Though test automation frameworks like Cypress are picking up pace, Selenium still rules the charts in the ‘web automation framework’ category. Though the JavaScript-based Cypress framework is being preferred for testing modern-age websites (and applications); Selenium – the other open-source framework is still the favorite of testers & QA engineers.

For starters, Selenium is a popular open-source test automation framework that supports 6 major programming languages (Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, Ruby, and PHP).

Support for relative locators, improved Selenium IDE, optimized Selenium Grid, and support for CDP (Chrome DevTools) are some of the major features of the Selenium 4 framework. However, to make the best use of the Selenium automation framework, it is recommended to partner with an experienced Selenium automation testing services company so that your team can make use of the best practices of Selenium automation.

Best Practices To Consider For Selenium Web Automation Testing

Irrespective of the programming language being used for the implementation of test scenarios, it is essential to develop tests in a scalable manner. SDETs and QA engineers should develop tests in such a way that changes in the UI (or WebElements) have minimal (to no) impact on the test case implementation.

Here are some of the best practices that can be considered when using Selenium automation testing:

1. Choose best-suited Web Locators

Selenium test automation is used for automating interactions (or actions) that can be applied on the WebElements in the DOM (Document Object Model). For doing so, Selenium WebDriver provides different methods (or APIs) for locating elements on the document (or page).

XPath, Name, ClassName, ID, etc. are some of the popular web locators that let you locate the desired WebElement on the page. XPath is the slowest but most widely used web locator since it is relatively easy to locate the XPath (relative as well as static).

However, it is important to choose the web locator that meets your requirements. More the time it takes to locate the WebElement, the slower the test execution. Hence, it is important to choose the best-suited web locator to ensure that the test code does not break in case there are any changes in the page design.

Also Read: Why To Choose Selenium Framework For Automation Testing?

2. Leverage Wait Commands in Selenium

One of the major challenges of using Selenium is automating interaction with WebElements located on dynamic web pages. A majority of websites use AJAX to load only those sections of the page that need a reload (or fresh load). Also, there are significant challenges when using the Selenium automation framework for SPAs (Single Page Applications).

Selenium WebDriver APIs would return an error when an attempt is made to interact with a WebElement which is not present in the DOM. This is where wait commands can come handy, as a wait is performed till the required element is present in the DOM.

Implicit Waits, Explicit Waits, and Fluent Waits are the three major types of waits in Selenium. Since Implicit Wait is blocking, hence it is recommended to leverage Explicit Waits as the wait exits as soon as the element is located (or it results in error).

A Selenium automation testing company can help in making the most out of Selenium so that test cases are less flaky and the company can make the best of Selenium automation testing.

3. Use Page Object Model (POM) in Selenium

The challenge with Selenium automation tests is that the tests start becoming flaky and unmaintainable if they are not designed & developed with a long-term approach in mind. For example, a minor change in the UI of the page should not lead to changes in the entire implementation of the test scenario.

Maintainability, reliability, and re-usability are some of the major factors that should be taken into consideration when designing Selenium automation tests. This is where Page Object Model (POM) in Selenium can come handy.

POM is a design pattern where every class file contains the locators of the web pages and each web page is considered a separate class. The advantage of POM is that any change in the website’s UI will only result in changes in the files that house the web locators.

The loose coupling between the locators and test logic makes the Selenium test more maintainable, reliable, and reusable. Leveraging POM is one of the best practices of Selenium automation testing.

Also Read: Selenium vs. JMeter: An In-depth Guide for Testers

4. Write Atomic Test Cases

This is one of the basic but most important things that must be considered on a priority basis. In a large project, your team will have to automate a number of tests aligning to the various functionalities implemented in the product.

The first thing to do is to prioritize the tests so that the most important tests are implemented and executed on priority. It is a bad practice to have interdependence between different tests of the Selenium test suite.

When designing and implementing a Selenium test case, always consider the atomicity of the test cases. Atomic tests ensure that any issue in one test case does not have any impact on the other tests that are a part of the same test suite.

5. Perform Scalable and Reliable Cross Browser Testing

The Selenium framework is designed in such a way that the test case does not interact directly with the web browser. Interactions with the web browser are done via the corresponding browser driver. Though local Selenium Grid can be used to perform testing against different versions of browsers and operating systems; it is not a scalable and reliable approach.

