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gokila selvaraj
gokila selvaraj

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What is selenium ? why do we use in Automation?


Selenium is a popular open-source tool used for automating web browser interactions. It allows developers and testers to write scripts that simulate user actions like clicking buttons, entering text, navigating between web pages, and interacting with various web elements. Selenium supports multiple programming languages (such as Python, Java, C#, and JavaScript) and can be integrated with various testing frameworks for seamless automation.

Key Reasons for Using Selenium in Automation:

Cross-Browser Testing:

Selenium supports multiple browsers like Chrome, Firefox,
Safari, and Edge. This allows you to automate web testing across
different browsers to ensure consistent behavior.

Supports Multiple Operating Systems:

Selenium runs on various operating systems, including Windows,
Linux, and macOS, which makes it versatile for cross-platform
testing.

Integration with Test Frameworks:

Selenium can be integrated with various test frameworks like
TestNG, JUnit, and PyTest, allowing developers to organize and
manage test cases efficiently.

Parallel Execution:

Selenium Grid allows you to run tests in parallel on different
machines and browsers, significantly reducing testing time.

Easy to Use for Web Testing:

Selenium interacts directly with the browser's DOM, which means it can handle complex web applications, including dynamic content and AJAX.

Supports Multiple Languages:

Selenium provides bindings for several languages, which means you can write tests in your preferred programming language (Python, Java, C#, etc.).

Handles Dynamic Elements:

Selenium can handle dynamic web elements that change without page reloads (e.g., AJAX-based elements).

Free and Open Source:

Selenium is completely free and supported by a large community, making it a cost-effective option for automation testing.

Browser Compatibility:

Selenium ensures that web applications function consistently across different browsers, versions, and platforms, helping in identifying browser-specific bugs.

By automating repetitive and time-consuming manual tasks (such as regression tests), Selenium helps increase productivity, improve testing accuracy, and enable continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflows.

*Advantages of Selenium Testing *
Selenium automated testing comes with several benefits, such as:

1)Selenium has proven to be accurate with results thus making it extremely reliable.

2)Since selenium is open-source, anybody willing to learn testing can begin at no cost.

3)Selenium supports a broad spectrum of programming languages like Python, PHP, Perl, and Ruby.

4)Selenium supports various browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, among others.

5)Selenium is easy to implement and doesn’t require the engineer to have in-depth knowledge of the tool.

6)Selenium has plenty of re-usability and add-ons

limitations of Selenium testing.

1)Since Selenium is open-source, it doesn’t have a developer community and hence doesn’t have a reliable tech support.

2)Selenium cannot test mobile or desktop applications.

3)Selenium offers limited support for image testing.

4)Selenium has limited support for test management. Selenium is often integrated with tools like JUnit and TestNG for this purpose.

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