Selenium Tutorial: A Complete Guide on Selenium Automation Testing

Selenium is an open-source software to automate web testing by controlling browsers based on your test scripts.

...Start free with Google
Start free with Email
Selenium
What Is SeleniumImportance Of SeleniumHow Do I Get Started?Selenium WebDriverSelenium GridSelenium IDEWhich Testing Can Be Automated Using Selenium?Why Use Selenium?History Of SeleniumLearning Resources for SeleniumFrequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Signup for free ...

Selenium is a robust open-source framework designed to facilitate the automation of web applications for testing purposes, ensuring software quality through meticulous validation. At its core, lies Selenium WebDriver, a streamlined yet powerful tool, offering a platform for running test scripts on web applications across a variety of browsers and operating systems.

In this guide, we'll cover everything you need to know to get started with Selenium. From installation and setup, core components, and why Selenium is the first choice for the testers. we'll walk you through each aspect with clarity and simplicity. Whether you're a seasoned QA professional or a beginner in the field, this tutorial is designed to accommodate all skill levels.

What Is Selenium?

Selenium is a free, open-source framework designed for automating web browsers. It helps developers and quality assurance professionals to automate repetitive tasks and test web applications across different browsers and platforms, ensuring they function correctly. By using Selenium, the need for manual testing is reduced, which accelerates the development process and improves software quality.

Using Selenium framework, testers are able to deliver test cycles faster by automating repeated test cases. When integrated with CI/CD pipeline, it can also help with a sturdy, bug-free release deployment pipeline.

If you are a tester or enthusiastic about Selenium. In that case, here in this article, you will learn about easy steps to executing Selenium automation testing for your project and a detailed guide to Selenium, its history, components, and how it works.

If you are new to Selenium and eager to learn from experts, check out this video tutorial.

Why is Selenium Important for Automation Testing

Product teams are hesitant to release a product hastily. Usually, when the process is manual, exhaustive testing is a part of the SDLC. Depending on the size of the testing team, the process can take a few days to many weeks. Companies must find a way to afford the inefficiency that comes with dedicating excess time to development. If you want to supercharge the process, Selenium automation testing is the way to go. Here are the key benefits of using Selenium.

Faster Cross Browser Testing: Selenium is crucial as it facilitates swift cross-browser testing, ensuring your website performs optimally across various browsers and platforms. By employing Selenium WebDriver, the traditionally tedious task of manual cross-browser testing is automated, significantly speeding up the process. Selenium supports all major web browsers, allowing for comprehensive testing across different platforms. The supported browsers include:

  • Google Chrome
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Safari
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Internet Explorer

Supports Different Languages: Selenium supports multiple programming languages, making it flexible and easy for testers to use. With Selenium, testers and developers can write test scripts in a language they are comfortable with. Selenium supports the following programming languages:

  • Java
  • C#
  • Ruby
  • Python
  • JavaScript (Node.js)

Each browser and language has its own dedicated drivers and bindings that enable seamless interaction between the Selenium framework and the browser or programming environment. This extensive support empowers teams to create robust and flexible automated testing suites tailored to their project requirements.

Test on Multiple OS: Selenium supports multiple operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, macOS, and Solaris. That way, you can aggressively test your web application by executing it over combinations of browsers + OS.

Integration with CI/CD Pipelines: Selenium can be integrated with CI/CD pipelines, eliminating the need for manual cross-browser compatibility testing after each build. This saves time, reduces the risk of human error, and allows for early detection of deployment failures.

Industrial standard tool: Selenium has become an industry standard testing tool with a strong reputation and widespread usage by multiple enterprises and testing specialists. And because of that, it has huge community support as well As per its GitHub page, it has 7.6k forks, 26.8k stars, and 206k active users.

Also Read: Build An Automated Testing Pipeline With GitLab CI/CD and Selenium Grid

How To Get Started With Automation Testing Using Selenium?

To demonstrate, we will be using TestNG with Selenium. TestNG is an open source framework for automation testing with Java. Before you can run your first test with Selenium, you need to have some prerequisites covered.

