Selenium Interduction

Selenium is an open source

Selenium is an open source, functional automation tool for web application

Advantage  of automation:

Advantages 
*security
*ease of use
*energy saving 

*Operation of highly repetitive tasks 

*Faster decision making
*Increased safety
*Better quality control
*Greater precision
*Increased Productivity
*Improved design through simulation (CAD/CAM) 

disadvantages
*price

what is difference between selenium and qtp
QTP
QTP can be used for testing client server applications
QTP is limited to Internet Explorer on Windows.
QTP uses scripting language implemented on top of VB Script


Selenium
Only web applications can be tested using Selenium testing suite
Selenium supports following web browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera or Konqueror on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
Selenium test suite has the flexibility to use many languages like Java, .Net, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby.
Selenium 2.0

selenium components

Selenium IDE

Selenium RC

Selenium Grid

Selenium IDE:

The Selenium-IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is the tool you use to develop your Selenium test cases. It’s an easy-to-use Firefox plug-in and is generally the most efficient way to develop test cases. It also contains a context menu that allows you to first select a UI element from the browser’s currently displayed page and then select from a list of Selenium commands with parameters pre-defined according to the context of the selected UI element. This is not only a time-saver, but also an excellent way of learning Selenium script syntax.

This chapter is all about the Selenium IDE and how to use it effectively.

Installing the IDE

Using Firefox, first, download the IDE from the SeleniumHQ downloads page

Firefox will protect you from installing addons from unfamiliar locations, so you will need to click ‘Allow’ to proceed with the installation, as shown in the following screenshot.

http://seleniumhq.org/docs/02_selenium_ide.html

What is Selenium?

Selenium automates browsers. That's it. What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that. Boring web-based administration tasks can (and should!) also be automated as well.

Selenium has the support of some of the largest browser vendors who have taken (or are taking) steps to make Selenium a native part of their browser. It is also the core technology in countless other browser automation tools, APIs and frameworks.

Which part of Selenium is appropriate for me?

If you want to create quick bug reproduction scripts create scripts to aid in automation-aided exploratory testing Then you want to use Selenium IDE; a Firefox add-on that will do simple record-and-playback of interactions with the browser

If you want to create robust, browser-based regression automation scale and distribute scripts across many environments Then you want to use Selenium WebDriver; a collection of language specific bindings to drive a browser -- the way it is meant to be driven. Selenium WebDriver is the successor of Selenium Remote Control which has been officially deprecated. The Selenium Server (used by both WebDriver and Remote Control) now also includes built-in grid capabilities.

Selenium RC:

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 automatically launches and kills browsers, and acts as a HTTP proxy for web requests from them.
2. Client libraries for your favorite computer language.

Here is a simplified architectural representation....

Selenium Remote Control is great for testing complex AJAX-based web user interfaces under a Continuous Integration system. It is also an ideal solution for users of Selenium IDE who want to write tests in a more expressive programming language than the Selenese HTML table format.

How to download and install Selenium IDE?

http://seleniumhq.org/download/

Downloads

Below is where you can find the latest releases of all the Selenium components. You can also find a list previous releases, latest releases, source code, and additional information for Maven users (Maven is a popular Java build tool).

Selenium IDE

Selenium IDE is a Firefox plugin that does record-and-playback of interactions with the browser. Use this to either create simple scripts, assist in exploratory testing. It can also export Remote Control or WebDriver scripts, though they tend to be somewhat brittle and should be overhauled into some sort of Page Object-y structure for any kind of resiliency.

Download version 1.8.1 released on 01/June/2012 or view the Release Notes

Install:

            how to download and install selenium IDE step by step process

Here i am going to describe how to download and install selenium IDE open source testing tool step by step process.

Seleniu IDE download and install step by step process 

·                     Open Mozilla Firefox Browser.

·                     Type URL : http://seleniumhq.org/download/ in your browser.Selenium IDE download page will get open then click on latest Download version link (Here is 1.3.0) as shown in image bellow. click on that link.

