Selenium Architecture and Python Virtual Environment
Tags: selenium, seleniumarchitecture, python, virtualenvironment
Published: 2024-01-24 09:19:16

Testing is a vital part of software development and no product can be launched in the market without proper testing, Selenium is a web automated testing tool that supports cross-browser testing across various operating systems. It was developed in 2004 by Jason Huggins to make manual testing easier using JavaScript.

## Selenium WebDriver

 It is a popular open-sourced library and a key component in automated testing in web applications. 
It is a collection of APIs that enable testers to use Java, Python, C#, Ruby or JavaScript to create test scripts to automate web browser actions and retrieve information from the web.

## Components of Selenium

The following are the main components of Selenium framework:

**Selenium IDE**

It refers to Selenium Integrated Development Environment. It is a Firefox plug-in that allows testers to record and play back scripts. Usually it is used as a prototyping tool because of its simplicity. Its main advantage is that it does not require in-depth knowledge of programming languages.

**Selenium Remote Control**

It is sometimes referred to as Selenium 1 because it was the first testing framework to be developed and was a preferred web automation framework. It is now an outdated technology that been replaced by WebDriver.

**Selenium WebDriver**

It is a major component of Selenium architecture that n allows automating user actions with web browsers and communicating with the browsers through open-source APIs.
It consists of the following:
 - _Selenium Client Library_  consists of various language libraries for Python, Java, Ruby and other programming languages that can be used to write automation scripts and sends these commands to the network for execution. They are compatiable with W3C protocols like HTTP and TCP.
 - _Selenium API_ is a set of rules and regulations that is used by a programming language to communicate. It helps in automation, without the tester understanding what is happening in the background.
 - _JSON Wire Protocol_ converts the commands that are written into JSON, transmits to the client or web browser using the HTTP protocol for execution.
 - _Browser Drivers_ are used to carry out communication between Selenium scripts, libraries and the respective browser. 
 - _Browsers_ such as Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome 12.0.712.0 and above, Safari, Opera 11.5 and above, Android and iOS are supported.

**Selenium Grid**

It is used to run parallel tests on multiple devices running different browsers at different geographical locations simultaneously. It uses the Master-Slave Architecture, where a master device or process has control over how and when subordinate devices and processes use resources.

## Python Virtual Environment

Virtual environment is a tool that is helps to keep the libraries and dependencies for each project separate from each other. It is also helps to prevent dependency issues that may arise and also improves the compatibility of the versions used. It is one of the most important tools used by developers and testers.

There are many advantages of using a virtual environment to work with the project. Some of them are as follows:

In a scenario where a user has multiple projects, where each project requires different dependencies, creating different  virtual environments for each project makes it easier by avoiding unnecessary clashes.

It ensures that a project will run correctly using the right libraries and versions.

Virtual environment makes it easier to run the same project on different machines. When many people work on the same project at the same time, a commonly generated code can be shared along with all the dependencies.