Prerequisites To Run Selenium Test

To get started with test automation in Selenium with TestNG, you will need to install some prerequisites. Here is the list of prerequisites and how to get access to it:

  • Install the latest Java programming environment. Java 11 is highly recommended because it provides a solid and feature-rich platform for your automation attempts.
  • Once Java is installed, you may begin working with the Selenium Client and its WebDriver bindings. The most recent versions are available for download directly from the Selenium website.
  • Installing Maven, a sophisticated build management tool, is a terrific way to streamline your testing efforts. Maven comes preconfigured with the TestNG framework, making it an excellent choice for Selenium projects. Following the procedures given on the official Maven website, you can quickly download and install Maven.
  • Sign up for the LambdaTest platform for free to perform faster Selenium testing across 3000+ browsers, OS, and devices.
  • Visit LambdaTest automation dashboard to gather Key credentials which would help authenticate your local test script execution over the LambdaTest cloud.

Clone the repository and install the required dependencies

Let's walk through the process of cloning LambdaTest's Java-TestNG-Selenium repository and installing the necessary dependencies. Follow these steps:

You can start by cloning the repository. Open your terminal or command prompt and enter the following command:

git clone https://github.com/LambdaTest/Java-TestNG-Selenium

This will create a local copy of the repository on your machine. Once the cloning process is complete, navigate to the code directory by running the following command:

cd Java-TestNG-Selenium

In order to ensure that you have the most up-to-date dependencies, you may want to run the following command:

mvn versions:display-dependency-updates

Authenticate Your Local Tests to LambdaTest Cloud

Before you begin running your test automation scripts on the LambdaTest Selenium Grid, you must first obtain your LambdaTest credentials. These credentials serve as your entry point to LambdaTest's strong testing capabilities.

There are two ways to obtain your credentials:

Once you have these credentials ready, you'll be all set to dive into the world of seamless and efficient test automation with LambdaTest. Here is an example of it.

For Windows:

set LT_USERNAME="YOUR_LAMBDATEST_USERNAME" 
set LT_ACCESS_KEY="YOUR_LAMBDATEST_ACCESS_KEY"

For Linux/MacOS:

export LT_USERNAME="YOUR_LAMBDATEST_USERNAME" export LT_ACCESS_KEY="YOUR_LAMBDATEST_ACCESS_KEY"

Setting up your Test Capabilities

When working with your test script, it's important to ensure that your test capabilities are properly updated. In the provided code snippet, we are passing essential information such as the browser, browser version, and operating system details. These parameters are passed through the capabilities object, which allows you to customize your test configuration on the LambdaTest Selenium grid.

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
        capabilities.setCapability("browserName", "chrome");
        capabilities.setCapability("version", "70.0");
        capabilities.setCapability("platform", "win10"); // If this cap isn't specified, it will just get the any available one
        capabilities.setCapability("build", "LambdaTestSampleApp");
        capabilities.setCapability("name", "LambdaTestJavaSample");
Note

Note : You can generate capabilities for your test requirements with the help of our inbuilt Capabilities Generator Tool.

Finally, your test script is ready to run on LambdaTest Selenium Grid; use the following command test execution: 

mvn test -D suite=single.xml
  • Now go to the LambdaTest Automation Dashboard and view the results.
    • Selenium WebDriver
  • As a result, you can evaluate in detail your Selenium testing with recorded video, Screenshots, and various logs.
    • Selenium WebDriver

Run Parallel Test Over LambdaTest Cloud

LambdaTest cloud allows you to run Selenium testing in parallel across 40+ Browsers and OS to run different test cases simultaneously. Whether running a single test case across multiple browsers or executing diverse test scenarios within the same browser but different versions, LambdaTest has got you covered.

Here's a simple example of an XML file that can help you run a single test on multiple browsers simultaneously. To accomplish this, you'll also need to create a test case that utilizes the TestNG framework parameters (org.testng.annotations.Parameters).

testng.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE suite SYSTEM "http://testng.org/testng-1.0.dtd">
<suite thread-count="3" name="LambaTestSuite" parallel="tests">


  <test name="WIN8TEST">
  <parameter name="browser" value="firefox"/>
  <parameter name="version" value="62.0"/>
  <parameter name="platform" value="WIN8"/>
    <classes>
      <class name="LambdaTest.TestNGToDo"/>
    </classes>
  </test> <!-- Test -->


  <test name="WIN10TEST">
  <parameter name="browser" value="chrome"/>
  <parameter name="version" value="79.0"/>
  <parameter name="platform" value="WIN10"/>
    <classes>
      <class name="LambdaTest.TestNGToDo"/>
    </classes>
  </test> <!-- Test -->
  <test name="MACTEST">
  <parameter name="browser" value="safari"/>
  <parameter name="version" value="11.0"/>
  <parameter name="platform" value="macos 10.13"/>
    <classes>
      <class name="LambdaTest.TestNGToDo"/>
    </classes>
  </test> <!-- Test -->


