Despite we have several testing software and techniques are available in the market, but Selenium automation testing has grabbed the interest of a huge number of users. Don’t worry anymore if you are not familiar with the Selenium Automation Testing. We are here for your help. Here you will get information about every aspect related to Selenium Automation testing.

What exactly Selenium Testing is?

Selenium is a web browser-based testing tool for web applications. It is considered as the best tool for the testing purpose of web applications. Yeah, this is the only testing tool for the web applications, neither for the desktop applications nor for the software testing. The major advantage of testing with Selenium over other testing tools,  Selenium involves no-cost license since it is an open-source tool. You can use the Selenium Automation Testing tool even if you don’t know about the script languages.

Components of Selenium Automation Testing includes:

• Selenium WebDriver
• Selenium RC (Remote Control)
• Selenium IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
• Selenium Grid
• Selenium Client APIs

Selenium WebDriver:-

Selenium WebDriver is the first cross-browser testing framework that is successful in controlling the browsers from the operating system’s level. It consists of the programming interface for the creation and execution of the test cases. Most Alluring Aspects of Selenium Testing is that it uses web browsers for the testing. For instance:- Chrome, Mozilla, Firefox, Safari, etcetera. For doing so, it just needs the Selenium WebDrivers for better functionality.

Selenium RC(Remote Control):-

Selenium RC (PHP, Ruby, C#, etc) communicate with the Selenium Core through the Remote Control Server. It has become the first tool used to write test cases in any programming language, but at the same time, it is very slow as it’s every communication with the server is very time-consuming.

Selenium IDE(Integrated Development Environment):-

It was a first plugin for the Firefox browsers to create the test cases by recording every interaction of a user with the web browsers. One of the major drawbacks of Selenium IDE is that it is only designed for the Firefox browsers, not for others.

Selenium Grid:-

Selenium Grid operates in combination with Remote Control(RC) in order to execute multiple test cases at a time. It works on the principle of Hub-node architecture in which one machine is considered as the Hub and others as Nodes. Hub is the controller of all the test scripts running on multiple machines, even in different programming languages.

Main key features of Selenium Automation Testing:

• An Open-Source Tool
• Test Automation Tool
• Light-weight
• Developer-friendly
• Free of charge

Benefits of using Selenium Automation testing?

• Detects the bugs and errors at the initial stage
• As it has predefined actions, it makes the work easy
• Quite simple to compare the test results
• Can be used remotely from any device or location
• Much more efficient and accurate than the manual testing
• Same code can be used to test the different versions of a software
• Reduces the testing time

Major drawbacks of Selenium Automation Testing:

• Cannot be used for desktop applications or any other software
• No guaranteed support
• Not for the testing of images

Best Practises to Monitor the Selenium Automation Testing:

Application Under Test (AUT):

Every business must know the Application Under Test. It is the best approach in the case of web applications.

Page Object Model (POM):

POM is the commonly used pattern in test automation’s world as it improves the test maintenance and lessens the duplication in code.

Effective Locators:

The secret of Selenium Testing to provide easy navigation is the use of several kinds of locators in a browser. These locators mainly consist of Class, ID, CSS, Link Text, X path, etcetera.

Independent:

To avoid the interdependency on each other, try to use the small tests, commonly in the case, if you are following the agile and continuous DevOps processes.

Efficient Use of Wait and Sleep Commands:

As we all know, sleep command always affects the performance of a testing process, whereas, wait command doesn’t affect the test time. So, always be careful while using such commands.

Easy ways to learn about Selenium Automation Testing:

The easiness of learning of Selenium Automation Testing makes it a popular tool among the software testers. Now, note some of the points while learning about its Testing Process:

Get exposure to some of the programming languages like Jave, C#, or Ruby. Learn the basics of the Selenium IDE followed by knowing about Selenium Web Drivers. Other sources of acquiring knowledge of Selenium Testing are various online channels as it is easy to gain information about it.

How it is Beneficial for Businesses?

Sometimes having the paid automation testing tools and software for the businesses results in economic burdens on the enterprises, so in such situations, Selenium Automation Testing is proven as the best freeware tool for them.

• Freemium and Portable Tool
• Supports Different Programming language
• Works on almost all the browsers
• Can be developed on several programming platforms
• Highly Flexible
• Follows the principles of Agile, DevOps, and Continuous
• Provides detailed reports
• Exposure to multiple test scripts
• Very helpful for the developers.

Conclusion:

At last, there is no doubt to say Selenium Automation Testing is perfect for the quality assurance of web applications. Selenium is open-source as well as supports cross-browser testing that makes it efficient enough to provide flawless testing results to the testers.