Getting started with Selenium

WebDriver is a web automation framework that allows you to execute tests against different browsers, not just Firefox (unlike Selenium IDE). WebDriver comes as an extended version to Selenium RC with advantages and many of its limitations. WebDriver also doesn’t require Selenium server to be started prior to execution of the test scripts unlike Selenium RC. It is used in the following context:

• Supports for handling multiple frames, multiple browser , popups, and alerts.

• Supports for Complex page navigation and advanced user navigation such as drag-and-drop.

• AJAX-based UI elements.

WebDriver Architecture: 

WebDriver is a object oriented framework that works on OS layer. It uses the browser’s native compatibility to automation without using any peripheral entity. 

Architecture  of WebDriver is as shown.

Selenium RC Vs WebDriver:

Below diagram shows the main difference of RC and Webdriver:

Scripting using WebDriver:

Step 1: Launch the “eclipse.exe” file from the extracted Eclipse folder.

Once you open the “eclipse.exe” file then select the workspace, here you can select the path where you want to save Eclipse project.

Step 2: To create a Java Project:

• Go to file “menu” select “New” select “Java Project”.
• Enter Project Name.
• Click on Finish button.

Step 3: To import external Selenium Jar files:

• Right click on “Selenium_webdriver_project” and select “Configure Build Path” option.
• Click on Libraries tab
• Click on “Add External JARs…” button.
• Select the extracted Selenium Java Client Driver folder downloaded and add all JAR files present in the inside & outside of the “libs” folder and click on OK in the Properties dialog box to import.

Once select these JAR files then your properties folder will look like as shown above.

Step 4: To create a Class under Java project:

• Under newly created project “Selenium_webdriver_project” we will see the “src“ folder, right click on the “src” folder and create the new class as “TestWebDriver”.
  
  
  
  
• After creation of the class, we will see the Eclipse screen like this.
  
  
  
  
• Step 5: Now we start coding. The following script is easier to understand, as it has added comments in it to explain the steps clearly. To run this Selenium WebDriver script, press CTRL+F11

  import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
  import org.openqa.selenium.*;
  import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
  
  public class TestWebDriver {
  
  	public static void main(String[] args) {
  		WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
  	      // Wait for 5 seconds before throwing exception
  	      driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
  	      
  	      // launch xe.com home page
  	      driver.navigate().to("http://www.xe.com/");
  	      
  	      //To maximize the window
  	      driver.manage().window().maximize();
  	      
  	      // To get the value of from_var hidden field 
  	      String result = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@id='from_var']")).getAttribute("value");
  	      
  	      // Finally print the result
  	      System.out.println("from_var holds : " + result);
  	      
  	      // Close the session
  	      driver.close();
  
  	}
  }
  
     
        

  Result of above execution will produce this result
  
  
  
  

Most Used Commands:

The most frequently used commands in WebDriver along with their syntax.