The procedure of executing QA tests with the help of automated software testing tools is called automation testing. It is the ideal solution for teams that witness repeated activities on a large scale, whether they perform functional testing, integration testing, or unit testing.
Several QA teams have witnessed that automation has added value to their QA testing to cover more testing procedures. As a result of a well-chosen tool selection, QA testers are able to focus on exploratory and regression testing while leaving any difficult, time-efficient test cases for your automation testing.
During any phase of a development cycle, test automation tools are responsible for producing repeatable, reliable test results. When you successfully implement a test automation tool, your product quality can be validated every time there is a code deployment or an infrastructure change while requiring minimal manual intervention.
Check whether your QA team will benefit from automated software testing tools before evaluating and selecting such tools. When you create an automation testing tools list, you will know what selection criteria to use.
What Is New About Selenium 4 Automation Testing?
Under the hood, WebDriver has been changed significantly with full conformance to W3C standards. As a result of this standardization, API requests can be communicated directly between browsers and test scripts, instead of requiring encoding and decoding by the JSON wire protocol in Selenium 3 and earlier versions. Now, the WebDriver can directly communicate with the browser they have selected.
As a result of standardization, cross-browser tests are becoming more robust. However, the W3C standards are compatible with the prominent browsers ChromeDriver and GeckoDriver, so there may be no effect on existing users.
Earlier versions of Selenium Grid were more restrictive in terms of scaling and more difficult to set up. Docker has been added to the new version of Selenium Grid. The developer or tester does not have to create heavy virtual machines in order to spin up containers. Furthermore, it has been designed so that Kubernetes can be used for better scalability by QAs.
The management of Selenium Grid has been made easier and more convenient by eliminating the requirement for hubs and nodes to start separately.
Must-Have Features in an Ideal Selenium 4 Automation Testing Tool
With its super-improved Grid and the Selenium community, there are several professionals looking forward to Selenium 4.
. The Selenium Grid Has Been Improved and Optimized
Selenium Grid, which uses hub-and-spoke technology to perform distributed testing, is used for distributed testing. In order to run the automation tests, both the Hub and the Nodes need to be started separately. The hub and node will be packaged in one jar file, so this will no longer be necessary. The server in this case will serve as both the hub and the node at the same time.
At the time Selenium Grid was released, you were able to test the Router, Session Map, and Distributor processes. The system includes four cycles, including a Router, Session Map, Distributor, and Node, which allows for increased scalability and traceability.
A new protocol, HTTPS, will allow Grid users to communicate with the Grid, as well as the support of IPV6 addresses. TOML (Tom’s Obvious, Minimal Language)-based configuration can be used with the improved Selenium Grid, allowing it to be configured in a human-understandable language.
The interface of Selenium 4’s Grid is improved. Selenium Grid 4 can now run on VMs thanks to Docker; it was incompatible with Windows prior to this. Users have the option of deploying the Selenium Grid to Kubernetes, which allows them to choose a deployment strategy that matches their needs. In addition to AWS and Azure, Selenium Grid 4 supports more tools, which is useful when it comes to DevOps.
. Improvements to the Selenium IDE
Selenium IDE is a very straightforward, turn-key solution that is web-ready and operates in an original state and is very familiar to engineers who are accustomed to recording and replaying automated tests. Selenium IDE did not offer enough exciting functions as a Firefox extension.
By integrating the Selenium IDE with major browsers like Chrome and Firefox, Selenium 4 can now be used on those browsers. There will soon be a Selenium IDE plugin (or web extension) available on the Microsoft Edge Store.
By implementing the if-else, while, etc. control flow mechanism, Selenium IDE can help you create better tests. With Selenium 4, you can also run side projects on Node.js, along with a sleek and easy-to-use Selenium IDE. You can use Selenium grids either on-premises or in the cloud to run cross-browser tests simultaneously.
In situations where the specified element locator cannot locate the web element, the backup element locator strategy is used. The Selenium IDE makes it easy to execute tests directly. This ensures their reliability and stability.
The Selenium IDE allows the recording and export of testing automation in any of the official language bindings, such as Java, C#, Python, .NET, and JavaScript. Testing black-box software is useful for testers with limited Selenium implementation knowledge or testers looking to enter the automation field. By using the Selenium IDE, you can easily configure the configuration files used by the SIDE runner for parallel testing (in .yml format).
One of the most remarkable developments of the Selenium IDE is its rewrite to become an Electron app so that it can be used as a stand-alone application. Test recording would be more powerful and feature-rich if it was tightly linked to the browser, as it would be possible to listen out for events occurring within the browser.
. Relational Identifiers
Selenium 3 didn’t provide an easy (or specific) way to locate WebElements within the context of nearby elements. A new feature of Selenium 4 Alpha is the introduction of relative Selenium locators, which locate WebElements based on their visual position in relation to other DOM elements.