It is recommended to perform cross browser testing using Selenium on a cloud-based Selenium Grid since it results in a massive reduction in the infrastructure expenses.

At the same time, cloud-based Selenium automation testing helps in improving the cross browser coverage since tests can be run parallely across a large number of browsers and device (or platform) combinations.

Also Read: Difference Between Manual Testing and Automation Testing

6. Use Selenium 4 (when necessary)

The latest version of Selenium (i.e. Selenium 4) was released in October 2021. Since it is relatively new in the market, its capabilities and features must be leveraged on a need basis.

Selenium 4’s features like relative web locators are instrumental in reducing the time involved in locating the elements on a page. Locators like toLeftOf, toRightOf, near, etc. can be leveraged to locate WebElements in reference to the other elements on the page.

At the same time, the Selenium Grid in Selenium 4 supports different operating modes like standalone, hub & node, distributed mode, and more.

Since Selenium WebDriver in Selenium 4 is W3C compliant, you can expect less flakiness, better execution speed, and improved stability with tests executed on Selenium 4.

Conclusion

Selenium is one of the most preferred frameworks when it comes to web automation testing. To make the most of the framework, it is important to use the best practices of Selenium automation testing.

Apart from leveraging the best practices of Selenium, it is recommended to partner with a Selenium testing services company like KiwiQA that has expertise in providing Selenium testing services to a range of global clients.

The overall result is an expedited time to market – a metric which is so important in today’s competitive business environment.

When it comes to the testing of software products, the testing strategy should be built in a manner that both manual and automation testing are leveraged to their maximum benefits. For starters, automation testing is a testing technique where specialized automation tools (and frameworks) are used for executing product testing at scale.

Choosing the right automation framework that suits the project needs and requirements is the first step in crafting an effective test automation strategy. Though there are several automation test frameworks, the Selenium framework leads the race. Apart from being proven and open-source, Selenium offers numerous benefits that are not offered by other proprietary as well as open-source frameworks.

In this blog, we have a close look at the why’s of Selenium for web automation testing.

What is Selenium Automation Framework?

Selenium is open-source test automation framework that is primarily used for web automation testing. The current stable version of Selenium is 3.141.59 whereas the Selenium 4 (which is yet to be released) is in the Beta stage.

Selenium provides APIs (or methods) that let you interact with the underlying WebElements on the page (or the DOM). Apart from being open-source, the other advantage of Selenium is that it supports implementation in major programming languages like Python, C#, Java, JavaScript, PHP, and Ruby.

Since it is open-source, it has an active community where automation engineers and testers can take support from other members of the community. In case your team has doubts regarding the choice of the best-suited test automation framework, it is best to consult a company like KiwiQA that has immense expertise in providing Selenium automation testing services to a large number of global clients.

We would not divulge into the architecture or API documentation of Selenium since that is beyond the scope of this blog. Rather, we would list down the top reasons why enterprises should embrace Selenium framework for web automation testing.

Also Read: Selenium vs. JMeter: An In-depth Guide for Testers

Major Benefits Of Selenium Framework For Web Automation Testing

Though there are umpteen benefits of Selenium, we list down some of the major benefits of the Selenium framework for automation testing of websites (and web applications):

1. Extensive Language Support

Though there are other web automation frameworks like Cypress that are suited for automation testing of modern web applications, the major downside is the support for a selected few programming languages. In fact, Cypress only supports the JavaScript programming language.

On the other hand, the Selenium automation framework provides extensive support for all the widely-used programming languages – Python, C#, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, and PHP. From a QA engineer’s point of view, it is just about getting used to the APIs supported by Selenium before they can take a plunge into web automation testing with Selenium.

2. Open-Source

Selenium is open-source and free to use for testing websites and web applications. It has a very active community on StackOverflow as well as Slack where Selenium developers (and other engineers) can suggest you possible solutions.

Open-source and community support are the major drivers behind the growing adoption of the Selenium framework.

3. Supports major platforms and web browsers

A test suite in Selenium interacts with the web browser using the corresponding browser driver. Selenium is available for major operating systems (or platforms) like Windows, Linux, Mac, and Unix.

