QA engineers now have greater responsibilities due to the requirement to thoroughly test new features across several platforms. Quality assurance professionals can reduce human labor and expedite comprehensive testing by employing dependable, well-established open-source solutions like Selenium. However, if you want to get the most out of your Selenium testing, you need to be aware of recommended practices.
Tips for creating Selenium Tests
When creating Selenium tests, the following should always be kept in mind:
- Make sure to keep your Selenium tests short.
- Only use the Selenium WebDriver if you are comfortable using the scripts and tools. You can run your Selenium tests on several operating systems and browsers once you’ve developed them. You will want a Selenium Grid in order to accomplish this. Selenium Grid lets you run many Selenium tests on several operating systems and browsers at the same time.
Benefits of Using Selenium
Selenium offers several key advantages for web application testing:
Parallel Test Execution
Selenium enables several tests to be run simultaneously, greatly cutting down on the amount of time needed for test cycles. This feature guarantees quicker feedback and more effective testing procedures.
Quick and Easy Test Execution
Write tests in a manner that allows them to be executed quickly and easily, enhancing efficiency.
Focused and Simple Tests
Design tests to target specific functionalities or behaviors without unnecessary complexity. Focused tests are easier to maintain and more effective in identifying issues.
Accompany New Features with Tests
Ensure that new features and changes are accompanied by automated tests to maintain reliability and functionality.
Verification of New Features
Confirm that new functionalities work as expected before they are released to production, maintaining quality.
Integration with LambdaTest
Selenium can be seamlessly integrated with LambdaTest, a cloud-based platform for test orchestration and execution powered by AI. LambdaTest’s capabilities enhance the reliability of your test suites by enabling wider test coverage. It also helps to test websites in different browsers.
Using Selenium in an Agile Environment
A feature-rich tool that can improve your agile testing process is Selenium. You can make sure that your automated tests are useful, effective, and part of your agile development cycle by paying attention to the following advice:
- Testing Frequently: As part of the continuous integration process, run automated tests frequently.
- Efficiency: Write tests that can be executed quickly and easily.
- Specificity: Design tests to evaluate specific functionalities or behaviors without being overly complex.
- Accompany Changes: Ensure new features and changes include automated tests to maintain application functionality.
- Supplement Manual Testing: Use automated tests to complement, not replace, manual testing.
Selenium Testing in Agile Development
- Regression Testing: Ensuring existing features work as expected after new code additions.
- Feature Verification: Checking that new features function correctly before production release.
- Bug Identification: Helping to identify and troubleshoot bugs in web applications at both business and development levels before release.
Strategies for Successful Selenium Testing in Complex Environments
Avoid Blocking Sleep Calls
Web application behavior depends on various external factors like network speed, device capabilities, access location, and server load. Adding a delay (or timeout) before acting on a web element allows it to load but using blocking sleep calls (e.g., Thread.sleep in Java, time.sleep in Python) pauses the test thread for a specified time, which can unnecessarily prolong the test cycle and cause stability issues.
Give the Test Cases and Test Suites the Correct Names
It may occasionally be necessary for team members to improve the tests you have created when working together. You might not be able to understand the objective of a test until you have gone through the entire implementation if you return to it after a few months.
Enlarge the Browser Window
During the testing phase, screenshots are captured to assist developers in troubleshooting and to monitor the advancement of product development for important stakeholders. Screenshots can also be utilized to determine whether an issue with the test script or the application is to blame for a test failure in Selenium automation testing.
By default, Selenium does not launch the browser window in full screen mode. This may have an impact on the web page screenshot (or snapshot) that test reports usually include. When the test URL loads, make sure to maximize the browser window right away to take a screenshot of the whole website.
Choose the Best-Suited Web Locator
One of the challenges in Selenium test automation is that tests need to be updated when there are changes in the locators used in the test code.
With so many different web locators on the market, it’s critical to choose the best one to minimize the effect of UI modifications on testing. Link Text is often preferred in dynamic situations, while ID, Class, and Name locators are not only the simplest to use but also less fragile than other options.
Implement Logging and Reporting
Logging is invaluable in such scenarios, as console logs placed strategically within the test code can help clarify the issue and identify the problem.
Common log levels in most programming languages include debug, info, warning, error, and critical. However, adding excessive logs can slow down test execution. Therefore, it is advisable to use error and critical log levels specifically to trace the causes of test failures.
In addition to logging, reporting is essential in Selenium test automation to determine the status (pass/fail) of tests. Automation test reports are particularly useful for tracking the progress of test suites or individual test cases and their results. These reports enhance the readability of test outputs and reduce the time needed for maintaining test data.
Automation test reports also facilitate feature analysis and test coverage assessment.
Without logging and reporting, Selenium test automation loses much of its effectiveness. This is why they are considered best practices in Selenium test automation.
Page Object Model (POM).
This is feasible if modifications to the user interface of the webpage necessitate little to no adjustments to the test script. Let’s say that various scripts are using the same web element since the scripts are not being properly maintained. In that scenario, the test script would need to be modified several times in response to changes made to the web element.
Page Objects, a well-liked web UI automation technique, is useful here because it minimizes code duplication and improves test maintenance.
Use Selenium with the BDD Framework
BDD, or behavior driven development, is a well-liked development methodology that facilitates the creation of test cases using Gherkin, or simple English. This implies that people with little to no technical expertise can work on test development alongside developers and testers.
BDD frameworks bridge the gap between technical and business professionals by giving everyone the chance to work on improving the tests. Features, steps, and scenarios are combined in Gherkin files made for BDD testing, together with pertinent Gherkin keywords like Given, When, Then, and so on. The format for feature files and keywords is the same regardless of the BDD framework being utilized.
Use Data-Driven Testing for Parameterization
For data-driven automated testing, parameterization is a more effective use case for Selenium. Parameterization makes the process of running test cases against different input combinations (or data sets) easier. As the size of the data collection increases, the test coverage gets better. Better Selenium testing methods are thus employed, and the caliber of the final product is increased.
Wrap Selenium Calls
One basic recommended practice for Selenium test automation is to avoid duplicating code. The code that is regularly used should be contained in a different API when utilizing different locators, such as XPath, ID, etc., to access web items on a page. By doing this, the test code becomes easier to maintain and has less code duplication overall.
Avoid Implementing with Just One Driver
Selenium WebDrivers are unique to each browser and cannot be used with another. There are notable differences between running automated cross-browser tests locally and on a continuous integration (CI) build server. It is false to believe that in a continuous integration (CI) environment, tests would always utilize the same WebDriver (e.g., Firefox WebDriver or Chrome WebDriver).
In a continuous integration (CI) system, integration tests are usually set up to use a RemoteWebDriver, which may manage any target browser that is given for the tests. It is great practice to utilize parameterization to manage various browser types and get your tests ready for parallel or simultaneous execution. With this method, your code can dynamically adjust to different browsers,
Conclusion
Test automation workflows can be made substantially more efficient, reliable, and comprehensively tested by incorporating these best practices. If you take the time to thoroughly design and conceptualize your test cases, your test automation efforts will be shrewd, organized, and effective. This method helps to produce software products of the highest caliber while also streamlining the testing procedure.
