What is Selenium?
Selenium is an open-source functional testing tool used for testing web applications on multiple browsers and multiple operating platforms. It can perform functional & Regression Testing. Testing done by the selenium tool is usually referred to as Selenium Testing.
Most of the big-name browser vendors support Selenium. Also, many of them have taken or are taking steps to make Selenium a native component of their product. Moreover, it’s the primary technology used in a variety of other browser automation tools, APIs, and frameworks.
Selenium Software is just a single tool and a suite of software, each providing different testing needs of an organization.
- Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
- Selenium Remote Control (RC)
- WebDriver
- Selenium Grid
Selenium Integrated Development Environment
Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is the framework in the Selenium suite. IDE is a Firefox plugin that you can install. However, because of its simplicity, the Selenium IDE should only be used as a prototyping tool.
Pros:
- Simple to understand and install
- Need knowledge of HTML and DOM.
- Selenium RC and WebDriver can also use test cases of Selenium IDE
- Provide support for the extension
- Have the Reporting module
Cons:
- Only available on Firefox browser
- Only create the prototype of the Test.
- It cannot integrate with the conditional operation.
- Test execution is slower than WebDriver and Selenium RC
Selenium Remote Control (Selenium RC)
This is an automated web testing tool that allows users to use a programming language they prefer, including::
- PHP
- Java
- C#
- Python
- Perl
- Ruby
Pros:
- Support many browsers and platforms
- Perform looping and conditional operations
- Have complete API
- Faster than IDE
- Support Data-driven Testing (DDT)
Cons:
- RequireProgramming skill
- The installation process is more complicated than IDE
- Slower execution than WebDriver
- API contains the redundant and confusing command
Selenium WebDriver
Selenium WebDriver is an API that allows us to write automated tests for web applications. The automated tests that use Selenium WebDriver are run by using a web browser. Web Driver supports Python, C#, Java, JavaScript,…
Pros
- Faster execution compared to IDE and RC
- Easy to install
- Directly communicate with the browser
Cons
- Cannot readily support new browser
- No scriptless / codeless automation
- Not designed for testing desktop application
- No default reporting facility for test results
- Not support barcode/code captcha
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