It is easy to port a working Selenium test suite from one platform to another, as change is only involved in updating the location of the browser driver. In many scenarios, this step is also not required if the browser driver is present in the system path.

That’s not all; automation testers can leverage Selenium for running cross-browser tests across major web browsers (e.g. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, etc.). All you need to do is download the corresponding browser driver in the machine and program the driver in the code.

4. Supports Cloud Testing

For scalable and reliable web automation testing, you should leverage testing on a cloud-based Selenium Grid. A Grid in Selenium constitutes multiple Node(s) and a single Hub.

For running Selenium tests on different versions of browsers, devices, and operating systems; you should use Selenium testing on the cloud. Here, a remote Selenium WebDriver is used for connecting to the Selenium Grid that is present on the cloud.

Selenium testing on the cloud is used by enterprises when they want to test their web product across a large number of web browsers, operating systems, and devices. It avoids the unnecessary need to invest in an in-house testing infrastructure that is difficult to maintain and scale.

5. Integration with CI/CD tools

Shift-left testing and continuous integration are the practices that are followed by a large number of enterprises to build a culture of testing within the organization. Selenium supports integration with major CI/CD tools like Jenkins, Circle CI, Travis CI, TeamCity, and more.

Integration with CI/CD tools helps in ensuring that every line of code checked into the repository goes through multiple cycles of Selenium automation tests. This helps in unearthing bugs at the right time, thereby ensuring that the best quality product reaches the end customer (or consumers).

6. Cross Browser Testing Across Devices

The Selenium automation framework lets you perform cross-browser tests across different browsers, platforms, as well as devices. The application can be tested on emulators, simulators, as well as real devices to make sure it performs uniformly across devices.

Hence, Selenium helps you achieve optimal browser coverage, optimal platform coverage, and optimal device coverage. The result is a top-quality software product that wins over the customers.

Also Read: Top Cross Browser Testing Tools

7. Super-Active Community

Selenium is a community-based initiative that has been around for many years. The community works together to improve the quality of the Selenium framework along with the implementation of important features suggested by the community.

This community-driven initiative is the major reason behind the growing adoption of the Selenium framework. Selenium which was introduced in 2004 has come a long way and we would be witnessing the major upgrade in Selenium 4.

Selenium 4 is W3C compliant and comes with a super-powerful IDE that is available across Chrome and Firefox browsers.

8. Support for major test automation frameworks

Selenium automation framework can be used with major software frameworks available with Java, JavaScript, Python, and other programming languages supported by Selenium.

Here is a brief of some of the major test automation frameworks that can be integrated with Selenium:

• Python: PyUnit, PyTest, Robot, Behave, etc.
• Java: TestNG, JUnit, Gauge, Cucumber, etc.
• JavaScipt: Mocha, Protractor, NightWatch, Jasmine, etc.
• C#: NUnit, MSTest, xUnit, SpecFlow
• PHP: PHPUnit, Laravel, Behat, etc.
• Ruby: RSpec, Capybara, etc.

9. Single package with multiple functionalities

As mentioned earlier, the Selenium framework constitutes Selenium IDE, Selenium Grid, Selenium WebDriver, and other integral components. Selenium RC (Remote Control) is no longer a part of the framework.

Hence, the Selenium test suite lets you run automation tests at an unprecedented scale, something that is not possible with other test automation frameworks.

10. Parallel Testing

Selenium can be seamlessly integrated with popular frameworks supported by major programming languages. Hence, it lets you leverage the immense capabilities offered by the test framework.

Most popular frameworks (e.g. TestNG, JUnit, xUnit, MSTest, PyUnit, etc.) support parallel testing. When they are used with Selenium, it helps you run Selenium parallel tests across different browsers and platform combinations.

Conclusion

Selenium is one of the most popular test automation frameworks that provides APIs through which tests can interact with the elements in the DOM. Selenium 4 is the most awaited and powerful version of the automation framework since it is W3C compliant and sports a powerful IDE.

Here we covered some of the major reasons to consider Selenium over other test automation frameworks.

Selenium automation testing company can be super useful in scenarios where your organization does not have in-house resources with expertise on Selenium automation testing.