</suite>

To run parallel tests using TestNG, you'll need to execute the following commands in the terminal:

mvn test

And if you are using cloned Java-TestNG-Selenium repo as earlier you can use following command: 

mvn test -D suite=parallel.xml

Testing Privately or Locally hosted project

LambdaTest offers the capability to test your locally hosted or privately hosted projects on the LambdaTest Selenium grid cloud by utilizing the LambdaTest Tunnel app. By setting up an SSH tunnel with the LambdaTest Tunnel app and enabling the toggle tunnel = True in desired capabilities, you can establish a secure and encrypted SSH protocol-based tunnel. This allows you to test your locally hosted or privately hosted pages, ensuring their functionality even before they are deployed life.

Here are the simple steps to establish LambdaTest Tunnel for locally hosted projects.

  • Download and install binary files for desired OS.
  • Open the command prompt and navigate to the binary folder. Use the "cd" command (change directory) to navigate to the folder where the binary file (LT) is located. For example, if the binary file is in the "C:\LambdaTest" folder, you would use the following command in Windows:
    • ./LT -user {user’s login email} -key {user’s access key}
  • Run the command: After navigating to the binary folder, execute the following command:
  • Once the LambdaTest Tunnel is successfully connected, you need to include tunnel capabilities in your code. The code snippet provided demonstrates how to set the "tunnel" capability using the DesiredCapabilities class. This capability is set to "true" to enable the use of the LambdaTest Tunnel.
    • import org.openqa.selenium.remote.DesiredCapabilities;

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
capabilities.setCapability("tunnel", true);

Components of Selenium

Selenium consists of three major components that allow it to interact with different web browsers, automate various actions, parallel testing, record and playback actions, and much more. Three major components of Selenium are

  • Selenium WebDriver
  • Selenium Grid
  • Selenium IDE

Here are detailed explanations of each component and how those components enable effective web browser automation.

What Is Selenium WebDriver?

Selenium WebDriver is an integral part of the Selenium suite, designed to provide a simpler, more concise programming interface and address some limitations in the Selenium-RC API. WebDriver makes direct calls to the browser using each browser’s native support for automation. The ability to operate on a browser the way a human would but through a programmatic interface opens up a realm of possibilities in automated browser testing.

Selenium is a versatile tool with extensive support across various browsers and programming languages. Here's a detailed overview:

What Is Selenium WebDriver Architecture?

Selenium WebDriver

Selenium WebDriver comprises of 4 main components:

1. Selenium Client Libraries

2. JSON Wire Protocol Over HTTP Client

3. Browser Drivers

4. Real Browsers

Selenium Client Libraries

Selenium allows you to execute browser automation with these scripts written in any programming language with the help of Selenium Client Libraries. These Client libraries act as an interpreter between your test script & Selenium. They translate a test script written in any programming language to Selenese through language bindings. That way, Selenium is able to follow your given instruction irrespective of what language you chose to write your Selenium test scripts.

The major and most widely used Selenium bindings provided by the Selenium Project are their to help you with:

1. Java Selenium Testing

2. Python Selenium Testing

3. JavaScript Selenium Testing

4. C# Selenium Testing

5. Ruby Selenium Testing

6. PHP Selenium Testing

JSON Wire Protocol OverHTTP Client

Selenium allows you to automate browser testing. With Selenium WebDriver, you can execute browser automation by interacting directly with all of the major browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and more. Every browser comprises a Browser Driver which has its own HTTP server.

JSON Wire Protocol is responsible for communicating with the browser drivers through their HTTP server. It fetches the information from Selenium Client Libraries and then relays it to the respective Browser Driver.

Browser Drivers

Each browser has a driver which is responsible for controlling the actions performed within that browser. After JSON Wire Protocol relays information to a Browser Driver, the Browser Driver controls the Browser to execute your Selenium test scripts automatically and sends the response in HTTP protocol through a HTTP server. Following are the Browser Drivers for the major web browsers:

1. ChromeDriver

2. GeckoDriver

3. OperaDriver

4. SafariDriver

5. EdgeDriver

Browsers

Selenium WebDriver allows you to interact with various web browsers i.e. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera, Microsoft Edge, and more. Kindly note, Selenium helps you perform browser testing of your web applications and not native mobile apps. For that purpose, you have another open-source framework called Appium.

