We live in a digital era where almost every company offers its services to consumers online through mobile applications, websites, software packages, etc. Hence, automated testing is the key to maintaining the progress and success of such companies by managing the quality of their products and services and offering a great user experience.
Automation testing mainly assists them in addressing any underlying issues of security issues, performance, compatibility, UI/UX design, and website functionality. However, using the right tools for automated testing at the right time is crucial to deliver a quality product quickly. Such tools ensure that the rewards of automation are delivered to the fullest. Selenium ranks #1. It is an incredible open-source test automation tool that can be executed in multiple OSs and browsers.
Selenium also supports multiple scripting languages such as Java, Python, C#, Ruby, PHP, JavaScript, .Net, Perl, etc., depending on the particular app to be tested. In the Software Testing Tools category, this tool has a market share of nearly 26.4% & 51% of its customers are in the USA. Selenium is frequently used with other QA testing tools like TestNG or JUnit to generate comprehensive automated tests for online apps. It can also test web applications automatically for performance and functionality. Besides, it can produce reports or scrape data automatically from sites. The fact that Selenium is a free/ open-source technology gives it a significant edge over other QA test tools in that there are no license fees.
Website: Selenium
License: Open-source
Additional components influencing Selenium’s growing popularity comprise –
- It offers continuous testing through Maven, Jenkins, and Docker.
- Windows, Linux, Mac and are the three supported operating platforms for testing.
Over the past five years, Python language has revealed exponential growth in the QA world/ industry. It is an extensively used high-level interpreted language. Known for its ease of readability and use, Python has gained huge popularity for its Selenium bindings, which enable WebDrivers to be controlled and managed by Python code. Python is often used for artificial intelligence (AI), scientific computing, web development, and video games.
As per Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2021, Python is the 3rd most-popular language after HTML/CSS and JavaScript The prowess of Python and Selenium assists in automated interactions with the WebElements in the Document Object Model (DOM).
Selenium Python bindings offer a convenient API to access Selenium WebDrivers such as Edge, Chrome, Firefox, etc. These bindings let you create reliable and concise tests with little code. As a result, Python has become a preferred option for automating web browser tests. Now consider combining Python with Selenium and imagine how robust an automated framework can become.
Why do we use Python and Selenium for Automation Testing?
Selenium has a robust toolkit that firmly supports the fast development of automated testing for online apps. It offers a wide selection of testing features that meet the requirements of web app testing. Python, on the flip side, is an object-based, top-level scripting language designed particularly for simple interpretation.
Some of the core reasons why Selenium Python automated testing is highly convenient are
- It is simple to read, simple to code, and runs fast.
- The Python API makes it simpler to link to the browser via Selenium. Selenium Python bonding offers straightforward APIs to conduct practical & functional tests on Selenium WebDriver efficiently.
- Python is a computer language that is less verbose and tremendously user-friendly than other programming languages. The Python Application Programming Interface lets you use Selenium to connect with the browser. Irrespective of how a web browser is designed, Selenium can effortlessly communicate standard Python commands to multiple browsers.
- Python Selenium is a relatively simple and stress-free library to use.
- Selenium with Python has an extensive range of tools to encompass it. As a result, the WebDriver is a great binding for Python.
Compared to numerous other programming languages, it has the minimum problematical grammar. Therefore, the Selenium Python ChromeDriver is the coolest and safest option over complex automated testing.
Why select Python over Java in Selenium Testing?
Using programming languages like Python instead of Java for Selenium has myriad benefits. They are –
- Python is a simple and productive language.
- Python is relatively easy to install and runs quicker than Java.
- Selenium tool facilitates the Python API’s interface to the browser. By prudently employing Selenium WebDriver Python, the Selenium and Python node provides an easy API for writing functional testing.
- Python language is easily supported on almost all platforms, counting Linux, Mac, and Windows. This proposes that there is a low learning curve, and hence makes it simpler to write Selenium automated scripts.
- The most common Python automated testing framework is PyTest. Just like different Python frameworks, it is used for E2E tests, unit tests, and integration & system tests. It has been improved with additional capacities to assist parameterized tests. The PyTest framework extension’s plugin assists in parallel tests, amongst several other things.
