How To Use Selenium,
Successfully
by Dave Haeffner, @TourDeDave
http://www.wpclipart.com/geography/features/chasm.png.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimal_solutions_for_Rubik's_Cube
Write business valuable tests that are
reusable, maintainable and resilient
across all relevant browsers.
Then package and scale them for
you & your team.
Selenium Overview
What it is the Readers Digest version
What it is and is not good at
IDE vs. Local vs. Remote
Slow, brittle, and hard to maintain?
Step 1
Define a Test Strategy
Test Strategy
1. How does your business make money?
2. What features of your application are being used?
3. What browsers are your users using?
4. What things have broken in the app before?
Outcome:
- What features to test
- Which browsers to care about
Step 2
Pick a Programming
Language
Programming Language
Same language as the app?
Who will own it?
Build a framework or use an existing one?
http://se.tips/seleniumframeworks
Step 3
Use Selenium
fundamentals
Selenium Fundamentals
Mimics human action
Uses a few common actions
Works with locators
Locators tell Selenium which HTML element to interact with
Common Actions
get();
findElement();
click(); //or submit();
sendKeys();
isDisplayed();
Locator Strategies
Class
Good locators are:
CSS selectors
unique
ID descriptive
unlikely to change
Link Text
Partial Link Text That rules a few of these out
Tag Name
XPath
Locator Strategies
Class
Good locators are:
CSS selectors
unique
ID descriptive
unlikely to change
Link Text
Partial Link Text That rules a few of these out
Tag Name
XPath
Locator Strategies
Class
Good locators are:
CSS selectors
unique
ID descriptive
unlikely to change
Link Text
Partial Link Text That rules a few of these out
Tag Name Start with IDs and Classes
XPath
Locator Strategies
Class
Good locators are:
CSS selectors
unique
ID descriptive
unlikely to change
Link Text
Partial Link Text That rules a few of these out
Tag Name Start with IDs and Classes
XPath Use CSS or XPath (with care)
Locator Strategies
Class
CSS selectors
CSS vs XPath
ID http://se.tips/seleniumbenchmarks
http://se.tips/cssxpathexamples
Link Text
Partial Link Text
Tag Name
XPath
Finding Quality Locators
Inspect the page
Verify your selection
e.g., FirePath or FireFinder
http://se.tips/verifyinglocators
e.g., JavaScript console with $$(); or $();
Learn through gaming
http://se.tips/locatorgame
Conversation
Step 4
Write your first test
Good Test Anatomy
Write for BDD or xUnit test framework
Test one thing (atomic)
Each test can be run independently (autonomous)
Anyone can understand what it is doing
Group similar tests together
A Login Example
1. Visit the login form
2. Find the login forms username field and input text
3. Find the login forms password field and input text
4. Find the submit button and click it
1. or, find the form and submit it
http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login
Now to find an assertion
1. Login
2. Inspect the page
3. Find a locator
4. Verify it
5. Add it to the test
A much better assertion
Automated Visual Testing Primer
Check that an applications UI appears correctly
Can also be used to verify content
Hundreds of assertions for a few lines of code
Open-source libraries, baseline image comparison,
and inherent challenges
http://se.tips/visual-testing-getting-started
In pom.xml
Exception Handling
org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException:
Unable to locate element: {"method":"css
selector","selector":".flash.error"}
Most common ones youll run into:
NoSuchElement and
StaleElementReferenceError
A list of all WebDriver exceptions:
http://se.tips/se-exceptions-java
Exception Handling contd
http://se.tips/se-exceptions-howto
Step 5
Write reusable and
maintainable test code
Page Objects
Need to update EVERY test :-(
Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5
Application Under Test
Need to update JUST the page object :-D
Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5
Page Object(s)
Application Under Test
Lets look at a page
object for login
And heres what the test
looks like when using it
Page object helpers:
http://se.tips/po-html-elements
http://se.tips/po-page-factory
Base Page Object
a.k.a.
Selenium Wrapper
Utility Class
etc.
