SELENIUM TOOLS

Introduction to selenium tools(Selenium IDE, Core, RC)

Selenium is an open source tool for web application testing. Selenium

tests run directly in a browser, just like real users do. It runs in Internet Explorer,
Mozilla Firefox on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh, Safari on the Mac.

There are three variants of Selenium, which can be used in isolation or in

combination to create complete automation suite for your web applications.

• Selenium IDE :

Selenium IDE is an integrated development environment for Selenium

tests. It is implemented as a Firefox extension, and allows you to record, edit,
debug and execute tests. It can also record user actions in most of the
popular languages like Java, C#, Perl, Ruby etc. This eliminates the need of
learning new vendor scripting language. For executing scripts created in
these languages, you will need to use Selenium Remote Control. If you do not
want to use Remote Control than you will need to create your test script in
HTML format.

Biggest drawback of Selenium IDE is its limitation in terms of browser

support. Though Selenium scripts can be used for most of the browser and
operating system, Scripts written using Selenium IDE can be used for only
Firefox browser if it is not used with Selenium RC or Selenium Core.

• Selenium Core :

Selenium Core is a test tool for web applications. Selenium Core tests run
directly in a browser. And they run in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox on
Windows, Linux, and Macintosh. But to use Selenium Core we need to make
it available from the same web server as the application you want to
test(AUT).

• Selenium Remote Control :

Selenium Remote Control (RC) is a test tool that allows you to write
automated web application UI tests in any programming language against any
HTTP website using any mainstream JavaScript-enabled browser.

Selenium RC comes in two parts.

1. A server which can automatically launch and kill supported browsers,

and acts as a HTTP proxy for web requests from those browsers.
2. Client libraries for your favorite computer language.
Selenium IDE:

Installation process for Selenium IDE

Open the download link using Mozilla(version: 1.5 or higher) and choose
any version of Selenium IDE and select INSTALL NOW. It will get installed
automatically. The download link is given below.

Download Link: http://selenium-ide.openqa.org/download.jsp

Working :
 Once the installation is successfully completed, go to ‘Tools’ in the firefox
window. You can find Selenium IDE. Click on Selenium IDE. The small red
button on the right hand side gives you an indication on whether Selenium is
in recording mode or not. Click the red button to start recording and click the
red button again to stop the recording.

Run will execute the tests with the maximum possible speed. Walk will
execute them with relatively slow speed. In Step mode you will need to tell
Selenium to take small steps. Green tilted triangular button is to execute the
test. Yellow button to pause while executing the test. Blue button helps to
place checkpoints and the final green button is the Selenium Test Runner.

Test Runner gives you nice browser interface to execute your tests and
also gives summary of how many tests were executed, how many passed
and failed. It also gives similar information on commands which were passed
or failed. Test Runner is available to tests developed in HTML only.

In selenium, there is option to start a new test, save test and open the
saved test. It is also possible to export scripts. We have other self explanatory
options like encoding of test files, timeout under the Options tab. When we
access the Format tab under Options tab, we have an option as to specify
what kind of formatting we would like in the generated code as Selenium IDE
can generate code in variety of languages.

Recording and Executing a Test:

• Make sure you have installed Selenium IDE in Firefox.

• Open Firefox and application you want to test
• Launch Selenium IDE using tools-Selenium IDE
• By default, you should be in the recording mode, but confirm it by
observing the Red button.
• By default it will be in the HTML format. Otherwise, go to Options-
Format-Select HTML Format.
• Record some actions and make sure that these are coming on
Selenium IDE.
• During recording if you right click on any element it will show all the
selenium commands available.
• You can also edit existing command, by selecting it and editing on the
boxes available.
• You can also insert/delete commands by choosing appropriate option
after right clicking.
• Choose appropriate run option - i.e walk, run or test runner and review
your results.
Video presentation to record and execute a test :

http://wiki.openqa.org/download/attachments/400/Selenium+IDE.swf?

Converting the recorded script into different Languages :

• Open Firefox and application you want to test.

