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Explore this step-by-step guide on Selenium testing. Learn what is Selenium, its architecture, benefits, and how to automate web browsers with this open-source framework.
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Selenium is a comprehensive suite offering various tools and libraries to automate web browser interactions. It includes features that mimic how users interact with browsers, and a server to manage browser usage across different platforms. It supports the W3C WebDriver standard that helps testers write code to make it work across all the major web browsers.
With Selenium, developers and testers can automate website testing, including functional testing, regression testing, and end-to-end testing. It supports a wide range of programming languages, including Java, JavaScript, C#, PHP, Python, and Ruby.
Selenium is an open-source suite of tools and libraries that automates the testing of websites and web applications. Its versatility in testing across different environments is attributed to its cross-browser, cross-language, and cross-platform capabilities. Selenium integrates with existing development workflows and supports programming languages such as Java, JavaScript, C#, PHP, Python, and Ruby.
Moreover, Selenium offers extensive browser compatibility with major web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera to ensure comprehensive browser coverage. Its flexibility is further enhanced by its compatibility with different automation testing frameworks like TestNG, JUnit, MSTest, pytest, WebdriverIO, and more.
Here are some of the major reasons for choosing Selenium tool for automation testing.
Open-Source: Selenium is a free and open-source suite of tools, making it a cost-effective solution for web automation testing.
Multilingual Support: It supports a wide range of programming languages, including Java, Python, PHP, C#, Ruby, and JavaScript. This flexibility allows testers to work with their preferred programming languages.
Cross-Browser and Platform Compatibility: Selenium tool can be used on multiple browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge. Also, you can use it across different operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Parallel Testing: Parallel testing with Selenium involves executing multiple test suites or test cases simultaneously to reduce the overall testing time. You can perform parallel testing either locally or on a cloud-based grid, effectively reducing your software release cycles.
Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): Whether tests are run locally or on a cloud grid, with Selenium testing tool, testers can easily trigger continuous tests in a CI pipeline by leveraging popular CI/CD tools like Jenkins, CircleCI, and Travis CI.
Comprehensive Test Reporting: Selenium provides detailed test execution logs and reports, making it easier for teams to track test results and pinpoint areas that require attention.
Community Support: Selenium tool has a large and active community that provides extensive support and resources. This community-driven approach ensures that Selenium remains up-to-date and adapts to evolving web technologies.
Let's delve into the primary users of Selenium framework.
Developers: They use Selenium testing tool to implement and validate the functionality of web features during the development phase. By automating browser actions and interactions, developers can identify and fix issues early in the development cycle, leading to faster delivery of high-quality software.
Testers: They leverage Selenium's capabilities to automate web browsers and validate the functionality of web applications across different browsers and platforms. With Selenium, testers can execute repetitive test cases, perform regression testing, and ensure the reliability and performance of web applications.
DevOps Engineers: They use Selenium to automate the testing process as part of the CI/CD pipeline. Selenium can be integrated with various DevOps tools to automate the deployment of web applications and ensure that new changes do not introduce regressions or break existing functionalities.
Automation Engineers: Automation engineers specialize in creating robust and maintainable test automation frameworks. They use Selenium tool to design and implement scalable automation solutions that can handle complex test scenarios.
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Selenium testing tool can help you with browser automation with various types of testing.
Below are some of them.
The history of Selenium software began in 2004 at Thoughtworks in Chicago. Jason Huggins at Thoughtworks developed the core mode known as JavaScriptTestRunner, a simple tool for internal testing. However, its potential quickly resonated with others, particularly Paul Hammant.
Meanwhile, others outside Thoughtworks were also nurturing Selenium. Dan Fabulich and Nelson Sproul from Bea increased its flexibility with Selenium Remote Control, while Pat Lightbody's Hosted QA project ensured it could handle large-scale testing effectively.
In 2007, Google came into the picture, with Jason Huggins joining their internal team and bringing their internal testing tools. Simon Stewart at Thoughtworks also contributed to his WebDriver project, which eventually merged with Selenium.
Selenium is a suite of tools widely used for automating web browsers. It provides a range of components, each designed to cater to different aspects of web application testing.
Here are the primary components of Selenium, along with their technical functionalities.
Selenium IDE is an extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge that streamlines the task of recording and executing tests directly within the browser. With its intuitive interface and pre-built functionality, it enables testers to create reliable tests without any additional setup requirements quickly.
The functioning of Selenium IDE is centered around three primary actions, described as follows:
Moreover, it offers advanced debugging capabilities such as breakpoints and exception pausing, making the troubleshooting process more efficient. Another advantage of using Selenium IDE is its support for automated cross browser testing. This means you can run your tests on different browsers and operating systems using the Command-line Runner.