·                      

·                      

·                      When you click on latest Selenium IDE Download version link, Firefox will show one popup saying do you want to allowMozilla Firefox to install selenium IDE or not. Click on Allow button as shown in image bellow.

·                    

·                     When you click on allow button, Firefox will automatically install Selenium IDE. after completion of Selenium IDE installation, it will show one pop up saying Selenium IDE installation completed. you need to restart your browser to use selenium IDE. Click on Restart Now button as show in image bellow.

·                      

·                     When you click on Restart Now button, Firefox will restart automatically. now click on Tools menu list displayed in top. you can see there Selenium IDE as shown in image bellow.

·                       

·                     Click on Selenium IDE as shown in image above. It will launch Selenium IDE window as shown in image bellow. 

·                      

So these are the steps to download and install Selenium IDE. Now you can use it to record and play your web application test. Comment here if you face any problem in download and install selenium IDE. I will guide you personally. See my next post to know how to use selenium IDE

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Posted by Prakash Patolia at 07:06

      

how to use selenium ide toolbar elements

If you are new for using selenium IDE, then first of all you have to understand how to operate Selenium IDE.

Here i have described how to use selenium IDE different elements and its functions.

Speed Controller :

In Selenium IDE, Speed controller is used to control the speed of how fast your test case runs. Set it on fast if you want to run fast test case and set it to slow if you want to run your test case slow.

Run All Button :

In Selenium IDE, Run All button is used to run the entire test suite. Suppose you have created 5 test cases for you application and stored all them in one test suite and if you like to run all they 5 then open your test suite and press this button. it will run all the 5 test cases one by one. 

Run Button : 

 

 In Selenium IDE, Run All button is used to run the selected any one test case.

Pause/Resume Button :

 

  In Selenium IDE, pause button is used to pause the running test case and resume button is used to resume or restart paused test case.

Step Button :

 In Selenium IDE, Step button is used to run test commands manually one by one. Suppose you have paused your test case and now you like to run remaining commands one by one then you can use step button. Basically step button is used debug the script in selenium IDE.

Click to Record/ Stop Recording Button :

In Selenium IDE, Record button is used to record the users browser navigation and creating test script for reusing it and stop record button is used to stop recording.

Command Table :

Command table shows the recorded commands. you can also modify commands or insert any command in between. there are three elements in each command.

1.                  Command : Command column describes name of command.

2.                   Target : Target column describes Target element id or name or Xpath

3.                  Value : Value column describes Value of an element 

Selenium IDE - free web application testing tool

Selenium IDE is software testing tool for web applications. It provides record and playback facility to regression test any web application. To useselenium IDE, It is not compulsory to have any programming language knowledge. Selenium IDE is open source web application testing tool. Selenium IDE provides facility to export recorded script in many languages like HTML, Ruby, RSpec, Python, C#, JUnit and TestNG. You can use these exported script in Selenium RC. To using selenium IDE you have to download it from link given here. Click here to Free download Selenium IDE.You can find latest released version for downloading.But one thing i would like to clarify here is that selenium IDE supports only Mozilla Firefox web browser. So don't try to download it in any other web browser. See my next post to learn how to download and install Selenium IDE in step by step process.

http://software-testing-tutorials-automation.blogspot.in/2011/10/selenium-ide-free-web-application.html

Selenium IDE Download and install

How to download and install:

