The new Selenium 4 and its first official release

The initial Alpha version of Selenium 4 was released in May 2019. In June 2021, the beta version, along with the latest driver, was launched and last but not least, the latest updated version. Version 4.1.0 was launched on 22nd November 2021.

Selenium Automation Testing has become the standard for the software industry. Selenium is the best game changer for all test automation engineers and those who depend on Selenium for automation testing without code whenever there are no in-house QA experts to implement it.

Selenium not just simplifies the deployment process for testers with less knowledge of web browsers but also makes it easy to run regression tests, synthetic monitoring and load testing with no information.

What are the new features introduced to Selenium 4?

Selenium 4 is the best brand new approach to automation testing. Before moving on to the newest version, you must see how it is raising the bar of selenium test automation. Let’s try to know about the significant parts of Selenium 4.

Selenium WebDriver- This is a web framework or API allowing you to communicate with the web browser, automate web apps and check on their performance. It helps select from amongst the available programming languages to build test scripts.

Selenium Grid & Selenium IDE:

Selenium Grid is a tool that saves a lot of time by distributing the different tests on plenty of virtual and physical platforms. Selenium IDE used to build selenium test cases, is an automation tool for record and playback.

What’s new about Selenium 4?

Selenium has slowly grown over the years and has released its newest and most stable version. Let us see what’s new about Selenium 4

W3C Standardization

Selenium 4 has adopted the W3C or the World Wide Web Consortium standard Web Driver Protocol for the best stable cross-browser testing. Every browser, whether it be Chrome, IE or Safari, has become adjustable with the W3C standard. The mingling of web browser driver and Selenium Web Driver will depend on the W3C Standard Protocol.

The Selenium latest version, i.e Selenium 4 has improved features and now it has Selenium Grid Architecture, improved Selenium IDE, the relative Locators etc.

It has awesome browser WebDrivers following the W3C standards, like Chromedriver and Geckodriver. It follows the standards for communicating with web browsers, hence letting the JSON wire protocol be discarded.

There isn’t anything to be worried about. It is not a change that existing users should be concerned about, as almost all Browser Drivers have smoothly moved from Selenium 3 to Selenium 4 by adjusting to the W3C standard rules.

More than that, this architectural enhancement has helped make Selenium 4 extremely stable and a highly efficient test automation tool.

Selenium 4 IDE Improvements

The Selenium IDE record and playback tool will now have lots of improved features like:

• The new plug-in system helps all browser vendors plug inside the new Selenium 4 IDE, along with the locator strategy and the Selenium IDE Plugin.
• The recent CLI runner will never have an HTML-based runner but will be completely based on NodeJS. It will also simplify the parallel test case execution and key metrics on the total number of tests that have been executed, the complete test-run time and the test PASS/ FAIL situation.
• It permits easy code export of the recording in the expected official language bindings like Java, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, and.Net.

Some time back, Selenium IDE solely supported Firefox, but these days, Selenium 4 is also available for Chrome, and after a few days, you’ll also get it for MS Edge.

The new element location feature helps locate the indistinguishable elements inside the web pages; this makes stable targeted tests easier than you can imagine.

Selenium Grid was launched many years back, and the users knew how complicated it would be to install and configure. With some guidance from Selenium 4, these problems don’t exist anymore. The new features introduced in Selenium 4 add stability, enhance UI and solve all the Hub-Node connection problems. Hub & Node are the two significant elements of Selenium Grid. 

In simple words, Selenium Hub is a server-like central point controlling different test machines in its network.

Until this time, testers came across lots of problems while joining a node to the Hub, but with the help of Selenium 4, the latest selenium version, these experiences have become smooth and easy. As of now, it doesn’t require to be set up to start the hubs and the nodes separately. Currently, the Selenium Grid is the only thing that acts as a Hub and a Node. This makes running the test cases for different browsers, browser versions and operating systems possible parallelly.

The new grid has 100 times better security features within its infrastructure.

