Why the Rise in Use of Selenium?

A number of recent reports have highlighted the rise in the use of Selenium as a software testing framework for internet applications. Despite being a portable framework, Selenium enables QA engineers to write test scripts in a wide range of programming languages including C#, Java, PHP, Perl, Ruby, Python and Groovy. The testing professionals can further use the record/playback tool provided by Selenium to write test scripts without learning any new programming language. The open source framework further makes it easier for testers to evaluate the performance of a web application by running tests on some of the widely used web browsers.

Major Advantages of Using Selenium for Web Application Testing

Supports Multiple Languages and Test Frameworks

While using Selenium, QA engineers have option to choose their preferred programming language and test framework. At present, Selenium supports several widely used programming languages including C#, Java, JavaScript, Objective-C, PHP, Perl, Ruby, Python and Groovy. The programmer can further import Selenium client libraries into popular language IDEs like Eclipse, Visual Studio.Net and Net beans. Selenium also supports several software testing frameworks including NUnit, JUnit, TestNG, RSpec, Test::Unit, pyunit and unittest. Thus, it becomes easier for QA engineers to write test scripts without acquiring any new skills.

Facilitates Cross Platform Browser Testing

To deliver flawless user experience, QA engineers have to assess the performance of the web application across multiple browsers and operating systems. The testers have option to install Selenium as a custom Firefox extension. Selenium further supports widely used web browsers like Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari and Opera. At the same time, the framework also supports major platforms like Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple OS X. So the developers can write the test scripts once, and execute those on several operating systems and web browsers.

Can be Used for Comprehensive Testing

Selenium can be seamlessly integrated with other test suites including QMetry, Hudson, Saucelabs and Selenium Grid. So it becomes easier for QA engineers to integrate it with their testing ecosystems. Despite being a portable testing framework, Selenium can be used to perform comprehensive testing including functional, regression, UI and UAT. The testing professional can further enhance Selenium and use the enhanced framework to carry out load testing, production monitoring and similar complex tests required to make the web application flawless.

Supports AJAX and TDD

A constant increase is being noted in the number web applications delivering richer user experience by using AJAX technologies. So the QA engineers are required to test the application by using a framework that strongly supports AJAX technologies. As Selenium supports AJAX technologies strongly, it can be used to assess the complex internet applications. Selenium can also be used to test the applications developed by using Agile and extreme programming (XP) methodologies. That is why; an enterprise can use the web application testing framework to adopt Test Driven Development (TDD).

Option to Access Selenium Ecosystem

The QA engineers also have option to access a large Selenium ecosystem that consist both open source tools and commercial services. For instance, they can access functional test services like BrowserStack, Sauce Labs and TestingBot to carry out Selenium cloud testing without putting any extra time and effort. Likewise, they can use Neustar to avail load testing and website monitoring services based on Selenium. The availability of open source tools and commercial services also contribute towards the rise in use of Selenium.

Reduces Testing Cost

Many enterprises, nowadays, opt for open source software development and testing frameworks to curtail overall project cost. Despite being a powerful and dynamic web application development framework, Selenium is still open source and free. Like Sahi and Watir, Selenium also allows users to avail the test automation framework and tools without paying any licensing fees. The low cost and open source nature of Selenium also makes it effective in bringing down the web application testing cost.

The QA engineers also have option to choose Selenium IDE or Selenium WebDriver. Selenium IDE is designed as a Firefox add-on to record-and-playback the interactions with the web browser. On the other hand, Selenium WebDriver can be used to create browser-based regression automation, while reusing the test scripts in multiple environments. To get maximum benefits of testing, you may consider hiring services of a selenium automated testing company.

We provide selenium web application testing services. If you would like to discuss with a certified selenium tester from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Selenium Works Well For Almost Any Browser

Selenium Testing is considered as the most widely used automated testing tool at this time within the software world. It is extremely necessary to know the way the selenium testing could accommodate with company testing system. You must understand each and every aspect. This is a type of integration testing. Integration testing is usually performed after coding phase once all of the modules are finished. Then again, in agile software life cycle model, this type of testing could be formulated as every module will be completed. Test when every module is completed and start on testing. Usually it begins with the very first phase as soon as the requirement analysis is completed. The quality assurance plan is something that is created with the requirement analysis report. In the meantime the tester will be provided by the quality assurance plan and also the requirement analysis report. The tester will be requested to get ready all the test cases. The selenium testing could not match here. The test cases developed at that time of requirement analysis will be given to the manual tester and they will continue on testing regularly.

Although, the stage is reached after it is being thought that the software is okay and will also be working perfectly in the live conditions. Whereas still that is being believed that the testing may not stop and then there needs to be frequent testing continuously. The company is going to be paid out towards maintaining and therefore testing will never end. Then again, it could be very expensive and possibly this could increase the maintenance cost which the client may not be happy to pay. In such cases, one might possibly struggle with over budget.

