With the rapid proliferation of mobile phones and mobile internet, consumers across the globe are using mobile devices for accessing websites & applications. As per reports^[1], there is a gradual rise in preference for web applications when compared to native applications. For starters, web applications are basically applications (i.e. websites) that run inside a web browser.

In the case of mobile devices, web applications (or mobile view of websites) can be accessed by simply keying in the URL into the preferred web browser on the mobile. Depending on the User Agent, the web browser will inform the website whether the request is coming from a mobile device or not. For example, opening Facebook website on a web browser on a mobile device will automatically route you to Facebook mobile site. The same principles also apply to any mobile-compatible website when it is accessed from a mobile web browser.

Since your consumers have the flexibility to access the website from their preferred choice of browser and platform (i.e. Android or iOS), it is essential to do a rigorous testing of the web application on the preferred browser & OS combinations. This is also termed as cross-browser compatibility testing. It is recommended to onboard an experienced web application testing company in case your team does not expertise in planning and running web application tests.

You can leverage code-based as well as codeless automation testing tools like Selenium IDE for running web application tests. Non technical personnel can also participate in web application testing when tests are executed using codeless automation tools. In this blog, we deep dive into every aspect of Selenium IDE for web application testing.

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

What is Selenium IDE?

For starters, Selenium is a popular test automation framework that is primarily used for cross browser testing. The Selenium framework supports programming in six popular programming languages – Python, Java, JavaScript, C#, PHP, and Ruby. At the time of writing this blog, the latest version of Selenium was v4.5.0

The question is:

Can Selenium be used to write front-end tests if the tester does not have coding expertise?”

The answer is “Yes!”. Non-technical personnel or testers with minimal to no expertise of coding can use Selenium IDE for creating tests. Selenium IDE is a simple, yet effective Record & Playback tool that lets you record actions that are performed on the WebElements in the DOM (Document Object Model). Consider a simple scenario like searching “KiwiQA on Google” where you have to type the search query by instantiating the Chrome browser. After the browser is invoked, the search box and Submit button have to be located so that the required operations can be performed.

All these operations can be recorded as well as played using Selenium IDE – a browser extension that lets you record and play tests.

There is no special setup required to use Selenium IDE. The Selenium IDE project is hosted on GitHub. At the time of writing this blog, the project had garnered close to 2.2k stars and 621 forks. 4.0.0-alpha.15 was the latest version of Selenium IDE when we started working on this blog.

Also Read – All You Need to Know About Selenium WebDriver Architecture

How to install Selenium IDE?

The best part about using Selenium IDE is that it does not require any special installation. At the time of writing this blog, Selenium IDE was available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers.

• Selenium IDE for Chrome
• Selenium IDE for Firefox
• Selenium IDE for Edge

Since Selenium IDE is an open-source project, you can also download and build the IDE manually. To build Selenium IDE, please refer to the Building Selenium IDE section on GitHub.

Shown below is a screenshot of Selenium IDE running from the Chrome browser:

Now that we have installed the Selenium IDE for Chrome browser, we will look at how to record & play tests using the IDE in the subsequent section of this blog.

Major Features of Selenium IDE

Now that we have covered the basic aspects of Selenium IDE, lets look some of the salient features of the IDE:

Web Ready

Selenium IDE works out of the box for testing any kind of web application. It is available as an add-on (or extension) for all the major web browsers.

The IDE can also be used to record and play E2E (End-to-End) tests. A web application testing services company can help you in making the most out of the IDE.

Also Read – Selenium 3 vs. Selenium 4 – What are the Major Differences?

Cloud-based Cross Browser Testing

There are umpteen advantages of cross browser testing, the major ones being uniform end-user experience on a range of browsers, platforms, and devices. Apart from using Selenium IDE with local web browsers, it can also be used for cross browser testing on cloud-based Selenium Grids.

The SIDE runner for Selenium IDE facilitates the cross browser testing. It is very easy to port an existing recording such that it runs tests on cloud Selenium grid. With such an approach, you can achieve greater browser and test coverage; thereby improving the overall product quality.

Enhanced Debugging

Selenium IDE was completely re-architectured in Selenium 4. The Selenium IDE supports debugging of test scripts whereby you can insert breakpoints during the test execution process.

You can also pause the test execution by pausing when the test encounters some exception. With this, you can test as well as debug your test scripts just like any normal piece of source code.

Export Tests to Preferred Languages

The new Selenium IDE not only lets you record and play tests but also lets you export the tests in your preferred choice of language and framework. This particular feature can be a good starting point for someone looking to leverage the Selenium automation framework for web application testing.

At the time of writing this blog, the Selenium IDE could help you export tests in the following languages and/or frameworks:

• C#: NUnit, xUnit
• Java: JUnit
• JavaScript: Mocha
• Python: PyTest
• Ruby: RSpec

Test Resilience

Flaky tests are a big problem for anyone dealing with front-end testing. There is a high possibility that the locators might stop working in case there are changes in the design.

