Selenium-IDE

Introduction
The Selenium-IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is the tool you use to develop your Selenium test cases. It’s an easy-to-use Firefox plug-in and is generally the most efficient way to develop test cases. It also contains a context menu that allows you to first select a UI element from the browser’s currently displayed page and then select from a list of Selenium commands with parameters pre-defined according to the context of the selected UI element. This is not only a time-saver, but also an excellent way of learning Selenium script syntax.

This chapter is all about the Selenium-IDE and how to use it effectively.
Installing the IDE
Using Firefox, first, download the IDE from the SeleniumHQ

Firefox will protect you from installing addons from unfamiliar locations, so you will need to click ‘Allow’ to proceed with the installation, as shown in the following screenshot.


When downloading from Firefox, you’ll be presented with the following window.


Select Install Now. The Firefox Add-ons window pops up, first showing a progress bar, and when the download is complete, displays the following.


Restart Firefox. After Firefox reboots you will find the Selenium-IDE listed under the Firefox Tools menu.


Opening the IDE
To run the Selenium-IDE, simply select it from the Firefox Tools menu. It opens as follows with an empty script-editing window and a menu for loading, or creating new test cases.


IDE Features

Menu Bar
The File menu has options for Test Case and Test Suite (suite of Test Cases). Using these you can add a new Test Case, open a Test Case, save a Test Case, export Test Case in a language of your choice. You can also open the recent Test Case.All these options are also available for Test Suite.

The Edit menu allows copy, paste, delete, undo, and select all operations for editing the commands in your test case. The Options menu allows the changing of settings. You can set the timeout value for certain commands, add user-defined user extensions to the base set of Selenium commands, and specify the format (language) used when saving your test cases. The Help menu is the standard Firefox Help menu; only one item on this menu–UI-Element Documentation–pertains to Selenium-IDE.

Toolbar
The toolbar contains buttons for controlling the execution of your test cases, including a step feature for debugging your test cases. The right-most button, the one with the red-dot, is the record button.





Speed Control: controls how fast your test case runs.


Run All: Runs the entire test suite when a test suite with multiple test cases is loaded.


Run: Runs the currently selected test. When only a single test is loaded this button and the Run All button have the same effect.

 
Pause/Resume: Allows stopping and re-starting of a running test case.


Step: Allows you to “step” through a test case by running it one command at a time. Use for debugging test cases.


TestRunner Mode: Allows you to run the test case in a browser loaded with the Selenium-Core TestRunner. The TestRunner is not commonly used now and is likely to be deprecated. This button is for evaluating test cases for backwards compatibility with the TestRunner. Most users will probably not need this button.


Apply Rollup Rules: This advanced feature allows repetitive sequences of Selenium commands to be grouped into a single action. Detailed documentation on rollup rules can be found in the UI-Element Documentation on the Help menu.


Record: Records the user’s browser actions.

Test Case Pane
Your script is displayed in the test case pane. It has two tabs, one for displaying the command and their parameters in a readable “table” format.

The other tab - Source displays the test case in the native format in which the file will be stored. By default, this is HTML although it can be changed to a programming language such as Java or C#, or a scripting language like Python. See the Options menu for details. The Source view also allows one to edit the test case in its raw form, including copy, cut and paste operations.

The Command, Target, and Value entry fields display the currently selected command along with its parameters. These are entry fields where you can modify the currently selected command. The first parameter specified for a command in the Reference tab of the bottom pane always goes in the Target field. If a second parameter is specified by the Reference tab, it always goes in the Value field.

If you start typing in the Command field, a drop-down list will be populated based on the first characters you type; you can then select your desired command from the drop-down.


Log/Reference/UI-Element/Rollup Pane

The bottom pane is used for four different functions–Log, Reference, UI-Element, and Rollup–depending on which tab is selected.

Log

When you run your test case, error messages and information messages showing the progress are displayed in this pane automatically, even if you do not first select the Log tab. These messages are often useful for test case debugging. Notice the Clear button for clearing the Log. Also notice the Info button is a drop-down allowing selection of different levels of information to log.



Reference
The Reference tab is the default selection whenever you are entering or modifying Selenese commands and parameters in Table mode. In Table mode, the Reference pane will display documentation on the current command. When entering or modifying commands, whether from Table or Source mode, it is critically important to ensure that the parameters specified in the Target and Value fields match those specified in the parameter list in the Reference pane. The number of parameters provided must match the number specified, the order of parameters provided must match the order specified, and the type of parameters provided must match the type specified. If there is a mismatch in any of these three areas, the command will not run correctly.



While the Reference tab is invaluable as a quick reference, it is still often necessary to consult the Selenium Reference document.

UI-Element and Rollup
Detailed information on these two panes (which cover advanced features) can be found in the UI-Element Documentation on the Help menu of Selenium-IDE.