- The Python syntax command keeps Python codes clear and highly legible.
- Testers can generate effective automated scripts for the automation test suite by using the wide standards offered by the Python libraries.
To set up the Selenium Python environment for automated testing, we need to follow definite steps. Before getting into them, let us take a glance at the list of our requirements to do that so:
- One: Python [obviously :)]
- Two: Selenium WebDriver
- Optional: An IDE (Not a must, but nice to have)
Setting Up a Test Environment in Selenium Python
Step 1: Install Python
Before proceeding with the further steps, ensure to install the latest version of Python on your machine. The latest stable version of Python was 3.9.7. Download and install it from:
Go to https://www.python.org/downloads/ and click on the newest version available.
If you have multiple versions of Python installed already on your machine, you would require to use python3 for using Python 3.9.7. But, if you are on Mac, triggering the python3 command will use Python 3.9.7, whereas triggering the python command will use Python 2.
After clicking save the file & run it once it is installed (most preferably as administrator).
If everything is fine, we can start Python on the command line.
Open up a fresh command line and type ‘command prompt’ (‘cmd’) after clicking the ‘windows’ button.
Type ‘python’, and Python will run.
You can even type ‘exit()’ to close the command prompt or close Python directly.
As we have installed Python, now next step is to install Selenium Webdriver. Though there are numerous ways to download Selenium Webdriver, in this case, it is better to download it via ‘pip’, the Package Management System for Python.
Step 2: Download and Install the pip
PIP term stands for Preferred Installer Program. It is the most preferred package manager that is used for installing software packages written in Python. The preferred Installer Program is installed by default along with Python.
Like Python 3, it would be better to install pip3 so that we can make use of Python 3 for the development of the test scenarios.
You can install pip from https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installation/.
The pip installer is the easiest technique for installing Selenium in Python.
You can check and confirm whether pip has been installed or not by executing the below command:
pip –version
Step 3: PyTest is more widely used than PyUnit (the default automated test framework with Python). Henceforth, we have used PyTest for demo purposes in this article. For installing a framework like PyTest, execute the following command:
pip3 install –U pytest
You can confirm whether the PyTest installation is done or not by running the below command:
pytest –version
Presented below is the result of the above command.
Step 3: If the Selenium framework isn’t installed on the machine, run the below command for installing the Selenium testing framework:
The following command helps to retrieve the Selenium version installed for Python:
Here is the result of the above command that confirms the Selenium version installed on the machine:
The test would be executed on the browser Chrome. Hence, you must download the Chrome WebDriver that matches the ‘main’ version of Chrome on your Computer. If you have Google Chrome version 84.0.4147.105 in the system, you should download Chrome WebDriver with the same version.
It is always a great practice to download the WebDriver browser (i.e., Chrome WebDriver in our case) on the site where the corresponding browser is already installed. By performing so, you wouldn’t be needed to state it’s the path when instantiating Google Chrome WebDriver.
The prerequisites for executing the Selenium automated test script with Python, as well as, PyTest, are finished.
How to execute Web Automation Tests using Python and Selenium?
Now that we have covered the prerequisites concerning setting up Selenium in Python, let us get into the topic by testing some real test scenarios. In this case, we would run two test scenarios on a local Selenium Grid.
Shortest Examples – Test Scenarios
Test Scenario – I (Browser – Firefox)
- Navigate to the URL: https://lambdatest.github.io/sample-todo-app/.
- Choose the first two checkboxes.
- You have to send it to the textbox ‘Happy Testing’ at LambdaTest’ with id = sampletodotext.
- Click the Add Button check, and confirm whether the text has been added or not.
Test Scenario – II (Browser – Chrome)
- Navigate to the URL: https://www.google.com.
- Locate the search box and send ‘LambdaTest’ to the search box.
- Click on the web link that comprises the LambdaTest HomePage U
To deliver an app with the optimal user experience, use cloud-based tools like Lambdatest providing access to real devices and 3000+ browsers to test on. Test on a real-time device cloud to give a seamless cross-platform experience through accurate tests. As testing on Cloud Selenium Grid takes real-time user conditions into account, it assists in identifying the bottlenecks/ glitches and delivers a flawless and consistent user experience across varied devices and browsers.
