Hundreds of web and mobile applications are being released in this modern world of web industries. Testers and QA teams require an effective and user-friendly tool so that these applications perform optimally beyond the development environment. Selenium WebDriver is one of the preferred tools used by testing teams in web application testing. If you want to know what is Selenium WebDriver, and how it became an essential tool for testers, developers, and automation enthusiasts., then you have come to the right place.
Earlier, manual testers used their observation skills to perform web automation tasks, which required a lot of time and were prone to human error. Then, Selenium entered the web automation industry to provide a more efficient and reliable way to automate web interactions.
Selenium WebDriver is a programming interface built of many language bindings that may be used to create and execute test cases across all major programming languages, browsers, and operating systems. It enables testers to remotely monitor and automate web applications that do activities like clicking buttons, filling out text fields, and navigating from one page to the next.
We will demystify Selenium WebDriver in this article and cover all the aspects like what Selenium WebDriver is, its core functionalities, and the architecture that makes this tool an excellent choice for testers and QA teams in web automation. It will also provide a quick explanation of its limits and the ways to overcome them. So let’s start.
What is Selenium WebDriver?
Selenium WebDriver is one of the most effective open-source tools and a key component of the Selenium automation framework used to automate interactions with web browsers.
It includes built-in drivers that testers need to automate browser activities into their specific browsers to run tests. Its support for various programming languages, including Java, Python, C#, etc enhances the test script flexibility and integration, making it accessible across diverse development environments.
Core Functionalities of Selenium WebDriver
Selenium WebDriver includes a variety of features. Let’s examine them in detail.
Multiple browser support
Selenium WebDriver supports numerous web browsers and their versions, for example, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc. Ensuring consistent behavior irrespective of the browser they use.
Reusability
Selenium WebDriver allows reusing Selenium test scripts without any modification. Enabling testers to run the same test scripts across different browser environments.
Parallel execution
Selenium WebDriver allows for parallel test execution using frameworks such as TestNG. This approach makes it possible to run test cases more rapidly on a large scale.
Language flexibility
Selenium WebDriver has bindings available for various languages which makes it flexible and versatile. Its programming language flexibility allows teams to choose a language that best fits their skills and design conditions. This approach not only integrates well with existing development workflows but also reduces the learning curve.
Wide community support
Selenium WebDriver benefits from a large community of testers and developers. This active community ensures extensive documentation, continuous improvement, and a wide range of resources for learning and troubleshooting. The community’s contributions also include plugins, libraries, and frameworks that improve Selenium WebDriver’s overall functionality.
Integration with testing frameworks
Selenium WebDriver can be easily integrated with various testing frameworks like JUnit, TestNG, NUnit, etc. This integration provides organization, execution, and reporting of test cases, and makes it easier to manage complicated test suites.
Wide range of browser actions
Selenium WebDriver enables testers to execute various browser tasks, such as clicking, typing, navigating through pages, submitting forms, handling cautions, and many more. This makes it appropriate for extensive web application testing.
Integration with CI tools
Selenium Webdrivers can be seamlessly integrated with CI tools like Jenkins, CI, Travis, and Bamboo. Because of this integration, test suites can be implemented automatically, upon code commits to ensure continuous testing in the development channel.
Faster execution
WebDriver interacts with the browser without the use of a middleware server. Compared to most Selenium tools, WebDriver communicates with browsers more quickly, enabling the faster execution and verification of test cases.
What’s New in Selenium WebDriver?
Selenium WebDriver includes the following new features:
W3C WebDriver Protocol: The advanced Selenium WebDriver makes substantial improvements to the architecture, now it entirely supports the World Wide Web Consortium(W3C) WebDriver Protocol. It is a global organization responsible for developing and maintaining World Wide Web guidelines. It provides a consistent method of interaction between the client libraries and the browser drivers, resulting in improved communication, as well as compatibility and stability across different browsers.
Native support for Chrome DevTools Protocol: The Chrome DevTools Protocol is natively supported by Selenium WebDriver 4. QA engineers can leverage Chrome DevTools APIs for better testing and bug resolution by using Chrome development properties.
Improved actions class: Selenium WebDriver’s actions class now includes new methods for clicking, right-clicking, and double-clicking on web elements, facilitating complex user interactions.
Better error handling and reporting: Selenium WebDriver now has better error handling and reporting mechanisms. This enables testers to easily diagnose and fix issues during test running.
Architecture of Selenium WebDriver
In Selenium WebDriver 4, every component is the same as in Selenium 3 just the JSON Wire protocol is replaced by the new W3C WebDriver protocol. Let us now delve deeper into its architecture.
Selenium client library: The client library provides language-specific bindings or APIs such as Java, Python, Ruby, etc that allow testers to write test scripts and interact with the WebDriver to automate browser actions.
WebDriver W3C protocol: The most current protocol added to Selenium 4 is called WebDriver W3C which standardizes how web browsers communicate with automation scripts. It has gained an endorsement from W3C. The advanced feature of Selenium focuses on the W3C WebDriver Protocol for improved consistency and compatibility with various browsers.
