This document discusses data driven automation testing of web applications using Selenium. It provides an overview of Selenium and some key considerations for choosing an automation testing tool. It then describes the typical components of a Selenium-based automation testing framework, including test scripts, reusable libraries, test suites, reports, and more. It discusses the advantages and limitations of the Selenium IDE and RC tools.

1. Data Driven Automation Testing of Web Application
using Selenium
Navaraj Javvaji -- navaraj.j@avacorp.biz
Anand Sathiyaseelan -- anand.s@avacorp.biz
Umamaheswari Selvan -- umamaheswari.s@avacorp.biz
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2. Lot of options, which one to choose?
Abbot eggPlant QTP
AutoHotkey SilkTest
CubicTest RFT
Selenium Test Partner
RIATest
SWTBot
Dogtail
WATIR
Fitness WatiN SOATest
Decision making is the crucial part while choosing the automation tool:
• High investment on commercial tools v/s Zero cost Open Source tools
• Ease of use v/s customization needs
• Better feature set v/s very limited feature set
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3. First step should be towards identifying key expectations
 Considerations for an Automation tool:
 What should my Automation tool support?
 Consistent and Diagrammatic Reporting Mechanism:
 Logger Files
 Analytic Test Report
 Different Report Formats ( html, xml etc)
 Ability to support enterprise wise reusable test automation suites
 Reusable functions, exception handling mechanism etc
 Ability to schedule tests
 Ability to prioritize and run tests
 Build verification tests, smoke tests, full regression tests, partial regression tests etc
 Ability to report failures
 Module wise failures, test step failures etc
 Snapshots / screen shots of failed tests
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4. Let us understand this by considering SELENIUM as an ex
Before going into details, let us look at a quick preview from the technology perspective
JAVA
 Java is a Object-Oriented programming language.
 Created in 1991 by James Gosling et al. of Sun Microsystems.
 It is a platform independent language.
 It is robust, distributed, portable and Dynamic.
 Automatic Memory Management and Security.
SELENIUM
 Developed by Jason Huggins and released in 2004.
 It is an open source Tool for automating web Application.
 Selenium IDE is a Record and Playback tool which comes as a Firefox Plug-in .
 Selenium RC is a server /solution for executing linear / regression / integration tests.
 RC obtains the commands from the selenium server and run the tests via the browser.
 It supports IE on Windows, Firefox & Opera on Windows, Mac and Linux, Safari on Windows, Mac
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5. Understanding Test Automation Frameworks
Definition
 As defined by Wikipedia ** “Test Automation Framework”
 Is a set of assumptions, concepts and tools that provide support for automated software
testing
 Helps reduce costs and maintenance time
 Primarily driven by keeping extensive reusability in mind
 Should be flexible enough to incorporate change yet robust enough to resist unwanted
changes
Commonly Known Automation Frameworks
 Test Script Modularity
 Test Library Architecture
 Data Driven
 Keyword Driven or Table Driven
 Hybrid Test Automation
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_automation_framework
 Model
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6. Fundamentals of Data Driven Framework
Data Driven Framework
 Data driven testing is creation of test scripts to run together with their related data sets in the
framework.
 Data driven scripts are those application-specific scripts captured or manually coded in the
automation tool’s proprietary language and then modified to accommodate variable data.
 Its main advantage is the reusability and also the maintenance of these tests is easy. This requires
the preparation of the data sheets which is completely independent of the test automation tool.
Advantages:
 Large amount of data can be fetched using the data sheet for repeated use of test case execution.
 Reusability and maintenance.
 Only the script representing a “Business Function” needs to be modified/updated in case if the
functionality of the application under test (AUT) changes.
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7. Components of Selenium based Automation Framework
There might be minor differences between each organization’s framework, however what is listed are the
key components of the framework
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8. Understanding Test Automation Framework components
ANT Script
 A Script that is used to execute a set of instructions using build.xml.
 It is used to run single test or batch test.
