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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Why Selenium Can Be the Testing Tool of Your Choice?

The choice of web browser varies from one user to another. But each user loves a quick and flawless user experience. As a user has options to choose from a wide variety of web browsers, the developers often find it a daunting challenge to deliver the best user experience. Also, the constant websites and web applications updates have made it essential for the developers to choose the right web application testing tools.

In comparison to traditional software testing tools, Selenium is much more efficient and effective in identifying and fixing the bugs immediately. Along with the open source toolsets, Selenium offers a set of advanced and robust tools to support rapid GUI test automation development of web-based apps. As the technology is designed using Java Script, it can support most of the popular web browsers and platforms.

Further, a developer can easily avoid changing and testing scripts to ensure that these are working seamlessly on multiple platforms. A professional not familiar with a test scripting language can still use the record or playback tool provided by Selenium to author and execute web application tests. Further, you can deploy the Selenium JavaScript code at a time while running the web application. The code will allows you to interact with it just like normal users.

Based on the nature and type of your web application, you can choose from three distinct variants of the technology like Selenium IDE, Selenium Core and Selenium RC. The variants can also be used individually or in combination to create customized and complete automation suite for your web application. There are also a number of reasons that makes Selenium web testing one of the most powerful open source automation tools.

5 Key Advantages of Using selenium automation tool

1. Option to Choose from Several Languages: As the automation tool is compatible with several languages, you are not required to change your existing engineering architecture. So you can easily plug Selenium into the existing architecture and avails its benefits. As your organization is developing web apps using a specific language, your team will possess adequate knowledge and technical expertise on a set of tools. You can use your existing IDE and reporting tools, and make it easier for the QA team to test the web application.

2. Run the Same Script on Several Web Browsers: While testing their web applications, developers often have to modify their scripts for individual browser. As Selenium is designed using Java Script, the technology is supported by major web browsers. So you can easily run the tests on different web browsers without putting any extra time and efforts. In addition to saving your time, the technology will further help you in providing improved user experience.

3. Support of Multiple Variants of Selenium: As mentioned earlier, you can use three variants of Selenium in isolation or in combination. Each variant will offer you specific benefits. For example, you can use the Selenium IDE as a Firefox plugin to record and run your test. Similarly, Selenium Grid will help you in optimizing your resources by running and deploying the tests in a clustered environment. So you can easily choose the variant of the technology to reduce the web app testing time.

4. Integration with Other Suites: Sometimes you have to deploy multiple tools of suites to like QMet and Hudson to enhance the user experience. Certain solutions make it easier for developers to sync Selenium with other solutions. You can also create a state of the art test automation infrastructure without investing in the expensive commercial tools available in the market. Further, you can exercise a huge amount of control over testing AJAX web applications, as the suite works alongside with your web application.

5. Avail the Reporting Features of Your Existing Framework: Similar to the languages, Selenium automation tool also works seamlessly in different frameworks. So you can complete the script testing within a reduced period of time by choosing the framework of your choice. At the same time, you can also avail the reporting tools used by the framework to make it easier for your QA team to identify the bugs.

In additions to the above mentioned advantages, Selenium automation tool costs lesser than other commercial tools. So the automation tool can be used by a developer regardless of the design, size and budget of the web application development project.

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