March 7, 2024

Software testing is the most important aspect of software application development. Every software industry employs both developers and testers. So after the developer develops the software application, he sends that application to the tester for testing before final release of the application to the customer. Software testing refers to thorough checking of various features of software applications as per the customer requirements so as to deliver good quality applications to customers.Checking of features of software application refers to checking whether every feature works as per requirements and expectation of customers. If any feature does not work as per expectation of the customer then testers raise bugs in that particular feature and assign that bug for fixing to the developer. After the developer fixes the assigned bug, the tester retests it and if he finds the bug is removed, he sends that software application for release to the customer.

There are various types of applications like standalone applications, mobile applications, and web based applications. Through software testing, testers are able to test those types of applications. In the present situation there is a rapid growth of automation testing due to heavy demand and usage of complex software applications by customers and organisations as well as delivery of those applications in a short period of time. So selenium is a free and open source automation testing tool with the help of which developers and testers are able to perform automation testing of various web based applications in a short period of time by performing parallel testing which involves testing of applications in different browsers simultaneously and cross browser testing which involves testing of browsers.

The origin of selenium tool dates back to the era of 2000s when the automation tool of “Mercury Interactive” organisation was popular. During that time Jason Huggins who was working in “Thoughtwork” organisation made up his mind to create a more robust, powerful and open source automation which will be free to and easy to use by developers and testers. So Jason Huggins developed the Selenium tool in the year 2004 while working on a software application which underwent testing at regular intervals.

After realising the disadvantages of manual testing which involved time consumption and unsuitable for testing complex web applications and websites, Huggins developed a program using JavaScript and named it as “JavaScriptTestRunner” which in turn will save time and energy in testing software applications and in turn help to test complex software applications. He made that program open source and due to its vast capabilities and success in automation testing of browsers websites and web based applications he renamed it as “Selenium Core” and in this way Selenium came into existence and is being widely used in software organisations by testers and developers for parallel testing ,cross browser testing and other types of testing of web applications and websites.

Selenium is regarded as one of the most powerful automation tools used by developers and testers in software industries for delivering quality software to customers. The main reason for its heavy usage among developers and testers is that is it an open source tool which means it does not require any authentication for its access and it is freely available which means anyone can download that tool for free without doing any payment.

Selenium tool helps in automating websites and web based applications by writing automation scripts. The automation scripts are written in different programming languages like Java, Python, PHP and Ruby on Rails etc. after configuring Selenium in all these programming languages. Programming languages are chosen based on the convenience of developers and testers as well as the requirements of industries.

Automation testing of web based applications and websites using selenium can be done in different operating systems like windows, mac os, linux and ubuntu. Testers and developers create test suites and run them in different operating systems to test whether software applications or websites are compatible with different operating systems. This process of running software applications in different operating systems is called as cross platform testing. In many cases test scripts are written in one operating system and run in another operating system. For example test cases are created in windows operating system and executed in mac operating system.

Selenium is the most preferred tool for automating web applications, and websites in different browsers like ChromeBrowser, Firefox, Edge browser etc. using Web drivers like ChromeDriver, Firefoxdriver and Edgedriver for respective browsers. Testers are able to perform cross browser testing on these browsers which involves execution of test cases in different browsers one by one and parallel testing involving test case execution in different browsers simultaneously. This saves time and energy which would have been consumed while performing manual testing and also it results in better test coverage in short span of time.

Selenium provides a better and user-friendly interface as a result of which test scripts are executed smoothly in different browsers and operating systems. Testers and developers only need to configure Selenium in different programming languages as per their requirements and after writing the test scripts in those languages they can smoothly execute those test scripts. The results of those test scripts can also be visible in theconsole of programming languages and based on the results developers and testers can do necessary code changes and rerun the test scripts.

Selenium tools get frequently updated and with every update its performance and efficiency increases and all drawbacks in previous versions get fixed in new versions. One unique feature of the updates is that the newer versions of selenium are always available for use and easy to comprehend. All updates of selenium are based on the latest needs and requirements of customers and organisations.

Through Manual testing we can test the functionality of software applications but it consumes a lot of time and energy especially when we are testing complex applications and to deliver the software within a short period of time. As a result test coverage becomes poor. So to overcome this drawback selenium tool is used to perform automated testing of the complex software applications by running test scripts and reusing the codes multiple times resulting in better test coverage and delivery of software in a short span of time.

With the help of selenium we can reuse theTest scripts by running in different browsers and operating systems. This results in good test coverage in a short period of time and reduces efforts in manually running test scripts again and again.

Selenium can be easily integrated with different plugins like TestNG and Junit to execute multiple tests simultaneously resulting in good test coverage. After Test Case execution reports are generated which shows the status of all test scripts like number of test cases passed, number of test cases failed and the number of test cases skipped. “Data Provider” annotations in TestNG helps to execute the same test cases using different data. Selenium can also be integrated with different tools for performing various kinds of testing. To perform continuous integration Selenium is integrated with CI/CD tools like Jenkins,Docker and to execute image based automation testing it is integrated with sikuli

Frameworks refers to the designs which help automation testers to create better and effective automation test scripts. Frameworks makes the code more readable as well as promotes code reusability. Through Selenium we can create a lot of frameworks like Data driven frameworks,Test driven development frameworks and behaviour driven frameworks. Data driven frameworks refer to taking input data from external sources like excel sheets and storing that data in test script with the help of some variables. Test Driven development refers to writing test cases from the software requirements before writing test scripts for test case execution. Behaviour driven frameworks refers to creating test scripts in a plain and easily understandable language before test case execution so that even non technical people can understand.

Selenium is an open source and extremely popular tool among developers and testers in organisations for automation testing of web based applications and websites. While manual testing takes a lot of time and effort in testing software applications selenium reduces the time and effort required to test software applications. Automation testing using selenium is done by preparing automation scripts after configuring selenium with various programming languages like java, python, ruby on rails and PHP. Selenium also helps to do website automation by performing parallel testing and cross browser testing of different websites. Selenium is also compatible with different browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Edge and operating systems like windows, linux and mac. Due to the various advantages of selenium,it is being regarded as one of the most widely used tools for automation testing of web based applications and websites.

Also Selenium is a powerful tool that offers countless advantages for software testing. By incorporating Selenium into your testing processes, you can streamline your workflows, save time, reduce costs, and increase overall efficiency. Whether you are a seasoned tester or new to automation testing, Selenium provides a user-friendly interface and robust features that make it a valuable asset for any testing team. Consider using the advantages of Automation Testing with Selenium and improve the quality of your software testing operations today.

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