A Walk-through to Selenium

Introduction to Selenium

·         Selenium is an open-source testing framework for web applications. It is used to automate the web applications.

·         Selenium is compatible with the following browsers

• Firefox
• IE
• Chrome
• Safari
• Opera

·         Selenium works with following Programming Languages

• C#
• Java
• Perl
• Python
• Ruby

Selenium-Components

·         Selenium - IDE

·         Selenium – RC

·         Selenium Webdriver

·         Selenium Grid

Selenium IDE

Ø  Selenium IDE is a plugin to Firefox.

Ø  It is a tool to record and playback tests (like Win Runner, QTP).

Selenium RC (Remote Control)

Ø   Test tool that allows you to write automated web application UI tests in  any programming language against any HTTP website.

Ø  Support multiple browsers.

Selenium Grid

Ø  Selenium Grid provides a hub allowing the running of multiple Selenium tests concurrently on any number of local or remote systems, thus minimizing test execution time.

Why Selenium Webdriver or RC , not IDE?

Ø  The main limitation of Selenium IDE is that it is supported in only Firefox browser

Ø  Selenium RC  and Webdriver Supports Multiple Browser

Ø  Selenium RC also has its limitation that it needs to start selenium server before starting  running the test.

Ø  So to overcome all these issues a new version was introduced “Selenium Webdriver”.

Selenium Webdriver requirements:

To start up with automation using selenium, we need IDE like Eclipse to write the scripts. Below are the initial steps to do.

Step1: Install Java on your computer.

             Download and install the Java Software Development Kit (JDK) .

Step2: Install Eclipse IDE.

             Download as a Zip file.

             Inside the Zip file, there is an “Eclipse” folder.   

Step3: Download Selenium-Server-Standalone-2.25.0 jar

Step4: Configure Eclipse with selenium webdriver.

Configuration Eclipse-Selenium Webdriver

Ø  Launch the "eclipse.exe" file inside the "eclipse" folder.

Ø  It will ask to create workspace.

Ø  Create a new project through File > New > Java Project.

Ø  Name the project as “seleniumproject".

Ø  Right-click on the newly created project and select New > Package, and name that package as “seleniumpackage“

Ø  Create a new java class under “seleniumpackage” . Right click the package, and then select New > Class and name it as “seleniumclass”.

Ø  Once you completed all the above steps, your Eclipse IDE will look like

Ø  Import the selenium standalone jar to the project

Ø  Right click on the project > Bulid path> configure Build path > Libraries >Add External Jars .

Sample script with Selenium Webdriver:

Ø  To Open Google Page:

Selenium Webdriver API:

Ø  In the above script “driver.get” is one of the API’s of webdriver.

Ø  API Means “Application program Interface”.

Ø  API is a set of protocols, routines and tools for building software application.

  SOME IMPOTTANT API:

Ø  driver.get

Ø  driver.findelement

Ø  By.id, By.linkText…

Ø  driver.click

Ø  driver.sendkeys

Let’s see how to search something in google:

Ø    In the above script “driver.findElement(By.id("gbqfq")).sendKeys("selenium for beginners");” “gbqfq” is a locator.

Ø  So, What is Locator?

Ø  Locator is HTML element to find and match the elements of your page that it needs to interact with.

Ø  How to find the locators.?

Find Locator:

Ø  Open your application Ex: Google

Ø  Press F12.