8 Best Practices while Writing Selenium with Java

So, if you want to stay at the top of the game in today’s competitive software landscape, you need to meet your customer’s expectations by providing them with a world-class digital experience.

It is where reliable and well-established open-source tools such as Selenium come to your rescue. Selenium has become the world’s most popular web testing framework due to its powerful features and widespread acceptance across multiple browsers.

You can execute automated testing scripts written in various languages against local browsers, a lab of browsers and devices using Selenium Grid, or a device cloud. It helps QA engineers to reduce manual testing and allows for the speedier execution of extensive testing.

To get desired results, we’ve compiled the eight best practices while writing Selenium tests with Java to help you get the most out of Selenium automation. So, read on and find out more!

Learning Selenium with Java:

When it comes to automating web application testing, Selenium is the first word that comes to everyone’s mind. It is a portable web application framework that supports Java, C#, Ruby, and Python.

While choosing the language for Selenium, developers consider the application under test, the community, available test automation frameworks, and its usability.

Yet most developers prefer learning Selenium with Java for automating testing. It is because the Java testing framework can aid in project cost management by eliminating excessive expenditure and poor management approaches.

But this is not all. Java offers other benefits to developers as well like it is faster than other programming languages like Python and is widely used in commercial applications. All of these points make Java a very popular choice.

Writing Selenium Test Cases with Java:

Now, let us see how you can write Selenium test cases with Java in this section of our blog post!

In the above code, we have used the Chrome driver for automating a test scenario. It navigates to Google, inputs a search query, and then verifies that the title of the search results page contains the search query.

We then used the TestNG framework to define the test case. Then we set up the driver instance in the setUp() method, navigate to Google and perform the search in the testGoogleSearch() method, and close the browser window in the tearDown() method.

We start by setting the webdriver.chrome.driver system property to the path of the Chrome driver executable, then execute a new ChromeDriver instance.

We then use the get() method of the driver instance to browse Google, find the search box element using the findElement() method and the By.name() locator strategy, add a search query using the sendKeys() method, and finally submit the search query by using the submit() method as mentioned above.

At last, we use the getTitle() method of the driver instance and the assertTrue() assertion method of the TestNG framework to ensure that the search result page has the search query.

8 Best Practices for Selenium With Java:

Take a look at the top eight best practices for QA testers to improve Selenium with Java:

1. Use Page Object Model (POM)

The Page Object Model (POM) design pattern helps in creating more maintainable and reusable code. It separates the test logic from the page object, making the code more organized and easier to understand.

2. Avoid using Thread.sleep()

Thread.sleep() should be avoided as much as possible because it can lead to flaky tests. It is better to use explicit waits instead of Thread.sleep().

3. Use Data Providers

Data Providers in TestNG help in passing test data to test methods. It makes testing more efficient and effective as one can test multiple data combinations with a single test method.

4. Use the right locator

The locator is a crucial part of a Selenium script, and using the right one is essential for the test’s reliability. Selecting the right locator can make the script more efficient and less prone to flakiness. ID and name locators are usually the most reliable, and they offer faster execution than CSS and XPath locators.

5. Incorporate the test-driven script

Writing Selenium tests are about testing the software on multiple data permutations and combinations. Therefore, Selenium tests should be data-driven, and multiple data points should drive all tests. A data-driven framework helps achieve this and allows tests to be easily maintained.

6. Use the right wait

Web elements or pages may take a little time to load, and it is essential to give a specific wait time to the script to avoid failure. Selenium provides two types of waits: Implicit and Explicit waits. Both wait to halt the execution of the script until it finds the element. The difference is that Implicit wait applies globally to the whole script, and it can sometimes cause unnecessary delays, which can lead to slower test execution. While explicit wait only applies to specific web elements. It is also more precise and helps avoid unnecessary delays.

7. Don’t create scripts specific to a browser or driver

Cross-browser testing is a critical aspect of testing. Depending on business needs, tests should run on multiple browsers or specific browsers. Selenium frameworks like TestNG provide annotations like @Parameters, and JUnit provides annotations like @RunWith, which helps in running tests on multiple browsers and corresponding drivers.

8. Validate tests using assertions

To write good tests, it is crucial to validate them. Selenium tests should be validated using assertions provided in frameworks like TestNG and JUnit. Without assertions, the testing process is incomplete and does not validate the test build’s correctness.

Selenium automation aims to reduce manual testing efforts, increase execution, and identify most bugs promptly.

However, to get the most out of their Selenium scripts, QAs must adhere to the above-mentioned Selenium best practices so that Selenium tests with Java can be reliable, efficient, and easily maintainable.

Conclusion:

Selenium with Java automation testing has made life easier for developers and testers. Being an open-source tool, it allows for faster execution and eliminates manual repetition and errors.

Furthermore, learning Selenium with Java improves testing, particularly in regression and cross-browser testing. With additional plugins to Selenium, testing has become more accessible and less time-consuming.

Source: This article was originally published at https://testgrid.io/blog/selenium-best-practices-and-tips/.