Selenium IDE architecture consists of 3 components:
Selenium RC was one of the first components developed in the Selenium suite. It allowed testers to write automated tests by launching browsers through a server. However, it has been deprecated and replaced by Selenium WebDriver for better speed, simplicity, and direct browser communication.
The architecture of Selenium RC is built around two main components: the Selenium Server and the Client Libraries.
Selenium Server: The Selenium Server works as a middleman between your test scripts and the browser. It takes the commands from your tests, injects a JavaScript program called Selenium Core into the browser, and then executes those commands within the browser’s own JavaScript engine.
This allows the Selenium Server to run tests by sending and receiving simple HTTP GET/POST requests. As a result, you can write your test scripts in any programming language that supports HTTP.
Client Libraries: Client Libraries are what allow you to write Selenium tests in different programming languages like Java, Python, or C#. Each language has its own library that provides a set of APIs for writing Selenium commands.
These libraries pass the commands to the Selenium Server, which then performs the actions on the browser. Once the server sends back the result, the library receives it and your script processes the outcome - logging success, failure, or taking follow-up steps based on how the test went.
Selenium WebDriver is a component of the Selenium suite for automating web application testing. It provides an interface for developers and testers to create and run test scripts, which simulate user interactions with web browsers. This includes actions like:
Clicking on links.
Filling out forms.
Fetching web page data.
All of these actions can be done either on local machines or remotely. But when running Selenium tests on a remote (cloud) grid, there comes Selenium RemoteWebDriver that allows for running browser automation tests on a machine hosted on the cloud. Basically, it's a version of the WebDriver but runs on a remote server.
Specific browser drivers, such as FirefoxDriver, ChromeDriver, and InternetExplorerDriver, are all built on top of the RemoteWebDriver class. This means they share its capabilities but are tailored to their respective browsers.
With Selenium’s version 4.6.0, Selenium Manager was launched, which handles the browser drivers under the hood, so you don’t have to worry about the browser drivers. It streamlines the setup process for Selenium users. This means you no longer need to manually:
Download browser drivers.
Set them up for different environments.
Keep drivers up to date.
Instead, Selenium Manager takes care of these aspects, ensuring the appropriate drivers are always in use and up to date. It supports all major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Internet Explorer.
Selenium WebDriver is the language bindings and implementations of specific browser-controlling codes. In June 2018, WebDriver received a significant endorsement as it became a W3C WebDriver Protocol.
Initially, Selenium software was developed with two different components: WebDriver and RC. These were merged into a single, powerful unit called Selenium 2, also known as Selenium WebDriver 2.
It also marked the beginning of a continuous evolution, with Selenium steadily adding features and functionalities. This led to the upgrade to Selenium 3, which relied on the JSON Wire Protocol for communication between test scripts and web browsers.
However, Selenium 4 brought a major shift. It replaced JSON Wire with the W3C protocol, eliminating the need for encoding and decoding test case requests. You can watch the below video to learn more about what’s new in Selenium 4.
In Selenium 3, communication relied on the JSON Wire Protocol over HTTP, where language bindings (like C#, Java, Ruby, and Python) communicated directly with the browser driver. The protocol acted as a bridge, as the server only understood these protocols, not the programming languages. This led to slower test execution, more errors, and unstable tests.
Selenium WebDriver 3 use of the JSON Wire Protocol required encoding instructions into JSON and decoding responses, leading to inefficiencies, slower tests, and more errors. The shift to the W3C WebDriver protocol in modern browsers streamlined this process by standardizing commands and optimizing data handling, resulting in faster, more reliable automated testing.
However, Selenium WebDriver 4 introduced the W3C-compliant protocol, replacing the older JSON Wire Protocol. This shift means commands and API requests no longer require encoding and decoding.
In Selenium 4, the architecture of Selenium WebDriver is built around these four key components:
Selenium Client Libraries: These are libraries or bindings that allow automation scripts to interact with Selenium WebDriver in various programming languages like Ruby, Java, C#, Python, and JavaScript. Each Selenium Client Library is a collection of methods and classes required to create automation scripts.
They are easy to install with language-specific package installers and can be downloaded from the Selenium Downloads page. To interact with the Selenium Server (Remote WebDriver) or to develop local Selenium WebDriver scripts, it's necessary to use client drivers specific to the programming language being used.
WebDriver W3C Protocol: This protocol allows for direct communication between the server and the client, eliminating the need for the JSON Wire Protocol. Since both Selenium WebDriver and modern web browsers use the same protocol, it ensures more consistent test execution across different browsers in automated Selenium testing.
