Web testing has undergone a huge revolution and the credit goes to Selenium WebDriver, a potent technology. Now the big question is what is Selenium Webdriver. The term “Selenium” nowadays is used interchangeably with “WebDriver” and “Selenium WebDriver” even though the initial Selenium project did not constitute it in its library. Selenium WebDriver an open-source framework is crucial to web application testing as it allows its developers to automate browsers.
Its specialized tool remotely passes HTTP commands to the server and is now famous for its WebDriver technology that provides support to execute automation tests on any available browser. Selenium Webdriver has had tremendous growth over the past few years, and a focus on improvement to become the most used technology that comes with a complete Selenium package.
In this article on what is Selenium WebDriver, we will find out everything about Selenium WebDriver, explaining its architecture, strength, and why developers prefer this framework.
What is Selenium WebDriver?
Selenium Webdriver is an open-source API suite that is used for testing web applications. The Selenium Webdriver is a powerful tool used for automating web application testing It supports almost all browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer and works on all major OS like Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, etc.
The scripts of Selenium Webdriver enable you to use various programming languages like Python, Java, C#, etc. It also allows the execution of cross-browser testing. You can also perform looping like do-while and conditional operations like if-then-else or switch-case
Selenium Webdriver will provide all the support for your day-to-day tasks like WhatsApp texting, controlling tweets, and even just googling without opening any browser in just a couple of Python codes.
A web page is composed of several web elements such as text boxes, buttons, and checkboxes. The purpose of automation testing is to optimize the tasks that are to be performed on those web elements. Selenium WebDriver is a web-based automation testing framework that is used to automate Web UI testing tasks.
Selenium WebDriver interacts indirectly with web elements on a page. A browser-specific Selenium WebDriver that connects the test script to the web browser. By using Selenium locators testers can locate elements on a page for the appropriate interaction. The default web browser for Selenium WebDriver is Mozilla Firefox. Selenium WebDrivers is compatible with numerous web browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge.
Architecture of Selenium Webdriver
The Selenium WebDriver architecture is based on the following elements:
Selenium Client library: It provides support to various range of programming languages as language bindings. Its great feature of transporting mechanism for transferring data between client and server on the web. This is how Selenium Architecture gives the flexibility to its testers to do automation at their convenience.
Browser Drivers: Various browsers are supported by Selenium WebDrivers and all browser drivers are native to each browser, having interaction with all the browsers establishes a secure connection. Selenium provides support on different browser drivers e.g. ChromeDriver, SafariDriver, GeckoDriver, Microsoft Edge WebDriver, and InternetExplorerDriver, every browser has its implementation technique of the W3C standard that Selenium WebDrivers provides.
Browsers: Selenium WebDrivers provides support to almost all browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc. but its default browser is Mozilla Firefox
Selenium will not be able to work only on the browsers if they are not installed locally either on server machines or on the local machine. So browser installation is compulsory.
JSON wire protocol– We can term it the heart of Selenium, Each browser has its browser driver, and JSON Wire Protocol builds a strong connection between the client binaries and server binaries and is mainly used to transfer data using a RESTful (Representational State Transfer) API that allows transportation mechanism and characterize a RESTful web service using JSON over HTTP. All the communication that is happening in Selenium between the code and the browser is facilitated by JSON Wire Protocol.
Why developers use Selenium Webdriver
There are various automation testing tools available around the globe that provide various benefits but choose Selenium. When we are talking about automation testing, Selenium Webdrivers always come first and find their way into the conversation.
Being one of the tools under the best category for automation testing, it is mostly chosen by developers and testers all across the globe because of its special features and user-friendly interface to execute test scripts easily and effectively.
Some developers do not work on scripted tools as well and do not worry much about Selenium as a result causing harm to their testing careers as one can only choose an option when they can compare the benefits offered by each of them and fit them as per the project requirements. In this respect, Selenium WebDriver ensures to offer a lot.
Benefits of Selenium WebDriver
Selenium WebDriver is a great choice for web automation testing, and it helps in providing various benefits. Here we have listed a few crucial benefits of the Selenium WebDriver over other automation testing.
Cross-Browser Compatibility
Selenium WebDriver strikes a seamless communication support with multiple web browsers including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or even Opera Selenium script can do wonders for all browsers It functions across multiple operating systems including Windows, MacOS, Linux, UNIX, and a variety of others. Testers don’t need to create multiple scripts to test across all browsers and also there is no need to create multiple scripts to test across the operating systems.
Support for Multiple Programming Languages
When testing an application, the first thing that comes to mind is whether the tool is compatible with the language. However, if testers are using Selenium WebDriver, they are free to work on any language, they do not need to learn Selenium-centric languages.
As it provides support for all programming languages that you are utilizing. Like Java, JavaScript, Python, C#, and Ruby, whether a script is written in any of these preferred programming languages, Selenium WebDriver ensures converting it to the appropriate compatible code. This flexibility allows teams to select a language according to their skills and design conditions.
Active Community and Support
Community support provided by Selenium WebDriver will never let you down It is always available with a huge range of resources. it provides regular updates and upgrades. updates are also available when required. Through the community
support system testers and designers get help in finding tutorials, documentation, and forums and sharing knowledge.
