Updated June 22, 2023
Introduction to Uses of Selenium
Selenium is an automation framework for testing websites and web applications, that cost less or nothing as it is available as an open-source. As its efficiency is exceptional, there is a lesser possibility of defect slippage with higher testing exposure and testing precision. It involves very less human involvement compared to any other automation tool available in the market currently, as it processes the test scripts faster by enabling one-click automation.
Top 10 Uses of Selenium
Please find the below sections, Below is the list of the top 10 uses.
1. Automated testing
Earlier, people used to do manual testing which used to be a big headache. Automation testing has its main purpose lie in automating the Regression tests. It is very helpful in projects that are very big. In such cases, when a small change is made in the source code in any one script in the project, the tester needs to manually test each and every created functionality of the software or project and that takes a lot of time. For the testers to completely test the entire functionality from scratch may require several days of effort, automation testing tools such as selenium are quite helpful in such a scenario. It saves the huge testing time of testers and also relieves them from stress.
2. Important Benefits
Some of the most important benefits of using automated testing tools are mentioned below:
- Less burden and stress for testers – As mentioned above, the amount of time required to do testing repeated test scenarios on each and every new build is reduced to zero, almost. Hence, the burden of the tester gets reduced.
- Cost reduction for the Business Clients – The Business needs to pay the testers their salary, which is saved using an automation testing tool. The automation not only saves time but gets cost benefits too, to the business.
- Increased test coverage – With the uses, testing time gets reduced, and hence the tester can do more testing on other test scenarios at the same time.
- Improved testing accuracy – Using a manual testing process, a tester can forget or incorrectly test a test scenario. But with using automated test scripts, the system will neither forget nor wrongly test the test cases.
3. Reduction in Human resources
Automation testing can perform software testing without the need for a test engineer.
- To create automation scripts – Tester may develop automation scripts using the language of his /her choice or that which is supported by the automation tool, as also mentioned earlier, hence language is not a barrier.
- To run the automation scripts – Tester runs his testing script just created using Automation Tool’s Run commands. It is as simple as that.
- To view the test results from the automation tool – For each Run of the automation scripts, the tool generates results and a detailed report is provided0. The result report shows the user all important findings such as whether the tests performed were functioning right or wrong.
4. Several supplementary services
It can perform a number of testing services and hence it is used very widely.
- Selenium automation testing can work irrespective of the web applications type.
- It can also be used for performance testing through the test automation framework.
- It is also used for automated web application testing.
- It is used with widely popular POM concept and Keyword, Data-driven, Hybrid approaches.
- Selenium website testing can be performed using several languages, browsers, and platforms.
- Selenium mobile testing is also available for all types of smartphone-based applications.
5. Fast and accurate
Speed requirement is another advantage. Automation testing can beat manual testing in all scenarios. It is not only faster but needs less investment in human tester as well. With the possibility of fewer errors, frequent execution of test cases is also possible. It also supports lights-out execution, functional testing, and regression testing.
For example: – Let’s assume, there is a login page and it needs to be verified if the login attempts are successful. For this case, it will be easy to write a few lines of code and validate if the login attempts are successful or not with automated test case execution. Not only that but these tests can also be configured appropriately so that they can be tested in different environments and different web browsers. Generation of result file can also be automated only by scheduling it at a given time.
6. Support on multiple browsers
Selenium as a testing tool supports a wide range of browsers such as all recent versions of Internet Explorer, Opera, Chrome, Safari, and Mozilla Firefox.
7. Supported by the dynamic community
It has a dynamic developer community which is backed up by Google. This ensures quick support for any issues, bugs or additional releases.
8. Other feasibilities
As far as uses of this is concerned, there are a number of robust methods for location of elements such as Xpath, CSS, DOM etc.
9. Applicable to OOP
If applications of Selenium is used then, it is quite convenient to implement those frameworks that revolve around Object-oriented programming concepts such as Keyword Driven, Data-driven and Hybrid models.
10. Nice integration support
Uses of this also provide support for integration of on. With this feature, it can be used to execute simultaneous tests. Hence, leveraging of various browsers on various machines can be done. This cuts down the time for test execution for a large project.
Conclusion
There are many options through which Selenium can be used. It comes with the following options:-
- Selenium IDE
- Selenium RC (Remote controller)
- Selenium 2.0 (Web Driver)
Web Driver or selenium 2.0 is the most popular and widely used tool of its family. Web Driver API fit with the same role as played by Selenium RC. It is recommended that the prospective test engineer must learn Selenium, as it is used in almost all testing jobs.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide to the Uses of Selenium in the real world. Here we have discussed the Different uses of Selenium like Fast and accurate, dynamic community, Reduction in Human resources, etc. You may also look at the following article to learn more –