How To Use Selenium, Successfully by Dave Haeffner, @TourDeDave
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Write business valuable tests that are reusable, maintainable and resilient across all relevant browsers. Then package and scale them for you & your team.
Selenium Overview • What it is — the Reader’s Digest version • What it is and is not good at • IDE vs. Local vs. Remote • Slow, brittle, and hard to maintain?
Step 1 Define a Test Strategy
Test Strategy 1. How does your business make money? 2. What features of your application are being used? 3. What browsers are your users using? 4. What things have broken in the app before? Outcome: What to test and which browsers to care about
Step 2 Pick a Programming Language
Programming Language • Same language as the app? • Who will own it? • Build a framework or use an existing one? • http://bit.ly/seleniumframeworks
Step 3 Use Selenium fundamentals
Selenium Fundamentals • Mimics human action • Uses a few common actions • Works with “locators” Locators tell Selenium which HTML element to interact with
Common Actions • get(); • findElement(); • click(); //or submit(); • sendKeys(); • isDisplayed();
Locator Strategies • Class • CSS selectors • ID • Link Text • Partial Link Text • Tag Name • XPath Good locators are: • unique • descriptive • unlikely to change That rules a few of these out
Locator Strategies • Class • CSS selectors • ID • Link Text • Partial Link Text • Tag Name • XPath Good locators are: • unique • descriptive • unlikely to change That rules a few of these out
Locator Strategies • Class • CSS selectors • ID • Link Text • Partial Link Text • Tag Name • XPath Good locators are: • unique • descriptive • unlikely to change That rules a few of these out Start with IDs and Classes
Locator Strategies • Class • CSS selectors • ID • Link Text • Partial Link Text • Tag Name • XPath Good locators are: • unique • descriptive • unlikely to change That rules a few of these out Start with IDs and Classes Use CSS or XPath (with care)
Locator Strategies • Class • CSS selectors • ID • Link Text • Partial Link Text • Tag Name • XPath CSS vs XPath http://bit.ly/seleniumbenchmarks http://bit.ly/cssxpathexamples
Finding Quality Locators • Inspect the page • Verify your selection • e.g., FirePath or FireFinder • http://bit.ly/verifyinglocators • Learn through gaming • http://bit.ly/locatorgame • Conversation
Step 4 Write your first test
Good Test Anatomy • Write for BDD or xUnit test framework • Test one thing (atomic) • Each test can be run independently (autonomous) • Anyone can understand what it is doing • Group similar tests together
A Login Example 1. Visit the login form 2. Find the login form’s username field and input text 3. Find the login form’s password field and input text 4. Find the submit button and click it 1. or, find the form and submit it
http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login
Now to find an assertion 1. Login 2. Inspect the page 3. Find a locator 4. Verify it 5. Add it to the test
Exception Handling • org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException: Unable to locate element: {"method":"css selector","selector":".flash.error"} • Most common ones you’ll run into: 
 NoSuchElement and StaleElementReferenceError • A list of all WebDriver exceptions: 
 http://bit.ly/se-exceptions-java
Exception Handling cont’d http://bit.ly/se-exceptions-howto
Step 5 Write reusable and maintainable test code
Page Objects
Application Under Test Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5 Need to update EVERY test :-(
Application Under Test Page Object(s) Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5 Need to update JUST the page object :-D
Let’s look at a page object for login
And here’s what the test looks like when using it
Page object helpers: http://bit.ly/po-html-elements http://bit.ly/po-page-factory
Base Page Object
Selenium Commands Page Object 1 Page Object 2 Page Object 3 Page Object 4 Page Object 5
Base Page Object Page Object 1 Page Object 2 Page Object 3 Page Object 4 Page Object 5 Selenium Commands • Global reuse • More readable • Insulates you from Selenium API changes http://bit.ly/se-upgrade