Building Test Cases
There are three primary methods for developing test cases. Frequently, a test developer will require all three techniques.

Recording
Many first-time users begin by recording a test case from their interactions with a website. When Selenium-IDE is first opened, the record button is ON by default. If you do not want Selenium-IDE to begin recording automatically you can turn this off by going under Options > Options... and deselecting “Start recording immediately on open.”

During recording, Selenium-IDE will automatically insert commands into your test case based on your actions. Typically, this will include:

clicking a link - click or clickAndWait commands
entering values - type command
selecting options from a drop-down listbox - select command
clicking checkboxes or radio buttons - click command
Here are some “gotchas” to be aware of:

The type command may require clicking on some other area of the web page for it to record.
Following a link usually records a click command. You will often need to change this to clickAndWait to ensure your test case pauses until the new page is completely loaded. Otherwise, your test case will continue running commands before the page has loaded all its UI elements. This will cause unexpected test case failures.

Adding Verifications and Asserts With the Context Menu
Your test cases will also need to check the properties of a web-page. This requires assert and verify commands. We won’t describe the specifics of these commands here; that is in the chapter on Selenium Commands – “Selenese”. Here we’ll simply describe how to add them to your test case.

With Selenium-IDE recording, go to the browser displaying your test application and right click anywhere on the page. You will see a context menu showing verify and/or assert commands.

The first time you use Selenium, there may only be one Selenium command listed. As you use the IDE however, you will find additional commands will quickly be added to this menu. Selenium-IDE will attempt to predict what command, along with the parameters, you will need for a selected UI element on the current web-page.

Let’s see how this works. Open a web-page of your choosing and select a block of text on the page. A paragraph or a heading will work fine. Now, right-click the selected text. The context menu should give you a verifyTextPresent command and the suggested parameter should be the text itself.

Also, notice the Show All Available Commands menu option. This shows many, many more commands, again, along with suggested parameters, for testing your currently selected UI element.

Try a few more UI elements. Try right-clicking an image, or a user control like a button or a checkbox. You may need to use Show All Available Commands to see options other than verifyTextPresent. Once you select these other options, the more commonly used ones will show up on the primary context menu. For example, selecting verifyElementPresent for an image should later cause that command to be available on the primary context menu the next time you select an image and right-click.

Again, these commands will be explained in detail in the chapter on Selenium commands. For now though, feel free to use the IDE to record and select commands into a test case and then run it. You can learn a lot about the Selenium commands simply by experimenting with the IDE.

Editing

Insert Command
Table View
Select the point in your test case where you want to insert the command. To do this, in the Test Case Pane, left-click on the line where you want to insert a new command. Right-click and select Insert Command; the IDE will add a blank line just ahead of the line you selected. Now use the command editing text fields to enter your new command and its parameters.

Source View
Select the point in your test case where you want to insert the command. To do this, in the Test Case Pane, left-click between the commands where you want to insert a new command, and enter the HTML tags needed to create a 3-column row containing the Command, first parameter (if one is required by the Command), and second parameter (again, if one is required to locate an element) and third parameter(again, if one is required to have a value). Example:

   
Command

   
target (locator)

   
Value

Insert Comment
Comments may be added to make your test case more readable. These comments are ignored when the test case is run.

Comments may also be used to add vertical white space (one or more blank lines) in your tests; just create empty comments. An empty command will cause an error during execution; an empty comment won’t.

Table View
Select the line in your test case where you want to insert the comment. Right-click and select Insert Comment. Now use the Command field to enter the comment. Your comment will appear in purple text.

Source View
Select the point in your test case where you want to insert the comment. Add an HTML-style comment, i.e., .

Edit a Command or Comment
Table View
Simply select the line to be changed and edit it using the Command, Target, and Value fields.

Source View
Since Source view provides the equivalent of a WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) editor, simply modify which line you wish–command, parameter, or comment.

Opening and Saving a Test Case
Like most programs, there are Save and Open commands under the File menu. However, Selenium distinguishes between test cases and test suites. To save your Selenium-IDE tests for later use you can either save the individual test cases, or save the test suite. If the test cases of your test suite have not been saved, you’ll be prompted to save them before saving the test suite.

When you open an existing test case or suite, Selenium-IDE displays its Selenium commands in the Test Case Pane.

Running Test Cases
The IDE allows many options for running your test case. You can run a test case all at once, stop and start it, run it one line at a time, run a single command you are currently developing, and you can do a batch run of an entire test suite. Execution of test cases is very flexible in the IDE.

Run a Test Case
Click the Run button to run the currently displayed test case.

Run a Test Suite
Click the Run All button to run all the test cases in the currently loaded test suite.

