A web application’s success depends greatly on its testing, which is an integral aspect of application development. Automation testing makes it easier to identify and solve faults in the code before they cause issues for users. It also aids in ensuring that the application functions properly across a range of browsers and operating systems. However, testing a web application is frequently time-consuming and challenging because of the numerous scenarios that must be taken into account.
The success of an application’s development depends on testing. Application testing makes it easy to identify and address code problems before they affect users. Application functionality across a variety of browsers and operating systems is ensured by testing.
Testing is a process that may be automated by using a variety of tools to check for problems and make sure the application is meeting user needs. As a result, there will be less need for human interaction and a lesser amount of time spent testing, which will increase testing speed, reliability, efficiency, and user interface.
Selenium is a topic we always bring up while discussing automation testing. Selenium is a favorite among developers and testers globally since it is one of the best tools for automating web applications. But given that numerous automation testing tools on the market produce positive outcomes that are almost equivalent then, why use Selenium?
In this article, we will go into detail about this. Here you will learn how to test a web application using Selenium. So let’s start by talking about Selenium, some of its benefits, and how it may be used to improve a website’s usability.
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Selenium
Selenium is an open-source automated testing tool used to automate and run tests across many platforms and browsers to check for bugs and ensure that the entire application is working correctly and meets user needs. To verify the functionality of online applications, it enables testers to create automated tests in several different programming languages. The Selenese programming language was created specifically for Selenium.
Selenium automation testing is the common term used to describe a test run by Selenium. Automating web application testing is quite easy with Selenium testing. It is not just one tool but rather a group of tools that can be used to meet various organizational demands. It essentially consists of three distinct components.
- Selenium IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
- Selenium WebDriver.
- Selenium Grid
Selenium IDE
Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a Firefox plug-in that enables testers to record automated tests and replay them as they run in the browser. A built-in debugger in Selenium IDE Chrome also enables testers to troubleshoot the tests. The framework is simple to use and enables testers to easily write and execute automated tests.
Selenium WebDriver
An open-source tool called Selenium WebDriver is used to automate user interaction and control tasks in web browsers. Testers can create tests that mimic user interactions with a web application using Selenium WebDriver. Java, C#Python, and Perl are just a few of the many programming languages that Selenium WebDriver supports. There are numerous types of WebDrivers, including AndroidDriver, iPhone Driver, ChromeDriver, SafariDriver, and Internet Explorer Driver.
WebDriver is a robust and adaptable test automation framework that makes it simple to create automated tests for your web applications. Its extraordinary features include its ability to detect elements on a website automatically and take screenshots of the testing.
Selenium Grid
A key component of the entire Selenium testing suite, Selenium Grid enables significantly quicker execution of automated tests. Testers may run several Selenium tests concurrently across many browsers and operating systems due to Selenium Grid. As a result, they can quickly scale their test automation.
Why is selenium used?
Selenium is an effective tool for evaluating the functionality of the web application across various web browsers. It is a very adaptable and simple tool. When running the tests, testers don’t have to manually visit every link or fill out every form field because Selenium automates website tasks. Instead, they can automate the process by writing test scripts in computer languages like Java, C#, or Ruby.
Selenium WebDriver makes it simple for testers to automate browser testing across a variety of browsers, including Chrome, Mozilla, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer.
They can watch real-time automated tests being run on their computers. This enables organizations to efficiently test the functionality of their website by having Selenium execute tasks when specific events take place, for instance when a user clicks on a link.
Advantages of Automated Testing with Selenium
Selenium can speed up and greatly reduce the testing time for web applications. Before making a web application available to users, its complete functionality can be verified using Selenium. Here are a few more advantages that selenium offers.
Support for Language and Framework
When selecting a tool, language support is the first consideration. It is not the case with Selenium since it supports all popular programming languages for automating web applications, including Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, Ruby, and Perl.
Any of these programming languages can be used by testers to create scripts, and Selenium quickly turns them into Selenium-compliant code. So, it eliminates the need for knowing Selenium-only languages. Because Selenium takes care of language and framework support, you don’t need to worry if you’re using it as a tool for automation testing.
Open Source Accessibility
The fact that Selenium is an open-source tool, which implies that it is a publicly accessible automation framework without any upfront charges. This is one of the many elements that add to the advantages of availability. This saves money which can be used for other good causes.
Because it is so simple to create test scripts to verify functioning, Selenium has emerged as the most reliable web automation solution.
Implementation is simple.