Wide Range of Browser Actions
Selenium WebDriver provides support to perform a variety of browser actions, like clicking, submitting forms, typing, handling cautions, navigating through pages, and much more. This specialized feature makes it compatible with comprehensive web application testing.
Dynamic Element Handling
Selenium WebDriver allows handling dynamic web fundamentals, similar to staying for fundamentals to load using unequivocal delays. This helps to deal with nonsynchronous web applications to ensure stable test implementation.
Integration with Testing Frameworks
Selenium can be easily integrated with almost all popular testing architectures like JUnit, TestNG, and NUnit. This helps with structured test association, similar test implementation, and reporting capabilities.
Parallel Test Execution
Selenium WebDriver supports parallel test implementation, which allows its testers to run multiple tests at the same time. This can minimize test prosecution time and maximize the overall effect
Robust Ecosystem
To build a robust, browser-based regression automation test and suites, scale and distribute scripts across many domains, then you can process with Selenium WebDriver, a collection of language-specific bindings to drive a browser. It has a huge ecosystem with various tools and extensions.
Limitations of WebDriver
No Doubt Selenium WebDriver is a powerful tool, despite its long list of benefits, it has certain limitations as well.
Limited Support for Desktop Applications
Selenium WebDriver was created to automate web-based applications it doesn’t have strong support for desktop programs it operates on the OS level and different browsers communicate with the OS in different ways.
Difficulty in handling CAPTCHA
CAPTCHA use is very effective in stopping bots from interacting with websites, and Selenium WebDriver is no exception. As CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA are consciously made to prevent automation, they cannot handle or automate them.
Slow Performance
Selenium Webdriver can perform slowly due to the extra memory required to run a browser, its complexity also requires setting up local Grids and purchasing virtual machines to manage multiple Selenium instances. As a result, the volume of data that can be retrieved is limited.
No Reporting Built-in Capability
Although WebDriver can run multiple tests, it lacks report generation or built-in logging capabilities. Integration with other tools like Log4j or TestNG is required to provide a report with information on the execution time, pass/fail status, and other factors.
Limitations with Mobile and Multi-touch Actions
Selenium WebDriver is not ideal for testing mobile applications as it depends on third-party frameworks like Appmium and Selendroid.
Requires high technical skill
A strong command of a programming language, such as Java, C#, or Python, is required. A tester may find many problems if they aren’t expert enough at a supported programming language or don’t understand HTML and CSS.
Error handling proves tricky
The main challenge with Selenium Webdrive is to detect unexpected errors due to hidden elements, dynamic attribute changes, or slow page loads.
Best Practices for overcoming Selenium WebDriver limitations
Addressing the challenges of Selenium WebDriver demands a combination of built-in features, third-party tools, and innovative strategies. Many of them can be worked around by using supplementary tools or third-party interfaces. We will discuss some comprehensive circumvention
Utilizing Cloud-based Testing Platforms: Cloud-based automation testing using Selenium WebDriver is a powerful combination that allows you to automate web applications across different operating systems, browsers, and devices.
LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform to run manual and automated testing of web and mobile applications at scale by offering a cloud-based testing solution. The platforms enable testers to perform both real-time and automation testing by providing access to a cloud Selenium grid of more than 3000 environments, real mobile devices, and various browsers online, helping in addressing compatibility issues without requiring an extensive in-house device farm.
Leveraging WebDriverWait: It is a function and strategy. Testers can ensure that WebDriver pauses the test execution until a certain condition is met by effectively using explicit waits, This benefits in the modern web applications where asynchronous and AJAX requests dominate, causing web elements to perform loading at different intervals.
Continuous Training and Upgradation: Given the ever-evolving landscape of automation testing technologies, staying updated with the latest features, functions, and best practices associated with Selenium WebDriver is essential. Community meetups, Online forums, webinars, and can be vital resources.
Integrating Third-party Reporting Tools: While Selenium WebDriver doesn’t allow comprehensive reports out-of-the-box, integrating with third-party tools can provide detailed test execution reports, helping in quick defect identification and analysis.
Dedicated Mobile Testing Tools: Testing, tools like Appium, HeadSpin, and Selendroid which are built for mobile platforms, can be integrated for a more thorough approach to the mobile websites. They provide various supports to the multiple challenges of mobile devices, like handling touch gestures, device-specific behaviors, varying screen sizes,
Parallel Execution: Implementation of parallel execution will be beneficial to minimize test execution time, especially for extensive test suites, Testing tools like TestNG or the Selenium Grid allow its testers to run multiple test scripts simultaneously across different browsers and environments.
Page Object Model (POM): Implementation of the Page Object Model, Testers can simplify script maintenance by separating the structure of the page from the test scripts, in case any modification is required in the page layout or elements can be updated in one place, which prevents the need to do the modification of multiple test scripts.
Customized Error Handling: Sometimes Due to unexpected issues Selenium Webdrivers scripts break down that can be recovered by implementing customized error handling procedures, recovery of the test scripts, and logging the exact nature of the error supports in quick and prompt resolution.
Conclusion
Using Selenium WebDriver can surely improve the effectiveness and efficiency of web application testing with its robust capabilities holding a significant position. It has elegant testing procedures that allow you to identify and eliminate errors more quickly, resulting leads to top-notch products and services. Selenium WebDriver can now become a thoughtful approach in automation testing to provide greater productivity, accuracy, and success.