Selenium Webdriver

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Selenium was created in 2004 by Jason Huggins, a software engineer at ThoughtWorks. Huggins was working on automating tests for a web application and found that existing tools were inadequate. He decided to write his own tool, which he called Selenium.

In 2005, Selenium was open-sourced and contributions began to pour in. In 2006, Selenium was accepted as a project at the Apache Software Foundation.

Selenium WebDriver is a library for automating web browsers. It provides a number of methods for interacting with browsers, including the ability to open and close browsers, navigate to pages, and submit forms. Selenium WebDriver also provides a number of methods for retrieving information about the current state of the browser, such as the URL of the current page and the text of the current page.

How does Selenium WebDriver work? It works by sending commands to a web browser. It can open and close browsers, navigate to web pages and click on buttons and links. Selenium uses the Java programming language.

The following code snippet demonstrates how to open a browser, navigate to a page, and submit a form.

var driver = new webdriver.Builder() .forBrowser(‘firefox’) .build();

driver.get(‘https://www.google.com’);

driver.findElement(webdriver.By.name(‘q’)).sendKeys(‘selenium’);

driver.findElement(webdriver.By.name(‘btnG’)).click();

The following code snippet demonstrates how to retrieve information about the current state of the browser.

var driver = new webdriver.Builder() .forBrowser(‘firefox’) .build(); driver.get(‘https://www.google.com’);

driver.findElement(webdriver.By.name(‘q’)).sendKeys(‘selenium’);

driver.findElement(webdriver.By.name(‘btnG’)).click();

var url = driver.getCurrentUrl();

var text = driver.getPageText();

The following code snippet demonstrates how to close a browser.

var driver = new webdriver.Builder() .forBrowser(‘firefox’) .build();

driver.get(‘https://www.google.com’); driver.findElement(webdriver.By.name(‘q’)).sendKeys(‘selenium’); driver.findElement(webdriver.By.name(‘btnG’)).click(); driver.close();

Selenium has the following features:

  1. It can be used to automate web-based applications.
  2. It supports various browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer.
  3. It can be used to automate tests across multiple browsers.
  4. It can be used to automate tests on mobile devices.
  5. It has an easy-to-use interface.
  6. It is open-source and free to use.

There are many ways to use Selenium WebDriver. Some common use cases are:

  • Testing web applications. You can use Selenium WebDriver to automate the testing of web applications.
  • Automating browser tasks. You can use Selenium WebDriver to automate common tasks that you would do in a browser, such as filling out a form or clicking a button.
  • Creating regression tests. You can use Selenium WebDriver to create regression tests, which are tests that ensure that changes to your web application do not break existing functionality.
  • Testing web services. You can use Selenium WebDriver to test web services.
  • Creating screenshots and videos. You can use Selenium WebDriver to create screenshots and videos of your web application.

Today, Selenium is one of the most popular tools for automating web application tests. It is used by organizations of all sizes, including Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. Selenium WebDriver has a large user base and is well-supported by the Selenium community.

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