Utilizing the Selenium automation framework is fairly simple. Its user-friendly interface makes it simple and efficient to design and test scripts. Additionally, users may monitor the progress of the tests, examine in-depth results, and take subsequent measures.
The added benefit of Selenium is that it never leaves its users on its own because of the large Selenium community that is always ready to assist them.
Faster go-to-market times and parallel test execution
The goal of automated testing is to save time and effort. Users can run numerous tests simultaneously using Selenium Grid, which cuts down on the time it takes to run a test. Selenium can be used to test across numerous browsers concurrently with the aid of cloud grids, greatly reducing testing time.
Various Browser Support
The most popular browsers in the world are Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Edge, and the Selenium script works with each of them. One Selenium script will work for all browsers. Thus eliminating the need to build several scripts for each.
Support across Various Operating Systems
An automation tool must support every operating system since various users utilize different operating systems. One such solution that supports and can function on various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Mac OS, UNIX, etc. is Selenium.
It is possible to run Selenium test suites developed for one platform, such as Windows, on another, such as Mac or Linux. This makes it simple for developers and testers to create test automation scripts without having to focus too much on the platform that will host them.
Integrations
Although Selenium automation tests suites can be reused and tested on several operating systems and browsers. Yet, it is not a complete tool for web automation testing. Increasing the testing’s scope; requires add-ons and third-party frameworks.
Most management solutions can be linked with Selenium. For instance, it needs to be integrated with TestNG and Junit to handle test cases and generate reports. To achieve continuous testing, it needs to be integrated with CI/CD tools like Jenkins, Maven, and Docker. Additionally, cloud-grid performs cross-browser testing.
Regular Updates
Considering that a large community regularly releases updates and upgrades for Selenium. The finest part about these upgrades is that they are easily accessible and do not demand any special training to comprehend. Selenium is therefore more resourceful and affordable than other tools.
How to use Selenium to test web applications
Here are some things to keep in mind while using Selenium to test web apps.
Defining the browsers and testing platforms.
When performing tests, Selenium needs to know precisely which browser and device to simulate. For instance, Selenium must be configured to run on either Chrome or Safari on iOS if the application is meant for mobile devices for it to function properly on various platforms.
Setting up the browser
The configuration of Selenium to work with the browsers comes next. It must download and install Google Chrome or Apple Safari for Windows to perform Selenium tests on those browsers, both of which are free add-ons.
Establishing the testing environment.
After setting up Selenium to function in Chrome or Safari. The free IDE WebDriver may be downloaded and installed to simply create tests in a variety of programming languages and run them through Selenium.
Scripting the test runs.
The majority of Selenium tests involve automating web application tasks. Create a script that performs the following, for instance, if you want to test what occurs when a user clicks on a login link. You need to Click the “Login” button. This will instruct Selenium to click on that particular website element.
Executing the tests
Open the WebDriver interface after writing the test script, then click “play” to launch the test. To execute the test as frequently as required, it can also be stored as a .JUnit file (a common Selenium testing framework).
Performing steps 3-5 again.
Users should probably repeat these procedures for other website functionalities after running the initial test. For each feature that needs testing, testers must repeat steps 3 through 5, and Selenium will launch the test when it notices that a user has interacted with that component. Even better, testers can automate their tests to run at specified intervals.
Conducting testing on a range of devices.
Web applications aren’t just made to work on standard desktop browsers. They are designed to be used on many devices, such as tablets and smartphones. By automating actions across several browsers and operating systems, Selenium makes it possible to evaluate an application’s compatibility with numerous devices without manually interacting with each one.
Using LambdaTest for Selenium web automation testing
Many testing teams integrate Selenium with cloud-based platforms like LambdaTest in order to increase its potential and capability to fulfill the demands of the required automated testing solution.
LambdaTest is an easy-to-use cloud-based platform that enables users to quickly release high-quality apps. It is a cross-browser compatibility testing platform that is completely compliant with the Selenium framework.
The Selenium integration with the reliable and secure LambdaTest cloud, enables users to speed up web app automation testing by running Selenium test automation scripts on real browsers.
LambdaTest offers users a cloud Selenium Grid of more than 3000 real devices, browsers, and operating system versions to do browser compatibility testing for the application. This is done to make sure that the application runs perfectly on all popular browsers, devices, and operating systems.
Users using cloud-based Selenium Grid can also run tests parallel to obtain faster results without sacrificing accuracy. Additionally, this makes it easier for testers to identify flaws and makes testing much more scalable and maintenance-free.
Conclusion
With a basic understanding of Selenium, it is clear that it is advantageous to test websites and web applications for bugs with Selenium before releasing them into production.