This is where Selenium IDE can be super helpful, as it records multiple locators for all the WebElements in the DOM. In case one web locator is not successful, the Selenium IDE will move on with the other locators till it encounters a success. All these steps go a long way in improving the resilience of the tests, thereby reducing the flakiness quotient of the tests.

Test Reusability

Many Record & Playback tools struggle to pick up pace since there is no provision to build (or record) tests that can be reused across scenarios. However, this is not the case with Selenium IDE 🙂

Source

The run command in the IDE lets you reuse one test inside another. What this essentially means is that you can use an entire piece of test logic at multiple places within a test suite. This reduces the overall size of the test suite.

Control Flow Mechanism

Many playback & records only record steps in a serial fashion i.e. there is no way to add some control flow logic like if..else, etc. in the recorded test. Contrary to that, Selenium IDE comes with an extensive control flow structure through which you can use the following commands:

• if, else, if else, end
• times, end
• while, end

These commands aid in introducing conditional branching, looping, and nested commands in the test suites. You can refer to the Selenium IDE Control Flow documentation for more information since covering every aspect of it is beyond the scope of this blog.

Apart from all the above features, Selenium IDE also supports provision to extend its capabilities by adding third-party plugins.

How to run web application tests using Selenium IDE?

Now that we have covered all the important aspects of Selenium IDE, let’s look at how you can record and play recorded tests using the IDE.

Step 1

Install the Selenium IDE extension (or add on) for your preferred browser – Chrome, Firefox, or Edge

Step 2

Click on the Selenium IDE icon in the web browser. As soon as you do the same, it will show an option that lets you open a recorded test, open a new test, and more.

Step 3

Click on Record a new test in a new project to start recording the test. Provide a relevant project name (e.g. KiwiQATesting) and click OK

Step 4

Enter the base URL as https://www.google.com since we would be searching “KiwiQA” on Google. Once done, click on the Start Recording button.

Step 5

A new Chrome window will open-up. The Selenium IDE is recording button is an indicator that the recording is in progress.

Step 6

Enter the search term as ‘KiwiQA’ and press the Google Search button on the page. Maximize the browser window and click on the first test result.

Step 7

Click on the Selenium IDE is recording button. This will take you back to the Selenium IDE where you need to press the Stop button.

Step 8

Enter the test name (e.g. GoogleSearch) and press OK

Step 9

Voila! With this, your recorded test is available for playback.

You can now play the tests, edit the same, or even add conditional statements in the test. We would be covering advanced features of Selenium IDE in subsequent blogs.

Conclusion

Web application testing on different browser and platform combinations has become an absolute necessity. Selenium IDE is one of the powerful record & playback tools that can be leveraged for front-end testing. The massive advancements in the IDE as a part of the Selenium 4 project makes it a more feasible option for running codeless automation web application tests. Coltron flow mechanism and code export features make the Selenium IDE much more usable!

So, How do you perform web application testing? Do leave your approach in the comments section.

Faster TTM can be achieved when every activity involved in the project life-cycle is planned and executed at a faster pace. This is where automation testing can play a vital role, as it helps to perform reliable testing at scale.

QA engineers have a number of options like Selenium, Cypress, WebdriverIO, Puppeteer, PlayWright, etc. when it comes to web automation testing.

Though newer frameworks like Cypress are preferred for modern web-app testing, Selenium (the open-source framework) still leads the race. As per reports^[1], Selenium holds close to 29 percent market share – a relatively high number in an over-crowded space.

Source

As of writing this blog, Selenium 4 was the latest version of the widely-used open-source test automation framework. Selenium WebDriver is one of the key components (or blocks) of the Selenium framework.

In this blog, we deep dive into the Selenium WebDriver architecture, along with touching upon the changes in Selenium WebDriver from Selenium 3 to Selenium 4.

Introduction : Selenium Test Automation Framework

For starters, Selenium is an open-source test automation framework that has been in usage since 2004. Selenium 4 is the current stable version of the Selenium Framework. What makes Selenium different from other test automation frameworks is its support for popular programming languages:

• Python
• Java
• JavaScript
• C#
• PHP
• Ruby

Web automation tests written using the Selenium APIs interact with the WebElements in the DOM. Selenium provides language bindings for all the supported languages using which you can write web automation tests that let you perform web UI testing.

Based on the chosen programming language, you need to download the corresponding language binding from Selenium Official Website. At the time of writing this blog, the stable language binding was 4.10.

As per my experience, Selenium WebDriver can be considered as the Heart of the Selenium automation framework. Some of the other major components (or blocks) of Selenium are below:

• Selenium IDE
• Selenium Server (or Selenium Grid)
• Browser Drivers

Selenium provides browser drivers for ensuring that changes (or enhancements) in the web browser do not impact the Selenium tests. You should download the ‘browser driver’ corresponding to the ‘browser version’ (of the browser under test).

