Selenium Features

Selenium was introduced by Jason Huggins, a software engineer at ThoughtWorks in 2004. He was working on a web application that required frequent testing, and he wanted to automate the testing process to save his time and effort. for this purpose, he created a JavaScript program “JavaScriptTestRunner”, which later evolved as Selenium Core. Later in 2006, Simon Stewart, a software engineer, joined the project and rewrote Selenium to make it more flexible, In 2008, Selenium was merged with a project WebDriver.

What is Selenium?

Selenium is one of the most popular open-source automated testing frameworks used to validate web applications across different browsers and platforms.

• It enables testers and developers to automate the testing process by simulating user interactions with web browsers and verifying the expected behavior of web applications.
• It supports multiple programming languages like Java, C#, Ruby, Python, etc. to create Selenium Test Scripts.
• Selenium is a suite of tools, each tool serves different testing requirements.
• Selenium can be used to test only web applications and not mobile applications.

Features of Selenium

1. Language Support

Selenium supports multiple programming languages like Java, Python, C#, Ruby, Perl, etc., for writing test scripts thus making testers write their own set of automation test scripts in their preferred language.

2. Multi-Browser Compatibility

Selenium supports multiple web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer, allowing cross-browser testing.

3. A flexible language

Once the test cases are prepared, they can be executed on any operating system like Linux, Macintosh, MAC, etc.

4. Parallel Test Execution

Selenium enables running test cases in parallel, reducing execution time and increasing its efficiency.

5. Handling of Pop-ups and Alerts

Selenium provides methods to handle pop-ups and alerts that may appear during the execution of test cases.

6. Large Community Support

Selenium has a vast and active user community, which means there are numerous resources and documentation available for learning and troubleshooting.

7. Playback and record sound

The test can be authorized without learning a test scripting language with the help of playback and record features. It is an easy process of creating test cases by using the web browser and performing several steps that need to be included in the test cases.

8. Support for Multiple Testing Frameworks

Selenium can be integrated with various testing frameworks like TestNG providing additional testing capabilities and test organization features.

9. Flexibility and Extensibility

Selenium’s architecture allows it to extend its functionality and integrate it with other tools or frameworks, making it suitable for complex testing.

10. Platform Independence

Selenium is a cross-platform testing framework, that allows tests to be executed on different operating systems like Windows, macOS, and Linux.

11. Easier to understand and implement

Selenium commands are categorized in terms of different classes which makes it easier to understand, it has very simple commands which are easy to implement.

12. Lesser resources required

Selenium requires fewer resources when compared to tools like UFT etc.

13. Open-Source and Free

Selenium is open-source software, which means it’s freely available for everyone to use, modify and contribute to its growth, and improvements and can easily be downloaded from the official Selenium website.

14. Cloud-Based testing platform

Selenium is a leading cloud-based testing platform that allows testers to record their actions and behavior and export them.

15. Performance and Speed

Selenium has a component called WebDriver that is used for the automation of web app testing. This tool is able to execute test cases quicker than the other tools. It directly communicates with the browser and hence, there is no requirement for intermediaries like the server.