It also gives easy access to the already updated UI on the GraphQL model.

The upgraded UI will provide you with information regarding the session capacity, the running time and all. Selenium 4 has now updated documentation with information regarding the new APIs and how to use them in the test code with fewer clicks.

• Better observation and tracking enhanced logging and request tracing procedures quickening the debugging procedure for resolving the script problems without any tension.
• Virtual Network Computing previews of the running sessions are there to understand what happens during a running session.
• The grid mingles into open telemetry support for figuring out what is taking place and where and when.
• It provides support to the completely distributed mode for the infrastructure that makes Kubernetes work.
• Provides support to advanced platforms like AWS and Azure that assist in the DevOps procedure.
• Excellent Window and Tab Management with the help of Selenium 4, the users can easily open a new window and tab on the same browser in a similar session. It also has a new Window method to make new windows or shift between the different tabs without building different WebDriver objects.
• Full-Page WebElement snapshot Selenium 4 makes captivating the screenshots at section, select, and full page levels of UI a thousand times easier. It simplifies taking complete page screenshots of individual WebElement with the complete page Screenshot method in Firefox. Selenium 3 permits taking a screenshot but not for some particular web elements.

Find out how to write test cases for Selenium Testing.

Conclusion

Selenium has been made invincible by World Wide Web Consortium compliance. Selenium Test Automation with the use of Selenium 4 will make it easy to handle all kinds of browser automation in the future. Selenium 4, embedded with the new features, has won user trust and confidence to be used for Selenium Automation Testing projects with no tension of the tool being outdated.

Talk to the experts at hikeQA for any help on QA testing services.

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What is Selenium?

Selenium is an open-source framework for automated testing of web applications. Specifically, Selenium tests can be written to simulate how a user would interact with a website and then run those tests in real-time against any supported browser. After that, you can compile the results into a report showing which tests were successful and which were not.

While Selenium is typically used for functional testing, it can also be used for automated cross-browser testing of web apps. That means you can test websites across different browsers and operating systems to identify any compatibility issues during the process. This often comes in handy when your website needs to support multiple devices or users with varying screen sizes and resolutions.

What Makes a Good Test Case?

Writing good Selenium test cases takes time and practice to get right. However, one of the most important things you can do is make sure each test case covers only one specific scenario. You should also try to limit your tests to no more than five steps to keep them focused and streamlined.

Some other best practices for writing Selenium test cases include:

• Avoid writing tests when you don’t have a clear idea of what the expected outcome should be. This will help ensure your tests are mapped to specific functionalities rather than just arbitrary scripts.
• Use descriptive names for all of your test case variables, including your test variables. This makes it easier to read through each of your test cases, but it can also help identify any missing or unnecessary steps pretty quickly.
• Make sure all of the input data for each step comes from some source that’s easy to change. For example, if you’re including static text in a test case, then all of the corresponding input data should come from someplace that’s easy to update, like an Excel spreadsheet.

Now let’s take a closer look at how to write effective Selenium test cases.

Writing Effective Selenium Test Cases

While writing effective Selenium test cases takes a bit of practice, here are a few tips you can try out to get started:

• Start by going through the requirements for your project and listing all of the functions you’ll need your website to support. Then, narrow those down into specific use cases that describe how each function should work.
• Once you’ve got your use cases mapped out, create test cases for each one. Ensure to include the expected results for each step and any input data you’ll need to enter for those steps to work properly.
• Try to keep each of your test case steps limited to no more than five actions. If needed, you can always add more steps, but you should always keep things streamlined and easy to follow.
• The next step is to run each test case through your website’s functionalities in your browser. If anything unexpected pops up during the process, go back and revise individual test cases to be clear and concise. Don’t be afraid to make several revisions; it’s much better to have solid test cases than ones that don’t do their job properly.
• Now you’re ready to compile all of your results and identify areas where your website may not be working as expected in different browsers. This is when good test case writing skills will truly come into play since you’ll need to go back through all of your test cases and add or remove any lines that may be causing problems.
• If you’re using a Selenium IDE, you’ll probably need to do a bit of manual code editing to ensure it’s compatible with each browser. If you find this process too tedious or time-consuming, consider using a dedicated cross-browser testing qa services  instead.

