• What is Selenium?
  • Understanding the Selenium framework
  • Reasons for choosing Selenium
  • Comparison of Zoho QEngine and Selenium
  • Conclusion

What is Selenium?

Selenium is an open source test automation suite of tools aimed at easing the process of testing websites across browsers. Selenium automation testing is popular for cross-browser testing and data-driven testing, and its suite is comprised of:

Selenium IDE

Selenium IDE assists in creating test cases by recording user actions on any website in the form of test scripts. The created test scripts can be edited as per the test requirements and run whenever needed. The IDE also gives the option to export test scripts as executable files that can be run as many times as needed. The IDE can be installed as a plugin for Chrome and Firefox browsers.

Selenium WebDriver

Using the WebDriver API, test scripts can be written in Selenese, Java, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, C#, and Kotlin, via client drivers. When executed, these test scripts run the tests on a browser of choice, and the results can be viewed in HTML format.

Selenium Grid

Selenium Grid makes it possible to perform parallel testing across multiple virtual machines—but the issue is that users have to create and maintain servers with the required browser and operating system combinations. Either the servers have to be maintained locally or purchased on demand, from cloud services.

Understanding the Selenium framework

Automation testing is the way to go for efficient testing; test scripts in Selenium can reach up to millions of lines of code, which can be difficult to manage, especially when there's a change in product functionality and the code need to be revisited. The Selenium framework is a code structure that aids in effective code management across test scripts.

The three most important Selenium frameworks are:

 

Keyword-driven

Keywords correspond to a specific set of functions and instructions, which are stored separately. In a Selenium test script, these keywords can be referenced and provide the desired output based on the input.

 

Data-driven

The datasets to be used for Selenium testing are stored separately, for more efficient code maintenance and reusability, just like the keyword-driven framework. Data present inside multiple data sources are used inside test scripts one by one, without modifying the existing test scripts.

 

Hybrid-driven

As the name suggests, this is a combination of both the keyword-driven and data-driven frameworks. In this type of Selenium framework, both the keywords and data sets are stored separately from the test scripts.

Reasons for choosing Selenium

Selenium comes packed with features that make web testing easy and reliable for QA teams. Some of the advantages of choosing Selenium are:

The best practices for getting the most out of data-driven testing are:

 

Open source:

Selenium is open source, which means it's free to download and use on compatible systems. Every project comes with a unique set of errors and, at times, community-based free support is better at solving issues efficiently, compared to premium counterparts.

 

Languages:

Selenium supports all the major programming languages, like Java, JavaScript, Python, and C#.

 

Multiple browser support:

Selenium supports all major browsers—Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera, and Internet Explorer.

 

Supported on various OSes:

The Selenium suite of tools works across all major operating systems, including Windows, Mac, and Linux.

 

Faster delivery:

The easy-to-use nature of the tools, combined with the parallel testing feature of Selenium Grid, contributes to faster testing of web applications and expedited delivery.

Comparison of Zoho QEngine and Selenium

Zoho QEngine is test automation software that can aid in faster test creation, efficient test management, exhaustive test analysis, and extensive collaboration between teams. Let's take a look at how Zoho QEngine compares to Selenium:

Criteria
Selenium
Zoho QEngine
Cross-platform testing
The Selenium suite of tools are restricted to testing websites on browsers. Testing websites for mobile devices needs an additional framework.
Zoho QEngine supports the testing of web applications, native mobile applications, and APIs.
Installation and maintenance
Selenium requires technical expertise to install and maintain all the software that makes testing possible.
Zoho QEngine doesn't require any installation, as it's a web application.
Test creation
Selenium test scripts require knowledge in at least one of the following programming languages: Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, or C#.
Test cases can be created easily using syntax that's similar to Java and JavaScript.
Programming expertise
Testing in Selenium requires programming skills; an average tester is not readily equipped to write test scripts on command, without assistance.
The no-code test recorder can accurately record user actions to create test cases. The low-code builder and pro-code editor require only minimal coding knowledge.
Test management
Test scripts created for testing in Selenium need to be stored inside folders on the local device or server. Without proper planning, the files can become scattered among other system files.
Testing between the three platforms can be switched easily with just a click, and all three test cases will be maintained in the same test case file. Test cases can be managed across modules on the cloud.
Environments
By default, Selenium uses the resources of the local system. But for a large-scale application, dedicated local servers or cloud servers have to be set up and maintained, which is time- and resource-intensive.
Zoho QEngine supports testing on local, cloud, and hybrid environments. As part of the subscription, Zoho Cloud gives access to different versions of various browsers and mobile devices. No setup is required for the cloud server.
Test execution
After selecting the environments, if Selenium Grid is set up, parallel testing can assist with reducing the time taken for test case executions.
Parallel testing enables simultaneous testing across different environments and platforms. Furthermore, the self-healing AI feature can assist with flaky tests by rectifying broken locators in test cases.
Test analysis
Selenium doesn't offer test reporting on its own. Reporting frameworks need to be used for generating reports.
The results dashboard in Zoho QEngine offers all the vital information required for a deeper analysis of every test execution.

Conclusion

Selenium offers a powerful set of tools for QA teams that have invested in dedicated resources and structured their testing around it. Since it's open source, there's a very strong community that can help with addressing most of the issues related to Selenium testing. In 2024, though, there's a need for a faster and more hassle-free setup that's robust, efficient, and advanced enough to improve productivity. Powerful and versatile test automation tools with user-friendly UIs—like Zoho QEngine—are the next step in automation testing.