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

CSS selectors

ID

Link Text

Partial Link Text

Tag Name

XPath

Good locators are:

unique
descriptive
unlikely to change
That rules a few of these out

Locator Strategies

Class

CSS selectors

ID

Link Text

Partial Link Text

Tag Name

XPath

Good locators are:

unique
descriptive
unlikely to change
That rules a few of these out

Locator Strategies

Class

Good locators are:

unique
descriptive
unlikely to change

CSS selectors

ID

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:

unique
descriptive
unlikely to change

CSS selectors

ID

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

ID

Link Text

Partial Link Text

Tag Name

XPath

CSS vs XPath
http://se.tips/seleniumbenchmarks
http://se.tips/cssxpathexamples

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

Application Under Test

Test 4

Test 5

Need to update JUST the page object :-D

Test 1

Test 2

Test 3

Page Object(s)

Application Under Test

Test 4

Test 5

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
Object 1

Page
Object 2

Page
Object 3

Page
Object 4

Page
Object 5

Selenium
Commands

Global reuse
More readable
Insulates you from
Selenium API changes
http://se.tips/se-upgrade

Base Page
Object

Page
Object 1

Page
Object 2

Page
Object 3

Page
Object 4

Page
Object 5

Lets take a look at a

Base Page Object

And here it is
implemented

How everything fits together

Test

Tests use page objects

Test

Test

Page
Object

Page
Object

Page objects inherit the

base page (utility) class

Base
Page
Object

The base page object wraps

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)

Enables test packs

Some category ideas

defect

shallow & deep

release or story number

More info:
bit.ly/junit-categories

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

Tests

Grid Hub

Grid
Node

Browser

Grid
Node

Browser

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

Tests

Sauce Labs

Browser

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

Code
Committed

Unit/Integ.
(pass?)

yes

Deploy to
autom. test
server
(success?)

Run
automated
tests
(pass?)

yes

Notify team if no
Bonus points: stop the line

Deploy to
next env.

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

test code

10. Find information on your own

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 [email protected]
4. Sport your new Visually Perfect Tee