Welcome to the world of automated testing! Selenium has been gaining traction recently as one of the leading tools for web browser automation and testing. With Selenium, testers can automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, enabling them to focus on more critical testing tasks.
Writing unique and effective test cases is the primary duty of a good tester in the software testing life cycle. Your study of any software product starts with the test cases. But writing good test cases is a skill that can be learned by studying an application in depth, which includes making test cases and, most importantly, by doing it. For writing successful test cases, you will need to find, define, and analyze requirements.
However, writing efficient and reliable Selenium test cases can be challenging, especially for beginners.
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What is Selenium?
Selenium is an open-source automation testing tool for web applications. It supports multiple test automation frameworks, including Data-Driven, Keyword-Driven, and Behavior-Driven. Selenium has become extensively popular among developers as it helps them to test web-based applications more efficiently. It also makes it easy and faster to automate web browsers.
Selenium offers a fully integrated browser environment to conduct testing operations on online applications. The best part of Selenium is that it works well in almost all languages, including Java, C#, Python, Ruby, and more! So, no matter what language you prefer, Selenium is there for the rescue.
And let’s talk about convenience – Selenium doesn’t need any complicated setup process, which means you can start testing immediately. It runs seamlessly on all the popular browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and even Internet Explorer. In short, Selenium is a tester’s best friend, making testing a piece of cake.
Selenium has a wide range of features, such as recording and playback, cross-browser testing, and debugging. It also supports integration with CI/CD tools like Jenkins and TestRail and third-party reporting tools like Sauce Labs and New Relic.
Overall, Selenium offers many advantages that make it the go-to choice for web application automation testing. It reduces the need for manual testing and helps in significant cost reduction. Its versatility makes it essential to web developers.
What is Automated Testing?
Automation testing is like having a robot do your homework for you. You write the test cases, and then a software tool runs them automatically. No more sitting there tediously clicking through the same sequence of buttons over and over again.
And let’s face it, and robots are just faster than humans. It’s like the tortoise and the hare, but you have a super speedy robot instead of a slow tortoise. And who wants to finish their work slower?
When you set up automatic testing, you first write the test cases you want the software to run. These test cases can cover simple input validations from the user to intricate system integrations. Once the test cases are written, you can use a tool for automation to run them automatically.
It saves a lot of time for testers when they have to test software with massive features. It also makes it less likely that a person will make a mistake since automatic tests are always run the same way.
But not everything is a rainbow and a horse. Setting up automated testing is more challenging. If the software is constantly changing, it can get easier.
All in all, when you do something manually, often or repeatedly, you waste time. It’s also more probable that someone will make a mistake. Depending on how good the test cases are and how many there are, this could be fixed with automatic testing.
How Does Selenium Help in Automated Testing?
Selenium helps automate testing activities for web applications, allowing developers to test changes quickly. It enables developers to create a range of scripts for different test cases, which makes it easier to test a wide range of areas in the web application, such as the UI, navigation, and functional regions.
Selenium is also beneficial for creating test suites. It can integrate with other test tools to develop a comprehensive test suite that includes functional, web performance, and security testing. It also helps mitigate the risk of manual errors in testing.
Selenium is quite flexible, and you can take multiple tests simultaneously on it. It also makes finding bugs and fixing them easier. Overall, Selenium saves time and money for developers by automating testing tasks.
Types of Selenium Test Cases
Selenium has a wide range of test cases for automation. It can be used for unit, functional, compatibility, and regression testing. It can also be used for performance testing and security testing.
- Unit testing is used to test the functionality of individual components. It helps developers ensure that each part of the application works as expected.
- Functional testing can verify that the application meets the requirements specified by the user.
- Compatibility testing tests web applications on different browsers and platform environments to ensure they perform as expected.
- Regression testing helps detect new problems when making changes to an existing application.
- Performance testing helps ensure that the application can handle any potential load on the server effortlessly.
- Security testing helps ensure the application is secure and can take malicious attempts to compromise it.
