Tutorial1-IntroductiontoSelenium

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, 01/03/-1,

shrikant joshi:Hope we may get tutorial videos as well same as QTP ones which you have in your site that will be really interesting

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Anonymous:excellant

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shrikant joshi:Useful too good

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sasmita107in:This is really good article on selenium. I would like to learn Selenium through your site- Guru99.

, 01/03/-1,

Arkadiy Romalis:Thanks, but this is overview of this tools not a tutorial!Laura Mocanita:"This is Article 1 of an 11 part tutorial series on Selenium." I hope more will come.

Article Starts Here

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Introduction to Selenium

What is Selenium?

Selenium is a free (open source) automated testing suite for web applications across different

browsers and platforms. It is quite similar to HP Quick Test Pro (QTP) only that Selenium focuses on

automating web-based applications.

Selenium is not just a single tool but a suite of software, each catering to different testing needs of an

organization. It has four components.

● Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

● Selenium Remote Control (RC)

● WebDriver

● Selenium Grid

At the moment, Selenium RC and WebDriver are being merged into a single framework to form Selenium 2.

Selenium 1, by the way, refers to Selenium RC.

Who developed Selenium?

Since Selenium is a collection of different tools, it had different developers creating different features. Below

are the key persons who made notable contributions to the Selenium Project.

Birth of Selenium Core

Primarily, Selenium was created by Jason Huggins

in 2004. An engineer at ThoughWorks, he was

working on a web application that required frequent

testing. Having realized that the repetitious manual

testing of their application was becoming more and

, 01/03/-1,

Divya Bhatia:This section looks too conjusted.

, 01/03/-1,

yashaswini ghosh:The name of company is incorrect. It is "Thoughtworks"

, 01/03/-1,

Vijay Bhaskar:This paragraph should be in next page and the image is not fully displayed

, 01/03/-1,

Mukta Pandey:Please insert some space after the diagram...its difficult to read..Thanks!

, 01/03/-1,

Vijay Bhaskar:The diagram can be made good but i don't agree with the statement that Selenium RC and webdriver are merged. we have two different jar files for RC and WebDriver, then how come they are merged but we can migrate the code from RC to WebDriver.

, 01/03/-1,

Krishna Rungta:The Diagram could be made more detailed Selenium RC is also called Selenium 1We could also somehow depict RC and Webdriver are being merged to form Selenium 2

, 01/03/-1,

Mehdi Sheikh:softwares

, 01/03/-1,

Vijay Bhaskar:why to include qtp here.selenium is only for web applications and useful in cross browser testing but not used for desktop or windows based applications such as MS word,calculator,etc.

, 01/03/-1,

Mukta Pandey:What is Selenium - explanation looks good, its understandable..but, before explaining the four components, if we could have - Why do we use Selenium Section..would be helpful.

, 01/03/-1,

Anonymous:This article doesn't seem like a tutorial it just feels like a go-through to the history and advantages of selenium"how to automate using selenium" is an important part of a selenium tutorial which seems to be missing here

more inefficient, he created a JavaScript program that would automatically control the browser’s actions. He

named this program as the “JavaScriptTestRunner.”

Seeing potential in this idea to help automate other web applications , he made JabaScriptRunner open-source

which as later re-named as Selenium Core.

The Same Origin Policy

This policy prohibits JavaScript code from accessing elements from a domain that is different from

where it was launched.

Example, the HTML code in www.google.com uses a JavaScript program “randomScript.js”. The same origin

policy will only allow randomScript.js to access pages within google.com such as google.com/mail,

google.com/login, or google.com/signup. However, it cannot access pages from different sites such as

yahoo.com/search or guru99.com because they belong to different domains

Birth of Selenium Remote Control (Selenium RC)

Unfortunately, testers using Selenium Core had to install the whole application under test and the web server

on their own local computers because of the restrictions imposed by the same origin policy. And so another

ThoughtWorks engineer, Paul Hammant, decided to create a server that will act as an HTTP proxy to “trick”

the browser into believing that Selenium Core and the web application being tested come from the same

domain. This system became known as the Selenium Remote Control or Selenium 1.

, 01/03/-1,

Mukta Pandey:Apologies to say this but i didn't find the relevance of putting this bull - man picture here to demonstarte birth of Selenium RC....Could we have some other pic please, if possible ,thanks!

, 01/03/-1,

Vijay Bhaskar:It should be in next page

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Raghu Reddy:Period is required here.

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Joe Podian:This is an excellent start. What we need is a sample project testing from start to end showing every single menu options and screen shots.