• Record operations on the web application which you want to test
• Insert check points
• Go to Options menu – Format – Select any language
Advantages:

• It is a Freeware
• Simple, Easy to install, Easy to work
• Selenium IDE is the only flavor of Selenium which allows you to record
user action on browser window
• Can also record user actions in most of the popular languages like
Java, C#, Perl, Ruby
• It will not record any operation that you do on your computer apart from
the events on Firefox browser window
• During recording if you right click on any element it will show all the
selenium commands available
• You can also edit existing command, by selecting it and editing on the
boxes available
 • You can also insert/delete commands by choosing appropriate option
after right clicking
• Choose appropriate run option - i.e walk, run or test runner and review
your results

Disadvantages:

• Limitation in terms of browser support (It runs only in Mozilla)

• We can’t run recorded script if it is converted to Java, C#, Ruby etc.
• Not allowed to write manual scripts like conditions and Loops for Data
Driven Testing
• There is no option to verify images.

Selenium RC:

Installing process for Selenium RC :

The Selenium Server is written in Java, and requires the Java Runtime
Environment (JRE) version 1.5.0 or higher in order to start. You may already
have it installed. Try running this from the command line:

java -version

You should see a brief message telling you what version of Java is
installed, like this:

java version "1.5.0_07"

Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_07-
b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_07-b03, mixed mode)

If you see an error message instead, you may need to install the JRE, or
you may need to add it to your PATH environment variable if it is already
installed.

Open the link mentioned below and download Selenium RC. Extract it,
you will get Selenium Server folder and Java, Ruby, Perl, Dot Net, PHP, Python
Client folders also. Make sure that whether ‘selenium-server.jar’ file exist in the
server folder or not. Open Command window and type the command to start the
server.
 Java -jar selenium-server.jar (non-interactive mode)

Java -jar selenium-server.jar -interactive (interactive mode)

Interactive mode: In this mode user ca execute commands individually.

For example, to open google.com in the firefox, the command to be typed is

cmd=getNewBrowserSession&1=*firefox&2=http://www.google.com

Non-Interactive mode: In this mode server will be ready to take and

process HTTP web requests when user running the selenium scripts.

Download ink : http://selenium-rc.openqa.org/download.html

Starting Java Client :

• Download Junit software

• Add the path of junit-4.0.jar file to CLASSPATH
• Add path of selenium-java-client-driver.jar to CALSSPATH
• Write the Selenium Script in Java using any java editor
• Compile and execute it

Note: Start the Selenium Server before executing the script.

Example Selenium Script using Java:

import com.thoughtworks.selenium.*;
import junit.framework.*;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public class PBNLoginTest extends SeleneseTestCase

{

private Selenium selenium;

public void setUp()

{
String BaseURL = "http://192.168.1.132/pbn/";
selenium = new DefaultSelenium("SELENIUM_SERVER_IP", 4444,
"*iexplore", BaseURL);
selenium.start();
}
public void tearDown()
{
selenium.stop();
}
 public static void main(String[] args)
{
PBNLoginTest e = new PBNLoginTest();
e.setUp();
e.PBNLogin();
e.tearDown();
}

public void PBNLogin()

{
int Total_Check_Points = 1;
int Passed = 0, Failed = 0;

selenium.open("/pbn/Default.aspx");
//Checking Login using valid LoginID and valid password
selenium.type("txtLogin", "Rajasekhar.Chintha");
String Login = selenium.getValue("txtLogin");
selenium.type("txtPassword", "abcd1234");
selenium.click("link=GO");
selenium.waitForPageToLoad("30000");
selenium.selectFrame("link");

boolean Login_Name = selenium.isTextPresent("User*"+Login+"*");

if (!Login_Name)
{
System.out.println("Failed : Text 'User : " + Login + "(Test
Analyst)' is not found");
Failed++;
}
else
{
System.out.println("Passed : Text 'User : " + Login + "(Test
Analyst)' is found");
Passed++;
}

selenium.click("link=Logout");

System.out.println("Total Check Points : " + Total_Check_Points + "

Passed : " + Passed + " Failed : " + Failed);

}
 }

Note: To compile and execute the script, use the following commands

Javac scriptname.java (To compile the script)

Java scriptname (To execute the script)

Features :

• We can use Java syntax to write test script

• Easy to conduct Data Driven Testing
• We can read files to get test data
• We can store Test Results into files

Disadvantages :

• There are no Results File generated by Selenium RC. We have to

store results in files or etc using Java.

