Getting Started with Selenium IDE

Selenium IDE is an open-source tool for automating web application testing. It has a simple interface and robust functionalities, making it a good option for those new to automation testing.

In this guide, learn what is Selenium IDE, it benefits and limitations and how to install and use it effectively.

What is Selenium IDE?

Selenium IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is primarily a record/run tool that a test case developer uses to develop Selenium Test cases. Selenium IDE is an easy-to-use tool from the Selenium Test Suite and can even be used by someone new to developing automated test cases for their web applications. One does not require any special setup to get started with Selenium IDE. You just need to add the extension of your specific browser. Selenium IDE provides you with a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for easily recording your interactions with the website.

Selenium IDE allows a user or a test case developer to create the test cases and test suites and edit it later as per their requirements. The development environment also provides the capability of converting test cases to different programming languages, which makes it easier for the user and does not mandate the need for knowing a specific programming language.

After entering the base URL for the project, the recording begins, and all the interactions with the website are recorded and categorized into three main categories as shown in the above Screenshot:

• Command
• Target
• Value

Features of Selenium IDE

There are several features provided in the IDE under the toolbar, using which one can control the execution of test cases:

1. Speed Control – Helps control the speed of test cases
2. Run All – Allows execution of the entire Test Suite
3. Run – Runs the currently selected test
4. Pause/Resume – Allows a user to pause and resume a particular test case
5. Step – Helps step into each specific command in the test script
6. Rollup – Helps group all the Selenese Commands together and make them execute as a single operation

The features keep on getting eliminated or added depending on the usage of different versions of Selenium IDE extensions.

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Benefits of Using Selenium IDE

Here are some of the benefits that come with using Selenium IDE:

• Automatic test case recording: Provides you the capability of automatically recording your test cases based upon the interactions with the browser
• Flexible test execution: Gives developers greater flexibility in executing the test cases. Either the test developer can run the entire test suite consisting of multiple test cases or execute a single test case
• Intuitive Selenese commands: Operates on the basis of the rich set of Selenese commands, which helps the IDE understand what needs to be done
• Debugging Support: Allows the test developers to set breakpoints for the purpose of debugging particular test cases
• Reusable Test Cases: Test cases can be re-used using the run command. (e.g. allowing you to re-use the logic of login or reload on multiple places in the entire suite)
• Multiple locators: The Use of multiple-locators for each element in the IDE ensures successful execution

What is Selenese?

Selenese is the language used to write Selenium Commands. These Selenese commands are then used to test web-applications. Based on the HTML tags of the UI elements, one can check their existence. Commands help Selenium understand what actions or operations to perform.

Classification of Selenium Commands

Selenium commands are mainly categorized into three types:

• Actions – Help manipulate or change the state of applications (e.g. click on some link or select an option from a page).
• Accessors – Enable verification and storage of the application state (e.g. consider command “storeTextPresent” – if the text is found on the page, then it stores True else stores false).
• Assertions – Help compare expected and actual results. They act like checkpoints and if both the values are equal, only then the test case passes or else it fails. Thus, Assertions help verify whether the state of the application after executing the test case conforms to the desired state (e.g. VerifyText, waitForPageToLoad).

Assertions have three modes:

• Assert
• Verify
• WaitFor

Limitations of Selenium IDE

Following are the limitations of Selenium that you should take note of:

• Not suitable for testing extensive data
• Connections with the database can not be tested
• Cannot handle the dynamic part of web-based applications
• Does not support capturing of screenshots on test failures
• No feature available for generating result reports

How to Install Selenium IDE

Selenium IDE does not require any additional setup except adding the browser extension. Here are the steps to install Selenium IDE.

Selenium IDE browser extension on Firefox:

1. Open Firefox browser and navigate to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/selenium-ide/.
2. Click on the “Add to Firefox” button which will open a pop up. Then click on the “Add” button.

   

   

3. Once the installation is complete, a pop up would be displayed saying Selenium IDE was added. Click on the “Okay” button.
4. Selenium IDE plugin should be visible now on top of the browser. Click on it to open Selenium IDE.

How to use Selenium IDE

Once the Selenium IDE is setup on the respective browser, i.e Chrome or Firefox, it is time to see how to record and playback scripts in the IDE. Here, the BStackDemo application will be used to test the checkout process.

1. Record the checkout process on the BStack Demo application.
2. Save the test suite.
3. Play back the script
4. Export test script.

Record process in Selenium IDE

Step 1: Open Chrome/ Firefox browser and click on the Selenium plugin present at the top right corner of the browser to open Selenium IDE.

Step 2: Click on Create a new Project.

Step 3: Add the project name and click on the “OK” button.

Step 4: Rename Untitled test case to any appropriate test case name.

Step 5: Click on the Record button at the top right corner of IDE to start recording the steps.

It opens the above pop up as the project is created for the first time.

Step 6: Enter base URL as https://bstackdemo.com/ and click on the “Start Recording” button. And this opens the URL on the browser.

Step 7: On BStackDemo page, perform the following steps for recording:
a. Filter Order by to “Lowest to highest”.
b. Click on Samsung model.
c. Click “Add to cart” for the first item.
d. Click on the “Checkout” button.

Step 8: Go to IDE and click on the Record button to stop the recording.

Step 9: All the steps are captured and executed after the recording is stopped. Save the project on the system by clicking on the Save button at the top right corner of the IDE. (It is saved in .side format)

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Playback process in Selenium IDE

1. Click on the “Run current test“ button on Selenium IDE to execute the recorded script.

   

2. It executes the same steps recorded previously and gives a result as Pass if all the steps are performed correctly. In case it is unable to interact with any element during playback, the execution fails.
3. Logs are captured for each step along with the time taken to execute each step.