1.      Open the site seleniumhq.org

2.      Click on download

3.      Click on the version 1.8.1

4.      Click on allow

5.      Click on install now

6.      Restart Firefox

7.      The selenium tools will available under tools menu

1.     Go to tools and click on selenium ide

2.     By default it will be in recording mode

3.     Not necessary to click on any button to record

4.     Minimise ide and open ur site

5.     Do what u want

6.     Maximize ide and click on stop record button

To view the recorded script in another language

-          Go to options menu

-          Click on format link

-          Select the desired language

By default this option won’t available

-          To enable that

-          Go to options

-          Click on options

-          Check the check box of enable experimental feature

-          Click ok

Selenium 8

The only topic with more information online than interview tips is ways to deal with sexuality issues. 
Sites and books and self-help courses on how to crack a job interview come cheaper than a dime a dozen, yet when their advice doesn’t work, the blame is conveniently laid on the larger number of applicants than available jobs.
They say that the best jobs aren’t advertised, and I quite believe them. After all, how often have you seen openings for CEOs and MDs? LinkedIn lists some vacancies that aren’t advertised openly, and other important posts are filled through a referral system. Ramit Sethi, a 29-year-old US-born Indian who runs a course called Dream Job Boot Camp, says that it’s all about the contacts, but how does a guy without networking skills make his way up in corporate India?
I encourage you to check out Ramit at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com, but just as a teaser, here are a few tips from the pro himself that are guaranteed to get you noticed and taken seriously at an interview:

1. Find the 3 must-says that you want your interviewer to know about you, that you don’t want to get out of the room without saying

It’s happened to me so often, has it happened to you too? You walk out of the interview knowing that you haven’t made the impression you’d have wanted to, knowing that the conversation didn’t go the way you’d planned. What you should do is preplan what you absolutely have to tell the interviewer before you get out. Then, if possible, weave this into your resume, into the headline or objective.
Yes, that means tailoring your CV to fit each organization and post that you apply to. Yes, it means that you must do considerable research about the organization and the solutions it’s looking for. And yes, this extra work will be worth your while.

2. Handpick what you want to tell the interviewer when he asks you to tell him about yourself

I used to begin answering these types of questions by giving the interviewer a rundown of my educational qualifications, until one manager asked to me to stop giving him facts and start telling him about the ‘real me’. I guess it comes down to whether or not you think you are a worthwhile person if you couldn’t talk about your degrees and your job history. Besides, why would I want to waste the interviewer’s time by regaling him with information that I had already put down in my resume?

This is the time to tell the interviewer, even boast a bit, about why you’re a well-rounded, self-actualized person in your own right. What personal accomplishments are you most proud of? What are your goals (but please keep these in line with the company’s vision.) In my case, I began to speak about my black-belt status in Tae Kwon Do, which is a form of kick-boxing, and then I really watched managers’ eyes light up. Keep this part of the interview short and sweet, though; talk about two or three of your achievements in brief instead of describing incidents in your life.

3. Tell a riveting story when asked for your weak point. But don’t try to make it sound positive

The one rule that all interview websites recommend is naming your supposed ‘weak points’ but making them sound positive. Take a moment to laugh at the idea that someone’s only claim to shame is that they’re a workaholic, or that they are too detail-oriented, or that they take copious notes at meetings.

While I agree that interviewers should stay away from this question, because, let’s accept it, how honest can a person be when he wants a job that you might never hand him if he were to tell you that he’s a procrastinator, I use the time I saved in point 2 to tell a detailed story when asked this question. It works, and I’m not sure whether the additional detail convinces the interviewer that I’m telling the truth, or whether he just bores of me and proceeds to the next question.

4. Show how you are better than most people/other interviewees

I know, easier said that done. But this is where your research about the needs of this company comes in. if you know that the company is currently facing so-and-so problem, which you might be expected to help tackle if you are taken aboard, why not give your interviewer some ideas about how you’d go about handling the situation? This is guaranteed to blow him away even if the other applicants for the post are better qualified and more experienced than you are.
The most important way to really crack an interview is not on this list, but it’s also the most important way to succeed at life: be confident. If you haven’t perfected this skill, check out where the closest personality development school in your locality is located.
Often, the people who get the best jobs act like they believe that they can do the impossible and so should you.
Writing the first test :
To quickly write some tests that you can use as a foundation for your automated tests, you can use Selenium IDE to get started. Selenium IDE is a plug-in for Firefox that lets you record tests. You can then export the recorded tests so that you can add fanciness to them—conditions, iterations, and so on.
To get started with Selenium IDE, download it from the link in Resources. Install it as a Firefox plug-in by clicking the link. Firefox should prompt you to install the plug-in, and then you must restart the browser for the changes to take effect.
After you have the plug-in installed, start your server so you can begin using your web application. Open Selenium IDE by clicking Tools > Selenium IDE in Firefox. When Selenium IDE is open, click Record. After Selenium IDE is recording, it will remember all of the actions that you take in the browser. To log in to your sample application, perform the following steps:

1. With Selenium IDE recording, navigate to the index.jsp web page.
2. Type your user name.
3. Type the valid password in the Password box.
4. Click Login.

