Why is Selenium WebDriver a Popular Choice for Automation Testing

Introduction to Selenium and Selenium Web Driver:-

What is Selenium?

One of the most well-known open-source test automation systems is Selenium. Selenium is a tool that automates the testing of web apps and websites across multiple browsers and operating systems. Selenium is compatible with a number of programming languages, including Java, JavaScript, Python, C#, and others, allowing testers to automate website testing in any language they are familiar with. By automating repetitive test cases, testers can produce test cycles faster using the Selenium system. Selenium can help with a stable, bug-free release deployment pipeline when used in conjunction with a Continuous Integration (CI) / Continuous Delivery (CD) pipeline.

What is Selenium Webdriver?

Selenium WebDriver is a collection of open-source APIs that enables users to interact with any modern web browser and then automate user activities with that browser. It is a critical part of the Selenium family of elements. Selenium isn’t a standalone tool; rather, it’s a series of tools that make up the Selenium suite, which was born from the merger of two ventures, Selenium RC and WebDriver.
Following are the different components of Selenium Suite:

• Selenium Integrated Development Environment ( IDE ):- The Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a Firefox/Chrome plug-in designed to speed up the production of automation scripts by capturing user behavior in the web browser and exporting them as reusable scripts. Its disadvantages are that its execution time is slower and no parallel execution is supported.
• Selenium Remote Control (RC):- Selenium Remote Control (RC) is a server that allows users to create test scripts in the programming language of their choice. It takes commands from test scripts and sends them to the browser as Selenium core JavaScript commands, which the browser interprets.
• Selenium Webdriver:- Selenium WebDriver is a programming interface that aids in the development and execution of test cases by interacting directly with the web browser and automating with its native compatibility. Unlike RC, it does not necessitate the use of a separate server to build and run test cases.
• Selenium Grid:- Selenium Grid distributes commands to several devices at the same time, allowing simultaneous execution of tests on various browsers and operating systems.

Selenium Webdriver Architecture:-

Selenium WebDriver is not a stand-alone testing tool. It consists of a number of components that are required to perform tests. There are four major components of Selenium Webdriver. They are:-

1. Selenium Client Libraries:- Automation scripts are written in the language that developers and software testers are most familiar with. There are several languages in which one can write a script, such as C#, Java, Python, Perl, and others, which can make the job difficult. Multi-language support is made possible by the Selenium client library or Selenium language binding. Users can write their automation script in any language they are familiar with, and Selenium will take care of the rest. To better understand this, consider the following scenario: if a user needs to write an automation script in PHP, the user will need PHP client libraries and the rest of the task will be completed. The Selenium official website has all of the Selenium bindings available for free. Anyone with a basic understanding of how to work with a programming language can obtain language bindings and get started.
2. JSON Wire Protocol:- The JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) Wire Protocol allows data to be transferred between a client and a server over the internet. It’s a REST (Representational State Transfer) API that describes a RESTful web service using JSON over HTTP and provides a transport mechanism. It is the heart of Selenium.
3. Browser Drivers:- Browser Drivers are used to communicating with browsers as well as relay automation script instructions to them. The lack of some internal logic of browser functionalities is taken care of by browser drivers. Each browser has its own collection of Web drivers. There are various Browser Drivers. Some of them are:-

• HTML Unit Driver:- This is built on HtmlUnit and is one of the most lightweight and efficient WebDriver implementations available. You’ll need this driver if you’re using a language binding (other than Java).
• Firefox Driver:- This is used to control the Firefox browser while running the automation script.
• Internet Explorer Driver:- This is used to control the Internet Explorer browser while running an automation script.
• Chrome Driver:- This is used to control the Google Chrome browser while running an automation script.

4. Browsers:- Selenium Webdriver’s best feature is that it works for all popular browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. For executing automation scripts, each browser has its own Webdriver.

Working of Selenium Webdriver:-

When a user writes and executes WebDriver code in Selenium, the following events occur in the background:

1. An HTTP request is created and sent to the appropriate browser driver (Chrome, IE, Firefox). For each Selenium instruction, there is a separate request.
2. An HTTP server sends the request to the browser driver.
3. The HTTP server determines the actions/instructions the browser must perform.
4. The browser follows the above-decided instructions/steps.
   The HTTP server then receives the status of the execution and sends it to an automation script, which displays the result ( as passed or an error).

The following diagram illustrates the working of the Selenium Web Driver:

Selenium Web Driver

Features of Selenium Webdriver:-

Some of the top features of Selenium Webdriver are:-

• Multi-Browser Compatibility:- Selenium Webdriver communicates with a website and its web components in a browser as if it were a real user, using the browser’s native support to make direct calls without the need for any extra software or hardware. All modern web browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Internet Explorer, are supported. AndroidDriver, HtmlUnitDriver, and IPhoneDriver are all supported by the Selenium web driver.
• Multiple Language Support:- It supports a broad variety of programming languages, including Java, Javascript, Python, PHP, Ruby, C#, Perl, and others. It helps us to write our automation scripts in any of the programming languages available. It also facilitates more effective ways of writing automation scripts, such as the use of switch statements, conditional statements, and decision-making statements, to improve the automation script and make it capable of handling all scenarios.
• Better handling of dynamic web elements:- One of the most common problems in automation testing is dealing with complex web components. Selenium Webdriver is better at managing dynamic web elements like checkboxes, dropdowns, and notifications, among other items. When dealing with static elements, locating web elements using XPath or ID is easy, but when the element’s XPath or ID changes, it becomes much more difficult. Following methods are deployed by Selenium to handle dynamic elements:-
  - Absolute XPath:- This is the most popular Xpath for dealing with dynamic elements, and it includes the entire path of the web UI element beginning at the root node.
  - Contains():- This method can be used to manage dynamic elements and can locate an element with partial text.
  - Starts-with():- This method searches for and matches the starting text of the supplied attribute with the dynamic element’s attribute.
• Easy to identify and use web elements:- Selenium WebDriver comes with a collection of locators that can help you locate web elements on a website. It becomes simpler to incorporate certain elements into the test automation suite as a result of this.
• Handling waiting for elements:- The layout of each page is different. Some are easy, while others require a lot of data manipulation or AJAX calls. The web elements often take a long time to load. To account for this, WebDriver provides a number of waiting mechanisms that can be used to pause script execution for a specified period of time depending on certain conditions, and then resume once the condition has been satisfied.