Conclusion
The potential of Selenium and Python can be truly exploited by executing Python automation testing on a cloud-based Selenium Grid (like LambdaTest). Also, it is comparatively simple to run Selenium Python tests in parallel via the Pytest-xdist plugin. Besides, this approach aids in enhancing the quality of the product by boosting the overall browser coverage. In addition, automating the testing procedure saves loads of time during the test, so you must ensure that you spend considerable time designing the tests to detect and capture all possible scenarios. It’s always better to catch bugs/glitches in the testing phase rather than leading to a user complaint.
Selenium WebDriver has made test automation simpler and more highly efficient than ever. By using Python to create test scripts, it is also simple to run automated UI Testing for mobile applications. This is beneficial, particularly when development cycles are shorter and the features have to be added every week to keep up with the consumers’ demand.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Why is Selenium mostly used?
Selenium WebDriver is one of the remarkable tools used for automating web app tests. It simulates how a user interacts with any site. Selenium WebDriver can be used for regression, functional, and E2E testing. Selenium WebDriver is widely used as it is open source, supports multi browsers, and has huge community support. Besides, Selenium can be integrated with several other tools, such as TestNG and Jenkins, for the best results. Hence, Selenium is the tool of better choice for various software testing experts.
- Can we use Python for Selenium?
Selenium supports Python language and henceforth can be used with Se (Selenium) for testing. Python is far less verbose as compared to other programming languages. The Python APIs empower one to link with the browser through Selenium.
- Which language is better for Selenium?
When you can use multiple languages for Selenium WebDrivers, there are a few clear benefits to using Python. First and foremost, Python is a concise and highly readable language, which makes it simple to write Selenium tests. Secondly, Python has an active and extensive community of software developers, which means that various resources are obtainable for learning the language and troubleshooting any issues you may encounter. Lastly, Python is extensively used in the field of automated testing. For all such critical reasons, Python is a great option for Selenium web development.
- What is Selenium Python used for?
Many software programmers have started using Se (Selenium) with Python for automated testing. Mentioned below are some of the reasons:
- For web app testing, Selenium is an extensively used automated tool that proffers numerous functions. Such functions are built to meet the necessities of web app testing.
- Selenium sends common commands of Python to several browsers regardless of the browser design.
- Python language is gaining huge popularity as it has fewer syntax errors and can be coded with an easy keyword.
- The binding of Selenium and Python gives several APIs which assist in writing functional testing.
- Both Python and Selenium are free/ open source. Hence, any person can easily download and utilize it in any environment.
- How do I get Selenium for Python?
After installing Python language, open the command prompt & modify the directory to the folder where Python programming language is present and run pip install Selenium. This will add the newest Selenium libraries to Python.
C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32>pip install Selenium.
You can check the Selenium libraries in Lib\site-packages folder in Python.
- How does Selenium function with Python?
Utilize the following steps to configure Selenium utilizing Python:
- Download & install Python on Windows.
- Install Se (Selenium) libraries in Python.
- Download & then install PyUnit/ PyCharm.
- Create a fresh project & write the Selenium test script.
- Run & validate the test scripts.
- Is Se (Selenium) with python in demand?
Selenium WebDriver and Python together make a robust combination to test web apps and are famous among web developers. Python code can be utilized to connect UI Unit testing and Selenium WebDriver with the aid of API. Besides, the bindings offer the foundation for automated complex web-centric interfaces, eradicating much of the work generally involved in structuring testing to meet particular test objectives.
- What is Selenium WebDriver Python?
Selenium WebDriver is the most preferred and famous tool for Web UI Automation. Selenium is a free/ open-source tool, and its library is accessible in various programming languages to run the Web UI Automated tests, and Python is one of them.
- How much Python knowledge is necessary for Selenium?
You have to recognize all the fundamental level programming concepts in Python as Se (Selenium) is pretty simple to use, and Python is pretty simple to learn. You don’t need to master Python; simply, fundamental programming skills are needed.
