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  • TOC {:toc}

Similarities between Selenium IDE and WebDriver

Selenium - both Selenium IDE and WebDriver - automates operation of web browser. It usually doesn't need any modification of the web application. Both alternatives run automation scripts that control the browser (as if it were operated by a human). They

  • navigate through web application in the browser, e.g. they
    • open URLs
    • enter values: type into inputs, choose checkboxes, radio buttons or dropdown lists
    • click at links, buttons and other elements
    • wait until the page refreshes
    • wait for results of background processing (Ajax)
  • identify elements on the page (title, headers, divs, table parts, links, buttons, inputs...) by
    • ID
    • text
    • CSS selectors
    • XPath queries, useful for elements without ID or for dynamic elements. Those can have meaning like
      • 'give me the 2nd cell in the 3rd row of the table with class ABC'
      • 'give me every even link with URL containing /xyz/rst'
    • Javascript
  • validate the pages by checking its URL, title, and elements (their presence or absence, content, style etc.)

Differences between Selenium IDE and WebDriver

Following are qualities of Selenium IDE and WebDriver, as relevant to SeLite. (+) and (-) indicate benefits and negatives.

Selenium IDE

  • (+) hands-on, fast life cycle
    • no compilation, no Tomcat restart or the like
    • development, running and sharing of scripts and extensions directly from sources (without packaging)
    • smoother development of extensions with automatic re-loading by Bootstrap
  • (+) easy deployment (no extra DB server, no binary dependencies)
  • (+) no involvement of server-side programming languages
  • (+) convenience of single environment: the browser with Selenium IDE is one place for recording, editing and running the scripts
  • (-) it's for Firefox only
    • (+) In 2017 Firefox extensions will use the same API as Opera and Chrome.
    • (-) it can't work with other browsers. That may be perceived as a limitation. However, there may not be much benefit in automated testing for multiple browsers, since
      • cross-browser libraries (like JQuery) make applications less browser-dependent
      • there are also application-independent themes or styles, which are tested by their producers
      • differences in browsers mostly affect layout rather than functionality, and
        • defects in presentation are usually minor
        • it's difficult to define how layout should be validated anyway, because
          • applications often allow multiple themes
          • the actual look varies with application state, screen size, device, browser and system
    • (+) there are many third party add-ons, which enhance the language and GUI of Selenium IDE (but not of WebDriver)
    • (+) it uses only Javascript (rather than multiple languages as handled by WebDriver). Using single technology means a bigger group of developers and users. That gives more traction for progress.
    • (+) all components are distributed in source code, rather than in compiled form. Upgrades don't involve any compilation/re-build on user's side.
    • (+) you can package your custom functionality as add-ons, and
      • have them checked for security by Mozilla (whether you make them public or not)
      • easily distribute them (in your private network or publicly), with updates pulled automatically
    • (+) scripts can access privileged Firefox features, like
      • SQLite data storage
        • in a local DB file (under user's control)
        • this allows data separation between the script and the application
        • with object-oriented layer
      • taking screenshots of application screen
      • Login Manager (passwords stored by Firefox), which allows scripts
        • not to keep passwords
        • to be shared with others securely
        • to log on to various websites as one of multiple users, e.g.
          • log on to the application as an admin and change config as needed
          • log on to webmail and check any generated emails

WebDriver

  • (+) supporting various browsers
  • (-) missing some functionality (screenshots) that is only supported in Firefox (see online Selenium Core Reference > Selenium Actions > captureEntirePageScreenshot() or offline at {{chromeUrl}} chrome://selenium-ide/content/selenium-core/reference.html#actions > captureEntirePageScreenshot())
  • (-) less practical for developing, running and distributing the scripts
    • you can import the scripts back from their language to Selenium IDE. However, if you re-edit them, you can't save them in the target language (see changing formats). You'd have to maintain both the Selenium IDE scripts (.html) and the generated server-side scripts, and to track any customization, so that you could re-generate them from Selenium IDE.
    • it involves packaging into jar files and restarting Tomcat (or similar)