Upon successful login, your web application should go to the enterInfo.jsp page. At this point, your test has the actions in it, but so far, there is nothing to verify that your actions worked. Selenium needs to know what to look for in order to know that your enterInfo.jsp page is being rendered as expected.
You can add verify actions to make sure your application is displaying the correct content. While Selenium is still recording, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click one of the HTML elements, such as the Your name label, and then click verifyTextPresent Your name:.
2. Repeat step 1 with the Your birth date label.
3. Click Record to stop recording.

If you want to see your test in action, click Run All (see Figure 1). The test will execute and pass.

Figure 1. Clicking Run All

To see how Selenium IDE is really testing your application, go to your IDE and change the value of the valid user name. Re-deploy your application, and then click Run All again. This time, your tests will fail, because the web application will not display the enterInfo.jsp page with the correct labels.
Exporting the test to JUnit
Now that you have recorded your first test, you can export it for use in JUnit. With your test highlighted in Selenium IDE, click File > Export Test Case As > Java (JUnit) - Selenium RC. Type the name for your test (for example, IndexTests.java), and save it where you can remember it so that you can import it into Eclipse.
Perform the following steps:

1. Create a new Java project that includes the Java unit tests built using JUnit.
2. Download the Selenium RC binaries (see Resources for a link). Save the archive file to a location where you can import the files inside it into your new Java project in Eclipse.
3. Create a new folder in your Java project called lib.
4. Click File > Import, and then click File System from the list. Click Next.
5. Browse to the location in which you extracted the Selenium RC files, and choose the selenium-java-client-driver-1.0.1 directory.
6. Select the selenium-java-client-driver.jar from the list, and click OK to import the Selenium Java client driver JAR file into your project's lib directory.
7. Import the Java file that you exported from Selenium IDE into the src directory of your new Java project.

The first thing you'll notice is that you will get many compile errors. First, your new Java file is probably not in the correct package, because it's directly in the src folder. Second, the JUnit or Selenium classes cannot be found. Fortunately, these errors are easy to resolve using Eclipse.
Resolving errors in Eclipse
Resolve the package errors by clicking the error, and then pressing Ctrl-1 to open the hints. Select Move MyTest.java to package 'com.example.mywebapp.tests'. Eclipse creates the package structure for you and moves the file.
Adding the JUnit test
Now, add the Selenium and JUnit test by clicking the Java project in Package Explorer and clicking Build Path > Configure Build Path. On the Libraries tab, click Add JARs, and select the selenium-java-client-driver.jar file. Click OK.
When the Java source file is compiling, it should look similar to Listing 3.

Listing 3. The JUnit test based on the exported code from Selenium IDE

package com.example.mywebapp.tests;   import com.thoughtworks.selenium.*; import java.util.regex.Pattern;   import org.junit.BeforeClass; import org.junit.Test;   public class MyTest extends SeleneseTestCase {         @BeforeClass     public void setUp() throws Exception {         setUp("http://localhost:8080/tested-webapp/index.jsp", "*chrome");     }         @Test     public void testMy() throws Exception {         selenium.open("/tested-webapp/index.jsp");         selenium.type("username", "user");         selenium.type("password", "secret");         selenium.click("//input[@value='Login']");         selenium.waitForPageToLoad("30000");         verifyTrue(selenium.isTextPresent("Your name:"));         verifyTrue(selenium.isTextPresent("Your birth date (in MM/DD/YYYY format):"));     } }

If you are unable to download and install Selenium IDE because you have restrictions that prevent you from using Firefox, you can still write tests that you can run using Selenium RC. Just use the examples shown here as a start and the documentation for Selenium provided in Resources.

