Selenium and needs of Selenium for Automation.
Published: 2023-12-21 18:05:08

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## Selenium
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Selenium is an open-source Automation tool used to test the web applications across different browsers and platforms.

There are many tools that can be used to perform automation testing, but selenium presides over every tool because of its high speed and efficiency rate.
Selenium is very flexible, and we can add more functionality to the framework to create changes to the automation. These advantages are not available in other tools.
The extensibility factor allows the tester to create their own versions to get high performance.
Selenium Software is not a single tool but it is composed of different tools (suite of software)
**List of Selenium tools:**
Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
Selenium Remote Control (RC)
Selenium WebDriver
Selenium Grid
**Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE)**: It is a prototyping tool that creates test scripts. it can be used as plugins in chrome and firfox which makes it easier to use. it records every user action(workflow) that can be used in late stages of testing.
**Selenium Remote Control (RC):** It’s a testing framework that uses linear equations. it uses programming languages such as java, C++, Python, Ruby, PERL and PHP. It supports browser like Firefox, safari and Opera.
**Selenium WebDriver: **It is sending the report directly to the web browsers and will take the results. it has got some attractive features like object-oriented API and increased flexibility. it supports the browsers like chrome, safari, Opera, FireFox, Android, iOS, Html unit, Phantoms.
**Selenium Grid:** It is an advanced version which allows simultaneous execution of an application in different browsers to find the least running time. it divides the total test suite to work in different machines at the same time.

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## Advantages of Selenium
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**Language and Framework Support** - Selenium supports all major languages like Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, Ruby and pearl for software test automation.
**Open-Source Availability** - Selenium, as an open-source technology, also allows you to customize the code for easier management and to improve the functionality of preset methods and classes.
**Multi-Browser Support** - The Selenium compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Microsoft edge and browsers worldwide.
**Support Across Various Operations** - supporting across all different operating systems like Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Unix, etc.
**Ease of Implementation** - The selenium automation framework is very easy to use as it provides a user-friendly interface that helps users create and execute test scripts easily and effectively. 
**Reusability and Integrations** - Selenium automation test used is usable and could be tested across multiple browsers and operating systems. it requires third party frameworks and add-ons for broadening the scope of testing.
TestNG and JUnit for managing test cases and generating reports. 
To achieve continuous testing, we should integrate it with some CI/CD tools. 
For image-based testing, required Sikuli and perform cross-browser testing with cloud Grid such as Lambda Test.
**Flexibility** - Regrouping and retracting test cases, It helps developers and testers in quick changes to the code, reducing duplication, minimising complications, and improving maintainability.  
**Parallel test execution and faster market launch** - With the guidance of the Selenium grid We can execute multiple tests in parallel and reduce the test execution time. 
With cloud rates for cross-browser testing, we can test across hundreds of browsers in parallel by using Selenium.
**Less Hardware Usage** - Selenium requires less hardware than other testing tools, if comparing with other automation tools like QTP, UFT, Silk Test, etc.

**Easy to Learn and Use** - Selenium scripts are not something like writing a hundred pages of complex algorithm. it’s very simple functionalities. There are many resources available online to help to use the selenium.

These features make the Selenium more flexible and usable than other automation testing tools and help the benefits of Selenium keep an edge.