1.
How To Use Selenium,
Successfully
by Dave Haeffner, @TourDeDave

2.
http://www.wpclipart.com/geography/features/chasm.png.html

3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimal_solutions_for_Rubik's_Cube

4.
Write business valuable tests that are
reusable, maintainable and resilient
across all relevant browsers.
Then package and scale them for
you & your team.

5.
Selenium Overview
• What it is — the Reader’s Digest version
• What it is and is not good at
• IDE vs. Local vs. Remote
• Slow, brittle, and hard to maintain?

6.
Step 1
Define a Test Strategy

7.
Test Strategy
1. How does your business make money?
2. What features of your application are being used?
3. What browsers are your users using?
4. What things have broken in the app before?
Outcome:
- What features to test
- Which browsers to care about

8.
Step 2
Pick a Programming
Language

9.
Programming Language
• Same language as the app?
• Who will own it?
• Build a framework or use an existing one?
• http://se.tips/seleniumframeworks

10.
Step 3
Use Selenium
fundamentals

11.
Selenium Fundamentals
• Mimics human action
• Uses a few common actions
• Works with “locators”
Locators tell Selenium which HTML element to interact with

12.
Common Actions
• get();
• findElement();
• click(); //or submit();
• sendKeys();
• isDisplayed();

13.
Locator Strategies
• Class
• CSS selectors
• ID
• Link Text
• Partial Link Text
• Tag Name
• XPath
Good locators are:
• unique
• descriptive
• unlikely to change
That rules a few of these out

14.
Locator Strategies
• Class
• CSS selectors
• ID
• Link Text
• Partial Link Text
• Tag Name
• XPath
Good locators are:
• unique
• descriptive
• unlikely to change
That rules a few of these out

15.
Locator Strategies
• Class
• CSS selectors
• ID
• Link Text
• Partial Link Text
• Tag Name
• XPath
Good locators are:
• unique
• descriptive
• unlikely to change
That rules a few of these out
Start with IDs and Classes

16.
Locator Strategies
• Class
• CSS selectors
• ID
• Link Text
• Partial Link Text
• Tag Name
• XPath
Good locators are:
• unique
• descriptive
• unlikely to change
That rules a few of these out
Start with IDs and Classes
Use CSS or XPath (with care)

17.
Locator Strategies
• Class
• CSS selectors
• ID
• Link Text
• Partial Link Text
• Tag Name
• XPath
CSS vs XPath
http://se.tips/seleniumbenchmarks
http://se.tips/cssxpathexamples

18.
Finding Quality Locators
• Inspect the page
• Verify your selection
• e.g., FirePath or FireFinder
• http://se.tips/verifyinglocators
• e.g., JavaScript console with $$(‘’); or $(‘’);
• Learn through gaming
• http://se.tips/locatorgame
• Conversation

19.
Step 4
Write your first test

20.
Good Test Anatomy
• Write for BDD or xUnit test framework
• Test one thing (atomic)
• Each test can be run independently (autonomous)
• Anyone can understand what it is doing
• Group similar tests together

21.
A Login Example
1. Visit the login form
2. Find the login form’s username field and input text
3. Find the login form’s password field and input text
4. Find the submit button and click it
1. or, find the form and submit it

22.
http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login

23.
Now to find an assertion
1. Login
2. Inspect the page
3. Find a locator
4. Verify it
5. Add it to the test

24.
A much better assertion

25.
Automated Visual Testing Primer
• Check that an application’s UI appears correctly
• Can also be used to verify content
• Hundreds of assertions for a few lines of code
• Open-source libraries, baseline image comparison,
and inherent challenges
http://se.tips/visual-testing-getting-started

26.
In pom.xml

27.
Exception Handling
• org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException:
Unable to locate element: {"method":"css
selector","selector":".flash.error"}
• Most common ones you’ll run into:
NoSuchElement and
StaleElementReferenceError
• A list of all WebDriver exceptions:
http://se.tips/se-exceptions-java

28.
Exception Handling cont’d
http://se.tips/se-exceptions-howto

29.
Step 5
Write reusable and
maintainable test code

30.
Page Objects

31.
Application Under Test
Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5
Need to update EVERY test :-(

32.
Page Object(s)
Application Under Test
Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5
Need to update JUST the page object :-D

33.
Let’s look at a page
object for login

34.
And here’s what the test
looks like when using it

35.
Page object helpers:
http://se.tips/po-html-elements
http://se.tips/po-page-factory

36.
Base Page Object
a.k.a.
Selenium Wrapper
Utility Class
etc.

37.
Selenium
Commands
Page
Object 1
Page
Object 2
Page
Object 3
Page
Object 4
Page
Object 5

38.
Base Page
Object
Page
Object 1
Page
Object 2
Page
Object 3
Page
Object 4
Page
Object 5
Selenium
Commands
• Global reuse
• More readable
• Insulates you from
Selenium API changes
http://se.tips/se-upgrade

