Selenium IDE - Useful Tips To Write Your First Webdriver Script

By: answerout

A manual tester has a ton of sophisticated and dynamic tests to perform in the world. He must do so almost error-free, so that the best results are achieved. Particularly throughout the stages of integration testing, end to end testing, compatibility testing, performance testing, system testing, and regression testing, it saves a ton of time and effort to run a few basic processes via automated testing. 

Moreover, automating testing makes the process robust and contributes to consistent outcomes. As it completely supports the idea of continuous integration/delivery, whereby code is created, distributed, and tested continually, Selenium testing also aids in fostering Agile development.

Before we jump onto how to write webdriver script, let’s get to know about Selenium IDE first. 

What is Selenium IDE?

To put it in simple words, a tool that is used for capturing browser interactions for test cases is called Selenium IDE. It is simple to download and use this open-source testing tool; all that is required for you to do is add it as a plugin to a web browser like Chrome or Firefox. You may design simple or complex test scenarios with the tool. Similar to other dev IDEs, when an issue occurs, you may create breakpoints, pause, and you can also inspect variables. Also, with Selenium IDE, repeated testing is made simpler and quicker by the ability to reuse your test case inside of another test case. ‘If’ and ‘while’ are examples of conditional statements that Selenium IDE can comprehend. You may broaden and cover additional test cases with this rational handling.

Features of Selenium IDE

Following are some of the Selenium IDE features worth mentioning:

• Users have the option to check and add assertions to test cases when using the Selenium IDE to build tests. Users may effectively verify the attributes of web pages with the use of such commands. A text box with a set of verify and assert instructions appears on the website whenever a user clicks on any Ul element. This list grows as more people utilize Selenium IDE over time. 
• The Selenium IDE gives users a variety of choices for executing test scenarios. They are permitted to execute test cases that are a part of the test suite that is presently loaded. Additionally, users have the option of utilizing the IDE to execute a test case while it is still in progress. What else? Even now, they can cease operating it! On the odd event that they are unclear which command is accurate, the suite allows users to perform one command that is of the highest relevance. This particular sort of Selenium suite is controlled by a series of instructions referred to as "Selenese." This kind of command aids people in defining the issues that IDE needs to handle. When consumers evaluate web applications in a virtual setting, this is really crucial. Assertions, Accessors, and Actions are the three main categories of commands.
• This kind of Selenium suite can recognize how users interact with a website and automatically record test cases. It may also be deactivated for those who do not need the same. When a test case is recorded, commands are automated and added based on the tests run by the developer.
• Selenium IDE enables users to assert and validate UI or page components. The "Verify" and "Assert" commands are two separate sorts of assertion commands that are provided to the users.

With all these benefits and characteristics, Selenium IDE needs to be your first choice if you are finishing the Selenium suite you need to get.

Cloud testing platforms like LambdaTest lets you run Selenium IDE tests across 3000+ real browser environements. With LambdaTest reliable, scalable, and secure test execution cloud, development and testing teams can accelerate their release cycles. Also, test in parallel and reduce test execution by more than 10x.

Why should you pick Selenium IDE?

Here are some of the reasons why developers like to go in for Selenium IDE. 

• The Selenium IDE qualifies as a low-code open-source test automation solution for web applications with these kinds of characteristics. The IDE now provides a larger selection of commands, particularly those for Control Flow conditional logic, such as if, else, times, do, repeat, and while, end. The number of functional tests that may be produced is significantly increased as a result. With the addition of the Command-line Runner's ability to run cross-browser tests concurrently, you have a tool that is not just useful but also scalable. 
• Almost everyone can use this tool, although while coding is not necessary, it is highly beneficial if users are familiar with HTML and the DOM. In any case, the Selenium IDE's documentation is really simple, understandable, and filled with useful examples. The amazing news  here is that there are a lot of reasons—more reasons than not—why you should use the Selenium IDE, and that merits praise.
• There is no reason that we see that you should not to use this tool if you are participating in the SDLC of a web application since it has improved test resilience, target items are recognized more accurately, and support for the Selenium IDE project is active and current. 

Useful Tips To Write Your First Webdriver Script

Let’s now have a look at some of the useful tips that will help you to write your first webdriver script.

1. Effective Selenium Commands

In the Selenium IDE, you may utilize a wide variety of commands. Even while it is impossible to recall every command, being acquainted with the most crucial and common ones may help you save time and minimize errors.

1. Manipulating Strings

Since Selenium supports Javascript, you may utilize its string handling features as well. These are five helpful features. While the commands listed above are native to Selenium and mostly used for choosing data, string manipulation in Javascript allows you to alter chosen values and offers tremendous versatility.

1. Xpath

Selecting the value of an HTML element is made possible by the crucial feature known as Xpath. You can access the majority of the HTML assets, providing you the opportunity to run more thorough tests, after you get used to its syntax and gain building expertise. You can also use Xpath in Selenium IDE to direct to an element. You can easily and programmatically access practically all HTML page components by using Xpath. Learn the Xpath syntax and its features so that you may construct more effective test plans once you are aware of what it is capable of.

1. Make use of plugins to increase Selenium IDE's functionality

The Selenium IDE is a browser extension in and of itself. However, you may enhance the capabilities of Selenium IDE by adding more extensions. You can easily search the marketplace of each browser to discover a plugin that meets your requirements. What is even more intriguing is that you can use the WebExtension standard to enable other plugins to interface with the IDE. Since not all testing plugins permit this, this is a crucial and distinctive feature. Moreover, you can also increase the possibilities of Selenium IDE with this functionality.

1. Read test data using CSV.

You may avoid dependent tests and manage your test scenarios more effectively by reading data from external datasets in csv rather than hard-coding it into your test code. You must install the Selenium IDE extension by UI.vision in order to read CSV files. To utilize a single dataset across several test cases, the CSV format might be a viable option.

1. Test in parallel 

You may leverage the functionality of parallel testing to save time and effort by running the same tests simultaneously in several contexts. Running the test sequentially will take time proportionate to the number of environments, for instance, if you want to test the user interface for several operating systems and browsers. You should avoid repeatedly running the same test by using parallel testing. There are also recommended practices for parallel testing that you should adhere to. Avoid attempting to do parallel testing on your local system since it takes time to build up a suitable environment. Check out Selenium Grid instead, which offers parallel testing across several computers.

You should also avoid hardcoding values. Hardcoding seldom produces positive results in programming. Testing follows the same rules. It is more difficult to isolate and make a test case reusable in many contexts when you utilize hard-coded data.

Lastly, it is important to note that it is difficult to modularize dependent test cases and execute them in parallel. Therefore, plan ahead to eliminate dependencies between test cases. It could be quicker and simpler to develop dependent test cases than it is to generate hardcoded values. However, dependent cases hinder you from running tests in parallel and decrease testing productivity and efficiency over time.

Conclusion

A wider trend of software that makes life easier for technical people includes Selenium IDE. One example is the extensive selection of code-free tools for application development. Other instances include the ease of writing just the necessary code to complete a task using serverless services like AWS Lambda. Additionally, compared to strictly constrained SQL databases, schema-less databases like MongoDB provide architects far more freedom to develop.

The Selenium IDE is not flawless, but it has the advantage of being much more than just a record and playback tool. Comparatively speaking to its predecessors, the most recent Selenium IDE version is more feature-driven.