Overview of Selenium, its features and limitations

Last updated on Dec 02 2021
Manikaran Reddy

Table of Contents

Overview of Selenium, its features and limitations

Selenium is one among the foremost widely used open-source Web UI (User Interface) automation testing suite. it had been originally developed by Jason Huggins in 2004 as an indoor tool at Thought Works. Selenium supports automation across different browsers, platforms and programming languages.
Selenium are often easily deployed on platforms like Windows, Linux, Solaris and Macintosh. Moreover, it supports OS (Operating System) for mobile applications like iOS, windows mobile and android.
Selenium supports a spread of programming languages through the utilization of drivers specific to every language. Languages supported by Selenium include C#, Java, Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby. Currently, Selenium Web driver is hottest with Java and C#. Selenium test scripts are often coded in any of the supported programming languages and may be run directly in latest web browsers. Browsers supported by Selenium include Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari.

Selenium Web Driver
Selenium Web Driver

Selenium are often wont to automate functional tests and may be integrated with automation test tools like Maven, Jenkins, & Docker to realize continuous testing. It also can be integrated with tools like TestNG, & JUnit for managing test cases and generating reports.

Selenium Basic Terminology

Before proceeding with this tutorial, allow us to first understand a number of the key concepts related to Automation testing of an application.
With the growing need for efficient software products, every software development group got to perform a series of tests before launching the ultimate product into the market. Test engineers strive to catch the faults or bugs before the software package is released, yet delivered software always has defects. Even with the simplest manual testing processes, there’s always an opportunity that the ultimate software package is left with a defect or is unable to satisfy the top user requirement. Automation testing is that the best thanks to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and coverage of your software testing.

Automation Testing

Automation testing uses the specialized tools to automate the execution of manually designed test cases with none human intervention. Automation testing tools can access the test data, controls the execution of tests and compares the particular result against the expected result. Consequently, generating detailed test reports of the system under test.
Automation testing covers both functional and performance test on an application.
• Functional automation is employed for automation of functional test cases. for instance, regression tests, which are repetitive in nature, are automated.
• Performance automation is employed for automation of non-functional performance test cases. for instance, measuring the reaction time of the appliance under considerable (say 100 users) load.
Automation Testing tools which are used for functional automation:
• Quick Test Professional, provided by HP.
• Rational Robot, provided by IBM.
• Coded UI, provided by Microsoft.
• Selenium, open source.
• Auto It, open Source.
Automation Testing tools which are used for non-functional automation:
• Load Runner, provided by HP.
• JMeter, provided by Apache.
• Burp Suite, provided by PortSwigger.
• Acunetix, provided by Acunetix.
Automation Testing Life Cycle

Selenium Web Driver
Selenium Web Driver

Why Automated Testing

Automation testing has specific advantages for improving long-term efficiency of any software. The key benefits of test automation are:
• Automated testing has long been considered beneficial for giant software organizations. Although, it’s often thought to be too expensive or difficult for smaller companies to implement.
• Automated testing tools are often programmed to create and execute test scripts at a selected time without involving any human intervention. For instance, automated test are often automatically began overnight, and therefore the testers can analyse the results of the automated subsequent morning.
• Automated testing tools are ready to playback pre-recorded and pre-defined actions.
• Automation testing supports frequent regression testing.
• It provides rapid feedback to developers.
• It provides unlimited iterations of test suit execution.
• It provides disciplined documentation of test cases.
• Automated test generates customized defect reports.
• Less error prone as compared to manual testing.
Test Automation for Web Applications
If we take a glance at the sort of software applications prevailing in current market scenario, most of the software applications are written as web-based applications to be run in an online browser. The testing strategy for web-based applications varies widely among companies and organizations. In an era of highly interactive and responsive software processes where many organizations are using some sort of agile methodology, test automation is usually becoming a requirement for software projects.
The most effective manner to hold out test automation for web application is to adopt a pyramid testing strategy. This pyramid testing strategy includes automation tests at three different levels. Unit testing represents the bottom and largest percentage of this test automation pyramid. Next comes, service layer, or API testing. and eventually, GUI tests sit at the highest. The pyramid looks something like this:

Selenium Web Driver
Selenium Web Driver

Selenium Features

• Selenium is an open source and portable Web testing Framework.
• Selenium IDE provides a playback and record feature for authoring tests without the necessity to find out a test scripting language.
• It is often considered because the leading cloud-based testing platform which helps testers to record their actions and export them as a reusable script with a simple-to-understand and easy-to-use interface.
• Selenium supports various operating systems, browsers and programming languages. Following is that the list:
o Programming Languages: C#, Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, Perl, and JavaScript
o Operating Systems: Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris.
o Browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, Opera, Safari, etc.
• It also supports parallel test execution which reduces time and increases the efficiency of tests.
• Selenium is often integrated with frameworks like Ant and Maven for ASCII text file compilation.
• Selenium also can be integrated with testing frameworks like TestNG for application testing and generating reports.
• Selenium requires fewer resources as compared to other automation test tools.
• WebDriver API has been indulged in selenium which is one among the foremost important modifications done to selenium.
• Selenium web driver doesn’t require server installation; test scripts interact directly with the browser.
• Selenium commands are categorized in terms of various classes which make it easier to know and implement.
• Selenium remote (RC) in conjunction with WebDriver API is understood as Selenium 2.0. This version was built to support the colourful sites and Ajax.

