Thoughtworks developed Selenium in 2004 for internal use. It is widely used for automated testing of web applications. Selenium IDE (Integrated Development Environment) was initially used by many organizations and testers around the world. The automation testing with Selenium helped to save a lot of time and effort. Selenium IDE would not work with it. Selenium RC (Remote Control), was used to resolve this issue. Selenium can now support automated cross-browser testing.
Websites are getting more sophisticated and offer many features. With most organizations creating a mobile-friendly website today, it is important that testers keep in mind that websites should be compatible with both iOS and Android. Selenium RC was slowly behind the times because it didn’t have the ability to test browser compatibility across multiple devices. Selenium Webdriver was created to address all of these problems.
How do you start your Selenium WebDriver journey? This step-by-step guide will show you how to automate testing using Selenium WebDriver.
Selenium Webdriver supports many features that were not available in the earlier versions of Selenium. It can also test dynamic websites. Websites where the content on a page is dynamically changed by clicking a button or using other user functionalities.
It mimics a real user interacting with a web page. Webdriver’s API (Application Programming Interface), is easy to use and understand.
You can use it with other testing frameworks such as JUnit for automated testing with Selenium. Let’s take a look at how web drivers differ from Selenium RC and IDE in the next section.
How Is Selenium WebDriver Different From Selenium RC & IDE?
It has many cool features, supports multiple languages, and other features that distinguish it from Selenium IDE and Selenium RC. Let’s have a look.
- Selenium IDE was only compatible with Mozilla, while RC, WebDriver, Opera, Safari, and other browsers work well.
- Selenium WebDriver and RC do not support Record and Playback, but Selenium IDE does.
- Selenium RC has a disadvantage in that it requires the user to start a server before a script can be executed. WebDriver and IDE don’t require that a server be started before a script is executed.
- Selenium IDE plug-in is a GUI-based application. Selenium RC, a Java-based standalone application that allows users to run HTML-based test suites, is also available. WebDriver, a core API, provides multilingual support for different programming languages through bindings.
- Selenium IDE and RC are based on JavaScript. WebDriver has no core engine, and can be used natively only with the browser.
- Selenium WebDriver is a bit more complex than RC and IDE, due to the larger API.
- Selenium IDE APIs don’t have an object-oriented design. It is a little more object-oriented for RC. WebDriver APIs, however, are fully object oriented in their nature.
- Selenium IDE, RC, and WebDriver do not support mouse cursor movements. WebDriver however supports both.
- Configuring Selenium IDE or RC will require you to append the entire XPath with the syntax “xpath =\”.”. WebDriver does not require this step.
- Selenium WebDriver supports listeners whose implementations are not supported by RC and IDE.
- As mentioned above, WebDriver supports iOS and Android application testing, but not in RC and IDE.
To scale your website or web apps, run Selenium, Cypress and Appium tests using LambdaTest.
Top Reasons To Choose Selenium For Your Automation Testing In 2023
1) Open Source
First, automation testing using Selenium WebDriver has a major advantage. It offers all of the QTP features and more for a fraction of the cost. You can download it directly from the official website. Community-based support is available for the tool.
2) Language Supportive
Multilingual support is a major benefit of Selenium webDriver for automation testing. WebDriver supports all programming languages that testers need to know, such as Java, PHP, Java C# Ruby, JavaScript, and JavaScript. It not only has a custom script language but also provides bindings for every major programming language. Web developers have the flexibility to use any programming language they feel comfortable with.
3) Supports Multiple OS
Selenium Webdriver has many OS support, including Windows, Linux, UNIX, and Mac. This is a major advantage over the previous versions. A customized suite of testing tools can be built using their solution suite. It can be used on any platform. WebDriver allows you to create and execute a test case for Windows.
4) Compatible With Cross-Browser
Selenium WebDriver now supports automated cross-browser testing, which is not possible with previous versions. You can test Chrome, Firefox Firefox, Safari Opera, IE Edge, Yandex, Opera, IE, and Safari with it. WebDriver automates cross-browser testing of websites.
5) Multiple Frameworks & Language Supportive
WebDriver can integrate with different frameworks such as Maven and ANT to compile the source code. It can be integrated with testing frameworks such as TestNG for application testing and reporting. This will make automation testing easier with Selenium. It integrates with Jenkins for Continuous Integration or Continuous Delivery of automated building and deployment.
6) Easier Implementation
Selenium WebDriver’s user-friendliness is a major benefit for automation testing. Open-source allows users to create their own extensions. This allows them to customize actions and allow for manipulation once they reach an advanced level.
7) Leverage The Code
Automation testing with Selenium has another advantage: it speeds up test cycles and leverages the development code. Developers can be used by testers. If a tester needs to verify the date field in a database, rather than performing an indirect verification via browsing to another webpage, the tester can pull data model used by the application.
8) Community Support
Selenium support is largely community-based. This allows for regular updates and upgrades. Updates are available at any time and don’t require any training. Selenium WebDriver is therefore both budget-friendly and resourceful.
9) Advance Browser Interaction
WebDriver allows you to create advanced interactions such as clicking the browser’s back and front buttons. This type of scenario is not possible with open-source tools. This tool is extremely useful in testing fintech applications that involve online money transfers, or any banking application that doesn’t store cookies or cache.
10) No Requirement For Server Starting
Automation testing with Selenium webDriver has the advantage that no server is required to be started before testing. The code commands are translated directly into Webservices, and the remote driver then receives them via HTTP requests. This allows the remote driver to execute the commands into the browser and send the response.
Wrapping Up
Selenium WebDriver can be used to perform cross-browser testing. There is however a limitation. It is possible that your local computer does not have all browsers installed. It also limits the number of operating systems that can be installed.
LambdaTest can help. You can run Selenium tests through their cloud-based, scalable Selenium grid. You can use the Selenium grid to run browser compatibility tests on your application across more than 3000 browsers. This will ensure that your application renders flawlessly across all browsers.
You can test your application on different operating systems and devices, such as Selenium testing on MicrosoftEdge87. There is no need to download additional browsers or virtual machines. To run automated tests on your application, you only need to have internet access and sign up for LambdaTest.
There are many downsides. However, there are some advantages to Selenium WebDriver. It is impossible to migrate your testing environment from another testing suite to Selenium if you are currently using it. Selenium WebDriver is a great alternative to QTP if you have a new project and need an automated tool that will make testing easy with minimal manual labor.