39.
Let’s take a look at a
Base Page Object

40.
And here it is
implemented

41.
How everything fits together
Test TestTest
Page
Object
Page
Object
Base
Page
Object
Tests use page objects
Page objects inherit the
base page (utility) class
The base page object wraps
your Selenium commands

42.
Step 6
Make your tests resilient

43.
Waiting

44.
Thread.sleep();
Implicit wait
Explicit waits

45.
Thread.sleep();
Implicit wait
Explicit waits

46.
Thread.sleep();
Implicit wait
Explicit waits
http://se.tips/se-waiting

47.
Explicit Waits
• Specify an amount of time, and an action
• Selenium will try repeatedly until either:
• The action is completed, or
• The amount of time specified has been reached
(and throw a timeout exception)

48.
In the Base page object

49.
In the DynamicLoading page object

50.
Browser Timing
Considerations

51.
Step 7
Prep for use

52.
Test Harness
• Simple organizational structure
• Central setup and teardown
• Configurable at run-time (with sensible defaults)
• Reporting & Logging
• Parallelization
• Test Grouping

53.
Folder structure

54.
Central setup/teardown
More on JUnit Rules:
http://bit.ly/junit-rules

55.
Simple config with defaults
Import config where it’s needed
(e.g., base test, etc.)

56.
Reporting & Logging
• Machine readable
e.g., JUnit XML
• Human readable
e.g., screenshots, failure message, stack trace
Fantastic Test Report Tool
http://bit.ly/se-reporter (Allure Framework)

57.
Parallelization
• In code
• Through your test runner
• Through your Continuous Integration (CI) server
#protip Enforce random order execution of tests
(turnkey in mvn-surefire)
Recommended approach:
http://bit.ly/mvn-surefire

58.
Test Grouping
• Metadata (a.k.a. Categories)
• Enables “test packs”
• Some category ideas
• defect
• shallow & deep
• release or story number
More info:
bit.ly/junit-categories

59.
Step 8
Add in cross-browser
execution

60.
Locally
http://se.tips/se-chromedriver
http://se.tips/se-firefoxdriver
http://se.tips/se-iedriver
http://bit.ly/edge-driver
http://se.tips/se-safaridriver

61.
Chrome

62.
Grid
Grid Hub
Browser
Tests
All done with the Selenium Standalone Server
Just requires additional runtime flags
Grid
Node
Grid
Node
Grid
Node
Browser
Browser

63.
Grid
Hub
Node(s)

64.
Grid
• http://se.tips/grid-getting-started
• http://se.tips/se-grid-extras
• http://se.tips/se-grid-scaler

65.
Sauce Labs
Sauce Labs Browser
Tests
http://se.tips/sauce-getting-started
http://se.tips/sauce-with-applitools

66.
Step 9
Build an automated
feedback loop

67.
Feedback loops
• The goal: Find failures early and often
• Done with continuous integration and notifications
• Notifications
- remote: Email, chat, SMS
- in-person: audio/visual indicators

68.
Code
Committed
Unit/Integ.
(pass?)
Deploy to
autom. test
server
(success?)
Run
automated
tests
(pass?)
Deploy to
next env.
yes
yes
yes
Notify team if no
Code Promotion
Bonus points: stop the line

69.
Simple CI configuration
1. Create a Job
2. Pull In Your Test Code
3. Set up Build Triggers
4. Configure Build steps
5. Configure Test Reports
6. Set up Notifications
7. Run Tests & View The Results
8. High-five your neighbor

70.
Step 10
Find information on
your own
http://se.tips/selenium-resources

71.
Steps to solve the puzzle
1. Define a Test Strategy
2. Pick a programming language
3. Use Selenium Fundamentals
4. Write Your First Test
5. Write re-usable and maintainable
test code
6. Make your tests resilient
7. Package your tests into a framework
8. Add in cross-browser execution
9. Build an automated feedback loop
10. Find information on your own

72.
Write business valuable tests that are
reusable, maintainable and resilient
across all relevant browsers.
Then package them and scale them
for you & your team.

73.
–Dave Haeffner
“You may think your puzzle is unique. But really, everyone is
trying to solve the same puzzle. Yours is just configured
differently — and it’s solvable”

74.
1. Sign up for a free Applitools Eyes account
http://se.tips/applitools-free-account
2. Run your first visual test
3. Email webinars@applitools.com
4. Sport your new “Visually Perfect” Tee
FREE t-shirt give-away
FREE sample of my book
• First 6 chapters available at
https://seleniumguidebook.com/#sample
• Available in Java and Ruby
• JavaScript, C#, and Python coming SOON!