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yashaswini ghosh:it should be "has"

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Anshul Aggarwal:JavaScriptRunner... Not Jaba.. Please correct

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naanchyk08:JavaScriptRunner is correct

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Raghu Reddy:It should be "browser actions" not browser's .

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yashaswini ghosh:"the" is not needed.

Selenium Grid was developed by Patrick Lightbody to address the need of minimizing test execution times

as much as possible. He initially called the system as “Hosted QA.” It was capable of capturing browser

screenshots during significant stages, and also of sending out Selenium commands to different

machines simultaneously.

Birth of Selenium IDE

Shinya Kasataniof Japan created Selenium IDE, a

Firefox extension that can automate the browser

through a record-and-playback feature. He came up

with this idea to further increase the speed in creating

test cases. He donated Selenium IDE to the Selenium

Project in 2006.

Birth of WebDriver

Simon Stewart created WebDriver circa 2006

when browsers and web applications were becoming

more powerful and more restrictive with JavaScript

programs like Selenium Core. It was the first

cross-platform testing framework that can

control the browser from the OS level.

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Divya Bhat:this is really good.. great job by guru99 ! :)i think this line can be shifted to previous page.

, 01/03/-1,

yashaswini ghosh:Half Image of "Simon Stewart" is displayed.

, 01/03/-1,

Aviad Sar-Shalom:Brilliant document, now your next challenge is to demonstrate how to test with it, maybe better to see the work flow of how to install and use by videos and not docs

, 01/03/-1,

yashaswini ghosh:space is required in-between

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Anonymous:It should be first point.(Before Birth of Selenium RC)

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Olaoye Oluwatosin:"as" should be removed

Birth of Selenium 2

In 2008, the whole Selenium Team decided to merge WebDriver and Selenium RC to form a more powerful

framework called Selenium 2, with WebDriver being the core. Currently, Selenium RC is still being

developed but only in maintenance mode. Most of the Selenium Project’s efforts are focused on Selenium 2.

This is the reason why prior to Selenium RC, testers needed to install local copies of both Selenium Core (a

JavaScript program) and the web server containing the web application being tested so they would belong to

the same domain.

So, Why the Name Selenium?

It came from a joke that Jason cracked one time to his team. Another automated testing framework was

popular during Selenium’s development, and it was by the company called Mercury Interactive(yes, that

company who originally made QTP before it was acquired by HP). Since Selenium is a well-known antidote for

Mercury poisoning, Jason suggested that name. His teammates took it, and so that is how we get to call this

framework up to the present.

Selenium Tool Suite

The Selenium Tool Suite is comprised of four components:

● Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

● Selenium Remote Control (RC)

● WebDriver

● Selenium Grid

A quick summary of their features are shown below.

Selenium IDE

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Raghu Reddy:sorry to say it doesn't look good, rather we can put it as " A quick summary of the Selenium Tool Suite features are described below. "

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dejioguns2002:Selenium WebDriver

, 01/03/-1,

Mukta Pandey:Please provide some space after the diagram and before starting up new topic...Selenium Tool Suite should have been little down on the page..

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Vijay Bhaskar:please move this diagram to the above page.

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yashaswini ghosh:it is "got"

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Anonymous:it should be 'after'

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yashaswini ghosh:space between Interactive and bracket

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yashaswini ghosh:should be "which Jason had"

Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is the simplest framework in the Selenium suite and is

the easiest one to learn.It is a Firefox plugin that you can install as easily as you can with other plugins.

However, because of its simplicity, Selenium IDE should only be used as a prototyping tool. If you want to

create more advanced test cases, you will need to use either Selenium RC or WebDriver.

Selenium Remote Control (Selenium RC)

Selenium RC was the flagship testing framework of the whole Selenium project for a long time. This is the

first automated web testing tool that allowed users to use a programming language they prefer. As of

version 2.25.0, RC can support the following programming languages:

● Java

● C#

● PHP

, 01/03/-1,

Divya Bhat:Java can be written in next page.

, 01/03/-1,

Mukta Pandey:Very well written and nice presentation as well! Good Job Guru99!

, 01/03/-1,

nirupama.karanam:Basic concept is good.. but it would be better if people gets proper links to download IDE, RC, etc and try writing scripts.. Things needs to be aligned are: 1. Spacing throughout the page. 2. Spelling and grammatical mistakes . 3. Providing links to download will be much helpful. 4. Please provide basic example for each i.e, IDE, RC, Web driver and Grid so that user will get idea to use the tool much better.

, 01/03/-1,

yashaswini ghosh:space required after period.

● Python

● Perl

● Ruby

WebDriver

The WebDriver proves itself to be better than both Selenium IDE and Selenium RC in many respects. It

implements a more modern and stable approach in automating the browser’s actions. WebDriver, unlike

Selenium RC, does not rely on JavaScript for automation. It controls the browser by directly

communicating to it.

