SELENIUM101

• Marc A Myers

• Lead QA Analyst for EFSS

WHAT IS “SELENIUM”? - THE BASICS

• Selenium

• A suite of tools to automate web browsers across many platforms.

• Those tools are the Selenium IDE for Firefox and the Selenium WebDriver.

• Can be controlled by several programming languages and testing frameworks.

• Many GUI based browser automation tools, APIs, and frameworks are built on top of

Selenium.

SELENIUM IDE

• A Firefox add-on that does simple record

and playback of browser events.

• Ideal environment for quickly creating

Selenium tests.

• Offers Debugging and breakpoints for

tests created

• Export tests as HTML, Ruby scripts, and

other formats.

SELENIUM WEBDRIVER

• Selenium 1.0 + WebDriver = Selenium 2.xx

• A collection of language specific bindings to drive a browser.

• It makes direct calls to the browser using each browser’s native support for

automation.

• The key interface against which tests are to be written in Java.

BASIC TEST ENVIRONMENT CONFIGURATION

• Maven Project > TestNG (Assertions) > Selenium WebDriver > Browser

• Testing one local browser at a time on the same machine as the IDE/test runner that is

executing/running the test.

• Advantages of this configuration:

• Easy to troubleshoot your tests

• Watch as the tests run locally, observe potential defects as they occur

• Quick and easy to set up

DISADVANTAGES OF A BASIC CONFIGURATION

• Restricted to the browsers available to your OS version/local machine.

• In the case of IE, generally only the highest supported IE can be installed.

• Assuming you’re on Windows, you’re not able to test against other OS and browser

versions such as Safari or OSX and Linux versions of Chrome and Firefox.

• It’s not scalable

• Running a system or performance test can be taxing on your local machine and it holds

your resources hostage until the tests have completed.

SELENIUM GRID

• Supports distributed test execution.

• This means running tests in a “distributed test execution” environment.

• This allows you to scale test coverage by distributing your tests to several

machines, with the option of parallel execution.

• Manages multiple environments from a central point.

SELENIUM GRID CONT.

• A grid is made up of a HUB and several NODES.

• The HUB is the central point that will receive all test requests and distribute

them to the NODES.

• The NODES are where your testing will occur.

• One NODE can have several available browsers.

• A NODE can also be a mobile device.

WHY TESTNG?

• Superior Parameter based testing

• With @DataProvider

• Advanced dependency testing

• Tests can rely on each other

• Suite Testing

• Test groups and types

• TestNG can run JUnit tests

WHY MAVEN?

• Dependency Management

• Avoids common client conflicts

• Handles downloading, installing, and

keeping track of different version of

dependencies.

• Streamlined Build Process

• You don’t have to understand how a

project works to clone it and build it.