The most crucial element in the software development life cycle is testing, which aims to ensure bug-free software that fulfills client requirements. And to achieve the primary goal, you need to incline to automation testing tools, say Selenium. This article is the right place to learn what is Selenium? all about and how it helps automate test cases.
But before we get into what Selenium is, let’s look at the problems with manual testing.
Challenges With Manual Testing:
The first test that was ever done was done manually. With new testing scenarios popping up, testing needs to be intense and rapid. For faster release cycles of the software with the best quality, it demands a shift from Manual to Web Automation tools. How are these automation tools better than manual testing? Let’s see:
- It takes less time to complete a test.
- There’s a lesser chance you’ll make a mistake.
- It does not necessitate the presence of a tester 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Logs are automatically created
- Increased Test Coverage
And there are a lot more reasons that make automation testing preferable.
So how did we start this era of automation testing? Through Selenium! Before getting into what is Selenium, let’s understand the advent of Selenium.
History Of Selenium:
Selenium traces its origin back to 2004. Manual testing was uninteresting for Jason Huggins who was an engineer at ThoughtWorks in Chicago. This made him create JavaScriptTestRunner, a JavaScript software for automating web application testing.
Employees at Thoughtworks were the first to use the new invention. However, it was renamed Selenium and made open source in 2004. Since its beginnings, selenium has been an effective automated testing tool for testing diverse web applications across many platforms.
What Is Selenium?
Selenium is an open-source web-based automated testing tool. It helps carry out automation testing across all web-based applications. The testing done through Selenium is termed Selenium testing. The only drawback that Selenium has is it cannot test mobile and desktop-based applications. Nevertheless, it helps test web applications across various browsers.
What makes Selenium so popular?
- Because Selenium is written in JavaScript, it’s simple to use. It can test web applications on various browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari.
- Java, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby are just a few programming languages that one can use to create tests.
- Selenium can integrate with other automation tools to produce the best results.
- Because Selenium is open-source, anyone interested in learning to test can do so for free.
- Selenium is cross-platform, meaning it can run on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh computers.
- Selenium is simple to use and does not necessitate in-depth knowledge of the technology by the engineer.
Below Are The Suite Of Tools Selenium Provides Us:
Selenium is much more than a single tool. It’s a collection of applications that caters to a company’s various testing requirements. It is composed of 4 components:
Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
Selenium Remote Control (RC)
Selenium WebDriver
Selenium Grid
Selenium IDE: Selenium Integrated Development Environment is a browser plug-in for Firefox. Because this is the most basic framework, developers must transition to Selenium RC for more complicated test scenarios.
Selenium RC: Selenium Remote Control allows programmers to write code in any language. Selenium RC supports various programming languages, including Java, C#, Python, and others.
Selenium WebDrivers: WebDriver is a program that automates and controls the actions of a web browser. It usually does not rely on JavaScript and instead communicates with the browser to control its actions.
Selenium Grid: Grid is used in conjunction with RC to run parallel tests in different browsers.
This article presented a quick introduction to what is Selenium and how its various components can help us with multiple test scenarios. By helping overcome manual testing challenges, Selenium has made its mark remarkable in the test automation field.