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.

Selenium offers choice to developers

Selenium Automation Testing is implemented on Linux, windows, Macintosh, and in windows platforms. Selenium is actually an open source software testing tool designed for distribution in the apache license which is meant for download and for utilizing a distribution platform. Selenium can be defined as portable framework which is used for software testing for any of the web applications. Selenium gives record tools and those are generally known as playback tools and they are helpful to author tests without the need of grasping scripting language for those tests that is known as Selenium IDE. Selenium additionally offers the testers & the developers a choice for writing tests in a number of well known languages used in programming for example C#, Java, python, ruby as well as groovy. Making use of these kinds of well known languages facilitate the testers to run texts against many of the most popular in addition to well known web browsers for example the internet explorer and also chrome.

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.

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 - Some Advantages and Disadvantages of the Tool

The look, feel and performance of a web application need to be tested across many web browsers to deliver flawless user experience. Testing professionals rely on a variety of test automation tools to test web applications effectively. But these tools often fail to test the application when frequent changes and enhancements are made to the code. As an open source test automation toolset, Selenium made it easier for testers to evaluate the web application without putting any extra time and effort. However, each user needs to understand some of its prominent advantages and disadvantage while using Selenium.

Advantages of Selenium

Same Test Script can run on Multiple Web Browses
Often QA engineers have to write several test scripts to check the performance of the web application across different web browsers. Selenium allows testers to write the test script once, and run it on multiple browsers to test the web application. The feature allows developers to test complex web application without increasing the test cycles. Further, they can easily check how the application works across different browser versions.

Option to Choose Programming Language
Some test automation tools require testing professionals to write the test scripts using a specific programming language. So testers need to learn the programming language to write test scripts. But Selenium allows users to write test scripts using any programming language. Thus, the testers can write test scripts while availing the benefits of their knowledge and technical expertise. They can further use a variety of tools to generate reports, build systems and create IDE.

Supports Multiple Testing Frameworks
Along with being a web application testing tool, Selenium can also be used as a GUI driving library. So the users have options to use Selenium for wrapping test scripts in other test frameworks. They also have option to integrate Selenium while using any framework of their choice. The developers can combine the features of other frameworks with Selenium to make the web application deliver richer and flawless user experience.

Smooth Integration with Your Existing Ecosystem
While switching to a new testing tool, testers have to check its compatibility with their existing ecosystem. Selenium can be integrated with several widely used tools like Hudson and QMetry. Thus, the testers can integrate the testing tools with the existing solutions and suite of tools. The simple and easy integration process further does not require the users to invest additionally in commercial tools.

Disadvantages of Selenium

Expertise Required in a Particular Programming Language
As Selenium supports a variety of programming languages, it becomes easier for the tester to write scripts in his preferred programming language. But the professional must have adequate expertise in the specific language to write test scripts. The technical expertise in one of the supported languages is essential for testing web applications comprehensively using Selenium.

Assistance of the Selenium Community Needed
While using Selenium, testing professionals will need support and assistance to handle technical issues. As Selenium is an open source technology, they users do not have option to avail the assistance of a dedicated support team. They have to avail the help of the selenium community forums to resolve the technical issues. Sometimes additional time is required to use Selenium by handling these technical issues.

Additional Tools Required to Generate Reports
Despite being effective in testing web applications comprehensively, Selenium still lacks inbuilt reporting capabilities. The testing professionals have to use additional tools to generate test reports while testing applications using Selenium. Many professionals use plug-ins like JUnit and TestNG to generate test reports while availing other features of Selenium.

Despite these limitations, Selenium is still effective in reducing the test cycles drastically. The reduced release cycle further help enterprises in curtailing the overall project cost. But the testers must use Selenium properly to overcome some of its prominent limitations.

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 an expert selenium tester from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

A Layman step by step approach to doing Selenium automated testing

Selenium comprises an exhaustive set of tools which renders support to test automation development with respect to web-based applications across a number of platforms. This lightweight and open source automation tool can be conveniently integrated into a diverse range of projects, backing up multiple programming languages like Python, Perl, .NET, Ruby and Java.

Selenium Testing for Ajax Application

Ajax and XML constitute a web development system for development of interactive web applications. One of the features of Ajax application is that it does not cause a complete page to get reloaded every time. The browser has an asynchronous call to the server for obtaining the data and then refreshing certain parts belonging to the current page. For enhancement of the web page's response speed, interactivity, and usability, certain changes are needed while testing Ajax applications.

First the web page is acted upon, and then one needs to wait till the asynchronous call is completed. Verification continues after completion of the same. During this time, the need for an appropriate waiting time is felt. You can opt for fixed time pause in the test application, which works successfully in the majority of cases. Under certain circumstances like reduced network throughput, the Ajax call does not get completed following a specific time pause and this leads to test case failure. Again, for an excessively long pause, the test may become unacceptably slow.

Selenium comes with increasingly efficient means to handle waiting. It is possible to use the com.thoughtworks.selenium.Wait class for waiting for a text or element to disappear from or appear in the page. In the until() function it is possible to define the break condition with respect to the wait, or the Wait class can be extended to implement.

Another option is to use the function waitForCondition in Selenium. A JavaScript snippet would be passed to the same as a parameter. Once detection is done by Selenium that the condition is true, it will cease to wait. Waiting can be continued for some text or element to disappear or be present. With the help of the function Selenium.browser.getCurrentWindow(), it is possible to run JavaScript in the application window.

Methods to render support to Dojo applications

Dojo is in fact a regularly utilized JavaScript tool kit for construction of dynamic web interfaces. A crucial aspect in leveraging Selenium for testing of Dojo applications is the recognition of Dojo widgets as well as recording of their actions. Those widgets which are author-defined tend to be in the abstract level. While running the page, widgets get converted to basic HTML code. In this case, auto-generation of HTML codes takes place, thus there can be some differences with conventional HTML widgets.

Actions performed in this case, including checkbox, text field, and radio button may behave in the same manner like HTML widgets. However, when it comes to the combo box, additional widgets including date selector may call for specific handling.

Support for HTTPS website testing

With information security becoming the main focus over the Internet, SSL authentication is being increasingly used by a number of web applications. By default, Selenium IDE renders support to HTTPS, but the same is not possible with Selenium RC. The solution varies according to whether it is Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Effective recognition of web elements with no ID property

Elements can be conveniently located by means of a meaningful name or ID. So far as test cases are concerned, this enhances the readability. Selenium comes up with manifold strategies like CSS, DOM and Xpath for recognition of the elements.

Selenium automated testing provides a lot of benefits to web applications developers. It also provides convenience in handling a pop-up window, download or upload file window or verification of confirmation, alerts or prompts. You can hire developers from top automation testing companies 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 software testers from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.