Selenium

Selenium: What is that?

Selenium is something which automates browsers. Overall selenium is used for automating web based applications, for testing purposes or web-based administration. Normally selenium supports most of the browsers.

Selenium is an open source automation testing tool which is basically used for web based application automation testing in several browsers.Selenium can't automate desktop based applications. Selenium is a collection of open source tools to automate web browsers and its functions across multiple platforms.

Selenium runs in almost all browsers and operating systems and it can be controlled by many programming languages and supported testing frameworks.

Selenium is very easy to use, solid and is very flexile.

Selenium supported Languages -

~ Java

~ C#

~ Ruby

~ Pyton

~ PHP

~ Perl

Selenium supported Browser -

~ Mozilla(All version)

~ Internet Explorer 6,7,8

~ Google chrome

~ Opera 8,9,10

~ Safari

Operating systems supported-

~ Unix

~ Linux

~ Mac

~ Solaris

~ Windows

To use selenium there is no restriction on language which one uses is totally not dependent of the language in which the application is made.For instance: If the application is made in Java language, it doesn't mean that one has to use selenium with java only. One can use selenium with the supported language mentioned above for any kind of web based applications. 

It is not mandatory if the application is under test is in Perl then one needs to write the selenium code in Perl.It is independent of the application under test. It is independent of the language in which the web based application is created.

One has to learn at least one of the language supported by selenium.

Elements of Selenium

~ Selenium IDE: It only installs in Firefox as an add-on. Firefox only supports selenium IDE. Just like other functional testing tools, it contains record and play/run feature. One can also extend IDE functionality with the help of the user extentions. Selenium IDE supports loops, regular expressions, if statements and many more features. It is based of Java Script. Using selenium IDE the test cases can be parametrized.

~ Selenium RC: Selenium RC is a client-server arrangement that allows to control web browsers locally or on other computers, using any programming language and testing framework.

RC works in multiple browsers and runs tests in the multiple browsers. Selenium RC can manipulate browser, check for assertions via corresponding RC driver. One can implement Selenium RC in any of the programming language mentioned above. RC also supports different frameworks as per the specific language. RC is the older version.

~ Webdriver: Webdriver can run browsers natively either locally or on remote machines. Webdriver also works in multiple browsers and runs tests in the multiple browsers. Testing frameworks are not wanted, but they can be helpful if one wants to automate tests. Webdriver supports Iphone and Andriod testing. It has latest features which is not available in Selenium RC. Webdriver doesn't require any server to work.

~ Selenium Grid: To run test cases parallely  on multiple machines and browsers Selenium Grid is used. By running tests on multiple servers at the same time, cutting down on time it takes to test multiple browsers or operating systems as a whole.