In 2012, W3C was approached by Simon Stewart(Founder of WebDriver) & David Burns to add WebDriver as an internet standard. After a long period of negotiation,WebDriver was finally declared as a W3C standard protocol in 2019.

Drawbacks Of Selenium WebDriver

Although Selenium WebDriver allows you to easily automate web application testing over different browsers. It doesn’t allow you to do it in parallel. You can’t run multiple tests simultaneously and this isn’t feasible if you are supposed to automate a large test suite or if you are supposed to run a small test suite over hundreds of browsers & OS combinations. Thanks to Selenium Grid, testers were able to overcome this scalability problem.

What Is Selenium Grid?

Selenium Grid has by far been the most useful component of the Selenium project. Selenium Grid allows parallel testing against various browsers & OS combinations through a Client-Server model. Here, the Server is known as the Hub which has multiple Clients to interact with.

With Selenium Grid, you can connect a server to multiple remote machines which can then be used to run a browser automation script over multiple browser + OS configurations, simultaneously.

How Selenium Grid Works?

Selenium Component

The Hub and Nodes are the two primary components of the Selenium Grid.

Hub or Server

The WebDriver client grants access requests through the Hub. The Hub, in the Selenium grid, is responsible for sending commands to the Nodes through JSON Wire Protocol over HTTP.

Node or Client

A Node, in Selenium grid, is simply an instance of a Selenium WebDriver over a remote machine. What happens inside a node is similar to what we discussed in the architecture of Selenium WebDriver. Each node is an instance of a Remote Selenium WebDriver responsible for interacting with the browsers based on the commands received from the Hub or server.

How Hub & Nodes Work Together In A Selenium Grid?

When you run a test script over a Selenium Grid, it is first pushed to the Hub/Server where the desired capabilities class is assessed to figure out the test configurations. The desired capabilities class specifies the browser, browser version and operating system over which the test script should be executed. Among the registered nodes, the Hub finds a suitable Node which matches with the desired capabilities. The Hub then sends commands to the Node for executing the script in the remote machine which meets the right browser + OS configuration.

Selenium Grid profoundly minimizes the test runtime as it allows you to run multiple test scripts over different remote devices, simulatenously.

Major Challenges Of Selenium Grid

Although Selenium Grid is an excellent option to automate browser testing. However, there are a few challenges with Selenium Grid in-house infrastructure.

Collection of Latest & Legacy Browsers

You can only automate web testing with Selenium Grid over the browsers & operating system which are available in your remote machines. Meaning, you will have to ensure that you are always updating or adding more nodes to the Hub for a thorough round of automated browser testing. This could be challenging considering the pace at which browser versions are being released.

Collection of Devices & OS

Similar to browsers you would have to keep a track over the latest devices being launched from different vendors. Not to forget, you would also need to spend a considerable amount of money to add new devices & operating systems in your nodes.

Hardware Expenditure

More nodes you add to your Selenium Grid more expenditure would be required for processing parallel testing. You would need at least 4GB memory RAM to process a Selenium Grid of 2 parallel runs. If you wish to run 3 tests in parallel then a 4GB memory RAM would rarely cut it. Imagine the hardware required to run 10 parallel test sessions.

Maintenance Takes A Toll

Even after you add the latest devices to your Selenium Grid, you would still require dedicated resources to manage the in-house Selenium Grid Infrastructure.

On-premise Restrictions

The Hub & Node should be connected under the same network. Meaning, if you are having a Selenium Grid setup in your corporate office then you can’t access it from anywhere else.

Note: You may be wondering how to overcome these challenges. Well, don’t worry. We got your back! With LambdaTest, you can ditch the hassle of maintaining in-house Selenium Grid as we offer you a cloud-based, online Selenium Grid of 3000+ real browsers for both desktop and mobile. Our Selenium Grid is compatible with all the test automation frameworks & programming languages that are supported by the Selenium Project. What’s more? Well, we also help you collaborate better with your team & build a bug-free deployment pipeline with our third-party integrations to CI/CD tools like Jenkins, CircleCI, etc. & project management tools like Jira, asana, and more.

What Is Selenium IDE?

