What is Selenium IDE?  Everything you need to know

Web applications make up the vast bulk of the software that is available online in today's modern world. The use of automation testing has the potential to eliminate the majority of arduous and repetitive tasks that require human involvement. The three primary goals of automated testing are to improve quality, increase agility, and decrease the likelihood of potential risks.

Performing these tests manually a second time is not only expensive but also time-consuming. Automated testing, on the other hand, can be carried out an infinite number of times without any additional expenses being incurred. Through the utilization of automated testing, the duration of software testing can be cut down from days to hours.

In this blog, I will introduce you to Selenium IDE, a web automation framework. After reading this blog you will be able to install and use Selenium IDE and understand its features. This is going to be useful, especially if you are into web development.

What is Selenium IDE?

The Selenium IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is a web automation testing tool that is part of the open-source Selenium Suite. In contrast to Selenium WebDriver, it does not require any programming logic to be constructed in order to build test scripts; instead, you simply record your interactions with the browser in order to create test cases. After that, you may run the test scenarios again by utilizing the playback option under tools.

Creating test cases with the Selenium IDE tool does not require any prior expertise in programming. However, when utilizing selenese commands like runScript, it is helpful to have a fundamental knowledge of JavaScript in order to have a better understanding of the concepts.

How to install Selenium IDE?

Selenium IDE is available for chrome and firefox plugins.

Step 1: You need to download and install the google chrome Selenium plugin. Depending on your preference, open either Google Chrome or Firefox.

Step 2: Click this link to open Selenium IDE google chrome extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/selenium-ide/mooikfkahbdckldjjndioackbalphokd?hl=en 

Step 3: Next, select ‘Add to chrome’ as shown in the image below.

Step 4: Restart google chrome.
Step 5: On the right side, you will see the Selenium IDE icon as shown in the image below. Click on the icon to open the tool.

Step 6: You will be able to see the Selenium IDE as shown below and  get a view of the tools.

Feature of Selenium IDE

Let us see how to make use of the features of Selenium IDE.

Toolbar

The ‘Toolbar’ have 4 options:

• Run all tests in suit: With this option, you can run multiple test cases with a single click.
• Run current test: You can use this option to run the current test case or selected test case.
• Run current command: It allows you to run a test case one command at a time to "step" through it. 
• Speed control: With this feature, you can control test case execution speed, low to high.

Address Bar

In this playback base URL address bar, as shown in the above image, you need to enter your project link that you wish to test. For example, www.webdew.com.

Test Case Panel

This is a test case panel where you will see all the test cases of one project. You can create multiple test cases in this panel by clicking the + icon in one project.

Test Script Editor Box

Test script editor box will show the text execution result and if any errors are found on the text create case while it's executing, it will show a red colored line with the error message. You can edit the test case by clicking on any of the steps and by creating a new custom step to execute the text.

Start/Stop Recording Button

• Start and stop button is used to create the test case steps of any project.
• Enter the website link of your project on the address bar.
• Click on the record button to execute the script.
• Now a new window will open on google chrome and you will be able to see your website.
• Now if you are checking on website linking, then you should click on all links of pages and back.
• When you click on links, the steps will be recorded for this test case.
• Now when you click all links at the end, you can see the IDE and click on stop recording.
• Your test case will then be successful and you can execute the test.

Log, Reference Panel

When you execute the test case, the results of every step will be shown on the log panel. If you see something as shown in the below image, it means the test step results are passed.
If any step is not a clear pass, then it will show that it's a failed step. If you click on test execution and then click on stop, then it will show abort the result of those steps.

Save project

After the complete text case and test execution of text, you can save your project by clicking on the Save icon. 

Wrapping up

We hope that you were able to get an idea of how to start using Selenium IDE. There is a lot more to explore and it is very useful. 

If you are looking for assistance in web design or web development services, feel free to contact us!