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Viewing the test results
Now that you have the first example test written, you can see it in action by starting the Selenium server and running the test as a standard JUnit unit test. Start the Selenium server by typing the following command:

java -jar selenium-server.jar

Running the server from the IDE

For a fully integrated experience, you can set up an external tool configuration in Eclipse to start the Selenium server directly from Eclipse. Click Run > External Tools > External Tool Configurations to set up the configuration. Simply enter the command for starting the server into a new tool configuration.
After you have the Selenium server started, you can run the unit test by right-clicking the IndexTest.java file, and then clicking Run As > JUnit Test. It may take a while as the Selenium server starts up an instance of your browser and runs the tests. When the test is finished, you will see the same output in Eclipse as with normal unit tests.

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Digging deeper
Now that you've used Selenium IDE to create a simple test and exported it as a Java file, create a more complicated test to verify the functions of the enterInfo.jsp page. The example test is shown in Listing 4.

Listing 4. The JUnit test for testing enterInfo.jsp

package com.example.mywebapp.tests;   import org.junit.BeforeClass; import org.junit.Test;   import com.thoughtworks.selenium.SeleneseTestCase;   public class EnterInfoTests extends SeleneseTestCase {         @BeforeClass     public void setUp() throws Exception {         setUp("http://localhost:8080/tested-webapp/index.jsp", "*firefox");     }         @Test     public void testBadDate() {         doLogin();         selenium.type("name", "User");         selenium.type("birthdate", "@#$#@");         selenium.click("//input[@value='Submit']");         selenium.waitForPageToLoad("30000");         verifyTrue(selenium.isTextPresent("Please enter a valid date"));     }         @Test     public void testValidDate() {         doLogin();         selenium.type("name", "User");         selenium.type("birthdate", "12/2/1999");         selenium.click("//input[@value='Submit']");         selenium.waitForPageToLoad("30000");         verifyFalse(selenium.isTextPresent("Please enter a valid date"));     }         private void doLogin()     {         selenium.open("/tested-webapp/index.jsp");         selenium.type("username", "user");         selenium.type("password", "secret");         selenium.click("//input[@value='Login']");         selenium.waitForPageToLoad("30000");     } }

The example test used the LoginTest class shown in Listing 3 as a starting point. The doLogin() function has the code to log you in to the application, which is used at the start of the tests to get you to the proper point.
The testBadDate() method is used to enter bad values into the birthdate field on the form, and then submit it. It verifies that the appropriate error message is displayed if the date is incorrect. The testValidDate() method tests the valid date on the form and makes sure the message that provides the user's age is correct.
Using the power of Java technology available to you in JUnit, you can loop through examples, add conditions to your tests, and expect exceptions. See the links in Resources to learn more about JUnit and unit testing.

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Automating the tests
Now that you have the tests running in the Eclipse IDE, with the help of an Apache Ant script and a few targets, you can automate the tests completely. After you have this Ant script, you can use tools such as Hudson or CruiseControl (see Resources) to run these tests continuously.
To automate the test, you can use an Ant script that employs the JUnit target to execute the Selenium RC tests. The script is shown in Listing 5.

