1. Test Automation with Selenium

2. Agenda Introduction to Selenium Demo
An overview of the framework, and how it works
Showcase the different ways of using Selenium
Limitations of Selenium

3. Selenium Introduction

4. What is Selenium?
Selenium is a robust set of tools that supports rapid development of test automation for web-based applications
Selenium is a combination of tools for functional tests, smoke tests, and integration tests of Web applications, including Rich Internet Applications (RIA, using Ajax.)
A Java Script Based so work any where
Embeds test automation engine in your browser
Supported on Multiple Browsers

5. Why Selenium ?
Cross Platform and Browser Compatibility
The beauty of doing these scripts in Selenium is that you could run these scripts after they are just written and see instantly where they may need tweaking and amending
Flexibility and Extensibility: Selenium’s strongest characteristic when compared with proprietary test automation tools and other open source solutions. Selenium-RC supports multiple programming and scripting languages.
Allows running multiple tests parallely in single/multiple browsers
Portability: Allows to record scripts in Windows and replay it in Linux without re-creating the script

6. Part 2: Demo

7. Selenium Components
Selenium IDE
Selenium RC
Selinum Grid

8. Using Selenium IDE
Integrated development environment for Selenium test
Allows you to record, edit and debug tests.

9. Selenese – The language of Selenium
Commands of Selenium
Selenese consists of Actions, Accessors, Element Locators and Variables
Actions – Combination of Command, Target and Value
Command : Scripts perform a particular action on a web application
Target : Typically take element locator
Value : Value for any input
Example:
Open - Open a URL
Click – Click button, link, etc...
Type – Type text in text field
There are only about 6 commands you need to know to be able to automate tests. Same as a manual test case really (open, click, select, type, assert (check), wait).

10. Selenese – The language of Selenium
Accessors – Accessors examine the state of the application and store the results in variables. Verification / Validation checkpoints for the tool
Example:
Store (locator, variables)
Verify (locator, pattern)
They are also used to automatically generate Assertions
Assertions – Assertions are like Accessors, but they verify that the state of the application conforms to what is expected.
Examples include "make sure the page title is X" and "verify that this checkbox is checked".
All Selenium Assertions can be used in 3 modes
1. assert
2. verify
3. waitfor

11. Selenese – The language of Selenium
Element Locator –
These can be id, name, identifier, link, xpath, etc...
Variables used in scripting
Information regarding Actions, Accessors can be found in class ‘Selenium Driver’ in installed directory

12. Selenium – Locating Elements Using Firebug Tool
Locating by XPath
Rule 1: if value is assigned to any attribute
Step 1 Inspect object
Step 2 Look for first word say “Input”
Step 3 start all xpath with //
Step 4 []
Step attribute
Step 6 value ->>
Rule 2: if value is not assigned to any attribute
Step 2 Look for first word say “a”
Step 5 text()
Step 6 value ->> //a[text() = “Maps“]
Rule 3: If two same objects are displayed on same page and you have to find out your choice of object
//a[text()="Maps"]/following:: a[text()="Maps"]/]

13. Table or driver based? Table based approach fine for simple tests.
No programming required
Doesn't scale – duplication is a major issue
Driver approach better for 'Real' test suites
Can develop tests in language of choice
C#, Java, Ruby, Python, Perl
Easier data management via DB / Excel

14. Using Selenium RC
Although Selenium-IDE is a Firefox only add-on, tests created in it can also be run against other browsers by using Selenium-RC and specifying the name of the test suite on the command line
Selenium-RC allows the test automation developer to use a programming language for maximum flexibility and extensibility in developing test logic
Selenium-RC provides an API (Application Programming Interface) and library for each of its supported languages: HTML, Java, C#, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby.

15. Architecture

16. Configuring Selenium-RC With Eclipse
Eclipse is a software that allows you to write and execute programs in many different languages. In our case we will be using Eclipse to write and execute Selenium via Java

17. Using Selenium Grid
Selenium-Grid allows the Selenium-RC solution to scale for test suites or test suites to be run in multiple environments.
With Selenium-Grid multiple instances of Selenium-RC are running on various operating system and browser configurations, each of these when launching register with a hub. When tests are sent to the hub they are then redirected to an available Selenium-RC, which will launch the browser and run the test.
This allows for running tests in parallel, with the entire test suite theoretically taking only as long to run as the longest individual test.