Selenium IDE also known as the Selenium Recorder was made available for use in 2006. It offers an Integrated Development Environment to record and playback test scripts. Selenium IDE is available as a Mozilla Firefox add-on and a Google Chrome plugin.

The primary purpose of bringing in Selenium IDE was to ease the process of regression testing for manual testers. With Selenium IDE, all you have to do is hit the record button and run the test manually in your browser and once the test case is executed, you can stop the recording. The next time you need to execute that test case, you would just have to playback the recording and the browser automation would take place.

While Selenium IDE records your test cases, it automatically generates a Selenese script for every interaction that you make with the browser. Selenese is a scripting language exclusive to Selenium. It offers commands for various browser operations such as click a button, select values from drop-down etc.

Note: Selenium IDE 2 was not supported by Mozilla Firefox 51 and greater versions. Fortunately, a new version Selenium IDE 3 was introduced to allow testers to run Selenium tests through IDE on all Mozilla Firefox browsers. However, there were 2 major drawbacks with Selenium IDE which have now been resolved in the latest version.

The Fragility Of Recorded Test Scripts

If you were to ever commit even the slightest of changes in the UI of your website then the recordings became ineffective due to the change in Selenium locators. For example, previously, if you have recorded an interaction within your browser to click on the Login button and you later decided to change the text of the button to Sign-in then your Selenium IDE script would become ineffective as the locator value of the button would change from what it was when the test was recorded. As a result, you might have to record the entire test script again.

However, the new Selenium IDE 3.x version has overcome this problem by capturing numerous locators while recording the test cases. Now, if any locator is changed due to the UI transformation then the Selenium IDE will look for some other locator. So in this regard, your test would now fail only if all of the locators that were present while recording the test are changed.

Selenium IDE Lacked Cross Browser Support

When Selenium IDE was introduced in 2006, it was only made as an add-on for Mozilla Firefox back then and Google Chrome was launched in 2008. So it took years for Selenium IDE to be added to Google Chrome Web Store. But even then the relevance of cross browser testing was being missed as you could only test on 2 major browsers. Not anymore though!

Now, the Selenium IDE 3.x version allows you to run your Selenium automation scripts over Selenium WebDriver with the help of a .side file. This .side file is created by the command line test runner of Selenium IDE called SIDE Runner.

SIDE Runner acts as the intermediary between Selenium IDE and Selenium WebDriver, allowing you to perform browser automation with your Selenium IDE test scripts over a variety of browsers.

A Better Selenium IDE Is Now Available

Due to these reasons, Selenium IDE failed to gain traction in the early stages of development and the project was not actively managed. However, the scenario is different now. The Selenium IDE project is now being managed progressively and has also referred to two other alternatives of itself. One is Kantu which is an open source and the other is Katalon Studio which is a closed-source. Out of all the Selenium tools, Selenium IDE is the easiest to help manual testers take a leap into automation testing Selenium.

Which Testing Can Be Automated Using Selenium?

Selenium can help you with browser automation for various purposes.

Unit Testing

Unit testing is done by the developers when a feature enhancement or a bug-fix is applied to a module of a web-application. Unit testing can be strenuous if a developer has to work over multiple code changes for different modules.

We've multiple unit testing frameworks specific to each programming language such as JUnit for Java, NUnit for Python, and more, to help us automate unit testing. Selenium is compatible with these unit testing frameworks and can help developers quickly validate their unit testing over various browsers + OS combinations.

Also Read: Top 11 Unit Testing Frameworks For Selenium Automation

System Testing or Black Box Testing

In system testing, testers check the compliance of the system with specific requirements. It involves testing functionality of a module from an end-to-end perspective. Testers neither have any tests executed previously nor do they have any context of the code. A QA professional could draft a script to verify the functionality of the entire system.

Selenium automation can help you with black box testing scripts, saving you the bandwidth to come up with more unique test scenarios.

Integration Testing

In integration testing, the QA team performs tests to make sure that components or units working fine independently work well even when put together. Testers verify that the modules give the same output even after they integrate. This takes place when more than one module is combined together to exhibit a functionality.

Selenium automation can help you with black box testing scripts, saving you the bandwidth to come up with more unique test scenarios.

End-to-End Testing

As a QA engineer, you are responsible for end-to-end testing of your web application from the end-user's perspective. You would have to think of a series of test cases to ensure the smooth functioning of different touchpoints on the web application.