Stop and Start
The Pause button can be used to stop the test case while it is running. The icon of this button then changes to indicate the Resume button. To continue click Resume.

Stop in the Middle
You can set a breakpoint in the test case to cause it to stop on a particular command. This is useful for debugging your test case. To set a breakpoint, select a command, right-click, and from the context menu select Toggle Breakpoint.

Start from the Middle
You can tell the IDE to begin running from a specific command in the middle of the test case. This also is used for debugging. To set a startpoint, select a command, right-click, and from the context menu select Set/Clear Start Point.

Run Any Single Command
Double-click any single command to run it by itself. This is useful when writing a single command. It lets you immediately test a command you are constructing, when you are not sure if it is correct. You can double-click it to see if it runs correctly. This is also available from the context menu.

Using Base URL to Run Test Cases in Different Domains
The Base URL field at the top of the Selenium-IDE window is very useful for allowing test cases to be run across different domains. Suppose that a site named http://news.portal.com had an in-house beta site named http://beta.news.portal.com. Any test cases for these sites that begin with an open statement should specify a relative URL as the argument to open rather than an absolute URL (one starting with a protocol such as http: or https:). Selenium-IDE will then create an absolute URL by appending the open command’s argument onto the end of the value of Base URL. For example, the test case below would be run against http://news.portal.com/about.html:



This same test case with a modified Base URL setting would be run against http://beta.news.portal.com/about.html:





Selenium Commands – “Selenese”
Selenium commands, often called selenese, are the set of commands that run your tests. A sequence of these commands is a test script. Here we explain those commands in detail, and we present the many choices you have in testing your web application when using Selenium.

Selenium provides a rich set of commands for fully testing your web-app in virtually any way you can imagine. The command set is often called selenese. These commands essentially create a testing language.

In selenese, one can test the existence of UI elements based on their HTML tags, test for specific content, test for broken links, input fields, selection list options, submitting forms, and table data among other things. In addition Selenium commands support testing of window size, mouse position, alerts, Ajax functionality, pop up windows, event handling, and many other web-application features. The Command Reference lists all the available commands.

A command tells Selenium what to do. Selenium commands come in three “flavors”: Actions, Accessors, and Assertions.

Actions are commands that generally manipulate the state of the application. They do things like “click this link” and “select that option”. If an Action fails, or has an error, the execution of the current test is stopped.

Many Actions can be called with the “AndWait” suffix, e.g. “clickAndWait”. This suffix tells Selenium that the action will cause the browser to make a call to the server, and that Selenium should wait for a new page to load.

Accessors examine the state of the application and store the results in variables, e.g. “storeTitle”. They are also used to automatically generate Assertions.

Assertions are like Accessors, but they verify that the state of the application conforms to what is expected. Examples include “make sure the page title is X” and “verify that this checkbox is checked”.

All Selenium Assertions can be used in 3 modes: “assert”, “verify”, and ” waitFor”. For example, you can “assertText”, “verifyText” and “waitForText”. When an “assert” fails, the test is aborted. When a “verify” fails, the test will continue execution, logging the failure. This allows a single “assert” to ensure that the application is on the correct page, followed by a bunch of “verify” assertions to test form field values, labels, etc.

“waitFor” commands wait for some condition to become true (which can be useful for testing Ajax applications). They will succeed immediately if the condition is already true. However, they will fail and halt the test if the condition does not become true within the current timeout setting (see the setTimeout action below).

Script Syntax
Selenium commands are simple, they consist of the command and two parameters. For example:

verifyText

//div//a[2]

Login

The parameters are not always required; it depends on the command. In some cases both are required, in others one parameter is required, and in still others the command may take no parameters at all. Here are a couple more examples:

goBackAndWait
verifyTextPresent		Welcome to My Home Page
type	id=phone	(555) 666-7066
type	id=address1

The command reference describes the parameter requirements for each command.

Parameters vary, however they are typically:

a locator for identifying a UI element within a page.

a text pattern for verifying or asserting expected page content

a text pattern or a selenium variable for entering text in an input field or for selecting an option from an option list.

Locators, text patterns, selenium variables, and the commands themselves are described in considerable detail in the section on Selenium Commands.

Selenium scripts that will be run from Selenium-IDE will be be stored in an HTML text file format. This consists of an HTML table with three columns. The first column identifies the Selenium command, the second is a target, and the final column contains a value. The second and third columns may not require values depending on the chosen Selenium command, but they should be present. Each table row represents a new Selenium command. Here is an example of a test that opens a page, asserts the page title and then verifies some content on the page:

    

open

/download/ assertTitleDownloads verifyText//h2Downloads

Rendered as a table in a browser this would look like the following:

open	/download/
assertTitle		Downloads
verifyText	//h2	Downloads

The Selenese HTML syntax can be used to write and run tests without requiring knowledge of a programming language. With a basic knowledge of selenese and Selenium-IDE you can quickly produce and run testcases.