Then again, by using automation the cost could very well be cut down. These days we now have a good number of tools for automation testing. We certainly have the tools for automation testing tools such as Selenium and several others. Then again, Selenium certainly is the one automation tool which is ranked even greater than Jmeter. There are a variety of automation testing tools which are getting used nowadays. Each one of these automation tools deal with browsers. Selenium in the beginning was successfully just for Firefox. But, nowadays Selenium gives solution for any browsers. Nowadays every browser functions well with Selenium. All of your browser movements is now being noticed with the Selenium. Eventually each of the step make the shape of the test case. Every test case put together in order to create the test suite.

By and large, the selenium testing begins with coding step therefore it carries on at each and every further phases of the software development. Coding & integration stages were being noted with intensive automation testing and you may discover that as soon as the coding is completed and all the errors are taken out then you can certainly go for automated software testing. Selenium discovered as the most well known tool for automation testing at this time in the software testing market these days. Nowadays we possess the versions for every type of browser and not simply for Firefox. After that during the maintenance, all of these test cases are carried out over and over straight from the browser to make sure that your website or perhaps the web application is performing well. To get maximum benefits of testing, you may consider hiring services of a selenium automation testing company.

We provide selenium web application testing services. If you would like to discuss with a certified selenium tester from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

10 Topmost Reasons Why You Should Use Selenium

So far as the software industry is concerned, after any product arrives at the manual testing stage, almost all the organizations consider automated testing to cut down on the cost that manual testing involves. For any project, companies are rapidly inclining towards open source automated testing tools rather than investing in commercial testing tools which come at a high price. With no investment for licensing, open source testing instruments come with significant features that enable the convenient automation of testing of web portals and software applications. Selenium is by far one of the most popular automated testing tools for websites. With the passage of time, Selenium is becoming more and more popular and it is the most preferred choice of organizations and automation testers for automated testing of web applications, applicable for the functionality as well as the GUI.

There are a number of reasons why organizations prefer to use Selenium for automated testing. Here we will discuss the top 10 reasons. But before that, let us have an overview of the available test packages and modes of Selenium.

Test Packages of Selenium

Selenium comprises a package of diverse test components mainly consisting of four main tools. Each of the tools has a definite role to play in supporting the development of automated testing pertaining to a web application.

• Selenium IDE: This is in fact an add-on feature for Mozilla Firefox. This is generally used for playback, record, debugging and edit of selenium scripts.

• Selenium RC: This is alternatively known as Selenium Remote Control and is utilized to run tests across various systems and browsers.

• Selenium Grid: It is capable of running diverse cases of Selenium RC at the same time. Selenium Grid facilitates distribution of tests across different browsers and machines so that parallel execution of the tests can be carried out.

• Selenium Webdriver: This is the latest version of Selenium which comprises a number of Selenium APIs.
  

Modes of Selenium

For execution of test suites and test cases, Selenium comes with the following three modes.

• Record-Playback mode: Within this mode, Selenium IDE can only be used for recording test scenarios with regards to test cases pertaining to Firefox. This offers a brilliant way to start off with writing tests as well as grouping the same together in order to build the test suite. It is possible to export the tests that are recorded to several programming languages; hence they can be tweaked and put within the testing framework. These test suites and test cases can then be replayed in order to check the validations and verifications or transported to Selenium Grid or RG for more tweaking.

• Selenium Remote Control Mode: Here, Selenium starts off manifold browsers one after the other, following which it runs the test cases that have been recorded and saved in the preferred language. This promotes the enhancement of the test cases with the help of programming and looping techniques with the aim to cover all the necessary checks and test scenarios.

• Test Runner Mode: This mode involves the recording and replaying of test cases as HTML tables. It constitutes just another method for execution of Selenium RC and Selenium IDE test cases. Here, the test result reports are checked in cases they have not been already formatted.
  

10 Reasons Why Selenium is Great to Use

• Taking the other automation tools into consideration, Selenium has the capability to operate on almost every OS.

• Selenium is an open source testing tool and hence it serves for cost-effective automation testing.

• Selenium supports multiple languages such as Python, Pearl, Ruby, PHP, .NET (C#) and Java. You are required to be comfortable in just a single language in order to operate Selenium.

• One highly beneficial feature of Selenium is that the language used for building the program is independent of the language that the web application or website is using. This implies that the test script can be developed in any of the languages that Selenium supports.

• This testing tool supports a range of browsers like Opera, Safari, Chrome, IE 6, 7, 8 and Mozilla Firefox.

• Selenium has a very dynamic developer community that is backed by Google.

• So far as Selenium is concerned, we have a number of robust methods for location of elements such as CSS, Xpath, DOM, and so on.

• With Selenium, it is convenient to implement frameworks that revolve around Object oriented programming like Keyword Driven, Data driven and Hybrid.

• Selenium provides support for integration of open source frameworks like TestNG, JUnit, NUnit and so on.

• With the use of Selenium, it is possible to execute simultaneous tests leveraging various browsers on various machines. This is turn cuts down the time for test execution when a large project is in progress.

With its useful features, Selenium automation testing serves as a key tool for browser compatibility testing as well as system functional testing. It is indeed strong when compared to the available tools for automation testing and is very simple and flexible.

We provide selenium web application testing services. If you would like to discuss with an expert selenium tester from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.