Can you think about testing your applications without the single involvement of automation testing? No? This is because the complexity of modern applications have reached such a point that it is almost impossible to only use manual test cases while verifying their functioning and stability. What if you are a new tester who does not even know about automation testing and some of the most popular frameworks, like what is Selenium WebDriver?
If that is the case for you, don’t worry! We are here for you. Our article will help you understand everything that you need to know about Selenium WebDriver, its major functionalities, and also how can you use it to perform modern automation testing.
What Is Selenium WebDriver
Let’s start with the very basic: What is Selenium WebDriver? It is a part of the Selenium test suite, which in turn is an open-source solution to perform automation testing on modern web applications.
Due to some of its features, the Selenium WebDriver has become the most important component of the suite that can help you initiate and run the test cases on all the native environments of your application. One of the major advantages of this tool is that it can run the test cases on the native environment of a browser without going through the hassle of setting up a dedicated test engine.
While using Selenium WebDriver, you can automate various forms of user interactions like clicking buttons, filling forms, or navigating through web pages and validating the application’s behavior across multiple browsers, platforms, and devices.
You will also have access to the following tools while using Selenium for modern automation testing:
- You can use the Integrated Development Environment to automatically analyze the user interactions and create the test cases accordingly. It is the perfect solution for getting started with codeless automation testing.
- The Selenium client API gives you the complete freedom to write the automation test scripts in your preferred language. Then? Selenium will import this script into the native environment by converting it into a language that it can natively interpret.
- Finally, the Selenium Grid is the most important component for implementing parallel testing. What is it you ask? It is the process of running multiple test cases on different configurations at the same time.
How Selenium WebDriver Works
Now that we have developed a basic idea about what is Selenium WebDriver and all the other components that are present with it, let us divert our attention towards the basic functioning principle of this tool:
Client Libraries and Language Bindings
As we already mentioned, the entire test suite supports multiple programming languages like Java and Python. So, the language-specific client libraries will send all the required commands to the native architecture of Selenium WebDriver.
With the help of these bindings, you can write the test scripts in your preferred language. This is one of the most important parameters for improving the flexibility and usability in this entire testing process.
JSON Wire Protocol
After the initial process, all the commands that are present in the automation test scripts are sent as HTTP requests using the JSON Wire Protocol. Using this protocol, you can perform the communication between the client scripts and browser-specific WebDriver implementations.
This protocol is also responsible for standardizing the requests and responses. This is a very important parameter to ensure consistent communication, irrespective of the browser type or the specific version of the chosen browser.
Browser Drivers
The browser drivers are one of the most important components for executing automation testing using the Selenium WebDriver. This is because every browser will have a specific driver to translate the command from WebDriver scripts into browser-understandable instructions.
For example, if you are trying to execute the test cases on Google Chrome, you will have to use ChromeDriver, and similarly, if your target browser is Mozilla Firefox, you will need to rely on the GeckoDriver.
After interpreting all the commands on the test scripts, these browser drivers will also be responsible for executing the respective actions in the native environment of the browser without any additional setup process.
Browser Interaction
The final step in this process includes the browser interactions. This is because after receiving the instructions from the browser driver, the respective browser will perform actions like clicking, navigating, and inputting data within the target web app.
After performing all the above actions, it will also return the execution status, which will travel back through the browser driver to the WebDriver script as a response. This transfer of data will also be performed using the JSON Wire Protocol.
This is a very important process to create the final test reports, which will provide all the required information about the success or failure of that respective testing scenario.
Setting Up Selenium WebDriver
Excited about using Selenium WebDriver for running your automation test cases? Let us now divert our attention towards some of the major steps and prerequisites that you must follow to implement this process:
- The first step is to target your preferred programming language, which you will be using for creating all the automation test scripts. For the sake of this article, we will be using the reference of the Java programming language for writing all the automation test scripts.
- The next step is to use an integrated development environment like IntelliJ IDEA or Eclipse to set up along with the Selenium WebDriver.
- If you want to implement any form of advanced functionality with your Selenium test cases, you will require the dependency of multiple WebDriver libraries. So, you can easily download the Selenium WebDriver libraries using dependency managers like Maven or Gradle.
- The final step in this process is to create a list of all the browsers that you are going to target with the test cases. Depending on this list, you can shortlist all the respective browser drivers, as we have already mentioned in the earlier part of this article.
Now that you’re finished with the setup process, you’re finally prepared to create your first automation test script using the Selenium WebDriver. To further help you understand this process, we have given a sample code below for your understanding:
Best Practices for Using Selenium WebDriver
Finally, let us divert our attention towards some of the best practices that we recommend the testers to integrate within their testing environment while using the Selenium WebDriver. We have carefully created these practices to help improve your productivity and quality within the test cases:
Use Explicit Waits
To improve the user engagement, it has become a common practice for modern applications to add various forms of dynamic elements. These are special elements that can change their placement and functioning depending on various backend configurations and user actions.
However, testing the functioning of these elements is a completely different story, as you cannot verify them with traditional practices due to the risk of flaky test reports.
So, what’s the way out? Selenium WebDriver allows you to natively integrate explicit waits to improve the test reliability for these test cases. In this process, the system can automatically pause the test execution process until the respective elements become visible and interactable.
After that, the test case automatically resumes to perform the required actions and show you the final reports.
Design Robust Locators
Locating an element on the user interface of an application is one of the primary steps to initiate the testing process. However, there are various forms of locator strategies that are natively available with Selenium. When it comes to choosing the preferred one, we would always suggest you to use CSS selectors instead of XPath.
This is because by using CSS Selectors, you will be able to implement a robust element identification process and also ensure the flexibility so that the system can automatically adjust the strategies if the placement of the element changes during the testing process.
Prioritize Real Device Testing
While you are performing automation testing, it is very important to add real device test cases to ensure that all the parameters of the application are functional and stable when it’s exposed to the physical parameters of a device.
However, considering the millions of dollars required to set up a real device test lab, testers often avoid this process by restricting the test cases to only emulation and simulation software.
What if we told you that there is a better alternative to maintain the same accuracy while eliminating the expenses? The answer to this problem is the integration of AI-native cloud testing platforms like LambdaTest.
Now, if you are a new tester who does not know what is Selenium or what is Selenium WebDriver, there is a high possibility that you are not accustomed to these testing platforms as well. You don’t have to worry! We will help you with this as well.
LambdaTest is an AI-native test orchestration and execution platform that lets you perform manual and automation testing at scale with over 3000+ browser-OS combinations, and 10,000+ real devices.
This platform also provides various assistive features like real-time test activity logging, native bug tracking, and also comprehensive test report generation. All these features are aimed to assist you with multiple stages of your automated web app testing.
Use Page Object Models
While you are working with Selenium WebDriver or initiating automated web testing, it is very important to have a special focus on simplifying the test maintenance and enhancing the readability of the testing process. To implement this approach, you should use the Page Object Model design pattern.
In this process, you have to store the testing data separately from the test case information. With this approach, you can also reduce the technicality of the automation testing process so that even the non-technical members of the team can participate in these processes.
The Bottom Line
Based on all the factors that we went through in this article, we can easily come to the conclusion that Selenium WebDriver is a very important part of the modern testing and development process. By using it efficiently, you will be able to improve your browser automation processes to ensure higher test coverage and better software quality.
Since the Selenium WebDriver is continuously evolving, you can easily expect even better and advanced features like AI testing and ML workflows to be integrated with this tool.
This is yet another reason why the testers should constantly monitor all the upcoming trends and innovations in this segment. You must remember that practices like these will go a long way to constantly improve the user experience and build a positive reputation for your brand.
