons. There are no such open-source automated testing tools that provide this capability. It is beneficial for testing applications involving higher security (like online money transfer or banking applications) that do not store cache and cookies.
Better dealing with dynamic web elements.
The main problem with automation testing is handling complex web components. Selenium WebDriver comes with a set of locators that helps locate web elements on a website. As a result, incorporating some aspects into the test automation suite becomes easier.
Selenium Webdriver has a better management hold for dynamic web elements like checkboxes, dropdowns, notifications, and more. Locating web elements using XPath or ID is easier while dealing with static elements. It only becomes complicated when they change. To handle dynamic elements, Selenium employs methods like Absolute XPath, Contains(), Starts-with(),
Control waiting for elements
Each page layout is different. Some of them are easy, while others need a lot of data manipulation. The web elements often take a prolonged time to load. To resolve this, WebDriver deals with several waiting mechanisms that help to pause the test execution for a specific time under certain conditions. Once the condition is fulfilled, it can be resumed.
Mouse Cursor and Keyboard action Simulation
Selenium WebDriver is capable of mimicking real user conditions by controlling mouse and keyboard events. When these events need to be performed, it demands Advanced User Interactions (API) consisting of action classes. Selenium Webdriver can automate several mouse events like mouse keypress, drag and drop, click and hold, multiple item selections, etc.
Apart from the features mentioned above, many other features make Selenium WebDriver more relevant and different from other automation testing tools. They support multiple languages, working across multiple operating systems, cross-device testing, excellent community support, Parallel Test Execution, no server installation required, and many more.
Seamless Automation Testing With Selenium WebDriver On LambdaTest Cloud
When a web app is built, it needs to be thoroughly tested for usability and cross-browser compatibility. The automated cross-browser testing can be executed using Selenium WebDriver installed in the local workstation. It enables the QAs to set up automated parallel tests on a Selenium Grid so that web applications can be tested concurrently on numerous browsers, operating systems, and devices.
Each test case needs to be executed in a unique environment where all the real browsers, devices, operating systems, and their versions are installed. Managing all the devices and browser versions on-site is expensive and requires high effort. Therefore to eliminate infrastructure expense and pre-configuration hassles and continue access to real devices, the team can choose an online platform to use Selenium Automation.
LambdaTest is one such platform that provides a cloud Selenium Grid of more than 3000 real devices, browsers, and operating system combinations to perform browser compatibility testing for the application.
LambdaTest is a scalable, secure, reliable, cloud-based, cross-browser compatibility testing platform. It allows the execution of Selenium tests thoroughly using the Selenium grid to ensure that the application is rendered perfectly across all major browsers, real devices, and operating systems.
Additionally, LambdaTest provides resources like Instant access to real Android & iOS devices and multiple operating systems Support like Windows and macOS, great debugging tools for troubleshooting tests instantly, Instant Bug reporting, parallel testing, geolocation testing, integration with popular CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, CircleCI, Travis and many more.
To use the LambdaTest platform, all it needs is a working Internet connection, and you can sign up for free to start executing automated tests for your application.
