Why Selenium WebDriver is an Interface?

WEBDRIVER INTERFACE

KEYWORDS / QUESTIONS
Interface WebDriver ChromeDriver ChromeDriverService
System.setPropert(key, value)
chromedriver geckodriver msedgedriver phantomjs
WebDriver driver; driver = new ChromeDriver(); driver = new FirefoxDriver();

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NOTES

All browser specific classes (ChromeDriver, FirefoxDriver etc) implemented a common interface called WebDriver interface. info

• WebDriver interface contains commonly used methods for browser automation.

Ex:

WebDriver Methods

Return Type	Methods
void	close()
WebElement	findElement​(By by)
java.util.List	findElements​(By by)
void	get​(java.lang.String url)
java.lang.String	getTitle()
tbd	tbd

• We can create different browser object using same object type WebDriver.

Ex:

WebDriver driver;

driver = new ChromeDriver();

driver = new FirefoxDriver();

package io.webdriver.chrome;

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriverService;
import org.openqa.selenium.edge.EdgeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.edge.EdgeDriverService;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.GeckoDriverService;
import org.openqa.selenium.phantomjs.PhantomJSDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.phantomjs.PhantomJSDriverService;

import java.io.File;

public class WebDriverInterface {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        WebDriver driver;

        System.setProperty(ChromeDriverService.CHROME_DRIVER_EXE_PROPERTY, getDriver("chromedriver").getAbsolutePath());
        System.setProperty(GeckoDriverService.GECKO_DRIVER_EXE_PROPERTY, getDriver("geckodriver").getAbsolutePath());
        System.setProperty(EdgeDriverService.EDGE_DRIVER_EXE_PROPERTY, getDriver("msedgedriver").getAbsolutePath());
        System.setProperty(PhantomJSDriverService.PHANTOMJS_EXECUTABLE_PATH_PROPERTY, getDriver("phantomjs").getAbsolutePath());


        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        System.out.println(driver.toString());
        driver.quit();

        driver = new FirefoxDriver();
        System.out.println(driver.toString());
        driver.quit();

        driver = new EdgeDriver();
        System.out.println(driver.toString());
        driver.quit();

        driver = new PhantomJSDriver();
        System.out.println(driver.toString());
        driver.quit();
    }

    /**
     * Based on the OS, we get browser driver location.
     *
     * @param driverName a string. ex: "chromedriver"
     * @return the relative (partial) path of the driver. ex: driver/chromedriver
     */
    private static File getDriver(String driverName) {
        if (System.getProperty("os.name").contains("Mac OS X")) {
            return new File(new File("driver"), driverName);
        } else {
            return new File(new File("driver"), driverName + ".exe");
        }
    }

}

ChromeDriver: chrome on WINDOWS (24a35fb050dc5e8d46ba8c0eede0eb1f)
FirefoxDriver: firefox on WINDOWS (413c13b1-7984-41e4-a7cc-a31b85438e71)
EdgeDriver: msedge on WINDOWS (83af823aa10d801182ad9726e3ed911b)
PhantomJSDriver: phantomjs on XP (01d457b0-7114-11eb-a16e-d3a30713c1eb)

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SUMMARY
WebDriver is an Interface.
ChromeDriver, FirefoxDriver etc classes implemented WebDriver interface.
WebDriver has common methods for all browsers. Ex: get(), getTitle(), findElement() etc