Launching Browsers:

To launch browsers, use *firefox, *chrome, *iexplore, *iehta in the

DefaultSelenium command.

• *firefox and *iexplore are used to launch FireFox and Internet

Explorer for HTTP web pages respectively.
• *chrome and *iehta are used to launch FireFox and Internet Explorer
for HTTPS web pages respectively.

Some Important Server Commands:

Usage: java -jar selenium-server.jar [-interactive] [options]

• -port <nnnn>: The port number the selenium server should use
(default 4444)
• -timeout <nnnn>: An integer number of seconds before we should
give up
 • -interactive: Puts you into interactive mode.
• -multiWindow: Puts you into a mode where the test web site executes
in a separate window, and selenium supports frames
• -forcedBrowserMode <browser>: Sets the browser mode (e.g.
"*iexplore" for all sessions, no matter what is passed to
getNewBrowserSession)
• -htmlSuite <browser> <startURL> <suiteFile> <resultFile>: Run a
single HTML Selenese (Selenium Core) suite and then exit
immediately, using the specified browser on the specified URL. You
need to specify the absolute path to the HTML test suite as well as the
path to the HTML results file we'll generate

Element Locators:

Element Locators tell Selenium which HTML element a command refers to. The
format of a locator is:

locatorType=argument

A locator type can be an element id, an element name, an xpath expression,

link text, and more.

Examples:-

selenium.click(“id=idOfThing”); (an id locator)

selenium.click(“name=nameOfThing”); (a name locator)
selenium.click(“xpath=//img[@alt='The image alt text']”); (an xpath
locator)
selenium.click(“dom=document.images[56]” ); (DOM locator)
selenium.click(“link=Test Page For Selenium”); (a link locator)
selenium.click(“css=span#firstChild”); (a css locator)

Frequently used Selenium Commands:

S.No Command Description

1 assignId("Locator","String") Temporarily sets the "id" attribute
 of the specified element
Captures a PNG screenshot to the
2 captureScreenshot("File name") specified file.
Check a toggle-button
3 Check("Locator") (checkbox/radio)
Clicks on a link, button, checkbox
4 click("Locator") or radio button.
Clicks on a link, button, checkbox
5 clickAt("Locator","Coordinate String") or radio button.
Simulates the user clicking the
"close" button in the title bar of a
6 close() popup window or tab.
Double clicks on a link, button,
7 doubleClick("Locator") checkbox or radio button.
doubleClickAt("Locator","Coordinate Double clicks on a link, button,
8 String") checkbox or radio button.
Retrieves the message of a
JavaScript alert generated during
the previous action, or fail if there
9 getAlert() were no alerts.
Returns the IDs of all buttons on
10 getAllButtons() the page.
Returns the IDs of all input fields
11 getAllFields() on the page.
Returns the IDs of all links on the
12 getAllLinks() page.
Returns the IDs of all windows
13 getAllWindowIds() that the browser knows about.
Returns the names of all windows
14 getAllWindowNames() that the browser knows about.
Returns the titles of all windows
15 getAllWindowTitles() that the browser knows about.
Gets the value of an element
16 getAttribute("Attribute Locator") attribute.
17 getBodyText() Gets the entire text of the page.
Retrieves the message of a
JavaScript confirmation dialog
generated during the previous
18 getConfirmation() action.
Return all cookies of the current
19 getCookie() page under test.
20 getElementHeight("Locator") Retrieves the height of an element
Retrieves the horizontal position of
21 getElementPositionLeft("Locator") an element
Retrieves the vertical position of
22 getElementPositionTop("Locator") an element
23 getElementWidth("Locator") Retrieves the width of an element
Gets the result of evaluating the
24 getEval("JS Expression") specified JavaScript snippet.
Gets the absolute URL of the
25 getLocation() current page.
Returns the number of pixels
between "mousemove" events
during dragAndDrop commands
26 getMouseSpeed() (default=10).
Retrieves the message of a
JavaScript question prompt dialog
generated during the previous
27 getPrompt() action.
Gets option element ID for
selected option in the specified
28 getSelectedId("Select Locator") select element.
Gets all option element IDs for
selected options in the specified
29 getSelectedIds("Select Locator") select or multi-select element.
Gets option index (option number,
starting at 0) for selected option in
30 getSelectedIndex("Select Locator") the specified select element.
Gets all option indexes (option
number, starting at 0) for selected
options in the specified select or
31 getSelectedIndexes("Select Locator") multi-select element.
Gets option label (visible text) for
selected option in the specified
32 getSelectedLable("Select Locator") select element.
Gets all option labels (visible text)
for selected options in the
specified select or multi-select
33 getSelectedLables("Select Locator") element.
Gets option value (value attribute)
for selected option in the specified
34 getSelectedValue("Select Locator") select element.
Gets all option values (value
attributes) for selected options in
the specified select or multi-select
35 getSelectedValues("Select Locator") element.
Gets all option labels in the
36 getSelectOptions("Select Locator") specified select drop-down.
Get execution speed (i.e., get the
millisecond length of the delay
following each selenium
37 getSpeed() operation).
38 getTable("Table Cell Address”) Gets the text from a cell of a table.
39 getText("Locator") Gets the text of an element.
40 getTitle() Gets the title of the current page.
Gets the (whitespace-trimmed)
value of an input field (or anything
41 getValue("Locator") else with a value parameter).
Determine whether current/locator
getWhetherThisFrameMatchFrameEx identify the frame containing this
42 pression("Current Frame","Target") running code
Determine whether
getWhetherThisWindowMatchWindow currentWindow String plus target
Expression("Current identify the window containing
43 Window","Target") this running code.
Simulates the user clicking the
44 goBack() "back" button on their browser.
Briefly changes the
backgroundColor of the specified
45 highlight("Locator") element yellow.
46 isAlertPresent() Has an alert occurred?
Gets whether a toggle-button
47 isChecked("Locator") (checkbox/radio) is checked.
48 isConfirmationPresent() Has confirm() been called?
Determines whether the specified
input element is editable, ie hasn't
49 isEditable("Locator") been disabled.
Verifies that the specified element
50 isElementPresent("Locator") is somewhere on the page.
51 isPromptPresent() Has a prompt occurred?
Determines whether some option
52 isSomethingSelected("Locator") in a drop-down menu is selected.
Verifies that the specified text
pattern appears somewhere on the
53 isTextPresent("Pattern") rendered page shown to the user.
Determines if the specified
54 isVisible("Locator") element is visible.
55 open("URL") Opens an URL in the test frame.
Opens a popup window (if a
window with that ID isn't already
56 openWindow("URL","WindowID") open).
Simulates the user clicking the
57 refresh() "Refresh" button on their browser.
Unselects all of the selected
58 removeAllSelections("Locator") options in a multi-select element.
Remove a selection from the set of
removeSelection("Locator","Option selected options in a multi-select
59 Locator") element using an option locator.
 select("Select Locator","Option Select an option from a drop-down
60 Locator") using an option locator.
Selects a frame within the current
61 selectFrame("Locator") window.
Selects a popup window; once a
popup window has been selected,
62 selectWindow("WindowID") all commands go to that window.
Set execution speed (i.e., set the
millisecond length of a delay
which will follow each selenium
63 setSpeed("Value") operation).
Specifies the amount of time that
Selenium will wait for actions to
64 setTimeout("Time") complete.
Launches the browser with a new
65 start() Selenium session
Ends the test session, killing the
66 stop() browser
67 submit("Form Locator") Submit the specified form.
Sets the value of an input field, as
68 type("Locator","Value") though you typed it in.
Uncheck a toggle-button
69 unCheck("Locator") (checkbox/radio)
Runs the specified JavaScript
waitForCondition("JavaScript","Timeo snippet repeatedly until it
70 ut") evaluates to "true".
waitForFrameToLoad("Frame Waits for a new frame to load.
71 Address","Timeout")
72 waitForPageToLoad("Timeout") Waits for a new page to load.
Waits for a popup window to
73 waitForPopUp("WindowID","Timeout") appear and load up.
Gives focus to the currently
74 windowFocus() selected window
Resize currently selected window
75 windowMaximize() to take up the entire screen

