Testing of software plays a huge role in deciding the final quality of a product. Although there are a number of tools available in the market, one popular tool used for testing web apps is the Selenium automation framework. But knowing just the name is not enough; businesses have to understand it to the core. This is what this blog targets, so that you can understand the testing framework to the core and make your web app a success.
Understanding the Selenium Automation Framework
The Selenium automation framework brings a set of guidelines, practices, and tools created to make automated testing more organized, reusable, and efficient in nature. The testing teams do not have to write test scripts in a random or unstructured manner because the framework, as mentioned, provides a well-organized ecosystem where test cases are
- easier to maintain
- scalable as the project grows
- integrated with reporting, logging, and test management tools
There are different types of automation frameworks but the goal is always the same, which is streamlining the whole testing process and achieving the best of accuracy in testing.
How does the Selenium automation framework work?
Now that you know the concept, you must be wondering about the working of this masterpiece testing framework. In the easiest way, it works with the combination of Selenium WebDriver for interacting with browsers with a structured framework that consists of
- A test execution engine like TestNG
- Reusable Functions
- Page Object Models or POM
- External data sources like Excel, JSON, or databases
The framework executes the test scripts automatically, compares actual results with the expectations and generates the final reports. With its help, the QA teams catch bugs much faster and make sure that the apps behave as per the expectation across different browsers and devices.
Key Components of a Selenium Automation Framework
The breakdown can be lengthy but when we look at the key components of this exceptional framework, we get 6 major elements as mentioned below.
Selenium WebDriver
This is the core engine that interacts with web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. The WebDriver mimics the real user actions like a click event, form filling, or going through the pages, which we call navigation.
TestNG Framework (or JUnit)
The TestNG framework is very popular and is used to run and manage the Selenium test cases, where it allows you to:
- Organize the test annotations as @Test, @BeforeMethod, etc.
- Group and prioritize the tests.
- Generate the test reports.
- Run tests in parallel for faster execution.
Not to mention, TestNG also has support for data-driven testing, which makes it a more ideal choice for real-world automation requirements.
Page Object Model (POM)
POM is a design pattern that is used in Selenium frameworks that separates the test scripts from the actual code that interacts with the web elements. Every page in the application is shown as a class with methods that perform actions on that page.
This improves code readability and lowers the duplication and in case something changes on the webpage, the testing team only has to update the page object in place of adjusting every test case.
Data-Driven Testing
Testers can use external data files like Excel, CSV, or JSON to feed different sets of inputs, in one case removing the need to write extra lines of code for covering specific tests. Just for an example, you can test a login form with 50 different usernames and passwords with just one test method.
Logging and Reporting
Most of the frameworks consist of logs and test reports, where logs help debug the issues as the test executes and reports give a summary of the tests as passed or failed. There are tools like ExtentReports, Allure, and TestNG that have built-in reports, making the overall testing process even easier.
Cross-Browser Testing Support
With the help of the Selenium framework, testing for multiple browsers becomes easy as testing teams can configure the browser drivers dedicatedly. The apps work seamlessly for all the users no matter what browser you are using.
Sneak Peek at Quick Benefits of Using Selenium Automation Framework
- Reusable as it follows- write once, reuse many times in different test cases.
- Scalable because it lets you add new test cases or features easily.
- Maintainable as the changes or updates require only one place.
- Efficient and fast due to parallel testing and automation.
- Integration flexibility with CI/CD pipelines, bug trackers, and version control systems.
Wrapping Up
Selenium Automation Framework is for sure more than just writing test scripts because it is about creating structured, reliable, and flexible testing cases. When a team uses the right framework like this one, they can reduce the manual efforts, speed up the development for clients and give really quality-centric software. Now with a good understanding of the Selenium automation framework, if you are a business, you can suggest your development team do the same or if you are a developer, you can apply quality testing to the software.
