12 August, 2014

Selenium - How it fits in software company testing process?

The highly responsive and interactive software processes demand testing to be carried out so that the ultimate product that reaches the customer turns to be as perfect as possible. For this purpose automated tests find a special place amongst the various processes of a software company. In automated testing a software tool is used for running of repeatable tests on the application in question. There are several tools that can serve the purpose; amongst them a very prominent one is Selenium.




selenium automation testing
Selenium consists of various software tools with different approaches for supporting of automated tests. When testers use the complete suite, the resultant testing functions turn out to be extremely rich with various approaches for various problems. Each of the multiple software tools in the framework has specific functions. This free testing framework has been considered as one of the most efficient tools in the market currently. It has four main components- IDE, Web Driver, Grid and Remote Control.

IDE or Integrated Development Environment- This is the tool for prototyping and helps in building of test scripts. This Firefox plugin provides an interface which can be used easily for development of automated tests. There is a recording feature in it that helps in recording of user actions when performed. The recording is then exported as reusable script in any of the to-be executed programming languages.

Remote Control- Remote Control or RC had been the primary Selenium for quite some time. This actively supported tool provides several powerful features like supporting almost all browsers and supporting a variety of languages such as Ruby, Javascript, Java, PHP, Python, C#, Perl, etc.

Webdriver- This is considered the latest addition to the toolkit with a variety of great features that includes a more object oriented and cohesive API. It is the combined effort of WebDriver and Selenium developers, providing support to both the technologies.

Grid- By virtue of Grid, RC can scale large test suites as well as test suites that have to be run in multiple environments. It allows the running of several tests at same time but on various remote machines. The performance of slow-functioning test suites or large suites can be boosted through its use. It works by dividing the suite so that different machines can be used for running of various tests at same time. It uses parallel processing to improve the time taken.

Some unique features
  • Unmatched flexibility, browser integration and extensibility which cannot be found in other proprietary tools available normally.
  • DOM or document object model level testing is not only powerful but simple as well which makes continuous Agile project integration very easy.
  • A huge assortment of IDEs like Visual Studio, Netbeans, Eclipse, etc can be used according to the selected development language.
  • Multiple browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, etc are supported by it on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.
Some tips
  • In most cases, assert command should be used instead of verify as normally in case of the latter the running test case normally fails.
  • In case of website that cannot be framed, multiwindow option should be used and not interactive.
  • When there is problem with the working of recording, the Firefox browser should be visited and Tools, Add on and then Selenium IDE selected. It should be disabled first and then again enabled. After the browser is restarted it generally works normally.
  • A wrapper can be written in .net.jsp for the suite so that it can be maintained easily in html.
Just like others, Selenium is not free from certain limitations. But considering the advantages that it offers, the limitations appear to be minuscule. If we work around those limitations we will be able to boast of a test case that is easy to implement, multifunctional and time-saving.

You can hire testers from top selenium testing companies in India who can help you accomplish testing with the selenium tools within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide selenium automation testing services. If you would like to discuss with an expert selenium tester from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

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