Selenium - Automation Testing Tool

Automation Benefits:

• Time saving
• Good return on near zero investment.
• Increasing productivity

Introduction to selenium:
Selenium is an open source automation tool for web based applications. It is used for functional regression testing. Its embeds a test automation engine in your browser. Selenium tests run in a browser, just like a real user do. Its runs in Internet Explorer, Mozila Fire Fox on windows, Linux and Macintosh, safari on the Mac.
There are different variant of selenium which can be used in isolation or in a combination to create a complete automation suite for your web application.

1) Selenium IDE
2) Selenium Core
3) Selenium RC

Selenium IDE
Selenium IDE is an integrated development environment for selenium test. It is implemented as a Firefox extension, and allows you to record, edit debug and execute tests. It can also record user action in most of the popular languages like Java, C#, Perl, Ruby etc. This eliminates need of learning new vendor scripting language. For executing scripts created in these languages you will need to use Selenium Remote Control.

Download selenium IDE


Selenium Core
Selenium Core is a test tool for web applications. Selenium Core tests run directly in a browser. And they run in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh. But to use Selenium Core we need to make it available from the same web server as the application you want to test.

Download Selenium core

Selenium RC
Selenium Remote Control (RC) is a test tool that allows you to write automated web application UI tests in any programming language against any HTTP website using any mainstream JavaScript- enabled browser.

Selenium RC comes in two parts
1) A server which can automatically launch and kill supported browsers and acts as a
HTTP proxy for web requests from those browsers
2) Client libraries for your favorite computer language.

Download Selenium RC

Advantages of using selenium

• Open source free software.
• Easy recording and play back of script.
• Work on multiple operating systems.
• Allows cross browser testing (Record in FF, execute in IE).
• Easy to conduct Data Driven Testing.
• We can store test result in to files.
• Provides flexibility and extensibility.

Challenges / Drawbacks:

• In selenium IDE it can record script only in FF. so limitation in terms of Browser support
• In selenium RC there is no result file generated. We have to store result in file using java or any other language that selenium support.
• Selenium IDE, RC only work with web based application.