   

Export the TestCase using Selenium IDE

Testcase can be exported in different programming languages from Selenium IDE by following below steps:

1. Click on the “Export” button for the test case recorded.

   

2. This opens a popup to Select language. Choose any preferred language. (for eg: Java JUnit) and click on the “Export” button.

   

3. Save the file in the local system and later open the file using Notepad or any supported editor to verify the test script.

   

Conclusion

Selenium IDE is one of the most accessible record and play tools in the Selenium Tool Suite, which requires no particular setup. Selenium IDE has add-ons for Firefox and Chrome browsers. Selenium IDE comes with a rich set of commands that are powered by Selenese, and it allows you to record and test different interactions of a web application with the browser. There are also limitations that should be kept in mind before choosing the Selenium IDE.

Useful Resources for Automation Testing in Selenium

Methods, Classes, and Commands

• Selenium Commands every Developer or Tester must know
• Selenium WebElement Commands
• Desired Capabilities in Selenium Webdriver
• Assert and Verify Methods in Selenium
• Understanding System setProperty in Selenium
• Select Class in Selenium : How to select a value in dropdown list?
• SendKeys in Selenium WebDriver
• getAttribute() method in Selenium: What, Why, and How to use
• How does Selenium isDisplayed() method work?
• findElement vs findElements in Selenium
• Types of Listeners in Selenium (with Code Examples)
• How to set Proxy in Firefox using Selenium WebDriver?

Configuration

• How to set up Selenium on Visual Studio
• How to configure Selenium in Eclipse
• Maven Dependency Management with Selenium
• How to Build and Execute Selenium Projects

XPath

• How to use XPath in Selenium?
• How to find element by XPath in Selenium with Example
• Top Chrome Extensions to find Xpath in Selenium

Locators and Selectors

• Locators in Selenium: A Detailed Guide
• CSS Selector in Selenium: Locate Elements with Examples
• How to Create Object Repository in Selenium

Waits in Selenium

• Wait Commands in Selenium C and C#
• Selenium Wait Commands: Implicit, Explicit, and Fluent Wait
• Understanding Selenium Timeouts
• Understanding ExpectedConditions in Selenium
• Understanding Role of Thread.sleep() in Selenium

Frameworks in Selenium

• Data Driven Framework in Selenium
• Implementing a Keyword Driven Framework for Selenium: A Practical Guide
• Hybrid Framework in Selenium

Miscellaneous

• How to create Selenium test cases
• How to set Proxy in Selenium?
• Difference between Selenium Standalone server and Selenium server
• Exception Handling in Selenium WebDriver
• How to use JavascriptExecutor in Selenium
• How to run your first Selenium test script
• Parallel Testing with Selenium

Best Practices, Tips and Tricks

• Top 5 Challenges Faced During Automation Selenium Testing
• 5 Selenium tricks to make your life easier
• 6 Things to avoid when writing Selenium Test Scripts
• Best Practices for Selenium Test Automation
• Why you should pay attention to flaky Selenium tests
• How to start with Selenium Debugging
• How to make your Selenium test cases run faster
• How to upgrade from Selenium 3 to Selenium 4
• Why you should move your testing to a Selenium Cloud?

Design Patterns in Selenium: Page Object Model and Page Factory

• Design Patterns in Selenium
• Page Object Model and Page Factory in Selenium
• Page Object Model and Page Factory in Selenium C#
• Page Object Model in Selenium and JavaScript
• Page Object Model and Page Factory in Selenium Python

Action Class

• How to handle Action class in Selenium
• How to perform Mouse Hover Action in Selenium
• Understanding Click Command in Selenium
• How to perform Double Click in Selenium?
• How to Drag and Drop in Selenium?
• How to Scroll Down or Up using Selenium Webdriver
• How To verify Tooltip Using Selenium

TestNG and Selenium

• Database Testing using Selenium and TestNG
• How to use DataProvider in Selenium and TestNG?
• All about TestNG Listeners in Selenium
• How to run parallel test cases in TestNG
• How to use TestNG Reporter Log in Selenium: Tutorial
• Prioritizing tests in TestNG with Selenium

JUnit and Selenium

• Understanding JUnit assertions for Selenium Testing with Examples
• How to run JUnit Parameterized Test in Selenium
• How to write JUnit test cases
• JUnit Testing Tutorial: JUnit in Java
• How to create JUnit Test Suite? (with Examples)

Use Cases

• Handling Login Popups in Selenium WebDriver and Java
• How to Launch Browser in Selenium
• How to handle Alerts and Popups in Selenium?
• How to get Selenium to wait for a page to load
• How to Find Element by Text in Selenium: Tutorial
• How to Read/Write Excel Data using Apache POI Selenium
• How to handle Captcha in Selenium
• How to handle multiple windows in Selenium?
• How to handle Multiple Tabs in Selenium
• How to find broken links in Selenium
• How to handle Cookies in Selenium WebDriver
• How to handle iFrame in Selenium
• How to handle Web Tables in Selenium
• How To Validate Text in PDF Files Using Selenium Automation
• Get Current URL in Selenium using Python: Tutorial

Types of Testing with Selenium

• Different Testing Levels supported by Selenium
• How to perform UI Testing with Selenium
• Regression Testing with Selenium: Tutorial
• UI Automation using Python and Selenium: Tutorial
• How to Run Visual Tests with Selenium: Tutorial
• How to perform ETL Automation using Selenium
• Cross Browser Testing in Selenium : Tutorial