Selenium IDE - Few Things to Know About It

Selenium IDE, a Firefox add on, that is used to create scripts, to record and debug them as well. IDE refers to ‘integrated development environment.’ As far as Selenium is concerned, it is an open source technology that offers a portable software testing framework. Since it is an open source, it is used by programmers throughout the world to improve the code constantly. The framework can also be used on all major platforms including Windows, Linux and Macintosh. It is also known to work on all the browsers. This plugin, however, is meant for Firefox only. It is utilized to record interactions with other browsers and can be replayed when required.

When was it developed?

Selenium IDE was independently developed by Shinya Kasatani. It was later amalgamated with Selenium in 2006. Earlier it was known by Selenium Recorder.

What is it used for?

This Firefox plugin is widely utilized to create testing scripts and bug reproduction scripts. Since all the features are integrated in it, the developers can easily test the web applications with the help of Selenium. All they need to do is install it as a plugin. The play back option helps in detecting errors. Thus, it comes across as a powerful IDE that is robust and can quickly simplify and automate a QA testing procedure.

There are certain features of Selenium IDE that makes it easy to use. This is the reason why it is popular with the developers. Here are some of the things that you should know about the plugin if you want to work with it:

Easy-to-use language: Selenese is used to record scripts in it. This scripting language aids the testers to put the commands to the browser quite easily. For instance, providing a command on automating a browser for clicking on a link or selecting an option is simple. Commands for retrieving data are assigned too by following a simple process. In addition, you can move around the commands fast. The developers can also make use of the auto completion for editing the commands. Selenese scripts are recorded automatically too. Another advantage of this language is that it is simple to comprehend. Someone with even a basic knowledge of website application will be able to use it within a short span of time.

Features of Selenium IDE: There is a Menu Bar, Tool bar, Base URL test box, Command window, Test Case pane and run or failure status sections.

The File menu on the browser has options for Test Suite and Test Case. These is used to add or open a new Test Case. You can also save or export it in a language that you want. The next is the Edit menu that enables you to delete, copy, paste, undo or select all kinds of operations. These will be helpful in editing commands found in the test case. The Options menu enables you to change the settings. Help menu, on the other hand, is the standard form of help menu that is present on the Firefox browser as well. Only a single item, UI-Element Documentation, is related to Selenium IDE. Besides these, there are the Actions and Options menu.

Another feature of this plugin is the toolbar. There are buttons in the toolbar to control the execution of the test cases. Speed control, Run, Run All and Pause are to be found on the toolbar.

How to install it: This can be installed only in Firefox. Get a copy of the software from Selenium HQ. It will be installed in a set of 5 extensions but the formatters will be separate for C#, Ruby, Python and Java. Once it is installed restart the browser and then go to Options Menu – Add Ons – Extensions.

Selenium IDE is one of the simplest ways to use the testing framework. However, there are certain drawbacks as well. For instance, the use of Selenium scripts is limited to Firefox. Only if these are combined with Selenium Core or RC can they be used on other browsers. Secondly, in order to execute the scripts, the developers will need Selenium Remote Control. In case this not used, then the developers will have to create HTML test scripts.

Finally, if you are really interested to use this plugin then you must know Javascript as the IDE core engine is based on this programming language. If you are planing to hire selenium testing company, you must evaluate them to see if they are sufficiently dexterous or not!

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