Let’s take a look at a Base Page Object
And here it is implemented
How everything fits together Test TestTest Page Object Page Object Base Page Object Tests use page objects Page objects inherits the base page object (a.k.a. “selenium wrapper”) The base page object wraps your Selenium commands
Step 6 Make your tests resilient
Waiting
Thread.sleep(); Implicit wait Explicit waits
Thread.sleep(); Implicit wait Explicit waits
Thread.sleep(); Implicit wait Explicit waits http://bit.ly/se-waiting
Explicit Waits • Specify an amount of time, and an action • Selenium will try repeatedly until either: • The action is completed, or • The amount of time specified has been reached (and throw a timeout exception)
In the Base page object
In the DynamicLoading page object
Browser Timing Considerations
Step 7 Prep for use
Test Harness • Simple organizational structure • Central setup and teardown • Configurable at run-time (with sensible defaults) • Reporting & Logging • Parallelization • Test Grouping
Folder structure
Central setup/teardown More on JUnit Rules: http://bit.ly/junit-rules
Simple config with defaults
Reporting & Logging • Machine readable
 e.g., JUnit XML • Human readable
 e.g., screenshots, failure message, stack trace Fantastic Test Report Tool http://bit.ly/se-reporter (Allure Framework)
Parallelization • In code • Through your test runner • Through your Continuous Integration (CI) server #protip Enforce random order execution of tests http://bit.ly/junit-random-order Recommended approach: http://bit.ly/mvn-surefire
Test Grouping • Metadata (a.k.a. Categories) • Enables “test packs” • Some category ideas • wip • shallow • deep • story number More info: bit.ly/junit-categories
Step 8 Add in cross-browser execution
Locally http://bit.ly/se-chromedriver http://bit.ly/se-firefoxdriver http://bit.ly/se-iedriver http://bit.ly/se-operadriver (12.16) http://bit.ly/se-safaridriver
Chrome
Grid Grid Hub Browser Tests All done with the Selenium Standalone Server Just requires additional runtime flags Grid Node Grid Node Grid Node Browser Browser
Grid Hub Node(s)
Grid More on Selenium Grid http://bit.ly/se-grid-docs http://bit.ly/se-grid-post http://bit.ly/se-grid-extras http://bit.ly/se-grid-scaler
Sauce Labs Sauce Labs Browser Tests
Sauce Labs Additional Considerations - Test name - Pass/Fail status - Secure tunnel More on Sauce: http://bit.ly/sauce-platforms http://bit.ly/sauce-post http://bit.ly/sauce-tutorial-java
Step 9 Build an automated feedback loop
Feedback loops • The goal: Find failures early and often • Done with continuous integration and notifications • Notifications
 e.g., remote: Email, chat, SMS
 in-person: audio/visual, public shaming
Code Committed Unit/Integ. (pass?) Deploy to autom. test server (success?) Run automated tests (pass?) Deploy to next env. yes yes yes Notify team if no Code Promotion Bonus points: stop the line
Simple CI configuration 1. Create a Job 2. Pull In Your Test Code 3. Set up Build Triggers 4. Configure Build steps 5. Configure Test Reports 6. Set up Notifications 7. Run Tests & View The Results 8. High-five your neighbor
Step 10 Find information on your own http://bit.ly/se-info-slides http://bit.ly/se-info-video
Steps to solve the puzzle 1. Define a Test Strategy 2. Pick a programming language 3. Use Selenium Fundamentals 4. Write Your First Test 5. Write re-usable and maintainable test code 6. Make your tests resilient 7. Package your tests into a framework 8. Add in cross-browser execution 9. Build an automated feedback loop 10. Find information on your own
Write business valuable tests that are reusable, maintainable and resilient across all relevant browsers. Then package them and scale them for you & your team.
–Dave Haeffner “You may think your puzzle is unique. But really, everyone is trying to solve the same puzzle. Yours is just configured differently — and it’s solvable”
https://seleniumguidebook.com/#sample
Get in touch @TourDeDave dhaeffner@gmail.com DaveHaeffner.com

How To Use Selenium Successfully