A number of studies have shown that most enterprises nowadays prefer open source software development and testing tools to commercial and licensed software. Each enterprise has option to choose from a wide range of open source test automation tools according to precise needs of individual projects. But many enterprises prefer Selenium to other open source web application testing frameworks.
Selenium is available as an open source software testing framework under Apache 2.0 License. So the enterprises can download and use it without paying any licensing fees. At the same time, they also have option to modify, extend, and share the source code without any restriction. Hence, the small businesses and startups opt for Selenium to test their web applications efficiently without increasing project overheads.
Also, Selenium supports many operating systems, web browsers, and programming languages. Also, it enables QA professionals to create tests in a number of ways. A tester who is familiar with any programming/scripting language supported by the framework can easily create tests by using Selenium IDE. However, a tester can also create tests with Selenium WebDriver, Selenium Client API or Selenium Remote Control. At the same time, they can also avail the robust features provided by Selenium to test a variety of web applications efficiently and quickly.
Why Testers Prefer Selenium to Other Web Application Testing Frameworks?
Platform Portability
While developing modern websites, programmers have to frequently make changes to the code. So they have to test applications repeatedly to ensure that it works flawlessly on major operating systems and web browsers. Selenium supports different versions of Windows, OS X and Linux. Likewise, it also supports different versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari. The portability makes it easier for the testing professionals to write test code without focusing on individual operating systems and web browsers.
Programming Language Support
While developing modern web applications, programmers use several web technologies and programming languages. Testing professionals often find it a daunting challenge to pick a software testing framework that can be seamlessly integrated with the development environment. Selenium supports most of the popular programming languages including PHP, Java, C#, Ruby, Python, Perl, Objective-C and JavaScript. So it can be integrated with various development environments seamlessly to test web applications written in different programming languages.
Record/Playback Tool
Despite supporting many popular programming languages, Selenium does not require testers to use any specific scripting language. The users can easily build test scripts using Selenium IDE. The Firefox plug-in can be used as an efficient prototyping tool for writing test scripts. At the same time, the testers can take advantage of the recording feature of the IDE to record user actions, and export the recording as a reusable test script using any of the programming languages supported by the framework. The test scripts can also be executed repeatedly without requiring any modification.
Run Tests in Parallel
The testing professionals can use Selenium Grid to save time by running multiple tests in parallel and at a time. The feature enables testers to boost test execution by dividing the large and slow-running test suites into smaller segments. They can simply divide the test suites, and run the smaller test suites on multiple remote machines simultaneously. Also, they can run the tests in multiple environments to assess the how the website runs on different platforms and browsers more accurately. The parallel processing will further significantly reduce the time required to test the website repeatedly and thoroughly.
Works with Popular Testing Frameworks
Unlike other frameworks, Selenium does not include a built-in testing framework. But the Selenium testing professionals can integrate it easily and seamlessly with a number of widely used testing frameworks including NUnit, JUnit, TestNG, unittest, pyunit, py.test, robot framework, RSpec, Test::Unit. So the testers can test a variety of web application efficiently by picking the right testing framework according to precise needs of each project.
Code Reusability
The testers can always reduce the time required to test large and complex web applications by reusing the test scripts. Selenium allows users to embed a test automation engine into the web browser using JavaScript and iframes. So the testers can create simple test scripts which will run directly within the web browser. They can further run the tests without relying on a separate interface or plug-ins. The feature makes it easier for testing professionals to use the same test scripts against multiple web browsers running on different platforms. The code reusability further helps them to test the web applications across different combination of operating systems and browsers within a shorter amount of time.
Flexibility and Customization
Selenium is also considered to be more flexible and extensible than other web application testing frameworks available in the market. As Selenium is open source, the testing professionals can modify its source code according to your specific requirements. At the same time, they also have a number of options to add new functionality to the framework and test scripts. These options help users to add new functionality to the framework and customize the test automation according to the nature and requirements of individual projects.
Supports Native Events
The most recent version of Selenium supports native events while running tests on Firefox. The native events are signals that a web browser sends to the machine when a user presses a button, scrolls, or clicks the mouse. For instance, when the testers use Selenium 2.44, the browser will fire a real click event when you perform the window.click('button') in Firefox. The added support ensures that any feature or functionality of the application working in the automated testing environment will work with the web browser in real time. Also, the new feature makes functional testing automation with Firefox more realistic.
Facilitate Visual Testing Automation
Most software testing frameworks lack the capability to perform visual testing. Visual testing requires the test automation tools to observe web pages and distinguish their builds. So QA professionals had to test each web page individually to get more accurate test results. The testers have option to use tools that can effectuate visual testing by taking advantage of Selenium test scripts. These tools are designed to follow through the test script, and capture screenshots of each page that the script lands on. So you the users can simply check the snapshots and decide how the website will look and feel in real time.
However, Selenium, like other web application testing tools, has its own shortcomings. For instance, Selenium does offer any features to generate reports. The shortcomings make many QA professionals switch from Selenium to other open source web application testing tools. But the QA testing professionals also have option to overcome the shortcomings of Selenium by using JUnit, TestNG and similar plug-ins. They can further integrate Selenium with several widely used test automation tools to perform the tests efficiently and produce more reliable test results.
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