Selenium as a Great Tool to Test Application - An Insight

As an efficient software testing tool, Selenium is used widely for automating web browsers. The portable functional testing tool makes it easier for testers to evaluate the performance of websites and web applications across several web browsers and platforms. At the same time, Selenium can also be used for automating boring and time-consuming web-based administration tasks. Since its inception in 2004, the open source functional testing tool has emerged as a leading portable software testing framework to assess a wide variety of websites and internet applications. A business can use Selenium to effectively automate both web application testing and web-based administration tasks.

Rise in Selenium Testing. What makes it so good?

Selenium is a widely used automation testing tool that is applied to test the web based apps. It is an open source testing tool that can run easily on several OS and browsers. A user friendly tool, it can be used to run test scripts on any web browser that have been developed by using various programming languages, including, C, Java, C++, Python, Perl, .Net, Ruby, etc. The big question here is why Selenium? Well, one of the primary reasons is it is still one of the finest tools available for testing web applications. Its compatibility to work with multiple operating systems and browsers has increased its demand.

Few Tips and Tricks to Work on Selenium

As a portable software testing framework, Selenium is used widely for automating websites and web applications for testing purpose. Along with automating web browsers, Selenium is also effective in automating the web-based administration tasks. It further allows QA professionals to write test cases in C#, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Perl, Python, Objective-C and Ruby. At the same time, the testing framework is also compatible with major operating systems and web browsers. However, you must be familiar with a number of tips and tricks to effectuate web application testing with Selenium.

Why Should IT Companies Use Selenium?

Each IT company has to consider several factors to make its internet application popular. In addition to optimizing the application’s look, feel and performance, it also needs to make the app compatible with widely used web browsers. As a portable software testing framework, Selenium makes it easier for IT companies to automate browsers for testing purposes. It comes with a set of tools required for automating web browsers across multiple platforms. There are also several reasons why an IT company must use Selenium to test its websites and web applications.

Automated Testing with Selenium and Cucumber

The choice of web browser varies from one user to another. So an internet application must be accessible on several web browsers to become popular. As a key part of the development lifecycle, programmers have tone ensure that the app will work flawlessly across a set of widely used web browsers. The cross-browser compatibility of an internet application can be checked through extensive regression testing. But regression testing requires additional time and resources.

Therefore, organizations prefer using effective test automation tools like Selenium and Cucumber to avoid expensive and time-consuming regression tests. The tools enable developers to create several fully automated test suites that will run against a set of web browsers. Also, they have option to run the automated test suits as part of the build pipeline or schedules build process. Regardless of the approach, the tools are effective in detecting bugs quickly and along with providing rapid feedback.

Web Application Testing with Cucumber
As a widely used test automation tool Cucumber facilitates behavior driven development. The developers can use Cucumber to describe the expected behavior of the internet application in plain text. Despite being written in Ruby, the tool supports several programming languages including Java, Ruby, C#.NET, Python and FLEX. So it becomes easier for developers to test applications written using any of these supported programming languages.

The entire Cucumber testing process can be divided into six broad steps. But the programmers are not required to write any code while fixing a bug in, or adding a new feature to the application. They can simply describe the expected behavior in plain text. When the feature or bug is tested through Cucumber, the tool will highlight the successes and failures. Based on the failures, programmers can write code to fix the bugs. As Cucumber requires test cases to be written in advance, it helps managers and business analysts to verify if the key requirements are met.

Web Application Testing with Selenium
Selenium provides developers with a set of tools required for testing different aspects of an internet application. The tool is further used widely by developers for browser testing automation. So Selenium is effective in evaluating the performance and behavior of an application across a set of supported web browsers. Selenium also comes with a suite of tools that run seamlessly across widely used operating systems and web browsers. The testers can further control these tools through a number of frameworks and programming languages.

Along with web browser automation, Selenium can also be used to web-based administration tasks. As the tool supports most web browsers, it becomes easier for developers to include the tool as part of the browser’s native components. An organization also has option to choose Selenium IDE, Selenium WebDriver or Selenium Remote Control according to the nature and requirements of each web application development project.

The IDE can be used as a simple Firefox add-on to perform simple record and playback with the web browser. In addition to creating bug reproduction scripts rapidly, the IDE also creates script for automation-aided exploratory testing. On the other hand, the Selenium WebDriver and Selenium Remote Control are used to optimize browser-based regression automation. These suites further help developers in distributing and scaling test scripts across different environments.

A constant increase is noted in the number of organization adopting behavior based development approach. The agile methodology further helps developers in rapidly test how an internet application works across multiple browsers. Both Cucumber and Selenium must be used together to effectively check the application’s cross-browser compatibility. These tools must be used together for automated behavior driven development testing to curtail the overall development cost and time.

You can hire testers from top selenium web 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 certified selenium testers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.