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Selenium Overview

Introduction​

Selenium is an open-source framework for automating web applications. It provides tools and libraries to support various testing needs, including functional testing and web scraping.

Key Components​

  1. Selenium WebDriver: A tool for interacting with web elements in a browser.
  2. Selenium IDE: A browser extension for recording and replaying user actions.
  3. Selenium Grid: Enables parallel test execution across multiple machines and browsers.

Supported Browsers​

  • Google Chrome
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Safari

Programming Language Support​

  • Java
  • Python
  • C#
  • JavaScript
  • Ruby

Example: Selenium WebDriver in Java​

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

public class SeleniumTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "path/to/chromedriver");
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("https://www.example.com");
        System.out.println("Title: " + driver.getTitle());
        driver.quit();
    }
}

Advantages of Selenium​

  • Cross-browser compatibility
  • Supports multiple programming languages
  • Integration with CI/CD tools
  • Active community and frequent updates

Limitations​

  • Cannot handle CAPTCHA or barcode-based authentication
  • Requires browser drivers
  • Steep learning curve for beginners

Conclusion​

Selenium is a powerful tool for web automation, widely used in test automation frameworks. Its flexibility and support for various programming languages make it a preferred choice for developers and testers.