End-to-End testing could take a considerable amount of your time as your web-application or website may have multiple features and web pages to test over a variety of devices, operating systems, and browsers. You may even have to keep tabs over performance of your web pages. Selenium automation can help you do it with much ease. You can run parallel testing for browser automation and prepare reports for evaluating performance parameters, statuses of test cases and more.

Regression Testing

Regression testing is performed to evaluate the end-to-end functionality of a web-application or website after any code change is pushed into one staging environment from another. The idea is to ensure that the latest addition of code isn't hampering the existing functionality of your web app. This is the main reason why regression testing is an integral part of every release cycle. It ensures that the existing system can flawlessly incorporate new features. However, it is also the most tedious process. As even for a minute change, you would've to test the entire web application again.

With Selenium WebDriver, you can automate regression testing rounds and save your team a considerable amount of time and bandwidth in a narrow release window.

Automated Browser Testing

As we already discussed, cross browser testing is the primary reason behind the popularity of Selenium. It supports all major browsers and allows you to perform browser automation to test your website over a variety of them, simultaneously through a Selenium Grid.

Performance and Load Testing

As far as the end-user is concerned, it all comes down to the performance of the web-app. Stakeholders set performance benchmarks and QA professionals run tests to determine whether the application performs as per expectations. For instance, testers check the loading time of the homepage of a website on all browsers.

Instead of manually running your web application over hundred of browsers + OS combinations, you can measure page load time with Selenium. Similarly, you can evaluate other performance metrics for your web-application through Selenium automation testing.

Monkey Testing

In Monkey testing, we try to break the system by giving a random input to the system. The input could be anything from an end-user’s perspective, it could be a click, scroll, or a dummy text string.

You can generate test scripts to automate monkey testing with Selenium. For example, you can have a program that constantly generates random click over a webpage by looking for web locators.

Why Use Selenium Automation?

Selenium automation testing is widely adopted throughout the web development domain. Almost every business that is running online through a website or web-application is having Selenium tool incorporated in their testing workflows.

Selenium, a hallmark in web application testing, offers a robust suite of testing capabilities crucial for ensuring the reliability and user-centric quality of web applications. Here’s a closer look at what makes Selenium a preferred choice among testers and developers:

  • Browser-Based Regression Automation:

    • Selenium excels in developing robust browser-based regression automation suites through its WebDriver component. It facilitates automated validation of unaffected areas in a web application following recent code modifications, ensuring consistent functionality amidst changes.

  • Scalability and Distribution Across Environments:

    • Selenium's scalability is showcased through its Grid component, which allows the distribution of test scripts across various environments. Be it different browser versions, operating systems, or parallel execution to speed up testing, Selenium Grid is pivotal for scalable testing solutions.

  • Mitigating Repetitive Manual Testing:

    • Selenium alleviates the burden of repetitive manual testing, significantly reducing testing time while improving accuracy. Its prowess in automating complex testing scenarios ensures thorough validation before deployment.

  • Integration with Continuous Testing and DevOps Pipelines:

    • Thanks to its compatibility with various CI/CD tools like Jenkins, Selenium integrates seamlessly with Continuous Testing and DevOps pipelines. This integration hastens feedback loops, enables early bug detection, and accelerates the delivery of high-quality products.

  • Enhanced Debugging and Reporting Capabilities:

    • Debugging is straightforward with Selenium, and various plugins and integrations enrich its reporting capabilities. These features augment debugging capabilities and provide detailed reporting, aiding in the continuous improvement of web applications.

  • Vibrant Community and Extensive Learning Resources:

    • A vibrant community and a plethora of learning resources surround Selenium, providing a supportive learning and problem-solving environment. This ensures that testers and developers have ample support and resources at their disposal whenever needed.

History Of Selenium

It all started in 2004 with Jason Huggins, an engineer at Thoughtworks. While testing, he realized that manual testing was inefficient. So, he created a program using Javascript to automate repetitive tasks. Selenium Core is the name of this open-source program used for automating different web applications.

Selenium: An Open Source Tool

There was a time when only Thoughtworks employees used Selenium internally. But by the end of 2004, Selenium became an open-source tool and was made available for the testing community. I can’t quote the exact date and time for when it became open source. However, it’s safe to say that it was no later than November 2004. During that time Selenium had bugs.

Moreover, many companies were adhering to waterfall development practices which had inefficiencies. Selenium sewed down the reach of bug fixes to users. The fact that Selenium became an open-source was a huge thing. Not only was the tool available for free use, but people could also contribute to the Selenium Project for expanding its features.

