Top Reasons Why Selenium is Ideal for Automation Testing

by Tech Addict Writer, Blogger

With more and more businesses going online, the functionality and user experience of web applications control the success of our business. And, the relevant automation testing practices before the actual release to the market is critical. Selenium has become an increasingly popular automation testing tool as the popularity of web apps continues to surge. Being open-source, it even works across different browsers and platforms. It is a top-notch offering that seeks to greatly ease automation testing for web applications.

However, before we delve into why Selenium is such a great tool, let us take a look at its key components:

IDE: It records all tests and allows them to be played back later
Remote Control: Typically used for building intricate web UI test cases inclusive of DB queries, exceptions, etc.
WebDriver: An interface that enables the creation and execution of test cases
Grid: A proxy server to facilitate simultaneous execution of multiple test scripts across different systems

Now that you have a brief idea of Selenium’s components, let us also take a look at why it makes sense to use this nifty tool for automation testing.

Ease of implementation: Automation testing is a complex task on account of factors such as the variety of platforms, programming languages, etc. involved. Selenium seeks to help alleviate some of the load associated with automation testing by ensuring the ease of using the tool across different OS platforms, browsers, etc. Selenium also gets top-notch reporting capabilities, which further boosts this tool’s charm.
OS support: It is common knowledge that apps’ users do not always all use the same OS platforms. What this means for testing teams is that their automation testing tool should be able to operate and run across the various OS platforms in the market, such as Linux, Windows, macOS, etc. Selenium enables this as well; in fact, it also allows testers to write scripts on one OS and then run them on another OS.
Browser support: This tool is underpinned by the following tenet: one script for all browsers; i.e. testers should be able to run their test scripts on a variety of browsers without needing to rewrite the test script over and over again for each of the browsers they wish to target. So, no matter if you want to run your test script on Safari, Chrome, Opera, Firefox, or any other web browser — Selenium-based test scripts can be executed on them all.
Programming language support: The modern app development ecosystem involves the use of a variety of different tools and programming languages. This means the testing tool one uses should also be compatible with these languages. Selenium fares quite well in this department, thanks to the fact that it offers widespread support for a whole lot of new-age and prevalent programming languages such as C#, C, C++, Perl, Java, Ruby, Python, etc. What this means for your project is that you can write the test script in any language you prefer.

Selenium is decidedly among the top tools available in the market for testing automation. Its value in the market is further fortified by the fact that its makers regularly introduce updates to not only address bugs and other issues but also ensure that the tool can successfully deliver on the growing demands of an evolving market. You too can leverage the many, many benefits Selenium has to offer for your development projects — all you need to do now is look for and find a reliable automated testing services company with expertise in Selenium.