Key Features to remember to make selenium test automation a success

Introduction

Software developers make use of diverse tools to execute the test cases. As the generation has advanced today, there are several automated tools available for the purpose. While working on a test automation plan, Selenium testing is one such suite used for adequate testing measures.

In this article, we will look at the best practices for Selenium automation from End-to-End. Selenium is by far one of the leading endeavors for testing a web-based application. However, to automate from End-to-End, we need more than Selenium.

A majority of the Selenium best practices discussed subsequently in the blog are agnostic of the programming language being used for Selenium test automation. So, regardless of the language you use for automation testing with Selenium, these Selenium best practices will still be of value.Before starting with the actual point. let’s have a look at what Is selenium automation testing in simple terms.

What Is Selenium Automation Testing?

Selenium is an open-source, automated, and valuable testing tool that all web application developers should be well aware of. A test performed using Selenium is usually referred to as Selenium automation testing. However, Selenium is not just a single tool but a collection of tools, each catering to different Selenium automation testing needs.One disadvantage of Selenium automation testing is that it works only for web applications, which leaves desktop and mobile apps out in the cold.

Best Practices to be considered

Best Practices are guidelines for producing superior results. When it comes to Selenium automation, it’s important to first design an automation test strategy. A test strategy includes some of the following fundamentals:

• Setting goals

• Developing standards

• Determining what to accomplish

• Preparing for a high Return On Investment (ROI)

1. Prefer Early Testing 7 Repetitive Testing

One of the selenium best practices for availing of the best perks of selenium testing is to do early testing and repetitive testing. Implement the Selenium Testing attributes right from the phase of requirement gathering.

By starting early, the developers and testers can make sure that the application is responding adequately to the requirements of the end user. The benefit of this approach is that the test results can be provided to the developers right on time before the work is completed. It will save a lot of cost and time in the later run.

2. Avoid Using Thread.sleep()

We need to avoid using Thread.sleep() because it’s not a dynamic wait statement. It pauses our test script but waits for a specific amount of time. For example, if we hard-code Thread.sleep() for 5 seconds but an element loads in 2 seconds then our test script will wait for the full 5 seconds. This practice should be avoided because it’s unreliable.

For Selenium, the best practice is to use a Wait Method such as an Explicit Wait statement. Explicit Wait is dynamic and pauses execution until time expires or an expected condition is met.

3. Give an appropriate name to Test Cases and Test Suites

When working in a team, there are cases where your team members may be required to enhance the tests that you had written. If you revisit the same test after a couple of months, you might not be able to figure out the purpose of a test, until you go through the complete implementation.

If some tests have failed during the execution stage, it should be easy to figure out which functionalities are broken by just taking a quick look at the test name. These problems can be easily fixed by giving naming test cases in a manner that they are self-explanatory so that neither you nor your teammates spend time unnecessarily scrolling through the implementation.

4. Try to implement BDD Framework

While considering selenium best practices, behavior-driven development is one of the most used development approaches for selenium testing that enables testers to prepare automation cases easily. The test cases written by the testers with the use of the BDD framework make it easy for everyone to understand without any need for coding knowledge.

5.Take Screenshots For Every Failure

At some point, our automation Test Script will face a failure. When it happens, we are not sure if it’s a bug in the AUT or a problem with our code. Capturing a screenshot on a failure is a best practice because it saves time when investigating the reason for a test failure.

6.Set the Browser Zoom Level to 100 percent

Irrespective of the web browser on which automation testing with Selenium is performed, setting the browser zoom level to 100 percent is one of the Selenium best practices that should be followed. This setting gives a native mouse feel and ensures that the native mouse events are set to the correct coordinates.

7.Setup Detailed Logging & Reporting

Setting up detailed logs and reports enhance our test. Logs generate information that occurs within the AUT. Reports help measure and keep track of the Test Results. A popular logging API is Log4j. It has log levels that can be defined in our code. In order, the log levels are:

• All – logs everything by turning all logs on

• Debug – prints helpful debugging information events

• Info – prints informational messages that highlight an application’s progress

• Warn – prints potentially harmful information concerning faulty behavior

• Error – prints error events that might allow the application to keep running

• Fatal – prints critical information that causes the application to crash

• Off – turns off all logs

8.Maximize the Browser Window

By default, Selenium does not open the browser window in the maximized mode. This can affect the screenshot (or snapshot) of the web page that is typically attached in test reports. Maximizing the browser window immediately after the test URL is loaded ensures that a screenshot of the entire web page is captured.

This is one of the Selenium best practices that should be followed irrespective of the browser on which Selenium test automation is performed.

9.Choose the Best-Suited Web Locator

One of the challenges with Selenium test automation is that automation tests have to be modified if there are changes in the implementation related to locators used in the test code. ID, Name, Link text, XPath, CSS Selector, DOM Locator, etc. are some of the frequently used web locators in Selenium WebDriver.

With so many web locators, it is necessary to choose the right one to minimize the impact on tests caused due to changes in the user interface. Link Text is usually preferred if there is a dynamic situation. ID, Class, and Name are not only the easiest to use but also less brittle than other web locators.

10.Follow a Uniform Directory Structure

A standard project can consist of Src and Test folders. The Src folder can contain sub-directories that contain Page Objects, Helper functions, and file(s) that contain web locator information used in test scenarios. The Test folder can include the actual test implementation.

We don’t have a standard rule when it comes to a directory structure for Selenium test automation. However, Selenium best practices recommend us to have a directory structure that separates the test implementation from the test automation framework. This helps in better organization of the test code.

Conclusion:

These are a few of the test automation practices for selenium automation testing that the software testers must implement with selenium testing for availing its best perks. We hope our automation testing best practices are helpful for QA professionals to ensure that no bugs in the code.