Why HikeQA?

As you can see, a lot goes into creating complete and effective Selenium test cases. And while it may seem like an uphill battle at first, the more time and effort you put into your test cases now, the better they will be in helping you avoid any regression issues down the road.

For some help getting started with your Selenium test cases, reach out and talk to one of our QA services company today. In addition, we can connect you with some of the most experienced testers in the industry who will be happy to lend you a hand.

Final thoughts

Finally, it’s also worth mentioning that you should include some documentation for each test case. This can help describe the purpose of that particular test case and why you’ve chosen to use it. And don’t be afraid to check out some guides or sample documentation from other programmers for inspiration or examples of what to include with your tests.

That’s about it! If you follow these tips, you should be well on your way to writing effective Selenium test cases. Just remember, the more organized and streamlined your tests are, the better results you’ll get out of them during testing sessions. Thanks again for reading, and we hope this has been helpful!

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Selenium can be developed in many different programming languages. This blog will show you how to get started with Selenium in Python, an easy language for beginners that requires only basic programming knowledge.

Why use Selenium?

Using Selenium can help you solve common IT support problems quickly and easily. One example would be that tech support agents are often asked to check website functionality by users. Rather than checking the website themselves, Selenium can help them create a script that they can send to the user. This saves time and allows tech support agents to deal with more complicated problems while freeing up their time to fix more pressing issues that users have reported.

What is Selenium?

Selenium is an automation test framework that allows you to build tests for running on web browsers. Selenium can be used in any language with a client library. However, this guide will focus on using Python with Selenium.

How to get started with Selenium

• The first approach is to download the certain software. This tutorial will show you how to install everything on a Windows machine. First, download the Python interpreter from the Python website. Make sure you select the right version for your computer, as this tutorial will be using Python 3.
• Next, you need to download an editor to write the code to perform actions with Selenium. You can use any text editor, but this tutorial will focus on using the free version of Sublime. You can download that here.
• Now that you have Python 3 and an editor, it’s time to download some additional software for Selenium. First, go to SeleniumHQ, and download the Server package under Github Releases. Once iintalled, derive the contents to the folder. Now you have everything ready to start with Selenium!

Crazy Hacks for using Selenium for IT support

• One major advantage of Selenium is that it can write tests once and then run them on multiple browsers. This means that you only need to test your website’s compatibility across different browsers once and can then run the same tests on all relevant targets later.
• Another way Selenium saves time is by waiting for pages to load. By default, Selenium will wait until a page has fully loaded before performing any actions on it. This means that you don’t need to figure out how long each page takes to load and then add code that explicitly tells the script when it can move on; instead, you let Selenium do its work and continue once the page is loaded.
• One thing to bear in mind and that Selenium doesn’t support Flash or Silverlight, so if your website uses these items, you will need other software for automated tests. However, Selenium can be integrated with other automated test frameworks such as TestNG and JUnit, meaning that it can happily co-exist alongside other software tools provided by your organization.
• Selenium can be used to automate almost anything you would need to do on a website, from simply clicking around and filling out forms to much more complicated actions such as uploading files or checking that response meets intended criteria. Selenium can be developed in many different programming languages. This blog will show you how to get started with Selenium in Python, an easy language for beginners that requires only basic programming knowledge.
• Selenium can help you solve common IT support problems quickly and easily. One example would be that tech support agents are often asked to check website functionality by users. Rather than checking the website themselves, Selenium can help them create a script that they can send to the user. This saves time and allows tech support agents to deal with more complicated problems while freeing up their time to fix more pressing issues that users have reported.
• Another common problem is that users need assistance logging into websites or other third-party sites such as SalesForce but cannot easily provide the required information. Selenium can be used to fill in the required information automatically, meaning that tech support agents will not need to go through all of the steps themselves. Instead, they can run the test, performing all required actions.