The supported languages are the same as those in Selenium RC.

● Java

● C#

● PHP

● Python

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Vijay Bhaskar:Below this sentence there is so much of gap.raviteja.sietk:correct

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Divya Bhat:Lot of space is left in previous page.

● Perl

● Ruby

Selenium Grid

Selenium Grid is a tool used together with Selenium RC to run parallel tests across different machines

and different browsers all at the same time. Parallel execution means running multiple tests at once.

Features:

● Enables simultaneous running of tests in multiple browsers and environments

● Saves time enormously.

● Utilizesthe hub-and-nodes concept. The hub acts as a central source of Selenium commands to each

node connected to it.

Note on Browser and Environment Support

Because of their architectural differences, Selenium IDE, Selenium RC, and WebDriver support different sets of

browsers and operating environments.

Selenium

IDE

Selenium

RC

WebDriver

Browser

Support

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox

Internet

Explorer

Google

Chrome

Safari

Opera

Konqueror

Others

Internet Explorer versions 6 to 9, both 32 and 64-bit

Firefox 3.0, 3.5, 3.6, 4.0, 5.0, 6, 7 and above

(current version is 16.0.1)

Google Chrome 12.0.712.0 and above

(current version is 22.0.1229.94 m)

Opera 11.5 and above

(current version is 12.02)

, 01/03/-1,

S.JohnsonPrabhu:Since selenium origin is from Firefox we can change Firefox to first line and IE to next line.

, 01/03/-1,

S.JohnsonPrabhu:Looks good when we give space between browsers name.

, 01/03/-1,

S.JohnsonPrabhu:Instead of selenium commands words we can use the keyword selenese (i.e.) set of selenium commands use to run the tests.

, 01/03/-1,

yashaswini ghosh:space between Utilizes and the

, 01/03/-1,

yashaswini ghosh:period requiredGunjan Arora:Good testing :P

, 01/03/-1,

Anonymous:Proper spacing between the topics would make it more clear

Android – 2.3 and above for phones and tablets

(devices & emulators)

iOS 3+ for phones (devices & emulators) and 3.2+ for

tablets (devices & emulators)

HtmlUnit 2.9 and above

(current version is 2.10)

Operati

ng

System

Windows

Mac OS X

Linux

Windows

Mac OS X

Linux

Solaris

All operating systems where the browsers above can run.

How to Choose the Right Selenium Tool for Your Need

Tool Why Choose ?

Selenium IDE● To learn about concepts on automated testing and Selenium, including:

● Selenese commands such as type, open, clickAndWait, assert, verify, etc.

● Locators such as id, name, xpath, css selector, etc.

● Executing customized JavaScript code using runScript

● Exporting test cases in various formats

● To create tests with little or no prior knowledge in programming

● To create simple test cases and test suites that you can export later to RC or

WebDriver

● To test a web application against Firefox only

Selenium RC● To design a test using a more expressive language than Selenese

● To run your test against different browsers (except HtmlUnit) on different

operating systems.

● To deploy your tests across multiple environments using Selenium Grid.

● To test your application against a new browser that supports JavaScript.

, 01/03/-1,

yashaswini ghosh:period required

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, 01/03/-1,

yashaswini ghosh:table has to be widened lilttle

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awais bashir:first column need little bit wide.

● To test web applications with complex AJAX-based scenarios

WebDriver● To use a certain programming language in designing your test case.

● To test applications that are rich in AJAX-based functionalities

● To execute tests on the HtmlUnit browser.

● To create customized test results

Selenium Grid● To run your Selenium RC scripts in multiple browsers and operating systems

simultaneously.

● To run a huge test suite, and you need to complete it the soonest time possible.

A Comparison between Selenium and QTP

Quick Test Professional(QTP)is a proprietary automated testing tool previously owned by the company

Mercury Interactive before it was acquired by Hewlett-Packardin2006.The Selenium Tool Suite is similar

to QTP in many respects, some of which are enumerated below:

Similarities:

● They both perform automated testing

● Both are capable of handling scalable test suites

● Selenium IDE and QTP both have record and playback feature

● They can facilitate data-driven, keyword-driven, model-based, and modularity-driven testing

● Both frameworks support JavaScript

● Selenium IDE, Selenium RC, and QTP all have built-in test reporting and event-logging capabilities

● Both are capable of capturing screenshots of the application under test.

● Both frameworks support regular expressions

On the other hand, enumerated below are their differences:

Advantages of Selenium over QTP

Selenium QTP

● Open source, free to use, and free of

charge.

● Proprietary, so it isn’t free.

