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Apart from the differences explained in the older version of Selenium IDE versus the latest version of Selenium IDE, I will explain the new features in the latest version of Selenium IDE in detail in this article.
Let’s get started.
New Features in Latest Selenium IDE Version
The following are the different new features in the latest version of Selenium IDE:
New Selenium IDE supports more Browsers
While the older version of Selenium IDE used to support only Firefox browser, the latest version of Selenium IDE supports both Firefox and Chrome Browsers.
The following image depicts the New Selenium IDE and its Browsers support.
Note: We cannot install and use Selenium IDE in the other browsers like Opera, IE, etc. (i.e. Only Firefox and Chrome browsers are supported by Selenium IDE).
Refer the below articles for installing the Selenium IDE in Firefox and Chrome Browsers:
New Selenium IDE has a strong locating strategy
When compared to the older version of Selenium IDE, the latest version of Selenium IDE has a strong locating strategy known as Fallback Locators strategy.
In New Selenium IDE, Fallback Locators strategy got introduced.
Using this strategy, the Selenium IDE while recording the Tests will capture multiple locators for a single UI element. And while playback of these tests, if any locator fails to locate the required UI element, the Selenium IDE will try to locate the UI element using the other alternative locators from the list of multiple locators captured for the UI element during the recording process.
Hence the recorded test will only fail when all the multiple locators captured by Selenium IDE for the required UI element fail to locate the element.
Refer to the below article for more details:
New Selenium IDE automatically waits for the UI elements to load on the page
We don’t have to explicitly provide wait commands in the latest Selenium IDE, to make it wait for the UI elements to completely load on the web pages before performing any operations on it.
During the execution of tests, the New Selenium IDE automatically waits for the UI elements to completely load on the page before performing any operations on them.
Note: In the older version of Selenium IDE, we used to provide wait commands in Selenium IDE before performing the operation on a few elements which take time to load on the page due to several reasons like poor network bandwidth, etc.
New Selenium IDE has commands for implementing Control Flow
New Selenium IDE provides different commands to implement the below two types of Control Flows in Tests.
- Conditionals
- Loops
As part of Conditionals, New Selenium IDE provides the commands for the below:
- if
- else if
- else
And as part of Loops, New Selenium IDE provides the commands for the below:
- times
- while
- repeat if
- for each
Refer to the below articles for more details:
New Selenium IDE now allows us to execute JavaScript
We can now use the commands provided in the New Selenium IDE to execute the third-party JavaScript code.
Refer to the below articles for more details:
New Selenium IDE Scripts can be edited
Once the tests are recorded in the new Selenium IDE, we can perform any of the below as part of editing them:
- Insert new commands in between the existing recorded steps
- Modify the Steps by selecting and editing them
- Delete the steps that are not required
- Cut, Copy, Paste and Clear all the steps
All of the above features will help us simply edit the scripts instead of rerecording them every time.
All the above-said things are explained as part of the previous articles in the Selenium IDE section.
New Selenium IDE allows us to debug the recorded tests
While executing the recorded tests in Selenium IDE, few tests may fail.
We need to troubleshoot the tests that are failing, with the intention of finding the exact reason for which the Tests are failing.
For this, we need to debug the failing tests by adding breakpoints in the steps where ever we have to halt during the execution and investigate the failure causes.
When the test steps having the breakpoints get executed, the execution stops and we can see the current state of the browser to find why the tests are failing.
Refer to the below article for more details:
New Selenium IDE Test Scripts are stored in JSON format
New Selenium IDE store the Test Scripts in JSON format and hence will make it easy for us to inspect the text inside the stored JSON and change the things like URL, Locators, etc. by modifying them in the JSON file itself.
Refer to the below article for more details:
New Selenium IDE can be extended with Plugins
By default, the Selenium IDE may not have the features that you may need.
To get the features you need in your way in Selenium IDE, there are two possibilities.
Possibility # 1 – Develop your own Plugin with an intention of customizing Selenium IDE per your needs, by installing it to extend the default features in Selenium IDE.
Possibility # 2 – Use a third party Plugin already developed by someone on the top of Selenium IDE to customize the Selenium IDE according to your needs.
Refer to the below article for more details:
New Selenium IDE has a command-line runner for making Parallel Execution and Cross Browser Testing possible
The older version of Selenium IDE used to execute the Tests recorded in Selenium IDE only in the Firefox browser and that too in a sequential way (i.e. One Test will be executed after the other test in sequential order).
But in the latest Selenium IDE, we can use the Selenium IDE Command-line runner to execute the Tests recorded in Selenium IDE. Apart from executing Tests in Selenium IDE, we can also execute them from the command line using Selenium IDE command-line runner.
Selenium IDE command-line runner is also known as Selenium IDE Runner or SIDE Runner in short.
Using this command-line runner we can execute the Selenium IDE tests in parallel (i.e. at the same time multiple tests can be executed simultaneously) and also we can execute the tests in different browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc. (i.e. Cross-browser testing is possible).
Refer to the below articles for more details:
- > Configuring Selenium IDE Command line runner
- > Parallel Execution using Selenium IDE
- > Cross Browser Testing using Selenium IDE
- > Headless Chrome Browser Execution using Selenium IDE
- > Filtering Selenium IDE Tests using Command line runner
- > Executing Selenium IDE Tests on SauceLabs
Apart from the above articles on Command-Line Runner, you can also go through the below link for more details on utilizing command-line runner to the full extent.
New Selenium IDE supports Continuous Integration
Continuous Integration practice when implemented in the Software Development, allows the Project team to integrate their work frequently. i.e. Developers (Software or Automation) will develop the functionality code they are assigned to work with and integrate their code when ready to the Centralized Project code where all the developers are integrating their code to.
Continuous Integration practice allows the developers to integrate their part of code to the Centralized Project code more times in a day and hence supports in the speedy development.
We can also use the Tests created using New Selenium IDE in the Continuous Integration process.
Refer to the below article for the practical demonstration on using Selenium IDE in Continous Integration process
Here conclude all the new features available in the latest Selenium IDE.
Next Steps:
- > To learn more about Selenium, continue to the next post (Click on Next Post link below)
- > Check complete Selenium Tutorial Contents here (Click here)
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