Selenium Limitations

• Selenium doesn’t support automation testing for desktop applications.
• Selenium requires high skill sets so as to automate tests more effectively.
• Since Selenium is open-source software, you’ve got to believe community forums to urge your technical issues resolved.
• We can’t perform automation tests on web services like SOAP or REST using Selenium.
• We should know a minimum of one among the supported programming languages to make tests scripts in Selenium WebDriver.
• It doesn’t have built-in Object Repository like UTF/QTP to take care of objects/elements in centralized location. However, we will overcome this limitation using Page Object Model.

• Selenium doesn’t have any inbuilt reporting capability; you’ve got to believe plug-ins like JUnit and TestNG for test reports.
• It isn’t possible to perform testing on images. we’d like to integrate Selenium with Sikuli for image-based testing.
• Creating test environment in Selenium takes longer as compared to vendor tools like UFT, RFT, Silk test, etc.
• No one is liable for new features usage; they’ll or might not work properly.
• Selenium doesn’t provide any test tool integration for Test Management.
So, this brings us to the end of blog. This Tecklearn ‘Overview of Selenium, its features and limitations’ help you with commonly asked questions if you are looking out for a job in Selenium and Automation Testing. If you wish to learn Selenium and build a career in Automation Testing domain, then check out our interactive, Selenium Certification Training, that comes with 24*7 support to guide you throughout your learning period. Please find the link for course details:

https://www.tecklearn.com/course/selenium-training-certification/

Selenium Certification Training

About the Course

Tecklearn’s Selenium Certification Training enables you to master the complete Selenium suite. The Selenium Training is designed to train developers and manual testers to learn how to automate web applications with a robust framework, and integrate it within the DevOps processes of an organization. This Selenium Certification Training will also help you master important concepts such as TestNG, Selenium IDE, Selenium Grid, Selenium WebDriver, etc. Get hands-on experience on widely used automation frameworks such as Data-Driven Framework, Keyword-Driven Framework, Hybrid Framework, and Behavior Driven Development (BDD) Framework. Throughout this online Instructor-led Selenium Certification Training, you will be working on real-life industry use cases.

Why Should you take Selenium Certification Training?

• The average salary of a Selenium Test Automation Engineer is $94k per year – Indeed.com.
• Automation Testing Market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18.0% in the next three years.
• Global software testing market to reach $50 billion by 2020 – NASSCOM. Selenium tool supports more browsers and languages than any other testing tool.

What you will Learn in this Course?

Getting started with Selenium
• Introduction to Selenium testing
• Significance of automation testing
• Comparison of Manual and Automation Testing
• Installation of Java JDK, JRE and Eclipse
Setting the environment in Eclipse for Selenium
• Java Introduction
• Creating a Java function and executing
• Concepts of Java
• Properties File
• Reading Data from Excel File
• Database Connection
• Hands On
Advantages of Selenium automation testing
• Selenium Features
• Concept of Selenium Integrated Development Environment
• Understanding of the Selenium IDE features
• Addition of Script assertions and general commands
• Deploying the first Selenium Script
• Sample project IDE
• Recording Selenium test case
• Hands On
Selenium Web driver Automation
• Architecture of Selenium Web Driver
• Download and installation
• Creating a Java function using Selenium and execution
• Hands On
Deploying Web Drivers for scripting
• Getting the HTML source of Web Element
• Table and Form Elements
• Firebug extension and Fire Path installation
• Advance User Interactions and Cross Browser Testing
• Hands On
Deep dive into Selenium Web Driver
• Action Commands
• Web Table / Date Picker
• How to Implement Switching Commands in WebDriver
• Alerts
• Frames
• Hands On
Switching Operations in WebDriver using Window
• Selenium Webdriver Wait
• Implicit wait, Explicit wait
• Deploying searching elements using the link text, name, using XPath
• Calendar
• Hands On
Introduction to TestNG Framework
• Introduction to TestNG
• Advantages of TestNG
• Installing TestNG on Eclipse
• Rules to write TestNG
• TestNG Features
• Annotations
• Grouping
• Sequencing: Prioritization and Dependency
• Enable/Disable a test case
• Parameterization: Using Xml file and DataProvider
• Parallel Testing & Cross Browser Testing
• TestNG Report: HTML Report, Console Report, XML Report
JUnit Operations and Test Framework
• Annotations, Methods in JUnit
• Junit Test Suites, ANT Build and JUNIT reporting
• Types of Test Automation Framework
• Module Based Testing Framework
• Data Driven Testing Framework
• Keyword Driven Testing Framework
• Hybrid Driven Testing Framework
• How to implement Testing Framework in Project
Object Repository
• Understanding of Object Repository
• Learning sample scripts using object repository
• Page Object Modelling
• Page Factory
JavaScript Functions
• Autosuggestion
• Headless Browser
• Sikuli
• XPath

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