With the increasing consumer demands and constant technological advancements, web applications are becoming more complex. That complicates the job of a QA engineer who has to test the application’s new features across different platforms to ensure its quality. In today’s competitive landscape, delivering a flawless user experience is crucial for any business. Therefore, QA teams often use reliable open-source tools like Selenium for effective and reliable app testing. Undoubtedly, Selenium reduces the need for manual testing, which speeds up the process. Unfortunately, most businesses cannot leverage the maximum benefits of this testing framework.
But why? They are unaware of the best practices for using Selenium, which we will discuss in this blog. Understanding these techniques will enable your teams to run tests more efficiently and successfully. Without further ado, let’s examine the best practices your QA engineers should adhere to.
Selenium Best Practices To Look For
1. Avoid Blocking Sleep Calls
The behavior of web applications is influenced by outside variables such as server load, device capabilities, network speed, and access location. These automation testing factors make it hard to predict how long a web element will take to load. It is possible to give a web element time to load by adding a delay before interacting with it. On the other hand, a blocking sleep call (such as time. sleep in Python or Thread. sleep in Java) stops the test thread for a certain amount of seconds, which can cause the test to run more slowly than necessary.
For instance, if a blocking sleep of 5 seconds is used but the element loads faster, the test still waits, causing delays and potential stability issues. It can be problematic when you use Java to run tests multiple times across different browsers. A Selenium mobile testing alternative is to use Selenium’s Implicit and Explicit waits. Implicit wait tells the browser to wait for a set time until all elements on the page do not load. If an element loads sooner, the code moves on without waiting for the entire duration. Explicit wait, on the other hand, waits for a specific condition to be met before moving on. It is more efficient and reduces unnecessary delays.
# Implicit wait example in Selenium WebDriver
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
# Explicit wait example in Selenium WebDriver
timeout = 10
element_present = EC.presence_of_element_located((By.LINK_TEXT, 'Sitemap'))
WebDriverWait(driver, timeout).until(element_present)
2. Set Browser Zoom to 100%
Your team must ensure the browser zoom level is 100% when conducting automation testing. Reliable test results depend on the mouse events being set to the correct coordinates, which it will provide. Further, changing the zoom level can also alter how elements are rendered on the page. Some elements might be hidden, resized, or shifted, which may again produce inconsistent results. Therefore, it is one of the best practices to ensure that the browser is set to a 100 percent zoom level before running the test.
3. Name Test Cases and Suites Clearly
Clear and descriptive names for test cases and suites help the Selenium automation testing company team members understand the purpose of each test without having to read the entire code. It is essential when tests fail, as descriptive names can quickly indicate which functionalities are broken. Proper naming conventions reduce the time spent searching through test implementations.
4. Maximize the Browser Window
Always maximize the browser window during Selenium test automation. This way, you can ensure that the screenshots capture the entire webpage, which can be crucial while debugging the application. Maximizing the Selenium testing services window also eliminates the errors caused by the element overlap due to limited space. If the browser window is not maximized, Selenium might need to scroll to bring some aspects into view. It can lead to timing issues or complications if the page’s dynamic content loads differently during scrolling. As a result, it becomes necessary to maximize the browser window to reduce the likelihood of unexpected issues.
5. Choose the Right Web Locator
Selecting the right web locator ensures that Selenium interacts with the correct web element during testing. If a wrong web locator is chosen because they share the same attributes, then the testing Selenium result can be inaccurate and reliable. Additionally, the right web locator can drastically improve the test’s performance and efficiency by reducing the required time. Another significant advantage of selecting the right web locator is making updates more accessible for the QA team. It also increases the readability of the test scripts and makes debugging easy even for a new member.
6. Create a Browser Compatibility Matrix
A browser compatibility matrix is essential for cross-browser testing. This matrix helps prioritize browser and OS combinations based on user data, geolocation, and other analytics. App testing ensures that your applications work well across all major browsers for a better user experience. The compatibility matrix also tells you about your application’s accessibility. Therefore, creating a browser compatibility matrix helps ensure your application performs well across desktops and small mobiles.