Why is Selenium WebDriver a popular choice for Automation Testing?

• Open Source:- The fact that Selenium WebDriver is open source is a big advantage of automating testing with it. It has all of the features of QTP, plus a few more, and it’s totally free. It can be downloaded directly from the official site, and since it is community-based, it also has support.
• Works across multiple OS:- One of the main advantages of Selenium Webdriver for Selenium automation research WebDriver is compatible with a range of operating systems, including Linux, UNIX, Mac, and Windows. A customized testing suite can be built using their solution suite and run on any platform. WebDriver helps you to write a test case on Windows and then run it on a Mac.
• Language Support:- One of the key advantages of Selenium WebDriver for automation testing is its multilingual support. WebDriver is compatible with all of the programming languages that testers should be familiar with, including Python, PHP, Java, C#, Ruby, and JavaScript. It has its own scripting language, but it also has bindings for any major programming language.
• Supports multiple frameworks and languages:- For source code compilation, WebDriver can be combined with a variety of frameworks such as Maven or ANT. It can also be integrated with testing frameworks like TestNG to simplify automation testing with Selenium WebDriver for application testing and reporting.
• Community Support:- Selenium’s support is mostly community-based, allowing for frequent enhancements and updates. Both updates are available at any time and do not require any extra training. As a result, Selenium WebDriver is both cost-effective and resourceful.
• Cross-Device Testing:- Another big advantage of automation testing with Selenium WebDriver is its support for multiple devices. In order to fix cross-device problems, automated test cases can now be written for testing on iPhones, Blackberries, and Android devices.
• Reusability:- Browser compatibility testing is supported by Selenium WebDriver scripts. As a result, a tester may use WebDriver to run several testing scenarios since it covers all aspects of functionality testing. The custom add-ons expand the reach of testing an application, providing significant benefits of automation testing with Selenium WebDriver.
• Starting Server is not required:- One of the biggest benefits of automation testing with Selenium WebDriver is that you don’t have to launch any servers beforehand. The commands written in the code are directly interpreted into Web Services, which the remote driver receives through HTTP requests, which are then executed in the browser, resulting in the response being sent.
• Simulation of mouse cursor and keyboard:- WebDriver’s ability to simulate a real-world user situation by managing mouse and keyboard events is a key feature. Advanced User Experiences is an API that contains the action classes needed to execute certain events. Easy situations such as a mouse click or keypress can be automated, as well as more complicated scenarios such as drag and drop, click and hold, multiple object collection, and so on.
• Allows leveraging the code:- Another significant advantage of automation testing with Selenium WebDriver is the ability to accelerate test cycles by leveraging development code. Testers can use the same language as developers do. For example, instead of conducting an indirect verification by browsing to another page, a tester may pull the data model used by the application and check the date field that is modified in the database without having to think about automating the data flow.

Getting Started with Selenium Webdriver Project:-

Readers can follow the following steps to get started with a Selenium Webdriver Project:-

1. Installing Java 8 in your system and setting up the environment variables:-
   - Download the latest version of the Java Development Kit.
   - Next, set up the environment variables in your system.
   - Run the javac command to check if Java has been configured properly or not.
2. Setting up Integrated Development Environment:- Readers can use Eclipse as an IDE.
3. Setting up Selenium Webdriver Java Client:-
   - Download Java Client Selenium Webdriver from the official website and extract it.
   - Create a new project in Eclipse and configure Selenium Webdriver in it. Then, create a public class in it.
   - In the properties of the created project click on the Java Build path and add external Jar files. Also, add the Selenium Jar files.
   - Add Selenium files under the libs folder. Selenium Webdriver Java Client has now been configured.
4. Setting up Browser Specific Webdriver:- Download Chrome Webdriver as per your system’s operating system and unpack it. Copy the file directory path and set the directory path in your Automation Script.

Drawbacks of Selenium Webdriver:-

Following are some of the drawbacks of Selenium Webdriver:-

1. No support for Desktop Application:- The Selenium ecosystem, which includes WebDriver, was created to automate web applications. As a result, if you want to simplify Windows-based programs, you won’t be able to do so.
2. Prerequisites of Programming knowledge required:- Anyone interested in using it should have a clear understanding of how the language’s coding works. WebDriver is difficult to use for people who do not know how to code in a programming language.
3. No built-in reporting:- Selenium WebDriver will help you run your automation tests, but you’ll need to integrate it with a testing system like Junit, TestNG, PyTest, Allure, or anything similar to provide reporting capabilities.

Conclusion:-
Selenium WebDriver is part of the Selenium family of tools. Its incorporation into the system helped it to resolve a few of Selenium RC’s flaws. Selenium WebDriver has a number of unique features, including the ability to automate complex web pages. It can also automate all web applications, regardless of the programming language used to create them.