The local locators, often referred to as friendly locators, are used to place web elements near, to the left, to the right, above, or below another element. In Selenium 4 Java and Python, the relative locator methods are supported by a named argument (in Selenium 4) and a with_tag_name argument (in Selenium 4).
. Developer Tools for Chrome
In Selenium 4 (Alpha), Chrome DevTools are natively supported via the ‘DevTools’ interface. Google Chrome is the only browser that supports Chrome DevTool. Chrome Development properties such as Fetch, Application Cache, Network, Performance, Profiler, etc. can be obtained using these tools.
A collection of web development tools called Chrome DevTools allows QA engineers and developers to diagnose and modify problem pages on the fly. With these tools, websites run faster and are more efficient.
Simulating network conditions and geolocation is possible with Chrome’s DevTools APIs.
Selenium 4 Alpha’s native support for Chrome DevTools Protocol is one of its most promising features, as it will facilitate faster website development with features such as geolocation testing and simulating various network conditions.
. The Chrome Debugging Protocol Offers Support
As part of Selenium 4, developers have access to the Chrome DevTools Protocol. Chrome development properties like Fetch, Network, Profiler, Performance, Application cache and more are now available to quality assurance teams. In addition to simulating poor network connections and running geolocation tests, QA teams can use Chrome DevTools APIs. Developers and quality analysts can quickly and easily test and fix critical bugs on specific web pages using APIs like this.
Go-To Strategy to Find The Best Selenium 4 Automation Testing Tool
Learn how to select the right automation tool for your project with this simple, yet effective approach.
1st Step: Make Sure You Thoroughly Understand Your Project’s Requirements
The quality of an application should be maintained by delivering a bug-free product for a project to succeed. A project’s quality can be improved as well as scope and depth of testing can be increased through automated testing. It is important to know the project requirements such as the type of project (web/desktop/mobile), scope, and the existing team’s proficiency in the code language before starting the project. As a general rule, there is no such thing as a good or a bad tool; the ROI of a tool is determined by the requirements, i.e. how many test cases exactly does one need to automate and at what level?
In our case, the consulting team determined that both manual and automation testing were required to test the web, mobile, and desktop applications after a thorough analysis of the project requirements. Therefore, they needed a tool that could integrate smoothly with their project planning and test management tools, while also being easy to learn and use.
2nd Step: Test Automation Tools Should Be Benchmarked Against Your Existing Ones
You evaluated and determined the best automation tool for their project based on the Selenium Test Automation Tool. You can use a compatibility package such as the LambdaTest automation testing tool to generate desired Selenium 4 compatibilities.
Understanding the Selenium Web Driver framework’s advantages and disadvantages is important when considering other tools.
Web applications and websites can be tested using Selenium, a free, open-source tool. Playback test scripts can be produced and recorded using the record-playback tool. While it offers language support for C#, Ruby, Java, JavaScript, Python, and Node.js, it does not provide proper customer support.
Selenium is often used by testing teams if they are comfortable with coding techniques and if they test web applications through the UI. With Selenium, it would be impossible to maintain both manual and automated tests by a single tester. You might also need a full-time developer to maintain Selenium.
3rd Step: Identify The Key Criteria Of A Project
Before choosing an automation tool, there are many factors to consider. Here are a few key criteria we used in our evaluation to determine which tool was best.
- Ease of developing and maintaining scripts: Script development and maintenance should be as simple as possible to reduce human and time resources devoted to the task.
- Effortlessly execute tests for non-technical users: The test suite execution should be easy for any project member to run as and when necessary. Moreover, manual testers with minor technical knowledge or none at all should be able to use it easily.
- Test automation for Web, Desktop & Mobile applications: Using 3 different tools for 3 different platforms for test automation is a complicated task. It is best to choose a tool that can support all three platforms.
- Reports should be intuitive and simple for the management team to understand. Test reports build confidence, so they need to be intuitive and simple for management to understand.
- Whenever there are multiple users and there are no particular restrictions on the browser, cross-browser testing is a must.
- A Keyword Driven Framework for Testing: Keyword-driven testing extends data-driven testing. Test frameworks need to be extended when projects become complex.
- Providing technical assistance to Automation Engineers is very important when dealing with critical project issues. Technical support and assistance tools would be very helpful.
- Test scenarios cannot be recorded for languages such as C#, Java, Python, and others. Sometimes, code must be written by the tester. It would be helpful to have a tool that supports the language required for writing customized scripts.
- Integrate DevOps functionality with builds: Deployment and build automation should be integrated with Continuous Integration tools.
- Calculate the price difference between the other available automation tools based on the above qualities and project cost estimates.
Wrapping Up
There have been quite a few new test automation techniques and tools introduced in the automation testing industry. Selenium test automation tools, on the other hand, have the advantage of being able to cater to multiple testing needs in one tool.
Users of the new Selenium 4.0 application will benefit from a better user experience and be able to complete all tasks that were left unfulfilled in previous versions. This automation tool is more compatible and faster than other tools on the market.