Listing 5. An Ant script for running the Selenium tests

<project name="tested-webapp-tests" default="run-tests" basedir=".">       <property name="selenium.server.jar" value="path/to/selenium-server.jar" />     <property name="src" value="${basedir}/src" />     <property name="build" value="${basedir}/bin" />     <property name="lib" value="${basedir}/lib" />       <path id="classpath">         <fileset dir="${lib}" includes="**/*.jar" />     </path>       <target name="start-selenium-server">         <java jar="${selenium.server.jar}" fork="true" spawn="true">             <arg line="-timeout 30" />         </java>     </target>       <target name="compile-tests">         <javac srcdir="${src}" destdir="${build}" fork="true" />     </target>       <target name="run-tests" depends="compile-tests">         <junit printsummary="yes">             <classpath>                 <path refid="classpath" />             </classpath>               <batchtest fork="yes">                 <fileset dir="${src}">                     <include name="**/*Tests.java" />                 </fileset>             </batchtest>         </junit>         <echo message="Finished running tests." />     </target>       <target name="stop-selenium-server">         <get taskname="selenium-shutdown"             src="http://localhost:4444/selenium-server/driver/?cmd=shutDown"             dest="result.txt"             ignoreerrors="true" />     </target>       <target name="run-all">         <parallel>             <antcall target="start-selenium-server">             </antcall>             <sequential>                 <echo taskname="waitfor" message="Wait for proxy server launch" />                 <waitfor maxwait="1" maxwaitunit="minute" checkevery="100">                     <http url="http://localhost:4444/selenium-server/                         driver/?cmd=testComplete" />                 </waitfor>                 <antcall target="run-tests">                 </antcall>                 <antcall target="stop-selenium-server">                 </antcall>             </sequential>         </parallel>     </target>   </project>

The Ant script has three targets. The first target, start-selenium-server, starts the Selenium server in forked and spawned mode so that it runs in the background. The run-tests target actually executes the JUnit tests, and the stop-selenium-server target stops the server by calling a URL that sends the server a shutdown command.
Using an Ant script like this one, you can run the Selenium tests in an automated fashion by scheduling them or using the Ant script in a continuous integration tool. See Resources for links to more information about continuous integration builds.

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Running the tests in other browsers
As written so far in this example, the tests are executed in Firefox. However, there may be times when it is necessary to test the web application in other browsers to make sure functions work across browsers.
You may have noticed that when the Selenium tests where set up in the setUp() method of the JUnit test, *chrome was passed as the second parameter to the parent's setUp() method. This parameter starts an instance of the Firefox browser.
To run the test for a different browser, simply supply the name of the browser as the second argument. For example, *iexplore uses Internet Explorer as the browser instead of Firefox. Use *opera for the Opera browser or *safari for Apple Safari.
Note that the browser must be supported on the operating system on which you are running the tests. You will get exceptions and, therefore, failed tests if you attempt to execute tests for a browser that doesn't exist on your operating system, such as *safari or *iexplore on a system running Linux®.

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Conclusion
This article introduced Selenium and two of its components: Selenium IDE and Selenium RC. Selenium IDE is an easy way to start writing tests for your web applications. Selenium RC is a component that you can use to add features to and automate your tests.
Automated web application testing from the browser perspective can be a great way to augment existing unit tests that cover other parts of your application. With automated testing, developers can get faster feedback on problems, and testing regressions becomes faster.

Resources
Learn

• SeleniumHQ: Visit the SeleniumHQ site.
• Selenium documentation: Read more about Selenium RC and Selenium IDE and find answers to your questions.
• JUnit: Learn more about JUnit and unit testing in general.
• "Automation for the people: Continuous Integration anti-patterns" (developerWorks, December 2007): Learn more about anti-patterns for continuous integration.
• Web development zone: The developerWorks Web development zone specializes in articles covering various web-based solutions.
• IBM technical events and webcasts: Stay current with developerWorks' technical events and webcasts.
• developerWorks on-demand demos: Watch demos ranging from product installation and setup for beginners to advanced functionality for experienced developers.

Get products and technologies

• Hudson: Download and install the Hudson continuous integration server.
• CruiseControl: Download the CruiseControl continuous integration server.
• Download Selenium: Download Selenium RC and Selenium IDE.
• Download IBM product evaluation versions or explore the online trials in the IBM SOA Sandbox and get your hands on application development tools and middleware products from DB2®, Lotus®, Rational®, Tivoli®, and WebSphere.