Also, it helps in transferring the information directly between the server and the client, eliminating the need for the JSON Wire protocol. Because Selenium WebDriver and web browsers use the same protocol, this approach helps perform tests more reliably across different browsers.
Browser Drivers: Between the WebDriver and web browsers, these executable files create a communication channel such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc. Every browser needs its driver e.g., ChromeDriver, GeckoDriver, etc. to make WebDriver capable of controlling and automating browser actions.
Browsers: These are the web browsers where the actual testing and automation take place, such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. To carry out tasks like clicking components, completing forms, browsing pages, and validating content, the WebDriver interacts with these browsers through their browser drivers.
How Does Selenium WebDriver Work?
WebDriver is a mediator that facilitates communication between two entities when they cannot speak the same language. Similarly, Selenium WebDriver works as an interpreter that enables the test code to interact with various browser drivers. However, it’s crucial to remember that for the browser driver to interact, the real browser needs to be installed on the local system. Here is how Selenium WebDriver works.
When the tester creates an automated test script for a specific browser driver, an HTTP request is delivered to the relevant browser driver such as Chrome, IE, or Firefox. Each Selenium command is associated with a specific request; the browser driver then receives the request from an HTTP server that chooses what commands or actions the browser must execute. Later the browser executes the instructions/steps as previously decided. After the HTTP server receives the execution status the automation script shows the result as passed, as an exception, or as an error.
Limitations of Selenium WebDriver
Although Selenium WebDriver is a powerful tool, understanding its limitations is crucial to managing expectations and choosing the most effective testing approach for the online application. Here are a few limitations of Selenium WebDriver.
- Writing Selenium WebDriver scripts requires programming knowledge and expertise. For example, knowledge of how the coding language works as well as in-depth familiarity with the document object model(DOM) and web technologies are essential for writing Selenium WebDriver scripts.
- The Selenium WebDriver does not have strong support for desktop applications. To automate Windows-based applications, testers will not be able to do so.
- WebDriver is completely open-source, powered by individuals. As a result, there is no specific support team to address the concerns.
- Selenium WebDriver does not come with an Object Repository feature by default.
- Due to a lack of reporting capabilities. Testers need to integrate Selenium WebDriver with a testing framework like JUnit, TestNG, PyTest, and Allure, for report generation.
- Handling CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA are not supported by Selenium WebDrive
Tips for Overcoming Limitations of Selenium WebDriver
Addressing the limitations associated with Selenium WebDriver requires third-party tools and innovative strategies. Here are some extensive workarounds:
Leveraging WebDriverWait: Selenium WebDriverWait is both a function and a strategy. Testers can effectively utilize explicit waits to ensure that WebDriver pauses execution until a given condition is met. This is especially useful in modern web applications where AJAX and asynchronous requests dominate. This causes web elements to load at varying intervals.
Integrating third-party reporting tools: Selenium WebDriver doesn’t offer comprehensive reporting out-of-the-box, Integration with third-party tools can give visually intuitive and detailed test execution reports. facilitating faster defect detection and analysis.
Continuous training and upgradation: Staying up to date with Selenium WebDriver’s latest features, functionality, and best practices is essential. Webinars, community meetups, and online forums can all be very helpful resources.
Dedicated Mobile Testing Tools: Integration with automation testing tools like Appium, can help in providing a comprehensive approach to mobile website testing. They address the inherent issues of mobile devices, such as handling touch gestures, varying screen sizes, and device-specific behaviors.
Utilizing cloud-based testing platforms: Cloud-based testing enables access to a wide range of browser and operating system combinations, allowing testers to address compatibility concerns without the need for a significant in-house device lab.
Page Object Model (POM): Implementing the Page Object Model can make script maintenance easier. Any modifications to the page layout or elements can be updated in one place by separating the test scripts from the page structure, which helps avoid the need to modify several test scripts.
Parallel execution: Parallel execution can help minimize test execution time, particularly for extensive test suites. Multiple tests can be run concurrently across different browsers and environments. Testers can use various tools for parallel test execution to enhance testing efficiency and scalability. LambdaTest is one of the platforms that enables parallel test execution.
LambdaTest is an AI-powered test execution platform that helps testers perform both manual and automated tests at scale. The platform enables testers to conduct real-time and automated parallel test execution on a cloud Selenium Grid of more than 3000 environments, real mobile devices, and browsers. It also provides extensive test coverage for all web environments, including mobile and desktop web testing across all platforms and operating systems.
Customized error handling: Selenium WebDriver scripts might occasionally fail because of unexpected issues. It can be overcome by implementing customized error handling procedures, These scripts can recover gently by documenting the exact error, allowing for quicker resolution.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the core of the entire Selenium suite is Selenium WebDriver. It is a powerful tool for automating web browser interactions with different APIs that enable the automated testing process to run quickly. With the introduction of WebDriver W3C Protocol in Selenium 4, the architecture of the tool has changed to improve compatibility, efficiency, and maintainability and facilitate communication between client libraries, browser drivers, and browsers.