7 Tips to Write Better Test Cases for Selenium
1. Plan your tests
Before writing your Selenium test cases, planning your tests is essential. Start by identifying the test scenarios and requirements that you want to test. This planning phase will help you prioritize the test cases and ensure that you cover all the essential scenarios. You should also identify the data you will use to test the application.
For example, if you’re testing a login page, consider testing scenarios like valid and invalid username and password combinations, incorrect password attempts, and forgotten password flows. By planning your tests, you can ensure that you cover all the necessary scenarios and avoid missing any critical test cases.
2. Keep test cases simple and maintainable
Selenium test cases should be written in a simple manner that can be easy to be maintained. This makes the test cases more reliable, and when changes occur in the application, you can update the test cases immediately. Remember that complex test cases tend to fail more and can give you difficulty troubleshooting. You can try several small test cases for each scenario which can be manageable, instead of going for one complex test case for several scenarios. This way, you can simply comprehend the test cases and identify the potential flaws.
3. Put yourself in the customer’s place
Software is developed keeping the demands and convenience of the users in mind. An angry customer calls customer service because the software isn’t doing what they expected it to do with a certain feature. Thorough testing helps in avoiding such scenarios.
Software testers must put themselves in the customer’s shoes and see things from their side. That way, you can articulate any issues to the programming team in a way that they’ll understand. Always remember the software is made for the customer, and customers are always right.
Usefulness and accessibility are key factors to keep in mind when testing. It is crucial to ensure that the software meets the customer’s expectations and runs smoothly. So, put on your end-user hat and create test cases that will knock their socks off!
4. Add the tester’s name and the time to the comments
There are times when a new issue arises after you’ve completed testing your cases, maybe an update is released, or there may be other people also working on the app. This might get a little complicated situation here.
But all you have to do is always put a timestamp and your name in the testing notes so that you can link a test result to the state of the program at that time. It will be easier to track the changes this way. And also, this will make sure you’re using the most recent information.
Adding a field to your test cases called “Executed Date” is another helpful tip. This will provide you with more context about when the test was conducted. So, go ahead and timestamp your test notes and organize your test cases like a pro!
5. Use explicit waits
It takes time for web computers to load each web page. The speed at which a page loads depends on the network, server, and system settings. Quality Analysts use the Thread.sleep() method to deal with this, which stops the automation process for a certain amount of time.
But this method doesn’t always work well. In some situations, a website may take longer than the time given to load. On the other hand, a website may load faster than the given time, making the test take longer to run. Hence, we can use the Implicit or Explicit Wait Commands in Selenium which is a better and more efficient option.
6. Use the Page Object Model
With customer needs constantly changing, a website’s user interface must update over time. The locators for specific UI features also change. This means that QAs have to make new test cases for the same page, which can be time-consuming.
One way to deal with this is to make test scripts that use the Page Object Model design style. In this design style, each web page is treated as a class file, and each class file contains the web elements that go with it. As a bonus, this method simplifies test upkeep and reduces the need for duplicate code. QAs can also use the existing code and only make small changes.
7. Use assertions to validate results
Lastly, it’s essential to validate the results of your test cases using assertions. Assertions are statements that validate whether an expected result matches the actual result. Assertions help you ensure that the application behaves as expected and that your test cases are valid.
For example, if you’re testing a login page using an assertion, you can ensure that the user is navigated to the correct page after logging in. It ensures that your test cases are more reliable and that any issues with the application can be identified and fixed.
Conclusion
Writing efficient and reliable Selenium test cases is essential for successful test automation. Remember to plan your tests, keep your test cases simple, use meaningful names, use CSS selectors, use explicit waits, use the page object model, and use assertions to validate the results. So, go ahead and put these tips into action, and watch your test automation soar to new heights!
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Used by over a million teams and 500 enterprises, the platform has gained popularity in over 130 countries. With LambdaTest, you can exponentially increase your browser coverage by running your Selenium automation testing scripts on a cloud pool of desktop and mobile environments, ensuring seamless user experience across all devices.
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