Discuss

• Create your My developerWorks profile today and set up a watchlist on testing. Get connected and stay connected with My developerWorks.
• Find other developerWorks members interested in web development.
• Web developers, share your experience and knowledge in the Web development group.
• Share what you know: Join one of our developerWorks groups focused on web topics.
• Roland Barcia talks about Web 2.0 and middleware in his blog.
• Follow developerWorks' members' shared bookmarks on web topics.
• Get answers quickly: Visit the Web 2.0 Apps forum.

Selenium Core FAQ

This is an initial list of FAQs that have been collected for Selenium Core. We encourage people to add to this list and continue feedback on the items listed below.

• What is Selenium for?
• Why can't I get Selenium Core tests to work with Google?
• How can I run my test against a foreign or remote server and get around cross-site scripting security?
• Why do I get a "Permission Denied" error when accessing my website via HTTPS?
• I can't seem to use Selenium Core to upload a file; when I try to type in the file upload text field, nothing happens!
• How do I use Selenium to login to sites that require HTTP basic authentication (where the browser makes a modal dialog asking for credentials)?
• I don't have access to the server where my AUT (application under test) is deployed, does that matter? IE., is physical deployment of app server and testrunner an issue?
• Selenium isn't working, where are the diagnostics for problem solving?
• Selenium scripts are rather verbose - Is it possible to record these scripts to speed things up?
• Is it possible to run a Selenium test without using a real browser?
• Is it possible to use Selenium for multi-user load testing?
• How can I use a javascript{...} expression as a locator in a Selenium command?
• How to do it with Selenium
• How do I work with a popup window?
• How do I download a file?
• What you can't do with Selenium
• I can't interact with a popup dialog. My test stops in its tracks!

What is Selenium for?

It is used for functional or system testing web applications. These tests are also sometimes called acceptance, customer, or integration tests. Selenium is not meant for unit testing.

Why can't I get Selenium Core tests to work with Google?

I was trying to write a simple script that does a google search; I get a "Permission Denied" error. Here is my test:

Test Type
open	http://www.google.com/
type	q	testing tools
click	Submit Button

The quick answer is that because of cross-site scripting security built into JavaScript engines in all browsers, you can't edit the content of a web page from another domain. The foreign page will probably load correctly and be visible in the test runner window, but Selenium won't be able to query or edit its contents. ..
In other words, you can't run selenium on "foo.com" and run a test that edits values and clicks buttons against "bar.com". So, in its current form, you can't "script" google.com because your script isn't currently hosted on google.com. When Selenium and the application you are testing is hosted on the same domain, however, you do not run into the cross-site scripting security feature/limitation.
You can read more about cross-site scripting here: Dev Articles

How can I run my test against a foreign or remote server and get around cross-site scripting security?

There are a few ways around cross-site scripting:

1. If possible, deploy Selenium Core, and your tests, on the same web site as the application you're testing.
2. You may need to use Selenium IDE or Selenium Remote Control to run your tests. See Which Selenium Tool Should I Use?
   Selenium IDE is a Firefox extension, (it runs as a "chrome" url) and is therefore not subject to browser security restrictions. Selenium Remote Control provides a client-configured proxy to trick the browser into the thinking the application and the testing tool are coming from the same domain.
3. IE Only: Run Selenium as an "HTA" application, or "HTML Application" in Internet Explorer. HTA applications run in the security context of any trusted application on the client, so there is no cross-site scripting limitation. (You can find out more here: MSDN
4. Safari Only: Just run Selenium Core directly off of your hard disk as a "file://" URL. HTML files run off the file system aren't restricted by the same-origin policy in Safari 3.x on Mac/Windows.

Why do I get a "Permission Denied" error when accessing my website via HTTPS?

This is actually the same problem as scripting a foreign web-site, described above. "http://mydomain.com" is not the "same origin" as "https://mydomain.com"; using Selenium Core, you can test HTTP or HTTPS, but not both. If you need to test both during a single test, you need to use one of the strategies listed above to test a foreign website.

I can't seem to use Selenium Core to upload a file; when I try to type in the file upload text field, nothing happens!