Evolution of Selenium

The popularity of Selenium started to grow and within a year. By October 2005, it evolved significantly. Developers started to make big plans for the open-source tool. The original mission was to use it as a tool for web testing. But as it evolved, developers started to envision adding features that would take it beyond what the founders originally intended it for.

In 2007, Jason Huggins moved to Google and continued working on the tool. Some new features included cross-platform testing and framed application testing. But Huggins shifting to Google didn’t rule out ThoughtWorks out of the picture.

History of Selenium WebDriver

In the same year, 2007, Simon Stewart developed the WebDriver. He was also a ThoughtWorks employee. The purpose of this tool was to exercise control on the browser. Moreover, this testing framework could test across different platforms. Selenium lacked some features and WebDriver just fueled the desire for them. In fact, for some time, it emerged as Selenium’s competitor. But the rivalry ended in July 2011 when the two tools joined together to form Selenium WebDriver. It paired the WebDriver APIs which we are familiar with today. It had the original feature set of Selenium along with new features.

History of Selenium Grid

Patrick Lightbody developed the Selenium grid for minimizing test execution times. After the release of Selenium WebDriver, the server of Selenium had a built-in grid functionality. It facilitated the sending of Selenium commands simultaneously to multiple machines. During crucial stages, a Selenium Grid was also capable of taking browser screenshots.

History of Selenium Remote Control

If a domain is different from where its launch occurred, the JavaScript code can't access elements from it. This is the Same Origin Policy that forced testers using Selenium Core to install the web server and the application under test on their local PCs.

Thanks to Paul Hammant(Engineer at Thoughtworks) who came up with an idea and implemented a server which could act as an HTTP proxy. The trick was to make the browser believe that application under test and Selenium Core originate from the same domain.

History of Selenium IDE

Shinya Kasatani created the Selenium IDE to speed up the creation of test cases. An intuitive interface, quick setup, and rapid results were only some of the major benefits IDE provided. Even with limited knowledge of scripting languages, you could create tests with its point-and-click interface.

That Was All. Any Questions?

As we already know, modern Software Testing Life Cycle methodologies demand shorter release times. However, to make sure that the releases are bug-free and function smoothly, deterministic and repeatable testing is a must. Selenium has been aiding business deliver robust web application, faster and has made its way among some of the most vital tools used in the IT industry. All in all, if you wish to make the testing procedure a breeze, Selenium is the way to go!

We hope by far you have a pretty good understanding of what is Selenium testing. If you have any questions, feel free to share them with us. Happy testing!

You can refer to our support documentation & GitHub repository to get a step-by-step procedure for running your first Selenium automation testing script over an online Selenium Grid.

Why LambdaTest is the best option for Selenium testing

LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and test execution platform that helps businesses drastically reduce time to market through faster test execution, ensuring quality releases and accelerated digital transformation. The platforms allows you to perform both real time and automation testing across 3000+ environments and real mobile devices, making it a top choice among other cloud testing platforms. Here are some features that will leverage your Selenium automation testing to the next level:

  • Execute your automation test 70% faster with HyperExecute, the fastest end to end test orchestration platform.
  • Integrate with 120+ tools for project management, CI/CD, codeless automation, and others.
  • Debugg Selenium tests with various logs such as network logs, command logs, and video recordings.
  • Run the Selenium automation test in parallel on multiple configurations and cut down execution time to multiple folds.
  • Organize and strategize your test execution plan with LambdaTest Test Analytics by creating custom dashboards and widgets.

Learning Resources for Selenium

Selenium launched almost a decade ago; however, when it comes to software testing, Selenium is irreplaceable. One top reason is its flexibility. Selenium is a versatile solution that can be used by everyone involved in the development of web applications to efficiently test their code and apps. Professionals can use Selenium to debug their projects and perform visual regression tests tailored to the specific needs of their websites or code.

Here, you get to learn about How to use Selenium for software testing, its history, and components, like webdriver, Selenium Grid, and Selenium IDE. You can prefer the resources mentioned below for your further learning. Happy testing!

