Selenium

Adam Goucher
adam_goucher@hotmail.com

Lecture Objective
Give students an introduction to web
automation using the Selenium
framework.

What is Selenium?
Selenium is a web test tool that runs in the
browser
Because it runs in the browser, it does
exactly what a user does

What tests can Selenium do?

Browser compatibility One script, many
browsers
Regression

Javascript
Selenium is written in Javascript
Javascript is how AJAX applications are
written, so Selenium can test them too

Where to get it?

Selenium can be downloaded and installed
for free from http://www.openqa.org

QTP vs. Selenium

QTP is not cross platform, Selenium is
QTP costs a lot of money, Selenium is free
QTP needs VBScript, Selenium has lots of
language bindings
The default format of testing in Selenium is
HTML
QTP can control other types of applications
other than web

Multiple Seleniums?
There are 3 versions of Selenium
Selenium Core The main component of
Selenium
Selenium RC A scripting layer over
Selenium Core
Selenium IDE a Firefox extension with
record / playback functionality

Selenium IDE
Selenium IDE adds a layer of Record /
Playback to Selenium
Is available for Firefox only

First Script
Command

Target

Value

open

/jobmining/

type

queryTitle

qa

select

ct_category

label=Banking

clickAndWait

Submit01

clickAndWait

link=sqa

Checkpoints
Of course, scripts wouldnt be tests if they didnt
check something
assert* tests fail the test immediately
verify* tests keep track of results and continue the
script regardless

verifyTextPresent

Job Description \n
dgds

asserTextPresent

Job
Requirements \n
sdrfasf

Locators
Selenium identifies what a component is through
the use of a locator
link=name
dom=document.images[56]
xpath=//table[@id='table1']//tr[4]/td[2]
css=a[href="#id3"]
Depending on your application, there might be
major performance differences

Playback
Playback of a single script is handled
through the IDE
Run Go as fast as the script can process
Walk Slows down the execution
Step Executes the next step

Test Suites
In order to run multiple scripts, you need to
chain them together in a Test Suite
Just another html table
Runs inside Firefox, but not in S-IDE
Saved in the same directory as the tests
that are included in it

Test Suites
<table>
<tr>
<td>Job Search test suite</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a target="testFrame" href=selenium-ide01.html">Job Search</a></td>
</tr>
</table>

Test Suites
The URL has a specific format
chrome://seleniumide/content/selenium/TestRunner.html?
baseURL=http://your_hose:port&test=file://
/c://temp/qa109/testsuite.html&auto=true&
multiWindow=false

Selenium RC
Selenium IDE is great for quick recording of
tests, but it somewhat lacks for power
Selenium RC gives you the ability to drive
Selenium from a real programming
language (Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, and
more)

Why do you want a real language?

By using Selenium inside a full fledged
language you can do the following
Seed the database
Check the database
Control external services
Launch multiple windows
Run multiple browsers in parallel
In addition to running the actual test.

Proxy
Because the commands for Selenium RC
are embedded in a script, a proxy is
needed to control the browser.

Python
There are python bindings for most of the
Selenium calls
Watch for naming differences
While not necessary, most use the unittest
module with Selenium

import selenium, unittest

class JM(unittest.TestCase):
def setUp(self):
protocol = "http"
host = "your host"
port = your_port_number
self.verificationErrors = []
self.selenium = selenium.selenium("localhost", 4444, "*chrome", "%s://%s:%s" % (protocol, host, port))
self.selenium.start()
self.selenium.open("/jobmining/")
def test_doSearch(self):
sel = self.selenium
sel.open("/jobmining/")
sel.type("queryTitle", "qa")
sel.select("ct_category", "label=Banking")
sel.click("Submit01")
sel.wait_for_page_to_load("30000")
sel.click("link=sqa")
sel.wait_for_page_to_load("30000")
try:
self.failUnless(sel.is_text_present("Job Description \n dgds"))
except AssertionError, e:
self.verificationErrors.append(str(e))
def tearDown(self):
self.selenium.stop()
if __name__ == "__main__":
unittest.main()

Data Driven
One key concept when doing automation
is to recycle your scripts through data
driving them
Use the underlying language you are
using Selenium RC with to handle most of
it for you

Same Origin
Prevents a document or script loaded from
one origin from getting or setting
properties of a document from a different
origin Mozilla security documentation
In other words, cannot work across server
boundries

Selenium Core
Selenium Core is used by both Selenium
IDE and RC
Runs test suites on the same server to
avoid the Same Origin problem
Dont have same flexibility as RC, but
tests and code under test is in the same
spot

Tips
Start and stop your script from the same
spot
Record your script in S-IDE, then use it as
a base for a S-RC script
Use Firebug to give you the XPath

Designing for Selenium

Proper use of tables and CSS div tags
makes Selenium much easier

Support
Because this is free, open source software
there is no official support channel
Mailing lists
Wiki
Forums
Are your main sources of assistence.
But dont forget your peers!