Selenium

Tips & Tricks

by Dave Haeffner

http://ElementalSelenium.com

http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/

Headless
http://se.tips/all-headless-browsers
Benefits:
- Speed
- Maintenance
- Screenshotting

Headless w/ Xvfb
http://elementalselenium.com/tips/38-headless

Why use it?

Ideal for running small test suites on a headless machine
e.g., a Continuous Integration (CI) Server

NOTE
- display port collisions
- use unique values
- e.g., CI build number
- e.g., xvfb-run -a

Headless w/ GhostDriver
http://elementalselenium.com/tips/46-headless-ghostdriver

http://phantomjs.org/

Why use it?

Faster execution times
Also useful for a CI server
Not limited to just Linux

Option 1
Step 1 - Download PhantomJS
http://phantomjs.org/download.html
Step 2 - Start PhantomJS w/ WebDriver flag

Step 3 - Connect Your Test to PhantomJS

using Selenium Remote
NOTE
You can also connect PhantomJS to a Selenium Grid
http://se.tips/ghost-driver-grid

Option 2

Step 1 - Download PhantomJS

http://phantomjs.org/download.html
Step 2 - Tell Selenium where it is

Step 3 - Launch Selenium with PhantomJS locally

Visual Testing

A 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

Visual Testing Challenges

Managing complexity

False positives

e.g., shifting content, dynamic content, typos

In pom.xml

Visual Testing Write-ups

http://se.tips/se-visual-1

Getting Started

http://se.tips/se-visual-2

False Positives part 1

http://se.tips/se-visual-3

False Positives part 2

http://se.tips/se-visual-4

Add Visual Testing To Your Existing Tests

http://se.tips/se-visual-5

Add Visual Testing To Your BDD Tests

Fun with a Proxy Server

Selenium

Browser

Proxy
Server

Application
Under
Test

http://bmp.lightbody.net/

HTTP Status Codes

http://elementalselenium.com/tips/17-retrieve-http-status-codes

Configuration

Use a proxy server to capture the traffic from your

Selenium test(s)

Find the status code for the action youre interested

in (e.g., visiting a URL)

Assert that the status code is what you expect

Blacklisting
http://elementalselenium.com/tips/66-blacklist

Configuration

Use a proxy server to manipulate the traffic from

your Selenium test(s)

Identify third-party resources that are slow to load

(which could negatively impact your tests)

Blacklist them (e.g., make it so they dont load)

Load Testing
http://elementalselenium.com/tips/68-load-testing-revisited

Configuration

Use a proxy server to capture the traffic from your

Selenium test(s)

Convert the HTTP Archive into a JMeter JMX file

Run the new JMX file with JMeter to enact load on

your application (modify as needed)

https://flood.io/har2jmx

http://se.tips/selenium-to-jmeter

Broken Image Checking

http://elementalselenium.com/tips/67-broken-images

Option 1 - Proxy Server

Option 2 - HTTP Library
Option 3 - JavaScript

Option 1: Proxy Server

Option 1: Proxy Server

Option 1: Proxy Server

Option 2: HTTP Library

Option 2: HTTP Library

Option 2: HTTP Library

Option 3: JavaScript

Option 3: JavaScript

Option 3: JavaScript

Forgot Password
http://elementalselenium.com/tips/43-forgot-password

Configuration

Use Selenium to trigger a forgot password workflow

(to email a real address) and keep the browser
session active

Retrieve the e-mail and the password information

via the email providers API

Use the password information in the active

Selenium session (if applicable)

http://se.tips/watirmelon-email-testing

A/B Testing
http://elementalselenium.com/tips/12-opt-out-of-ab-tests

http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/abtest

3 page states available

You can identify which state youre in because

there is different header text for each

When youre in the control: A/B Test Control

For the variation: A/B Test Variation 1

When youre not in a test: No A/B Test

Configuration

You can easily opt-out of A/B tests by

forging a cookie

appending a query to the URL

This way you get a known state of the page which

is far less likely to change without your knowledge

File Management

Uploading a File
http://elementalselenium.com/tips/1-upload-a-file

Options

GUI manipulation with something like AutoIt

Input the file path into the form field (side-stepping

the system dialog)

http://se.tips/grid-file-upload

Downloading a File
http://elementalselenium.com/tips/2-download-a-file
http://elementalselenium.com/tips/8-download-a-file-revisited
http://elementalselenium.com/tips/15-download-secure-files

Two approaches
1.Configure Selenium to download to local disk, and
delete the file when done
2.Use an HTTP library, perform a HEAD request, and
check the headers for the correct content type &
length.
Why #2?
An order of magnitude faster
No need to download the file

With Selenium

With Selenium

With an HTTP library

With an HTTP library

Additional Output

Highlight Elements
http://elementalselenium.com/tips/65-highlight-elements

Growl Notifications
http://elementalselenium.com/tips/53-growl

More Selenium Resources

Selenium Bootcamp

http://se.tips/se-bootcamp

Weekly Selenium Tips http://se.tips/se-weekly-tips

Weekly Se Tip Code

http://se.tips/oss-tip-code

Selenium Guidebook

http://se.tips/se-guidebook

http://seleniumconf.co.uk