Selenium C#

Selenium C# Video Tutorial

Automation Testing

Selenium Python

Selenium Python Video Tutorial

Selenium Locators

Selenium Protractor

Selenium Java

Selenium JavaScript Video Tutorial

Maven Tutorial

Selenium WebDriver

Selenium WebDriverIO

Selenium IDE

Nightwatch JS

xUnit

With that said, it is wise to know what is Selenium's timeline and its history. We should give appreciation where it is due! Selenium has been evolving ever since it was made available for the testing community. Do you know who were the primary minds behind the work of different Selenium components, and when the Selenium components were introduced? Let's find out.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What Is Selenium And Why It Is Used?

Selenium is an open source tool that is primarily used for automation testing web applications. It allows testers and developers to write and run automated tests in various programming languages such as Java, Python, C# and more.

What Is Selenium Testing?

Selenium testing is the process of automating web browser testing using the Selenium framework. It allows for faster and more efficient functional testing, regression testing and acceptance testing compared to manual testing. With Selenium you can write scripts in programming languages like Java, Python, C#, JavaScript, PHP and Ruby to simulate user interactions like clicking buttons, entering text, and navigating between pages. Selenium testing can be used to test web applications across different browsers, operating systems and devices which makes it a powerful tool for ensuring the quality of web applications.

What Are 5 Uses Of Selenium?

Selenium can be used for automated functional testing, cross-browser testing, regression testing, load testing and integration with CI/CD pipelines.

What Is Selenium Webdriver?

Selenium WebDriver is a open-source framework for automating web browser testing. It allows you to interact directly with the browsers through your automation testing Selenium scripts. It provides a programming interface for controlling web browsers, and allows you to simulate user interactions like clicking buttons, entering text and navigating between pages.

What Language Is Used In Selenium?

Selenium supports multiple programming languages for writing automation scripts, including Java, Python, C#, Ruby, JavaScript and php. This allows testers and developers to use the programming language of their choice for writing Selenium scripts to automate web application testing.

Which Language Is Best For Selenium?

The best language for Selenium depends on various factors such as the tester's understanding with the language, the testing requirements and the application being tested. However, some of the most commonly used languages for Selenium are Java, Python and JavaScript.

How To Setup Selenium?

First you need to install a suitable web browser. Then choose your programming language to work with and install its respective IDE or code editor. Next download the Selenium Webdriver for your chosen web browser and configure it to work with your system. This involves setting up the path of the Webdriver executable and initializing the Webdriver object. Once this is complete you can start writing Selenium scripts to automate tests on your web application.

Why LambdaTest For Online Selenium Grid?

LambdaTest is an online Selenium Grid platform that offers a variety of features that make it an excellent choice for web developers and testers. With LambdaTest users can perform automated cross-browser testing on 3000+ browsers, operating systems and resolutions. The platform is highly scalable and it offers excellent performance (upto 70% faster than traditional selenium grid) allowing users to execute tests quickly and efficiently. The platform is highly user-friendly and offers 120+ integrations with popular tech stacks.

What is Selenium WebDriver?

Selenium WebDriver is a powerful open-source automation tool for testing web applications. It provides a collection of APIs to automate tests across various browsers like Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Safari, ensuring web applications function as expected.

What is Selenium used for?

Selenium is a powerful open-source automated testing tool designed specifically for web applications, allowing seamless testing across different browsers. For testing desktop and mobile apps, other specialized tools like Appium and HP's QTP are recommended.

What is a Selenium Grid?

Selenium Grid is a powerful proxy server enabling parallel test execution on multiple machines. Acting as the hub, it routes commands in JSON format to remote web browser instances registered as Grid nodes, facilitating efficient and scalable test automation.

What does Selenium do?

Selenium is a powerful tool commonly used for web application testing. Its primary role is to automate web browsers, which assists testers and developers in verifying the functionality and user interface of web applications across different browsers and platforms without manual intervention. By automating tasks such as clicking, typing, and navigating through web pages, Selenium replicates real-user interactions, making it an indispensable tool for functional and regression testing.

What is XPath in Selenium?

XPath, or XML Path Language, is a query language used in Selenium for navigating through and selecting elements in the DOM (Document Object Model) of a web page. It allows testers to create expressions that traverse the structure of the web page to find and interact with elements based on attributes like ID, class, name, or even complex relationships with other elements. XPath is especially useful in scenarios where elements lack a unique identifier or have dynamic attributes that change on page reload. Utilizing XPath in Selenium enhances the ability to create more flexible and robust locators, which are critical for interacting with web elements during automated testing.

References

https://www.selenium.dev/https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/en/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selenium_(software)https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium
HomeSelenium