Selenium Tool Suite – Components and Features

Selenium is an automation testing tool; it is primarily used to test websites and web applications; it is an open-source tool. With the help of Selenium, test cases can run directly in web browsers, just like a person operating the web browsers.

It supports many web browsers such as Opera, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, IE, etc. There are several different sub tools to support different automation test approaches. In this article, we will learn about selenium tool suite, its components and features. So let’s start!!!

Selenium Tool Suite

Selenium is not simply one tool; moreover, a collection of software, with a distinct approach to support automation testing. Selenium tool suite comprises of four components which include:

• Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
• Selenium Remote Control (Now Deprecated)
• WebDriver
• Selenium Grid

Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

As a Firefox plugin, Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE) can be used to create a test script prototype quickly and easily. It can record human testers’ actions as a script while the tester runs the test case manually.

The recorded test script can be executed at a later point in time for the regression test automatically. This tool can access the browser’s DOM elements with the use of JavaScript. It also provides a flexible interface for testers to create or update test cases.

Pros:

• It is simple, easy to install and use.
• Built-in test results reporting and help modules
• Test Cases can be exported to usable formats in the Selenium RC and WebDriver
• No previous knowledge of programming needed, though basic knowledge of HTML and DOM required.
• Can easily export the recorded tests in different programming languages such as Ruby, Python, etc.

Cons:

• It is only available for Firefox.
• The execution of test cases is slow as compared to RC and WebDriver.
• Data-driven testing is not supported.
• It is not able to test dynamic web applications.

Selenium Remote Control (RC)

Selenium RC is the main feature in the Selenium. A tester can use it to simulate user actions such as input data, submit a form, and click a button in web browsers.

When a web browser is being loaded in a test script, it injects a suite of Javascript (JS) into it. Then use those JavaScripts programming to interact with the different web browsers.

Usage of Selenium RC

• Tester writes a test case script with the supported programming language API.
• The test script sends a command to the RC server.
• RC server receives these commands and triggers selenium core from executing the commands and interacting with the browser page web elements.

Pros:

• It supports cross-browser testing.
• It supports data-driven testing.
• Execution speed is more as compared to IDE.
• It supports conditional operations and iterations.

Cons:

• Slower execution speed as compared to WebDriver.
• Browser interaction is less realistic.
• Programming knowledge required.

Selenium WebDriver

WebDriver is the new feature added in the Selenium 2. It aimed to deliver an easy and helpful programming interface to resolve the limitations of Selenium RC programming API. Different from RC, WebDriver uses browser native support to interact with the web pages.

So different browsers have different web driver libraries and different features too. All these are decided by the web browser that runs the test cases. The implementation of WebDriver is much more related to the web browser.

So, are the following WebDriver drivers

1. HttpUnit Driver: This is one of the fastest and reliable WebDriver implementations. Based on the HttpUnit, it can run across Linux, Windows, and Mac because of its pure java implementation.
2. Firefox Driver: It is easy to configure and use. It is being used to run the test scripts in the Firefox web browser and does not require extra configuration to use.
3. Chrome Driver: It is being used to run a test script on the Google Chrome web browser that needs more configurations to use.
4. Internet Explorer Driver: It is being used to run the test script in the Internet Explorer web browser that needs more configurations to use. It can only run in Windows OS, slower than the Chrome and Firefox Web Driver.

Pros:

• No separate components such as the RC server is needed.
• Execution time is faster as compared to WebDriver and RC.
• It supports testing on different platforms such as Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Cons:

• No mechanism to track runtime messages.
• Image testing is not available.
• Prior knowledge of programming required.

Selenium Grid

With the Selenium Grid feature, test scripts can run on multiple machines at the same time, which reduces the total test scripts run time. Thus helps to find the bug more quickly because the test cases run more quickly. This is suitable for a large application with too many test scripts to run.

You can also choose to run test scripts on different web browsers and on different machines. You can configure the browser version, Operating System, and machine to run the test case by using the Selenium RC capabilities.

Pros:

• Selenium Grid offers tools needed to diagnose the failures and rebuild a similar environment for the new test execution.
• Selenium Grid saves time extremely as it uses the Hub-Node design.
• It supports the simultaneous execution of test cases in multiple browsers and environments.

Cons:

• The code executes only on the local machines where the test cases are launched.
• Considerable efforts and time are must for the initial operation of parallel testing.
• The remote machine only receives the browser control commands.

Summary

Selenium Tool Suite consists of 4 major components with a different approach for automated testing, which is popular as the Selenium suite of tools. Every software tester and developer chooses tools out of it depending upon the testing requirement for the organization.

So, now what are you waiting for? Start writing a beautiful automation test script and test your website with these tool suites! If you have any questions, let us know in the comments sections below!