● Highly extensible ● Limited add-ons

● Can run tests across different browsers ● Can only run tests in Firefox and Internet

Explorer.

● Supports various operating systems ● Can only be used in Windows

● Supportsmobile devices ● Cannot be used in mobile devices.

● Allows you to use an IDE of your choice

(NetBeans, Eclipse, IDEA, etc.)

● All test scripts can only be created within QTP

, 01/03/-1,

Jim Sears:Remove "All", unnecessary.

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Jim Sears:Not accurate - QTP requires third party software to support mobile devices.

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yashaswini ghosh:space required

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Jim Sears:and Chrome.

, 01/03/-1,

S.JohnsonPrabhu:Simply give as commercial instead of "so it isn't free"

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Anonymous:Rexep is supported by the language not by Selenium

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QTP is VBScript

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Jim Sears:periods are only used for full sentences and not for bullet points.

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, 01/03/-1,

naanchyk08:space required in-betweem

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awais bashir:required space

, 01/03/-1,

yashaswini ghosh:space required in-between

, 01/03/-1,

Anonymous:Better to add QTP version. QTP is evolving as well.

, 01/03/-1,

Vijay Bhaskar:It has to be in next page.

, 01/03/-1,

awais bashir:main heading should b on next page

, 01/03/-1,

yashaswini ghosh:replace "the" with "in"

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yashaswini ghosh:remove "and"

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● Can execute tests whilethe browser is

minimized

● Needs to have the application under test to be

visible on the desktop

● Can execute tests in parallel. ● Can only execute tests sequentially

Advantages of QTP over Selenium

QTP Selenium

● Can test both web and desktop applications ● Can only test web applications

● Comes with a built-in object repository ● Has no built-in object repository

● Automates faster than Selenium because it

has fewer components undergoing fewer

processes.

● Automates at a slower rate because it has more

components undergoing more complicated

processes.

● Data-driven testing is easier to perform because

it has built-in global and local data tables.

● Data-driven testing is more cumbersome since

you have to rely on the programming language’s

capabilities for setting values for your test data

● Can access controls within the browser

(such as the Favorites bar, Address bar, Back and

Forward buttons, etc.)

● Cannot access elements outside of the web

application under test

● Can compare bitmap comparison between

images

● Cannot perform bitmap comparison

● Provides professionalcustomer support ● No official user support is being offered.

● Has native capability to export test data into

external formats

● Has no native capability to export runtime data

onto external formats

Though clearly, QTP has more advanced capabilities, Selenium outweighs QTP in three main areas:

● Cost (because Selenium is completely free)

● Flexibility (because of a number of programming languages, browsers, and platforms it can support)

● Parallel testing (something that QTP is only partially capable of)

Summary

● Jason Huggins pioneered Selenium in 2004.Paul Hammantled the development of Selenium Remote

Control. Patrick Lightbody developed Selenium Grid.Shinya Kasatani created Selenium IDE.Simon

Stewart developed WebDriver.

● The entire Selenium Tool Suite is comprised of four components:

● Selenium IDE, a Firefox add-on that you can only use in creating relatively simple test cases and

test suites.

● Selenium Remote Control, also known as Selenium 1, which is the first Selenium tool that

allowed users to use programming languages in creating complex tests

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, 01/03/-1,

naanchyk08:provide space in between

, 01/03/-1,

Jim Sears:because the IDE has not been developed and only third party IDE's can be used for development.

, 01/03/-1,

Jim Sears:because it has a full featured IDE.

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headman009:Here, between "while" and "the" should be a space

● WebDriver, the newer breakthrough that allows your test scripts to communicate directly to the

browser, thereby controlling it from the OS level.

● Selenium Grid is also a tool that is used with Selenium RC to execute parallel tests across

different browsers and operating systems.

● Selenium RC and WebDriverwas merged to form Selenium 2.

● Selenium is more advantageous than QTP in terms of costs and flexibility. It also allows you to run

tests in parallel, unlike in QTP where you are only allowed to run tests sequentially.

, 01/03/-1,

Sujatha reddy:tutorial is very good;even a fresher can know what is selenium and what for it is???can u please send me the rest 10 tutorials also...Thanks in advance...

, 01/03/-1,

Rakhi Agrawal:Overall it looks good..but need more info about how selenium is more useful or important for web application.

, 01/03/-1,

Deval Patel:someone with selenium knowledge needs to review article, but this is better than no Selenium support

, 01/03/-1,

Rakhi Agrawal:Explain the importance of selenium over other.

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awais bashir:provide a separate toturial about installation ov different modules ov Selenium suite.

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Tutorial1-IntroductiontoSelenium

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