A Detailed Guide about Selenium Automation Testing

Do you want to learn more about selenium? Or For what purpose? Or what is its purpose? Please read this introduction to Selenium Automation Testing attentively to learn the answers to all of these concerns and to dispel any reservations you may have about Selenium. This Selenium Guide will provide all the information you need, encourage you to learn more about Selenium, and move you one step closer to landing your ideal job.

Describe selenium Automation Testing

Selenium is a group of tools that automates the browser to test web applications. It is a fantastic instrument for automating testing on web browsers. Java, Python, C#, PHP, Ruby, Perl, and.Net are just a few of the programming languages that may be used to create Selenium Test scripts. Windows, Mac, and Linux are also supported. Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera are all supported by Selenium. For managing test cases, Selenium can be readily integrated with other third-party tools like TestNg and Junit. For continuous integration, it may also be integrated with Maven, Jenkins, and Docker. It is the top open source automation tool available today. With support for numerous browsers and operating systems, Selenium enables automated testing of functional and user interface elements of web applications. Regular regression testing is made simple with Selenium. Selenium guarantees the software's usability, security, and performance in addition to its overall quality. Four tools make up the Selenium toolkit:

Selenium IDE (Integrated Development Environment)

RC selenium (Remote control)

WebDriver for Selenium

Selenium Grid

 

Cross-browser and cross-platform testing is made feasible with the aid of selenium, which is why selenium is used extensively for automation in the software industry and that its demand is rising. Once setup is complete, implementing Selenium is simple, and writing Selenium tests is also simple. Selenium allows you the freedom to manually design test cases or to use a record and playback method. Selenium works well with various software development life cycles, including waterfall, agile, DevOps, etc.

 

Why selenium?

As you are aware, technology is developing quickly. What is created today quickly becomes outdated. Automation of the software is now required in order to minimise manual work and guarantee that the product's quality is upheld. Why choose Selenium when there are several automation technologies on the market that produce the same outcomes? By the end of this essay, you will be able to recognise the advantages of Selenium automation testing and understand why to use Selenium.

Selenium is a subject that comes up when discussing automation. It is a frequently used and favoured automation tool among developers and testers worldwide. Selenium is now recognised as a top automation tool. With support for a large number of browsers and platforms, Selenium facilitates automated testing of the functional parts of a web application. Software quality, usability, security, and performance are all ensured by Selenium.

 

Components

The list of selenium ingredients is provided below.

·         Selenium IDE

·         Selenium Client API

·         Selenium WebDriver

·         Selenium Remote Control

·         Selenium Grid

We are already aware that Selenium is a collection of tools. One image can convey a thousand words. You may get a general concept of selenium suite from the image below.

 

1. Selenium IDE

The simplest tool in the Selenium suit is Selenium IDE (Integrated Development Environment), formerly known as Selenium recorder. The automated testing tool Selenium IDE provides record and playback operations.

Do you understand why the Selenium IDE was made? Selenium IDE was developed with the intention of accelerating test creation. The user-friendly interface's record and playback features make it possible to swiftly build tests thanks to their record and playback capabilities. For web applications, it is a portable software testing tool. Selenium IDE is a Firefox add-on that is available for free download and use. In essence, Selenium IDE does not handle conditional or iterative test scripts.

 

2. Selenium Client API

Selenese, the scripting language used by the Selenium IDE, offers features for choosing items, clicking links, and getting data from opened pages. These tests can also be written in other programming languages in addition to Selenese. Selenium offers client APIs for Java, C#, Ruby, JavaScript, R, and Python. Tests interact with Selenium by using methods in the Client API. WebDriver is the main element of the new Client API that Selenium 2 introduces.

 

3. Selenium WebDriver

A group of APIs called Selenium WebDriver is used to automate web application testing. It is a framework for automating browsers that receives commands and transmits them to browsers via drivers tailored to each individual browser. By interacting with the browser, WebDriver may control it. Java, C#, PHP, Python, Perl, and Ruby programming languages are supported by Selenium WebDriver, together with the Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Safari web browsers.

 

4. Selenium Remote Control

A technology called Selenium RC (Remote Control) enables the creation of automated UI tests for web applications in any programming language.

When your test programme launches the browser using a client library API function, the RC server included with Selenium Core automatically injects it into the browser. A JavaScript software called Selenium-Core uses the browser's built-in JavaScript interpreter to decipher and carry out Selenese commands. You may run automated Selenium tests on the browser using any programming language that can send HTTP requests.

Selenium RC is made up of two parts:

·         Selenium Server

It starts and stops browsers, interprets and executes Selenese commands given by the test application, and executes the commands. Selenium server functions as an HTTP proxy for browser requests by intercepting and validating HTTP communications sent between the browser and the AUT. Simply put, the Selenium Server takes Selenium commands from your application, interprets the commands, and then delivers back to your programme the results of the test that was executed.

·         Selenium Client

The interface between a programming language and the RC Server is provided via client libraries. Client libraries for various programming languages give Selenium Server instructions on how to test the AUT without using commands from the server test script.

Using a programme, you may execute Selenium commands thanks to the client libraries. Each client library supports a separate supported language. An API is made available by the Selenium client library so that your software can execute Selenium commands. A programming function is present in every interface and it supports every Selenese command.

 

5. Selenium Grid

Now let's discuss Selenium Grid. Selenium Grid, a component of the Selenium Suite, is skilled at executing numerous tests simultaneously across various browsers, operating systems, and machines.

Grid 1.0 and Grid 2.0 are the two available versions of Selenium Grid. As Grid 1 will be gradually deprecated, Grid 2 is the area of concentration.

Selenium Grid uses the HUB and NODE concepts, where tests are done on a single system called the Hub and on other machines called the Nodes. You can see an example of the Hub and Node concept in the picture below.

 

Describe Hub

Hub is the name of the centre area where your test is loaded. Grid is only deployed on one system, and it only has one Hub. Hub-containing hardware will be used for testing, but the node's browser will still be visible.

What do Nodes do?

The Selenium instance known as Node runs the tests that you loaded onto the Hub. In the Grid, there may be more than one node. Nodes can be started on a variety of devices with various operating systems and browsers. Node and grid platforms don't have to be the same.

 

Conclusion

In a shorter amount of time, Selenium Automated Testing has experienced exponential growth due to the constantly shifting industry trends in test automation. By lowering the amount of testing cycles, selenium helps the client see a return on investment considerably more quickly. Due to businesses' increasing reliance on online applications, Selenium is in high demand. Opportunities in the areas of API testing, Big Data testing, and mobile testing are incredibly interesting for test automation developers.