Do you already know what Selenium is? Maybe some developers or app testers already know about this automation testing tool.
Automation testing tools are needed by web developers or software testers; Automation testing is a technique that aims to do software testing to test and compare the results of the output with the expected outcome.
Usually, auto testing is used by the tester to perform software testing, which is difficult to test if it is run manually. There are currently many automation testing tools, but Selenium is a popular one.
Selenium Definition and Meaning
Selenium is an auto-testing tool that automates web application tests in a browser. Selenium will validate web apps on various browsers and platforms.
This auto-testing tool is only designed to automate testing on Web Apps. Apart from using it for testing web apps, for example, testing desktop applications (software) or mobile applications will not be used. To make the script, you can use several programming languages such as Java, C #, Python, etc.
Additionally, Selenium Software is not a single tool but a suite of software, and each part of the software suite will serve the different testing needs of an organization. The following types of selenium:
- Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
- Selenium Remote Control (RC)
- WebDriver
- Selenium Grid
While Selenium is a valuable tool for automation testing, it does have some limitations. Specifically, Selenium is designed for testing web applications and is not suitable for testing desktop or mobile applications. However, there are other tools available such as Appium and HP’s QTP that can be used for testing software and mobile applications.
Types of Silenium
As explained above, Selenium is a series of software. So, here is an explanation of the types and types of software.
1. Selenium IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
Selenium IDE is the most straightforward auto-testing tool and is the easiest to learn. The advantage of using this auto-testing tool is that the tests recorded via the plugin can be exported in various programming languages such as Java, Ruby, Python, etc.
Apart from these advantages, this type of auto-testing tool has many benefits including:
- Selenese commands like a pen, click and wait, assert, verify, etc.
- Finders like id, name, XPath, CSS selector, etc.
- Executes custom JavaScript code using run-script
- Export test cases in various formats.
- To create tests with little or no prior knowledge of programming.
- To create a simple test box and test chamber that you can export later to RC or WebDriver.
- To test web applications against Firefox and Chrome only.
2. Selenium RC (Remote Control)
As for Selenium RC, it is the first automated web testing tool that allows its users to use their preferred programming language.
- Design tests using more expressive language
- Run tests against various browsers (except HtmlUnit) on different operating systems.
- Implement tests on web apps in various environments using Selenium Grid.
- Testing on web apps against new browsers that support JavaScript.
- Testing web applications with complex AJAX-based scenarios.
3. WebDriver
WebDriver auto-testing tools are better than Selenium IDE and Selenium RC in many aspects. Webdriver itself adopts a more modern and stable approach to automating browsers.
- Using a specific programming language in designing test cases.
- Testing applications that are rich in AJAX-based functionality.
- Running tests on the HtmlUnit browser.
- Create customized test results.
4. Selenium Grid
Selenium Grid is a tool that can run parallel tests (multiple tests at once) on different machines and browsers simultaneously. Selenium grid can be used concurrently with Selenium RC.
- Run your Selenium RC scripts on multiple browsers and operating systems simultaneously.
- Running a huge test suite needs to be completed as quickly as possible.
Why use Selenium for automation testing?
Many auto-testing tools can be used to test applications, but why should you use this one as an auto-testing tool? Here are the reasons why you should use Selenium as the Best Auto Testing Web Apps Tool
1. Selenium is an open-source tool
Because it is open source, you can download and use various features available on Selenium for free. Apart from that, you can also share, extend, and modify the general code.
2. Support with several programming languages and frameworks
Selenium supports and integrates various programming languages, frameworks, and development platforms. Therefore, when creating scripts or using Selenium, you can decide which programming language to use.
Apart from that, you can use ANT or Maven to compile source code because Selenium is already integrated. As for application testing and reporting, you can use the TestNG framework.
3. Selenium is quite flexible
You can get many things when using Selenium for auto-testing tools. Its ability to regroup and refactor test cases can help developers and testers speed up code changes, check and reduce code duplication and minimize complications.
So that the auto-testing tool makes test management much simpler and more efficient.
4. Selenium can be used on various browsers and operating systems
With Selenium, you can perform tests on various operating systems such as Windows, Mac, or Linux. Because the test is carried out on a web browser, Selenium can carry out the test using any browser: Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, or Opera.
Selenium Features
Before going further, we will explain the Selenium features which are marked with numbers.
1.Test
Test consists of 3 types, if we click it, 3 options will appear, namely test (test case), test suites, and executing. Test cases are the test steps that Selenium will execute on the web and a test suite is a collection of several test cases. While executing is the test that is being executed.
2. Add Test
Add Test to add Test cases
3. Play
To run the recorded test cases, to run all the tests in the test suite, press the play button on the far left
4. Speed
To set the test speed
5.Open
Open the test case file that has been created
6. Save
Used to store test cases
7. Records
Used to start the test case record
8. Urls
Column to enter the url to be tested
9. Commands
Commands used by users in accessing the web such as type to fill in a form, click to press a button, etc
10. Targets
The goals that have been done in commands such as buttons, links in the form of CSS or Xpath.
11.Values
The value of the command that was executed on the target, such as a form entry or so on.