Handling Keyboard and Mouse:

S.No Command Description

Press the Alt key and hold it down
until AltUp() is called or a new
1 altKeyDown() page is loaded.
2 altKeyUp() Release the Alt key.
3 controlKeyDown() Press the Control key and hold it
 down until ControlUp() is called or
a new page is loaded.
4 controlKeyUp() Release the Control key.
Simulates a user pressing a key
5 keyDown("Locator","Key Sequence") (without releasing it yet).
6 keyUp("Locator","Key Sequence") Simulates a user releasing a key.
Simulates a user pressing and
7 KeyPress("Locator","Key Sequence") releasing a key.
Press the meta key and hold it
down until MetaUp() is called or a
8 metaKeyDown() new page is loaded.
9 metaKeyUp() Release the meta key.
Simulates a user pressing the
mouse button (without releasing it
10 mouseDown("Locator") yet) on the specified element.
Simulates a user pressing the
mouseDownAt("Locator","Coordinate mouse button (without releasing it
11 String") yet) at the specified location.
Simulates a user pressing the
mouse button (without releasing it
12 mouseMove("Locator") yet) on the specified element.
Simulates a user pressing the
mouseMoveAt("Locator","Coordinate mouse button (without releasing it
13 String") yet) on the specified element.
Simulates a user moving the
mouse pointer away from the
14 mouseOut("Locator") specified element.
Simulates a user hovering a
15 mouseOver("Locator") mouse over the specified element.
Simulates the event that occurs
when the user releases the mouse
button (i.e., stops holding the
button down) on the specified
16 mouseUp("Locator") element.
Simulates the event that occurs
when the user releases the mouse
button (i.e., stops holding the
mouseUpAt("Locator","Coordinate button down) at the specified
17 String") location.
Press the shift key and hold it
down until doShiftUp() is called or
18 shiftKeyDown() a new page is loaded.
19 shiftKeyUp() Release the shift key.
S.No Object/Property Command
1 Text Box getValue(), getText(), isEditable(), isVisible(), type()
2 List Box getSelectedId(),getSelectedIndex(), ,
getSelectedLabel(),getSelectedValue(),
getSelectOptions(), select()
3 Multi Select getSelectedIds(),getSelectedIndexes(),
Element getSelectedLabels(),getSelectedValues(),isSomethin
gSelected()
4 Radio Button check(), click(), isChecked()
5 Check Box Check(), click(),isChecked(), uncheck()
6 Button click()
7 Link click(), getAllLinks()
8 Text getText(),getBodyText()
9 Tables and Cells getTable()

Consider this feature matrix :

Selenium Selenium Selenium Selenium

IDE RC Core Core HTA
Browser Support Firefox Only Many All IE Only

Requires Remote No No Yes No

Installation
Supports Yes Yes* Yes Yes
HTTPS/SSL
Supports Multiple Yes Yes* No Yes
Domains
Requires Java No Yes No No

Saves Test No** Yes No Yes

Results to Disk
Language Selenese Many Selenese Selenese
Support Only Only Only

• *= experimental support is available in Selenium RC

• ** = theoretically possible, but not currently implemented