Since Selenium WebDriver and web browsers now use the same protocol, there are less flaky tests. This means developers and testers don't have to modify their scripts for other browsers, leading to more consistent and stable testing in Selenium 4.
Before Selenium 4, the JSON Wire Protocol facilitated communication between the local machine and the web browser. The Selenium Client Libraries, using the JSON protocol, and the web browser, operating on the W3C protocol, was involved in the active encoding and decoding of APIs throughout the process.
Browser Drivers: In Selenium testing tool, browser drivers act as intermediaries between your Selenium tests (written in languages like Java, Python, etc.) and the web browser. Each major web browser has a specific driver, which allows Selenium to control the browser by translating commands from your test script into actions that the browser can understand and execute.
Real Web Browsers: These are the standard web browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Apple Safari, where the automated tests are performed. The Selenium WebDriver interacts with these browsers, executing commands and automated actions as directed by the test scripts.
In Selenium 3, the primary mode of communication between a user's test script and the browser is through the JSON Wire Protocol. This protocol functions as a RESTful web service that transmits data in JSON format over HTTP. The architecture of Selenium WebDriver in this version is built around four key components.
Here, the components in Selenium WebDriver 3 are similar to those in Selenium 4, with a notable change: the old JSON Wire Protocol is in place of the new WebDriver W3C Protocol.
Selenium Grid is a part of the Selenium suite for the running of multiple test scripts across different browsers, operating systems, and machines simultaneously. It uses a hub-and-node architecture, where the hub acts as a central point to control the network of test machines (nodes).
Enables distributed testing for faster cross-browser and cross-platform validation.
Supports parallel test execution, increasing testing efficiency.
Ideal for large-scale test environments and CI/CD pipelines.
The stable release of Selenium 4, released in October 2021, brings major updates from its predecessor, Selenium 3. A key feature in Selenium 4 is the adoption of the W3C WebDriver Protocol, which replaces the JSON Wire Protocol used in Selenium 3.
No need to initiate Hub and Node separately.
Selenium 4 integrates both into a single jar file.
The architecture of Selenium Grid 4 supports four main processes: Session Map, Node, Router, and Distributor. Additionally, the Selenium 4 WebDriver hierarchy offers several enhanced features, including an improved graphical user interface and built-in Docker support, further augmenting its capabilities for automation testing.
Selenium Grid 4, unlike its Selenium Grid 3, eliminates the traditional Hub structure and adopts a more complex architecture that enhances scalability.
Its components include:
The Selenium Grid 3 architecture is primarily built around two key components:
Here are some of the popular testing frameworks for the widely used Selenium-supported programming languages:
To get started with Selenium testing using different languages and frameworks, check out the below resources:
In addition to the above articles, these video-based Selenium automation testing tutorials guide you through performing automation testing with Selenium across various programming languages.
Selenium Java
Selenium Python
Selenium JavaScript
Selenium C#
Running multiple Selenium tests at the same time significantly reduces test execution time. Using a cloud-based testing platform gives you speed, scale, and reliability - all while improving test coverage and reducing infrastructure costs.
For instance, GenAI-native test execution platform like LambdaTest is more scalable and cost-effective than setting up an in-house Selenium Grid, as it offers a cloud grid of over 3000 combinations of browsers and operating systems for automation testing.
To migrate from local to LambdaTest cloud Selenium Grid, you'll only need to update the infrastructure-related code in your test scripts.
After logging into your LambdaTest account, head to your LambdaTest Account Settings to get your authentication credentials (LambdaTest Username and Access Key) and set them as your environment variables.
You can use LambdaTest Automation Capabilities Generator to generate browser and operating system capabilities on which automation testing has to be performed.
To get started, you can check out the documentation on Selenium testing on LambdaTest.
Selenium is widely used for browser automation, making it an excellent tool for validating web applications across different browsers and platforms. However, when it comes to load testing, traditional Selenium scripts alone may not be sufficient to generate real-world traffic at scale.
This is where WebLOAD extends Selenium’s capabilities, enabling performance engineers to execute browser-level load testing efficiently. WebLOAD seamlessly integrates with Java Selenium scripts, allowing teams to simulate concurrent user interactions with real browsers while collecting essential performance metrics such as page load time, rendering time, and time-to-first-byte.
By leveraging WebLoadDriver, an extension of Selenium WebDriver, WebLOAD enhances test automation with load testing-specific functionalities, including transaction monitoring and real-time analytics.
This ensures that teams can measure user experience under load conditions while maintaining the integrity of their Selenium scripts for standard automation environments. Learn more about running Selenium scripts with WebLOAD and see how it simplifies browser-level load testing for enterprise applications.
