What is Selenium? Getting Started with Automation Testing in Selenium

Introduction

Do you want to know what is Selenium? Why automation testing using selenium is considered optimum? What is the Selenium suite of tools? How to write an automation test plan for Selenium? If you are looking for an answer to all these questions then go through automation testing selenium tutorial in-depth and learn all about Selenium and its different products. You will definitely be glad to spend your time getting an introduction to Selenium that could be the heart of your next job profile.

Other than Selenium, one another hot topic is automation testing that has taken the IT world by storm and Selenium certification is one of the best ways to make yourself educated about Selenium and Automation Testing with Selenium.

Automation Testing in Selenium witnesses plenty of benefits and it is frequently used by testers as well. Also, Automation testing can make your work easy and faster than usual. so, without making any delay further, let us learn all about automation testing in Selenium and see how it helps the IT, engineers, to make a project successful. 

It is all about Selenium!

Selenium is an open-source tool that is generally used for automation testing to be carried out on browsers. Selenium can test web applications only and it is possible testing any software or desktop app using Selenium. You don’t have to panic here because there are many other testing tools that can be used for the same purpose. The objective of this automation testing selenium tutorial is to make you familiar with the benefits of Selenium and how it is suitable for automation testing.

 Selenium Benefits

Here are some major features of the tool to keep in mind when opting for Selenium. 

• Since it is an open-source tool and it does not involve any license charges. 
• You can use different programming languages to write an automation test plan for selenium that can be further executed in different browsers like Windows, Macintosh, Linux, or more.
• The automation test plan for selenium can be executed over multiple browsers like IE, chrome, Opera, Mozilla, or more.
• It can be quickly integrated with other testing tools and easy to manage when compared to other similar tools.
• Generating reports using Selenium is a blessing where you can add multiple visuals too.
• IT can be integrated with DevOps tools like Jenkins or Docker to achieve continuous testing.

2.2 Selenium Drawbacks

Every tool has some benefits and drawbacks. The same is the case with Selenium as well. Let us see when Selenium is not suitable for an IT project.

• Selenium can test web applications only and it is possible testing any software or desktop app using Selenium.
• There is no guaranteed support available for the tool but you need to opt for testing communities in that case.
• You cannot test images using Selenium but it has to be integrated with other tools to achieve the same purpose.
• It can help in general reporting but native reporting facility is not available when using Selenium. to overcome this issue, you have to integrate the tool with other testing frameworks.

Before moving further to the automation testing selenium tutorial, you must know how Selenium came into existence. So, let us start our discussion from the beginning like Why do we need software testing, what are the challenges with manual testing, How automation testing is better than the manual testing, Selenium vs QTP or other popular testing tools, and Selenium suite of tools, Writing automation test plan for Selenium, and more.

Why do we need Software Testing?

Today, the world of technology is highly dominated by software programs, apps, and machines worldwide. Do we have the same machines as needed by customers? It can be discovered by testing that particular machine. This is the reason why software testing came into existence. 

Take an example of an eCommerce community like Amazon or Flipkart that depends on customers’ traffic heavily on their mobile apps for selling their products. think for a while if something catastrophic happens then it may affect the business outcome negatively. Here, it becomes vital to check the code before deployment that raises the need for software testing further. Selenium is an automation testing tool that aids QA activities and makes things quicker and easy.

Moving ahead, software testing can be divided into two categories: manual testing and automation testing. Most of the time, automation testing is preferred over manual testing to save the overall time and effort. In the next section, we will discuss manual testing and problems associated with manual testing. 

What are the Problems associated with Manual Testing?

Manual Testing is a quality assurance process that all testing activities are conducted manually. It can be done in different environments and you have to record success and failure of each data set separately.  

Imagine, if you have to verify the transaction of a website manually. it may cause boredom, time-consuming, and increases manual efforts too. These problems led to the invention of Selenium that is an automation testing tool and overcome all challenges associated with manual testing.

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Benefits of Automation Testing over Manual Testing

Automation testing has wonderful benefits when compared to manual testing. it is faster and needs less human intervention. It is more accurate and a test plan can be reused when needed. Let us understand a similar concept with the help of an example. Imagine, we have a signup page and we need to check if each signup is made successfully or not. You have to write a piece of code here that could verify all transactions or sign up attempts. 

Moreover, it is possible to check test cases under different environments and across multiple browsers. You can automate result files too by scheduling activities at a particular event of time. Also, the report generation process can be automated based on outcomes. The best thing is that automation testing can make the life of a tester easier and simpler. Now, let us see where Selenium stands in the market.

Selenium vs QTP vs RFT

Here we will show the comparison of automation testing Selenium tools with other two popular testing tools QTP and RFT.

Comparison Parameters	HP QTP	IBM RFT	Automation Testing Selenium
License	A license is needed to use QTP	A license is needed to use RFT.	No License needed as it is an open-source tool.
Cost	It is Expensive.	It is Expensive	It is an open-source testing tool.
Hardware Usage	High	High	Low
Testing Environment	It can work with the Windows environment only.	It can work with the Windows environment only.	It can work with almost all types of environment like Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.
Coding excellence	No need for a programming background.	No need for a programming background.	Basic programming skills are vital.
Customer Support	It is supported by the HP.	It is supported by IBM.	It is supported by the open-source community.
Language Support.	It can support the VBScript.	It can support Java and C# both.	It can support multiple languages like Java, C#, Ruby, Python, Perl, PHP, and JavaScript, etc.