What is Selenium WebDriver?

Selenium WebDriver is the successor of Selenium RC (Remote Control), WebDriver & Selenium RC were merged in Selenium 2. Selenium WebDriver is basically a collection of open-source APIs that offer the necessary capabilities to automate interactions with the underlying WebElements on the document (or web page).

It is an object-oriented tool that provides the communication mechanism between the test suites and the intended web browser. The major advantage of Selenium is that it lets you run tests on a local Selenium Grid as well as cloud-based Selenium Grid infrastructure.

Shown below is the top-level Selenium WebDriver architecture diagram:

Source

Selenium Grid in Selenium framework helps in leveraging parallel web automation testing through which Selenium automation tests can be run simultaneously on different combinations of browsers & platform combinations.

Selenium WebDriver methods such as findElement(), findElements(), getTitle(), getWindowHandle(), etc. are leveraged by QA engineers to locate required WebElements and perform appropriate operations (e.g. click, double click, send text, etc.) on the same.

Since Selenium is a very powerful test automation framework, it is recommended to leverage the benefits of the framework by on-boarding a Selenium testing services agency. This is especially helpful in scenarios where you want to accelerate automation efforts but do not have in-house expertise in Selenium automation testing.

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

Why Use Selenium WebDriver For Web Automation

Now that we have covered all the basic aspects about the Selenium framework and Selenium WebDriver, let’s deep dive into ‘why’ to use Selenium WebDriver for web automation testing.

Here are some of the primary benefits of using Selenium WebDriver for automation testing:

a. Support for popular programming languages

Selenium supports most popular programming languages (i.e. Python, Java, JavaScript, C#, Ruby, and PHP). Since the community releases all the language bindings, it provides testers to implement tests using their preferred language.

b. Integration with popular test automation frameworks

The potential of Selenium becomes multiplied when it is used in association with popular frameworks like JUnit, TestNG, etc. (Java), PyUnit, Pytest, etc. (Python), etc.

c. Support for parallel testing

Selenium WebDriver supports parallel test execution through which web automation tests can be run in parallel on different platform and browser combinations.

d. Integration with CI/CD tools

Selenium WebDriver (or Selenium) tests can be used to accelerate time to market as Selenium automation tests can be a part of the Continuous Testing process.

This can be done by integrating Selenium tests with popular CI/CD tools like Jenkins, TeamCity, etc.

e. Support for Cross Browser Testing

Selenium WebDriver supports testing on different browsers & operating systems (or platforms), also termed as cross-browser testing. Cross browser testing is important for ensuring that the end-user experience is uniform across different browser & OS combinations.

f. Scalable and Reliable test execution using Selenium Grid

Selenium tests can be run in parallel on a local Selenium Grid as well as a cloud-based Selenium Grids. Faster test execution, improved test coverage, and accelerated time to market are some of the major benefits of running Selenium automation tests on cloud Selenium Grid.

An automation testing company with Selenium expertise can be a great partner, since that will help in making the most of the framework.

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

Selenium WebDriver Architecture

Now that we have covered the basics of the Selenium automation framework, let’s look at the Selenium WebDriver Architecture in more detail. Until Selenium 3, the JSON Wire protocol was used for communicating between the Selenium client libraries and the corresponding browser drivers.

Selenium 3 WebDriver Architecture

All the major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc. are W3C compliant. Hence, the involvement of the JSON Wire protocol in Selenium 3 means that there is encoding of requests (at the sender’s end) and decoding of requests (at the receiver’s end). This might lead to test flakiness and reduced stability of the automation tests. However, JSON Wire Protocol is replaced with W3C protocol in Selenium 4.

In Selenium 4, the JSON Wire protocol is replaced with the W3C WebDriver protocol. Hence, there is no encoding and decoding of test requests. As a tester, you can expect improved test stability and reduced flakiness with web automation tests implemented using the Selenium 4 framework.

Selenium 4 also has a bunch of other powerful features like relative locators, CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) support, improved window handling, super-useful Selenium IDE, and newly architectured Selenium Grid.

Selenium 4 WebDriver Architecture

An experienced testing services company in UK, US, etc. that has executed Selenium projects at scale can help in choosing the best cloud infrastructure to make the most of the Selenium framework.

Conclusion

Selenium is one of the most widely-used test automation frameworks for web automation testing. To leverage the benefits offered by the Selenium automation framework, it is essential to learn the essentials of Selenium WebDriver – the soul of the framework.

In case your team does not have the expertise in implementing and executing Selenium automation tests, it is recommended to partner with an expert Selenium testing services company like KiwiQA. Such a partnership will go a long way to leverage the benefits of Selenium for releasing a top-notch quality product in the market.