Selenium
Commands
Page Page Page Page Page
Object 1 Object 2 Object 3 Object 4 Object 5
Selenium Global reuse
Commands More readable
Insulates you from
Selenium API changes
http://se.tips/se-upgrade
Base Page
Object
Page Page Page Page Page
Object 1 Object 2 Object 3 Object 4 Object 5
Lets take a look at a
Base Page Object
And here it is
implemented
How everything fits together
Tests use page objects
Test Test Test
Page Page Page objects inherit the
Object Object base page (utility) class
Base The base page object wraps
Page
Object your Selenium commands
Step 6
Make your tests resilient
Waiting
Thread.sleep();
Implicit wait
Explicit waits
Thread.sleep();
Implicit wait
Explicit waits
Thread.sleep();
Implicit wait
Explicit waits
http://se.tips/se-waiting
Explicit Waits
Specify an amount of time, and an action
Selenium will try repeatedly until either:
The action is completed, or
The amount of time specified has been reached
(and throw a timeout exception)
In the Base page object
In the DynamicLoading page object
Browser Timing
Considerations
Step 7
Prep for use
Test Harness
Simple organizational structure
Central setup and teardown
Configurable at run-time (with sensible defaults)
Reporting & Logging
Parallelization
Test Grouping
Folder structure
Central setup/teardown
More on JUnit Rules:
http://bit.ly/junit-rules
Simple config with defaults
Import config where its needed
(e.g., base test, etc.)
Reporting & Logging
Machine readable
e.g., JUnit XML
Human readable
e.g., screenshots, failure message, stack trace
Fantastic Test Report Tool
http://bit.ly/se-reporter (Allure Framework)
Parallelization
In code
Through your test runner
Through your Continuous Integration (CI) server
Recommended approach:
http://bit.ly/mvn-surefire
#protip Enforce random order execution of tests
(turnkey in mvn-surefire)
Test Grouping
Metadata (a.k.a. Categories)
More info:
Enables test packs bit.ly/junit-categories
Some category ideas
defect
shallow & deep
release or story number
Step 8
Add in cross-browser
execution
Locally
http://se.tips/se-chromedriver
http://se.tips/se-firefoxdriver
http://se.tips/se-iedriver
http://bit.ly/edge-driver
http://se.tips/se-safaridriver
Chrome
Grid
Grid
Browser
Node
Grid
Grid Hub Node Browser
Tests
Grid
Node Browser
All done with the Selenium Standalone Server
Just requires additional runtime flags
Grid
Hub
Node(s)
Grid
http://se.tips/grid-getting-started
http://se.tips/se-grid-extras
http://se.tips/se-grid-scaler
Sauce Labs
Sauce Labs Browser
Tests
http://se.tips/sauce-getting-started
http://se.tips/sauce-with-applitools
Step 9
Build an automated
feedback loop
Feedback loops
The goal: Find failures early and often
Done with continuous integration and notifications
Notifications
- remote: Email, chat, SMS
- in-person: audio/visual indicators
Code Promotion
yes yes
Code Unit/Integ. Deploy to Run
Committed (pass?) autom. test automated Deploy to
server tests next env.
(success?) (pass?)
yes
Notify team if no
Bonus points: stop the line
Simple CI configuration
1. Create a Job
2. Pull In Your Test Code
3. Set up Build Triggers
4. Configure Build steps
5. Configure Test Reports
6. Set up Notifications
7. Run Tests & View The Results
8. High-five your neighbor
Step 10
Find information on
your own
http://se.tips/selenium-resources
Steps to solve the puzzle
1. Define a Test Strategy 6. Make your tests resilient
2. Pick a programming language 7. Package your tests into a framework
3. Use Selenium Fundamentals 8. Add in cross-browser execution
4. Write Your First Test 9. Build an automated feedback loop
5. Write re-usable and maintainable 10. Find information on your own
test code
Write business valuable tests that are
reusable, maintainable and resilient
across all relevant browsers.
Then package them and scale them
for you & your team.
You may think your puzzle is unique. But really, everyone is
trying to solve the same puzzle. Yours is just configured
differently and its solvable
Dave Haeffner
FREE sample of my book
First 6 chapters available at
https://seleniumguidebook.com/#sample
Available in Java and Ruby
JavaScript, C#, and Python coming SOON!
FREE t-shirt give-away
1. Sign up for a free Applitools Eyes account
http://se.tips/applitools-free-account
2. Run your first visual test
3. Email webinars@applitools.com
4. Sport your new Visually Perfect Tee
