Selenium
Selenium is a portable framework for testing web applications. Selenium provides a playback tool for authoring functional tests without the need to learn a test scripting language.
What is Selenium?
Selenium automates browsers. That’s it! What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that. Boring web-based administration tasks can (and should!) be automated as well.
Selenium has the support of some of the largest browser vendors who have taken (or are taking) steps to make Selenium a native part of their browser. It is also the core technology in countless other browser automation tools, APIs and frameworks.
Which part of Selenium is appropriate for me?
Selenium WebDriver
If you want to
- create robust, browser-based regression automation suites and tests
- scale and distribute scripts across many environments
Then you want to use Selenium WebDriver; a collection of language specific bindings to drive a browser — the way it is meant to be driven.
Selenium WebDriver is the successor of Selenium Remote Control which has been officially deprecated. The Selenium Server (used by both WebDriver and Remote Control) now also includes built-in grid capabilities.
Selenium IDE
If you want to
- create quick bug reproduction scripts
- create scripts to aid in automation-aided exploratory testing
Then you want to use Selenium IDE; a Chrome and Firefox add-on that will do simple record-and-playback of interactions with the browser.
Selenium WebDriver
The biggest change in Selenium recently has been the inclusion of the WebDriver API. Driving a browser natively as a user would either locally or on a remote machine using the Selenium Server it marks a leap forward in terms of browser automation.
Selenium WebDriver fits in the same role as RC did, and has incorporated the original 1.x bindings. It refers to both the language bindings and the implementations of the individual browser controlling code. This is commonly referred to as just “WebDriver” or sometimes as Selenium 2.
Selenium 1.0 + WebDriver = Selenium 2.0
- WebDriver is designed in a simpler and more concise programming interface along with addressing some limitations in the Selenium-RC API.
- WebDriver is a compact Object Oriented API when compared to Selenium1.0
- It drives the browser much more effectively and overcomes the limitations of Selenium 1.x which affected our functional test coverage, like the file upload or download, pop-ups and dialogs barrier
- WebDriver overcomes the limitation of Selenium RC’s Single Host origin policy
WebDriver is the name of the key interface against which tests should be written in Java, the implementing classes one should use are listed as below:
ChromeDriver, EventFiringWebDriver, FirefoxDriver, HtmlUnitDriver, InternetExplorerDriver, PhantomJSDriver, RemoteWebDriver, SafariDriver
For More information on Selenium WebDriver, please see the documentation and Remote Control to WebDriver Migration Notes.
Downloads
Below is where you can find the latest releases of all the Selenium components. You can also find a list of previous releases, source code, and additional information for Maven users (Maven is a popular Java build tool).
Selenium Standalone Server
The Selenium Server is needed in order to run Remote Selenium WebDriver. Selenium 3.X is no longer capable of running Selenium RC directly, rather it does it through emulation and the WebDriverBackedSelenium interface.
Download version 3.141.59
To run Selenium tests exported from the legacy IDE, use the Selenium Html Runner.
To use the Selenium Server in a Grid configuration see the wiki page.
The Internet Explorer Driver Server
This is required if you want to make use of the latest and greatest features of the WebDriver InternetExplorerDriver. Please make sure that this is available on your $PATH (or %PATH% on Windows) in order for the IE Driver to work as expected.
Download version 3.14.0 for (recommended) 32 bit Windows IE or 64 bit Windows IE
CHANGELOG
Selenium Client & WebDriver Language Bindings
In order to create scripts that interact with the Selenium Server (Selenium RC, Selenium Remote WebDriver) or create local Selenium WebDriver scripts, you need to make use of language-specific client drivers. These la
nguages include both 1.x and 2.x style clients.
While language bindings for other languages exist, these are the core ones that are supported by the main project hosted on GitHub.
Java3.141.592018–11–14 Download
C#3.14.02018–08–02 Download
Ruby3.14.02018–08–03 Download
Python3.14.02018–08–02 Download
Javascript (Node)4.0.0-alpha.12018–01–13 Download
C# NuGet
NuGet latest release is 3.14.0, Released on 2018–08–02
- WebDriver
- WebDriverBackedSelenium
- Support
- RC (Final version 3.1.0 Released 2017–02–16)
SafariDriver — DEPRECATED — use Apple’s SafariDriver with Safari 10+
SafariDriver now requires manual installation of the extension prior to automation
Selenium IDE
Selenium IDE is a Chrome and Firefox plugin which records and plays back user interactions with the browser. Use this to either create simple scripts or assist in exploratory testing.
Download latest released version for Chrome or for Firefox or view the Release Notes.
Download previous IDE versions here.
Third Party Drivers, Bindings, and Plugins
Selenium can be extended through the use of plugins. Here are a number of plugins created and maintained by third parties. For more information on how to create your own plugin or have it listed, consult the docs.
Please note that these plugins are not supported, maintained, hosted, or endorsed by the Selenium project. In addition, be advised that the plugins listed below are not necessarily licensed under the Apache License v.2.0. Some of the plugins are available under another free and open source software license; others are only available under a proprietary license. Any questions about plugins and their license of distribution need to be raised with their respective developer(s).