Test Scripts
 The test scripts are the .java files which represents the test cases of the AUT.
Reusable Library
 Reusable library consists of the common functions that can be reused.
 Reusable library consist of those functions that are application independent and can be called to
perform certain tasks.
 Can also be a collection of utilities that
 Delivers capabilities to create detailed drill down reports in different formats
 Helps generate a log of events that happen as part of automation test execution
 Takes snapshot of failed tests
Careful observation reveals that Reusable Library can be a good source that can help extend Selenium
capabilities
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9. Understanding Test Automation Framework components ..
Test Suite
 Test suite is set up to cover execution of the specified test case name and the priority of the
execution takes place contiguously.
 The final Test suite is run in two modes using the ANT Script:
 run-single-test
 run-batch-test
customized test suites for regression testing
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10. Understanding Test Automation Framework components ..
Test Reports
 The test report is generated by ANT at the end of the test execution in different formats( .xml, HTML
etc).
 The report also provides a time stamp that helps team manage versions of test reports.
 Finally a consolidated status for the group of test steps that get executed gets presented via the
“Status”.
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11. Understanding Test Automation Framework components ..
Failed Test Screen Snapshot
 Reusable functions are called by the test scripts to take an automatic snap shot of tests that have
failed.
 Also adding a time stamp to the snapshot it will be easy for test teams to not only identify the exact
cause of failure but also provide evidence of failure in case it is needed.
Such features are easy to integrate using JAVA to capture and save a snapshot when a failure occurs
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12. Understanding Test Automation Framework components ..
Generate Custom Log Files
 Logger is mainly designed to help the user to view the step by step execution of the test scripts
along with the time stamp, execution status whether it passed or failed.
Offer facility to choose between detailed log or events or a crisp summary of the key failures.
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13. Do’s and Don’ts
 Do’s
 As part of you automation journey, ensure the team is first trained on java & selenium syntax.
 Before finalizing your framework, understand your needs and then design components that help you
meet your needs
 Ensure the relation between the application test scripts and the framework is kept to the minimum.
Thus you can design a reusable and truly scalable framework
 Create the keyword library and keep updating it with more keywords
 Unless it is application specific, most of the test data can be reused
 Use open source tools (like Snapit) to take screen shots
 Use different folders for reusable function, test scripts, logger files, test results and test data sheets
 Identify object elements using Internet Explorer Development Toolbar. This is easier and provides
reliable object information
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14. Advantages
 Advantages
 The framework is very robust, maintainable and portable
 Redundancy is eliminated by designing for reusability
 Easy to debug considering log files and the failed test scenario snap shot
 Non programmers develop scripts with minimum efforts
 Open source tool results in almost zero cost
 Test Cases/Suites could be executed in 5 different browsers (Firefox, IE, safari, Chrome, Opera)
and also on different OS platforms(Windows, Linux, Mac) by Selenium RC.
 Selenium RC enables the automation testers to write test cases in 6 different programming
languages(dot net, java, perl, php, python, ruby).
 Using Selenium RC, it is easy to use Conditional statements, iterations. User exception handling
mechanism.
 Reporting, Logging the user actions could be added as a feature under the continuous integration
system.
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15. Limitations
 Limitations of Selenium IDE:
 Selenium IDE is released as a plug-in/add-on only for Mozilla Firefox. Hence it is not compatible
with other web browsers.
 Selenium IDE can execute scripts which were generated in the selenese command formats only.
 Selenium IDE cant be used to execute complex test scenarios involving dynamic objects and
values.
 Does not support the implementation of condition statements, iterations, exception handling.
 Limitations of Selenium RC:
 If there are some complex request/response on the page, writing custom waitFor method is
difficult.
 Limited ability to run multiple scripts consistently.
 Though RC has several ways to identify elements on the page, the locator supports only some
common attributes such as “ID, names, xpath”.
 Similarly if the RC needs to interact with an non natives objects in the web page like calender
widget
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16. Thank You
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