Unfortunately, this is yet another JavaScript security restriction; JS is not allowed to modify the value of <input type="file"> form fields. You can work around this by running your tests under Selenium IDE or under Selenium RC running in the experimental "*chrome" mode for Firefox, but at present there is no way to do this on any other browser. This is filed as bug SEL-63, but there may be no way to fix it in Selenium Core.

How do I use Selenium to login to sites that require HTTP basic authentication (where the browser makes a modal dialog asking for credentials)?

Use a username and password in the URL, as described in RFC 1738:

Test Type
open	http://myusername:myuserpassword@myexample.com/blah/blah/blah

Note that on Internet Explorer this won't work, since Microsoft has disabled usernames/passwords in URLs in IE. However, you can add that functionality back in by modifying your registry, as described in the linked KB article. Set an "iexplore.exe" DWORD to 0 in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_HTTP_USERNAME_PASSWORD_DISABLE.
If you don't want to modify the registry yourself, you can always just use Selenium Remote Control, which automatically sets that that registry key for you as of version 0.9.2.

I don't have access to the server where my AUT (application under test) is deployed, does that matter? IE., is physical deployment of app server and testrunner an issue?

Physical deployment doesn't strictly matter, but if you can't modify your AUT, you do have to somehow either force the browser to disable the same-origin policy or trick the browser into thinking that your tests and your AUT have the same origin.

Selenium isn't working, where are the diagnostics for problem solving?

Look for JavaScript errors. (In IE, check for a warning in your browser status bar; in other browsers you'll want to check the JavaScript console for errors.) Additionally, try opening the logging window before you run your tests; that may reveal problems. You may also want to try using a JavaScript debugger. In Internet Explorer you can configure the MS Script Debugger; in Mozilla you can configure Firebug.

Selenium scripts are rather verbose - Is it possible to record these scripts to speed things up?

Yes, use Selenium IDE This is a firefox plugin, so it requires firefox, but the results can be replayed using any browser you choose once the script has been created.

Is it possible to run a Selenium test without using a real browser?

No. Selenium is written in JavaScript; it's designed to run in a real browser to test compatibility with a real browser. There are a variety of other tools out there designed to run tests that simulate a browser; we recommend HtmlUnit or Canoo WebTest.

Is it possible to use Selenium for multi-user load testing?

Yes, but it requires a LOT of hardware. We recommend you check out BrowserMob, which does load testing with real browsers and is powered by Selenium.

How can I use a javascript{...} expression as a locator in a Selenium command?

The core documentation states that "All Selenium command parameters can be constructed using both simple variable substitution as well as full javascript". Since locators are important command parameters you might wonder how you can use Javascript to specify a locator e.g. in a 'click' command.
The answer is: Used as a locator, the 'javascript{..}' idiom has to evaluate to a string that represents a valid Selenium locator, e.g. an identifier, css or xpath locator. So if you have a working locator like id=myButton then javascript{["id=","my","Button"].join('')} should work too.
Gotchas:

• If your Javascript block contains multiple statements, the value of the last statement determines the value of the block.
• You can use the 'getEval' command, to debug your Javascript expressions.

How to do it with Selenium

How do I work with a popup window?

In Selenium, you work with one window at a time. To work with a different window, for example one that has popped up as a result of clicking a link, you need to first select that window. In order to select it, you must somehow identify it. Various identification methods can be used (see documentation on the selectWindow command at http://selenium-core.openqa.org/reference.html); the easiest may be for you to capture the id by recording the popup creation with the Selenium IDE. Something like the following will be recorded:

selectWindow | winId

You probably want to wait for the popup to load before you start interacting with it. Also, when you're done with it, you'll probably want to close it, and reselect the original window. A simple idiom to follow would then be:

waitForPopUp | winId | 30000

selectWindow | winId

...

close

selectWindow

How do I download a file?

Currently it is only possible to do this by configuring Firefox with a profile template, telling it to save a file to a specified location without prompting the user with a file chooser dialog. See here: http://clearspace.openqa.org/message/31350 . There do not appear to be workarounds for other browsers yet.