TECH DIGITAL

5 Tips for Developing Effective Tests Using Selenium

In the current era of the digital revolution, the demand for new features and seamless experiences in using web applications surges the burden on QA engineers and developers. This necessitates the need for effective testing for ensuring the quality of the application. Selenium is the most used testing framework for accomplishing comprehensive testing with its features.

In this course, developing effective tests is the major challenge encountered by the QA. It is of utmost importance to have developed an effective test to overcome the challenges of test failure. Keep in mind that bringing an immaculate experience for users is crucial for any website and web application for success in the present-day competitive environment.

Here, in this article, a discussion on the top 5 tips will be shared for developing effective tests using Selenium.

Be familiar with Selenium

Selenium is a well-established automation testing framework. It has made QA engineers lower the burden of manual testing. It is an open-source tool that helps enable critical tests faster. Comprising a suite of tools like WebDriver, Grid, and IDE, it has rapidly made itself a market leader in the domain of automation testing.

The core component of Selenium is WebDriver for performing automation cross-browser testing for web applications or websites for diverse browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, and Opera. The main benefit of developing tests or performing automation testing with Selenium is the support of a large number of programming languages like PHP, JavaScript, .Net, Ruby, C#, and others.

A quick look into Selenium WebDriver

Selenium WebDriver is a major part of Selenium automation testing and developing test cases. It works directly on the browsers and makes use of the in-built browsers for generating automation tests written by the testers. Selenium WebDriver API associates with real browsers for utilizing browser drivers and comprehending major blocks which include Selenium WebDriver structure. The major four parts of the Selenium WebDriver include:

  • Selenium Client Libraries
  • JSON Wire Protocol
  • Browser Drivers
  • Browsers

The benefit of using Selenium

In order to understand the testing using Selenium, its benefit in automation should be known.

  • Automating testing with Selenium is widely accessible as it is open source. There is no requirement for any licenses for its use.
  • Selenium allows support across multiple browsers. Selenium scripts work in all browsers like Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari.
  • Selenium commands are classified based on diverse classes which ease understanding and implementation.
  • The time involved in testing repeated test scenarios on each and every build is reduced to minimize.
  • Selenium also supports parallel testing and increased test coverage.

Problems in developing tests scripts using Selenium

 

While using Selenium and developing test scripts, there are common challenges encountered by the QAs and developers. Some of those include:

  • The response of web applications or websites in diverse browsers may not be the same with unideal testing efficiency. The main reason is the limitation of testers and the number of test threads.
  • Testing of dynamic websites or web applications may be challenging as locators may not interact with web elements.
  • False positive and false negative outcome is common

 

5 tips on developing effective tests using Selenium

 

Tip 1: Always plan and design test cases before executing the test

It is suggested to have a better test plan prior to getting initiated with automation. QA teams must have this test plan with them which includes all the logical test scenarios. For developing an effective test, you should list down the things which need to be done in Selenium testing. Create comprehensive test cases from the view and idea of the users. This will help you cover all important aspects of Selenium testing. Usually, jumping straight into automation with a lack of any robust strategy may end up in a bottleneck in the process of automation.

It is noted that the major goal of QAs is mainly on verifying the running scripts successfully. Less focus is paid to planning for the test scenarios. Therefore, the first and foremost tip for developing tests with the use of Selenium involves planning and designing test cases before diving into test automation.

Tip 2: Giving name conventions

The second tip for developing an effective test involves setting name convention standards for each different file created. Usually, it is subjective, but at the same time crucial to have them up front so that other members of a team can easily identify the file and synchronicity is maintained throughout the testing process.

Sometimes, in a team, other members may improve or enhance the test script written. On visiting the same test later, it might be difficult to figure out the aim of the test until the complete implementation process is known. Therefore, to develop effective tests using Selenium always gives a name to test cases in a way which are self-explanatory.

Some suggestion for naming convention includes:

  • Utility classes do not utilize prefixes or suffixes in the file name, instead, a Java pattern is followed which involves having the first letter capitalized for each word and ending with .java extensions. The example says: DataProvider_JSON.java,java
  • It is advisable to differentiate the test cases from Page Objects and utility classes. Hence, a better way to name them includes FeatureTest.java. Here, Test stands for test classes, and the initial letter of each word is capitalized.
  • Data files are named with extensions for file types like. json, .csv, .xls, and others. However, in the Selenium framework, the naming of the file is done in association with the test class excluding the word “TEST”. Example- LoginCredsTest.java can have the data file named as LoginCreds.json.
  • The majority of the test methods in different test classes are named with the use of sequential numbering which includes a feature and action. Example- tc002_gmailLoginPassword.

Tip 3:  Performing Page Object Model

Page Object Model is a tool in Selenium which is mainly used in test automation. It tends to create an object repository for the storage of all web elements. It allows for minimizing code duplication and enhancing test case maintenance.

User-Interface of the website continuously evolves to add new functionality or feature to align with the requirement of the users. Such changes need to be done on a regular basis and at intervals. Also, the locators related to particular UI elements also change. This indicates that QAs are required to create new test cases for similar types of pages. It can be a hectic procedure.

Here comes the role of the Page Object Model which design patterns for structuring test scripts effectively. In such a pattern, a class file is marked for each web page. These class files convey corresponding web elements. By means of these elements, testers can accomplish actions on the website under test. Such a process allows the exclusion of code duplication and makes test maintenance expedient.

Tip 4: Make use of the right Locators

For developing effective tests, being aware of the locator strategies is important. Testing desired web elements using a locator is essential in web application testing. However, if the test script fails to identify the correct elements, failure will occur.

In simple terms, locators in Selenium function after initialization and loading of the web page under test. It allows the tester to choose an HTML DOM element to act on. For example, if you are automating a login page for fields of usernames and passwords, the main step is to locate such text files. If the developed test scripts fail to get identified for username and password fields, the login process will fail.

Therefore, it is suggested to use the right locator for developing effective tests using Selenium. The 8 locators in Selenium are as follows:

  1. By CSS IDfind_element_by_id
  2. By CSS class namefind_element_by_class_name
  3. By name attributefind_element_by_name
  4. By DOM structure or Xpathfind_element_by_xpath
  5. by tagName: find_element_by_tag_name()
  6. By link textfind_element_by_link_text
  7. By partial link textfind_element_by_partial_link_text
  8. By HTML tag namefind_element_by_tag_name

 

Tip 5: Determining and prioritizing test cases

For developing effective tests using Selenium, it is important to follow a rule for the identification and prioritization of test cases. Many times, testing complex web applications or websites might be challenging. Giving importance to certain test cases over others helps the QAs to accomplish the goal of test coverage. Therefore, it is significant for the QAs to have clarity on different types of cases so that prioritization can be made and further execution can be done effectively.

This can be understood from an example. If there is a payment login page for any web application, its smooth working is vital. Hence, automating the test for authenticating the payment login page makes sense. The main reason is that the login page only rarely undergoes changes, but offers a crucial function. Therefore, testing can be easy, and having a test run should be at top of priority in the pipeline.

Conclusion

In conclusion, developing effective tests using Selenium is a crucial task for all QAs and developers to avoid any errors during the process. Automation using Selenium tends to lower manual testing efforts, surge execution speed, and recognize bugs quickly. LambdaTest is a cloud-based automation testing platform. It offers a Selenium Automation Testing Grid that helps in performing end to end testing of your web applications. By using LambdaTest, you can easily develop effective test cases and scripts without any challenges.