Test Suites

A test suite is a collection of tests. Often one will run all the tests in a test suite as one continuous batch-job.

When using Selenium-IDE, test suites also can be defined using a simple HTML file. The syntax again is simple. An HTML table defines a list of tests where each row defines the filesystem path to each test. An example tells it all

 

Suite Of Tests

 
href="./Login.html">Login

 
href="./SearchValues.html">Test Searching for Values

 
href="./SaveValues.html">Test Save

A file similar to this would allow running the tests all at once, one after another, from the Selenium-IDE.

Test suites can also be maintained when using Selenium-RC. This is done via programming and can be done a number of ways. Commonly Junit is used to maintain a test suite if one is using Selenium-RC with Java. Additionally, if C# is the chosen language, Nunit could be employed. If using an interpreted language like Python with Selenium-RC then some simple programming would be involved in setting up a test suite. Since the whole reason for using Selenium-RC is to make use of programming logic for your testing this usually isn’t a problem.

Commonly Used Selenium Commands

To conclude our introduction of Selenium, we’ll show you a few typical Selenium commands. These are probably the most commonly used commands for building tests.

open
opens a page using a URL.
click/clickAndWait
performs a click operation, and optionally waits for a new page to load.
verifyTitle/assertTitle
verifies an expected page title.
verifyTextPresent
verifies expected text is somewhere on the page.
verifyElementPresent
verifies an expected UI element, as defined by its HTML tag, is present on the page.
verifyText
verifies expected text and its corresponding HTML tag are present on the page.
verifyTable
verifies a table’s expected contents.
waitForPageToLoad
pauses execution until an expected new page loads. Called automatically when clickAndWait is used.
waitForElementPresent

pauses execution until an expected UI element, as defined by its HTML tag, is present on the page.

Verifying Page Elements

Verifying UI elements on a web page is probably the most common feature of your automated tests. Selenese allows multiple ways of checking for UI elements. It is important that you understand these different methods because these methods define what you are actually testing.

For example, will you test that...

1. an element is present somewhere on the page?
2. specific text is somewhere on the page?
3. specific text is at a specific location on the page?

For example, if you are testing a text heading, the text and its position at the top of the page are probably relevant for your test. If, however, you are testing for the existence of an image on the home page, and the web designers frequently change the specific image file along with its position on the page, then you only want to test that an image (as opposed to the specific image file) exists somewhere on the page.

Assertion or Verification?

Choosing between “assert” and “verify” comes down to convenience and management of failures. There’s very little point checking that the first paragraph on the page is the correct one if your test has already failed when checking that the browser is displaying the expected page. If you’re not on the correct page, you’ll probably want to abort your test case so that you can investigate the cause and fix the issue(s) promptly. On the other hand, you may want to check many attributes of a page without aborting the test case on the first failure as this will allow you to review all failures on the page and take the appropriate action. Effectively an “assert” will fail the test and abort the current test case, whereas a “verify” will fail the test and continue to run the test case.

The best use of this feature is to logically group your test commands, and start each group with an “assert” followed by one or more “verify” test commands. An example follows:

Command	Target	Value
open	/download/
assertTitle	Downloads
verifyText	//h2	Downloads
assertTable	1.2.1	Selenium IDE
verifyTable	1.2.2	June 3, 2008
verifyTable	1.2.3	1.0 beta 2

The above example first opens a page and then “asserts” that the correct page is loaded by comparing the title with the expected value. Only if this passes will the following command run and “verify” that the text is present in the expected location. The test case then “asserts” the first column in the second row of the first table contains the expected value, and only if this passed will the remaining cells in that row be “verified”.

verifyTextPresent

The command verifyTextPresent is used to verify specific text exists somewhere on the page. It takes a single argument–the text pattern to be verified. For example:

Command	Target	Value
verifyTextPresent	Marketing Analysis

This would cause Selenium to search for, and verify, that the text string “Marketing Analysis” appears somewhere on the page currently being tested. Use verifyTextPresent when you are interested in only the text itself being present on the page. Do not use this when you also need to test where the text occurs on the page.

verifyElementPresent

Use this command when you must test for the presence of a specific UI element, rather than its content. This verification does not check the text, only the HTML tag. One common use is to check for the presence of an image.

Command	Target	Value
verifyElementPresent	//div/p/img

This command verifies that an image, specified by the existence of an HTML tag, is present on the page, and that it follows a

tag and a tag. The first (and only) parameter is a locator for telling the Selenese command how to find the element. Locators are explained in the next section.

verifyElementPresent can be used to check the existence of any HTML tag within the page. You can check the existence of links, paragraphs, divisions

, etc. Here are a few more examples.

Source :  Selenium IDE