Final thoughts

Selenium can be a powerful tool for both tech support agents and end-users. It automates many time-consuming tasks common in IT, freeing up time to deal with more complicated problems. Selenium is also useful because it allows you to check websites before telling users there may be an issue. It’s easy to get started and is available for multiple programming languages, meaning that it can integrate into your organization without too much hassle.

Selenium does not support some older browsers, such as Internet Explorer 8; however, it can be integrated with other testing software if you need to use these browsers in the future.

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In this blog post, we will take a comprehensive look at the role of Selenium in cross-browser testing. So, without further ado, let’s get started!

What is Selenium, and what are its features?

Selenium is a free automated testing tool that supports multiple browsers. It helps in web application testing, which ensures the optimal functioning of the web application across different browsers under different operating systems with different resolutions.

Features of Selenium: Here are some key features of Selenium that make it a complete testing suite:

– Supports all major web browsers (including mobile and tablet browsers)

– Can be used to automate both functional and acceptance tests. It can also perform actions like mouse movements, button clicks, etc

– Provides integration with CI servers such as Jenkins and Bamboo for continuous integration of automated tests- Can be easily implemented with programming languages like Java, .Net, PHP, Ruby, etc

How does Selenium help in Cross Browser Testing?

Cross-browser testing ensures that your web application looks and functions the same across different browsers. Therefore, you need to ensure that your web application performs well across all major browsers before launching it.

Selenium has provided automated cross-browser testing for more than a decade, allowing web application developers to test their applications on different browsers without manually interacting with the browser while developing the application or after its completion. Selenium is built into most open source development frameworks like PHP, .Net etc., making it easier for developers to automate cross-browser testing. In addition, it is compatible with most modern browsers, so it ensures that your web application performs well across all major browsers.

Different types of Selenium Grid setups:

Selenium supports three different setups for the grid, which are as follows:

1. Local &; Remote Mode: All the test execution on the same machine in this model. If you want to test cases on multiple browsers locally, this mode is for you.
2. Local Mode & Remote Machine Mode: If you want to run your test cases on multiple browsers without using Selenium Grid, this is the right mode for you. This uses a separate browser on a separate machine that interacts with the test machine to perform the actions.
3. Cloud Mode: This mode enables you to run your tests on a Selenium Grid in the cloud, where each machine is responsible for running its set of tests and reporting back results to a hub machine. The hub machine then collects all the results from individual machines and presents them back.

Challenges faced while using Selenium for Cross Browser Testing:

One of the biggest challenges web developers face is to check the compatibility of their applications across different browsers. Testing an application manually on various browsers can be time-consuming and tiring, where cross-browser testing tools like Selenium come into play.

 Also, another challenge faced by web developers is integrating this testing suite with their agile development framework. Most open-source frameworks support Selenium as a module to run tests on multiple browsers, but they do not integrate Selenium seamlessly into their toolchain or CI servers. This can sometimes lead to custom scripting, making it hard for developers to automate their test cases.

Selenium vs. Other Cross Browser Testing Tools:

Cross-browser testing tools can be broadly categorised into free and paid software. Some of the popular free cross-browser testing tools include:

– Selenium – It is an open-source web application testing suite that supports all major browsers and operating systems

– Authentium – This is a freeware tool that allows users to test applications across different web browsers on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux

BrowserStack is a free online service that allows users to run the tests on over 400 different browser-operating systems combinations.

Hence, Selenium can be easily used by developers to automate their functional as well as acceptance level testing due to the following reasons:

– Open Source – It is compatible with all major web browsers

– Free for Non-Commercial Use – Though, Selenium is an open-source tool, it provides a free option for developers developing their applications in a non-commercial environment. Also, it can be used in commercial projects because it does not include any license fee

– Easy to debug – The Selenium IDE enables the user to debug the scripts easily, which is not supported by other cross-browser testing tools like Authentium.