18. Know Issues & Workarounds
Part 3:
Know Issues & Workarounds

19. Selenese – Element not found on page
Potential Cause:
Can happen due to execution speed of selenium
Elements do not load on page in time
Fix:
Add code in scripts which waits for elements
Additional issues:
Sometime existing elements on a page are not deleted
Sometime elements on a page have same label
Solution:
Obtain exact element label from source code
Label can be used in scripts for accuracy

20. Selenese – Handling of Popup Windows
Steps:
Window id required for automated operation in window
Use following commands for handling alert messages:
Put following commands before assertalert command
1) storeAlert and value ($variableName)
2) storeAlertPresent and value ($variableName)

21. Selenese – Handling of Frames
Option:
Multi-window option handles potential frame problems
Cause:
At times required name of frame not obtained in recording
Fix:
Obtain frame label from source code
Also can be obtained from browser URL bar

22. Practice that we decided to implement
Agile, Automation, and Continuous Integration
Practice that we decided to implement
Run Selenium tests as part of the build
Run all acceptance tests in the regression test suite with the build, daily (at a minimum). [4]
Run all unit tests with every build. [4]
Run multiple builds per day.
Can generate HTML reports, published to entire team
Helps catch bugs ASAP
Addresses risk of catching bugs late in the cycle

23. Why Selenium

24. Why Selenium ? Scripting capabilities Portability
Validation & Verification
Playback Options
Reporting Capabilities

25. Why Selenium ? Scripting Capabilities
Simplified Script Creation – In selenium, the default script is in html and it is the most common scripting language used among peoples.
Keyword driven testing
Standard Scripting Language allows you to easily create/update scripts without much programming knowledge
Object Repository is not available in selenium but it is one of the features of all Functional testing tool
Data driven Testing enables you to perform functional testing in different scenarios by just changing the test data in an external data source. Selenium supports Data driven testing
Unicode supports allows you to test multi-language deployments of your applications
Supports pattern-matching capabilities to improve test script reuse, if application changes frequently

26. Why Selenium ? Portability :
Allows you to record scripts in Windows and replay it in Linux without re-creating the scripts
Browser Abstraction Layer allows scripts recorded in one browser to be replayed in all other supported browsers
Runtime locale option lets you to simultaneously test all language versions of your application with a single script

27. Why Selenium ? Validation and Verification
Rich Library of Built in function added using the Function Generator tool. This helps you to construct function calls for specific testing requirements which include: In selenium, user has to create Built in function for their testing.
Checkpoints that include Text, GUI, XML, File and Database enable thorough validation of your web applications/web sites. In selenium, there is a similar thing for checkpoint called verify or asset. But user can't able to check for images/bitmap. If user wants to check for database then they have to create a database connection with JavaScript and put it in userextensions.js but not sure about creating check points in the database. I left the choice to the user.

28. Why Selenium ? Playback Options
Automatic/Customizable Error Recovery for unattended testing to handle unexpected window, like an ASSERT box, pop- ups, etc. But automatic error recovery for unattended testing is not available for selenium but user can write his/her own scripts to handle this.
Playback Synchronization to handle the variation in time the application takes to load a new page. Ex: In selenium ClickAndWait is a command which will wait for the page to load and start executing the next command.
Option to chain scripts for controlling the order of script execution. In selenium core, we can do the order of execution and if user wish he can execute everything as a batch file.
Multiple Play back options that enables testers to debug test errors while creating and maintaining test scripts. Selenium supports multiple play back options.
Allows execution of individual and/or groups of tests from one or many workstations.
Provision for command-line invocation allows invocation from batch files or scheduling utilities.

29. Why Selenium ? Reporting Capabilities
Clear and Powerful Reports are provided to indicate the status of the test execution.
Hyperlinks or color coding (RED color for failure) allow easy navigation through the report.
This helps you to quickly identify application failures and clearly assess application quality.

30. Why Selenium ? Compatibility Testing:
Today organizations trying to automate their web applications/web sites are looking for a uniform testing solution. This will help them to reuse test scripts to test it in different platforms/different browsers/different languages/different databases/different servers

31. Thanks