Selenium Webdriver is a structural framework that is designed for automation testing. It allows testing across various browsers. It can execute multiple tests over multiple browsers on multiple OS (Operating Systems).
Selenium Webdriver can test dynamic websites where the content of pages changes with a mouse click and is also very useful in designing multiple programming languages to create test scripts.
Selenium Web Driver is the most effective and essential part of the Selenium Suite. It provides a scripting-based or programming interface to create, program, and run test cases. To recognize web components, the Test Scripts (most probably web tests) are scripted in order. Then the desired task is made for process on those elements on web pages that are uncertain.
As direct web browser calls are made available without any mediator, the Selenium web driver productivity is much higher. Every time to have the most identical driver for every browser, Web Driver directly takes actions on different browsers or compilers.
Features of Selenium Webdriver:
- Selenium Webdriver has Multi-Browser Compatibility
- It is developed with speed and immediate performance basis compared to others tools.
- Handles dynamic web elements.
- It is an easy mode to identify and use the web elements.
- It is a Community forum based and also a budget-friendly tool.
- It reduces the test execution time, which makes the execution faster and more reliable.
Components of Selenium Webdriver:
Selenium Webdriver is one of the most powerful tools for controlling the web browser through different programs. Its scripts are written in various languages, work on all major OS, and, most importantly, are functional for all browsers.
Let us walk through some of the significant tools of Selenium Webdriver:
HTML Unit Driver:
Html Unit is a java based implementation of a web browser. Selenium is for Functional & Regression Testing, and it supports Functional Testing of Web Applications only; HTML – Hypertext Mark-up Language is the standard mark-up language for creating web pages and web applications. The basic framework of an HTML document includes elements, tags, and attributes.
Safari Driver:
Safari Drivers are used to write tests in Python, Java, PHP, JavaScript, and any other language whose library is compatible with the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) WebDriver protocol.
Opera Driver:
Opera Driver is Opera’s WebDriver implementation that follows the standard WebDriver API (Application Programming Interface), which has recently become Selenium 2. It avails the benefits by supporting the Opera browser on mobile phones, desktops, and even on devices. It is a direct-use standalone package, and with the help of the protocol buffers, it uses the network protocols.
Internet Explorer Driver:
Internet Explorer (IE) is bundled with the Microsoft Windows operating system (OS) as it is a World Wide Web browser. In favor of Microsoft’s new Edge Browser, the browser was diminished in Windows 10. Despite no longer being the default browser, it still constitutes a component of the operating system.
Google Chrome Driver:
Chrome Driver is a different workable or feasible solution that Selenium WebDriver uses to control Chrome. With help from WebDriver contributors, it is maintained by the Chromium team.
Opera Driver:
Opera Driver is Opera’s WebDriver implementation that follows the standard WebDriver API (Application Programming Interface), which has recently become Selenium 2. It avails the benefits by supporting the Opera browser on mobile phones, desktops, and even on devices. It is a direct-use standalone package, and with the help of the protocol buffers, it uses the network protocols.
Internet Explorer Driver:
Internet Explorer (IE) is bundled with the Microsoft Windows operating system (OS) as it is a World Wide Web browser. In favor of Microsoft’s new Edge Browser, the browser was diminished in Windows 10. Despite no longer being the default browser, it still constitutes a component of the operating system.
Google Chrome Driver:
Chrome Driver is a different workable or feasible solution that Selenium WebDriver uses to control Chrome. With help from WebDriver contributors, it is maintained by the Chromium team.
Mozilla Firefox Driver:
Mozilla developers introduced the Gecko driver, also known as the
, to help testers to automate browser tests on Firefox browsers.
Advantages of Selenium Webdriver:
- It supports various programming languages to write programs (Test Scripts)
- It supports multiple operating systems (MS Windows)
- It supports various Browsers (Google Chrome, IE, Opera…)
- It supports parallel test execution.
- It uses fewer Hardware resources.
Disadvantages of Selenium Webdriver:
- No reliable Technical support from anybody
- It supports web-based applications only.
- It takes lump sum time to create the test cases and is also very difficult to use.
- Limited license for image testing
- New features may not work properly.
- No test tool integration for Test Management
- No built-in reporting facility.
