Selenium is unarguably the most popular framework for automated web application testing and offers a lot of benefits. This article takes a closer look at its components and how they work.
A web application is a computer program that is accessed through a network using a HTTP connection. Web apps run within the web browser and unlike mobile apps, are not stored within the device memory. Web application testing refers to the testing of web applications. Automated web application testing is achieved when you use a tool or framework to execute the process of testing web applications for possible issues and bugs.
Some of the common issues include performance of the web app across different browsers, app security, functionality, ease of accessibility, ability to handle traffic and so on. It also includes checking if the application meets the standards defined for it.
Why Choose Selenium?
Selenium is one of the most widely used test automation frameworks across the globe today. There are several reasons behind its popularity and given below are a few of them.
It is because of its multiple benefits that new age test automation tools like QARA Test, Watir, and Katalon Studio are all built on the framework.
Components of Selenium for Web Application Testing
The basic purpose of Selenium is to automate web browser interactions to automate test scripts to perform the exact same interactions with the browser as a user performs manually. Even though it’s a fact that it can perform any form of automated interaction, the original purpose of developing the framework was to conduct automated web application testing.
To understand how it works, we shall have to understand its architecture and components.
It is based on a client-server architecture and consists of the following components:
1] Selenium WebDriver API:
WebDriver was developed as a solution to the challenges of using Remote Control. It’s a library or API with methods/classes/interfaces for use various programming languages. WebDriver does not require you to start the server to execute test cases. Supports C#, Java, PHP, Perl, and Python programming languages for flexibility. It allows cross platform testing across Windows OS, Mac OS, and Linux. It also supports parallel as well as remote test case execution. With WebDriver, each browser has its respective driver, as follows:
2] Selenium IDE:
IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment and Selenium IDE is a GUI based application. This component supports Record/Playback of test cases which helps save time and efforts of QA teams. It works on Firefox browser and is available as a browser add-on or extension. It does not require any programming language and is very easy to use. Based on JavaScript, it makes test case execution easier for even the most novice users.
3] Selenium Remote Control:
Known as Selenium RC, it is the initial version of Selenium and so lacks a GUI interface. However, it includes APIs and libraries consisting of classes, interfaces and methods and these are meant to be used with different programming languages, such as Java, PHP, and Perl. Remote Control is based on Object Oriented Programming. Allows execution of test cases across different browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari, and Opera.
It allows language independence as well as platform independence which means it can be used with any language and across multiple platforms, such as Windows OS, Mac OS, and Linux.
4] Selenium Grid:
Selenium Grid can be used for executing test cases in parallel and also for remote execution of test cases. It accomplishes this with the help of Remote Control or WebDriver. Talking about remote execution of test cases using Grid, it is essential that the remote machine is connected over LAN networks and this calls for the configuration of a node and a hub, where the hub acts as the server. It makes it possible to execute test cases in multiple machines connected over LAN, which helps save time and resources.
Final Takeaway
The different components offer different testing functionalities and together form a framework that serves as a powerful tool for automated web application testing. With Selenium, you can execute multiple test cases across browsers, platforms and machines, which is a great way to save time and resources. If you are looking forward to implementing automated web application testing with great results, Selenium is the way to go!
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