7. Implement Logging and Reporting
Logging helps track down the cause of test failures by providing detailed information about the test execution. To efficiently classify log messages, use several log levels, such as debug, info, warning, error, and critical. Proper logging and reporting are crucial to maintaining the readability of test outputs and speeding up the debugging process.
8. Use Design Patterns like Page Object Model (POM)
The Page Object Model (POM) and other design patterns aid in the maintenance of Selenium mobile test scripts and decrease code duplication. In POM, a separate class represents each web page, and all interactions with page elements are through these page classes. So, it makes the test code cleaner, easier to maintain, and less prone to errors during a change in the UI.
9. Use BDD Framework with Selenium
Behavior Driven Development (BDD) is used to write test cases in simple English, making them accessible to non-technical stakeholders. BDD frameworks like Cucumber, Behave, and SpecFlow bridge the gap between business and technical teams to improve product quality. Selenium automation companies also enhance test scripts’ readability and maintenance. Further, BDD frameworks ensure that all user stories and acceptance criteria are translated into test scenarios, leading to better test coverage.
10. Use Data-Driven Testing
Using various data sources for the same set of tests is known as data-driven testing (DDT). This method improves test coverage and aids in finding problems with different data sources—multiple tools like TestNG, JUnit, and PyTest support parameterization for DDT. DDT is necessary for the application to support various local languages. So, by feeding different data, you can ensure your application is working smoothly in other regions. Since app testing improves test coverage and lowers redundancy, DDT is beneficial.
11. Avoid Using a Single Driver Implementation
Do not assume the availability of a specific WebDriver when running tests on continuous build servers. Use parameterization to handle different browser types and make the test framework flexible for cross-browser testing. This can help you detect browser-specific issues, which is necessary to ensure that the application performs well, irrespective of the browser. Another significant advantage is that it makes your test more flexible and future-proof, as you’re not tied to one browser or driver.
12. Design Autonomous Test Cases
You must avoid dependencies between test cases because they can complicate the testing selenium suite and limit parallel execution. Autonomous test cases, conversely, are self-contained, meaning they are independent of the other test results. This isolation fosters debugging and helps testers to produce more reliable and authentic test results. Since autonomous tests are independent, they support parallel testing. This allows developers to perform simultaneous tests on multiple devices, speeds up the execution time, and provides faster feedback.
13. Use Assert and Verify Correctly
Use ‘assert’ to halt test execution when a critical error occurs, such as failing to find a necessary element. Use ‘verify’ for less critical checks where mobile testing execution should continue even if the condition fails.
14. Avoid Code Duplication
Avoid duplicating code in Selenium test scripts. Commonly used code should be refactored into reusable methods or functions. It reduces code size, improves maintainability, and organizes the test suite. By adhering to these best practices, you may write Selenium test automation scripts that are effective, dependable, and maintainable.
15. Leverage Parallel Testing in Selenium
Parallel testing is a critical feature that makes Selenium popular. It allows multiple tests to run simultaneously, saving time and resources. Most testing frameworks, like PyTest, PyUnit, TestNG, and Cucumber, support parallel testing with Selenium automation companies. This feature helps run tests across different environments, including various browsers, platforms, and device emulators, all at once. By enabling parallel testing, you can significantly reduce test execution time. It ensures faster feedback and quicker releases, which is crucial in agile development.
Wrapping Up!
In a world where digital experiences define user satisfaction, thorough and accurate testing becomes non-negotiable. By implementing these practices, QA engineers can ensure their testing processes are efficient and capable of catching issues. App testing also leads to a more reliable, high-quality product. Leveraging Selenium’s full potential allows teams to automate repetitive tasks, execute comprehensive tests, and maintain a robust test environment. Ultimately, mastering these best practices helps deliver a flawless user experience. It also minimizes the risks associated with releasing new features and updates.
AutomationQA
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