For more details, you can check out this blog on running Selenium scripts in WebLoad.
While there aren't strict guidelines for creating scalable automation tests, certain key principles should be adhered to when developing tests with the Selenium software. These principles are often referred to as Selenium best practices.
Avoid Blocking Sleep Calls: In Selenium testing, it's recommended to avoid using blocking sleep calls like Thread.sleep or time.sleep. These calls stop the test thread, potentially delaying the test execution and not always guaranteeing effective timing due to external factors like network speed and server load.
Instead, Selenium implicit and explicit waits are more efficient.
Implicit wait sets a default wait time for all elements through the test execution cycles. Explicit wait, using WebDriverWait and ExpectedConditions, pauses the script execution based on specific conditions, offering more flexibility and efficiency in handling delays. Execution continues once the specified condition is satisfied or a time out or exception occurs.
Maximize the Web Browser Window: Capturing screenshots is a common step in test automation for debugging and monitoring product development. However, Selenium doesn't open browsers in maximized mode by default, which can impact the screenshots attached to test reports.
Ensuring the browser window is maximized after loading the test URL is crucial for obtaining full-page screenshots. This practice is recommended for Selenium testing across different browsers.
Use Design Patterns in Selenium: When writing Selenium test automation scripts, it’s crucial to ensure they are maintainable and scalable. Ideally, UI changes on the web page should require minimal adjustments to the test scripts. However, if scripts aren’t well-maintained, and multiple scripts reference the same web element, any element change necessitates updates in several script locations.
The Page Object Model (POM) addresses this by creating a centralized repository for web page controls, with each page represented as a separate class. This structure simplifies maintenance, as scripts interact with web elements through a middle layer of page classes or objects, enhancing maintainability and reducing code duplication across multiple Selenium scripts.
Choose the Right Web Locator: One of the challenges in Selenium test automation is the need to modify automation tests when there are changes in the locators used in the test code. Various web locators, such as ID, Name, LinkText, XPath, CSS Selector, and DOM Locator, are commonly used in Selenium WebDriver.
To minimize the impact of UI changes on tests, it's crucial to choose the right locator in Selenium. LinkText is preferred in dynamic situations, while ID, Class, and Name locators are easier to use and less prone to breaking.
XPath in Selenium is sometimes the only option. Still, it can vary between browsers, and using it in Internet Explorer may require a JavaScript XPath Query Engine, which can be slower. XPath is also more fragile, as page element reordering or new elements can disrupt existing XPath implementations.
For internationalized applications, LinkText or partialLinkText may not be suitable if anchor tags lack IDs or classes. In such cases, using partial href is recommended to maintain consistency even when the site's language changes.
The ideal order for web selectors is ID > Name > CSS Selector > XPath.
Parallel Test Execution With SIDE Runner: Unlike the older version of Selenium IDE, which was limited to executing test cases or test suites sequentially, the latest Selenium IDE offers the capability for parallel testing. This feature is crucial in automated browser testing as it significantly speeds up the testing process.
With the updated Selenium IDE, you can configure test suites to run tests in parallel by adjusting the appropriate settings within the IDE. Moreover, the SIDE runner enhances this functionality, allowing for easy execution of tests in parallel. You can specify the number of parallel processes you want to run simply by using the -w option, which controls the parallel running processes. This enhancement streamlines the testing workflow, leading to more efficient and faster test execution.
As technology landscapes continue to evolve, the future of Selenium testing appears promising with several anticipated trends and advancements. Here's a closer look at what the future might hold for Selenium testing:
Beside this Selenium tutorial, below are the resources where you can learn learn about Selenium basics, how to perform automated Selenium testing, get deep dive into what is Selenium testing and more.
Selenium Java
Selenium TestNG
Selenium JUnit
Selenium Selenide
Selenium Gauge
Selenium Python
Selenium pytest
Selenium Robot
Selenium unittest
Selenium JavaScript
Selenium Jest
Selenium Mocha
Selenium Jasmine
Selenium WebdriverIO
Selenium Nightwatch.js
Selenium Cucumber.js
Selenium TestCafe
Selenium Protractor
Selenium C#
Selenium NUnit
Selenium xUnit
Selenium MSTest
Selenium SpecFlow
Selenium Ruby
Selenium RSpec
Selenium Cucumber
Selenium Locators
Use Cases of Selenium
Miscellaneous:
Apart from the above Selenium tutorials, it is also important take your Selenium expertise to the next levels. And this is where LambdaTest Certifications offers you an excellent opportunity to validate and showcase your skills.
Following are the Selenium certifications that LambdaTest offers:
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