Final Thoughts

In this blog, we have discussed the concept of using Selenium as a cross-browser testing tool for web developers. We have also highlighted some of its pros and cons and challenges web developers face while automating their functional tests across different browsers.

At HikeQA, our web testing team has expertise in using Selenium to automate functional tests across different browsers to ensure that the test cases are executed reliably. Contact us today!

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Run Test Using Java

First, let’s walk through how to run multiple test suites in Java. Before we get started, it’s important to note that you can take two different approaches when running various tests – the global and the per-class approach.

The per-class approach is typically more flexible because each suite can be run independently. However, it can be more complicated to implement and debug.

The global approach is what we’ll use in this blog post. It’s easier to implement and debug but has the drawback of not running suites separately from one another. That said, let’s get started!

Step 1: Decide on a naming convention for your test suites. This will be the prefix of the classes you’ll use to run each suite.

Step 2: Import this class into all other Java files with test cases. This is what it looks like in total, but feel free to write it as a single line if you want.

Step 3: Create a new JUnit test suite and pass it the name of your test class. This code should go inside your existing test suite.

Step 4: Start your test suite from the JUnit framework. This code should go inside your existing test suite.

Run Test Using Python

Now, let’s walk through how to run multiple test suites in Python. Depending on your process and preferences, there are a few different ways you can create a new test suite in Python. But, first, let’s look at one way you could set this up.

Step 1: Import your class into all other Python files with test cases. This looks like the following in total, but feel free to write it as a single line if you prefer.

Step 2: Rename the existing test suite from unit test to unique, such as my_test. This will be the name of your test suite, so make sure it’s amazing and descriptive!

Step 3: Add the following code to your new test suite. It should go outside of any functions or methods you’re writing tests for but inside your existing suite.

Step 4: Start your test suite from the unit test framework. This code should go outside of any functions or methods you’re writing tests for but inside your existing suite.

Step 5: Add this step to the beginning of each function you’ll be QA testing to change directories before running the test case. This is especially helpful if your directory path is different from the default directory, which typically contains your test files.

Some Important Things to Keep in Mind

In this section, we’ll be covering several tips and tricks you can use to make the process of running multiple test suites in Selenium easier for you. So let’s get started!

Use a naming convention with classes

Naming is everything in coding, so it’s essential to use a naming convention for your test classes. Though you can technically have as many test files as you want inside each directory, using a single type per directory will make the process of running multiple suites easier later on.

Be careful with how many functions your file has

As mentioned above, you should be limiting your test case classes to a single function or method in each file for the sake of organization and readability. In Python, you can accomplish this by writing a [ [ Wikipedia : [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suite_(organization_and_testing)] ]] at the beginning of your class definition, which defines the front of your suite.

Get to know your test case class’ variable scope

There are times when you’ll need to run multiple tests in the same file but only want specific tests to be run depending on how things are set up. For example, you might need to do this if certain functions or methods use a different login screen depending on what’s already happened in your test case.

Organize by branch rather than file

Before we start walking through a real example, there are a few more things you’ll want to know about if you’re going to be running multiple suites in your Selenium test cases. First, if you’re writing a suite with numerous branches (one for each desired set of tests), it might be best to organize everything by department instead of a file. This way, all the cases for a given function or method live within the same file, and you only have to run a specific test suite when necessary.

Create function names for each branch

Like with file organization, it’s best to create names for each branch that will house all the test cases for a given function or method. This way, you can run multiple test suites quickly and avoid having one test suite override another.

Final thoughts

As with any coding process, things can get complicated as your codebase grows. This is even more true when you’re writing several automated test cases for your web app, and some frequently-used functions end up being used in several different suites.

That’s why keeping organized from the start matters so much, but it’s also essential to know how to handle things when that organization starts to break down. By following the tips and tricks above, you can avoid many headaches later on and make your test suite more maintainable in the long run.

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