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Selenium Set of Tools

Automation testing using Selenium is easy when you choose these four selenium components for a particular IT project. You can pick any one of them based on your project needs and requirements.

• Selenium RC

Selenium Core was the first tool in the Selenium set of tools. It is believed that Selenium Core was not suitable for cross-domain testing because of its same-origin policy. This is the reason how Selenium RC came into existence to overcome this issue. It was a blessing for cross-domain testing and also named as HTTP proxy server that helps in befooling the browser into a belief that both Selenium core and web apps must be tested from the same domain and hence it automatically eliminates the cross-domain testing problem. Further, Selenium RC is divided into two parts to aid the cross-domain testing. These are:

• Selenium Remote Server
• Selenium Remote Client

The biggest problem with Selenium RC is that it takes more time for executing a test. Selenium server communicates by using HTTP requests and it is a highly time-consuming process too. Because of its limitations. it has limited applications when compared to Grid and WebDriver.

• Selenium IDE

Another name of Selenium IDE is Selenium Recorder that is generally needed to edit, record, debug, or replay functional tests. Selenium IDE is an extension to the Chrome browser and taken as the add-on for the Firefox browser. When Selenium IDE is integrated within your browser, you could record or export tests in different programming languages.

To know how to download and install Selenium IDE in multiple browsers, click here.

• Selenium WebDriver

It is the right time to discuss the Selenium WebDriver component in software testing. It is an enhanced version of the Selenium RC and the most amazing software testing tool too. It is the most trusted tool by testers that accepts commands through client API and further exchanges those commands across browsers. 

In brief, the Selenium web driver is a browser-specific component that can be accessed or launched in different browsers. It uses an interface for writing and running automation scripts. Each browser has some drivers that help to run or execute tests further.

To know more about Selenium WebDriver in detail, Click Here.

• Selenium Grid

The Selenium Grid component is based on hub-node architecture. With the help of the Selenium Grid component in QA testing, it is possible to execute test cases in parallel across multiple browsers. Also, it also selenium scripts to run across different nodes that can be written in different programming languages too. 

This component is generally used in the combination of Selenium RC where multiple tests can be executed together on remote machines. Nowadays, people consider WebDriver better than RC and Grid can control both Selenium RC and Selenium WebDriver in automation testing with Selenium.

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Why automation testing in Selenium is considered Optimum?

Now we have a deep idea of Automation Testing Selenium, Selenium components. Let us find various benefits of performing automation testing using Selenium and what makes it stand out in the crowd.

• It is an open-source tool and it does not need any license to purchase it or use it. This feature makes it a revolutionary product when compared to other similar automation testing tools QTP/UFT or RFT.
• Selenium has a set of tools that can be utilized for different needs to satisfy the varied requirements of a project. 
• The major issue faced by the tester is multi-language support by the software testing tool. Selenium can support almost all programming languages and it is easy to use by anyone.
• When it comes to browsers, Selenium can be used across multiple browsers and different operating systems. It increases the overall flexibility of the tool.
• Selenium is supported by an open-source community where you can post your problems and fix them. It is not so expensive and frequently used by testers worldwide.

Steps for installing Selenium on your local system

Here is a step by step guide on how to install Selenium on your local system:

• In the first step, you should install some code editors like Eclipse or IntelliJ. We will be taking the example of IntelliJ Selenium IDE here.
• Now, download and install JRE (Java Runtime Environment) on your system. 
• In the next step, download the Java Development Kit, JDK.
• This is the time to download and install varied Java selenium Files.
• Install Browser Specific Drivers and you are done!

Sample web automation test plan for Selenium

Here is one sample script to perform automation testing in Selenium and learn how to write an automation test plan for Selenium. In this example, we will consider using IntelliJ for your reference. You may opt for any other IDE too as needed.

Sample Script:

This sample code will quickly launch a web page where you can see find, signup, and login buttons. You have to click the signup/login button and go to the Login page. Once the page is open, add the necessary credentials here and click the login button that will redirect you to the Home page.

The biggest issue when working with Selenium Grid is a web browser. To make it suitable for your local system, you have to upgrade the existing version or install a new one as needed by the project. If there is some web application that you want to test across different browsers and operating systems then Selenium Grid can help.

What’s Next?

It is time to draw the conclusion of the blog on Automation testing Selenium Tutorial. Here, we discussed all about Selenium, its different components, why automation testing with Selenium is considered optimum, how to write a web automation test plan for Selenium, etc. If you wish to start a career in the Selenium testing domain then check out our interactive, instructor-led LIVE classes that come with 24/7 support by expert mentors and it can guide you throughout the learning period. 

If there are some questions in your mind, share it with us. Please mention your queries in the comment section and we will get back to you shortly. We wish you luck for a marvelous career journey with JanBask Training Team and grow like a testing pro by working with leading companies worldwide. Don’t forget to share your experience. We would love to hear from you!

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