How to use maven to create selenium project

In this article, we will understand the basics of maven and how to create maven project for Selenium WebDriver in eclipse.

Problem Statement of this article:

• Understanding the use of maven for creating a selenium Project.

• Installing maven plug-in for eclipse

• Creating a maven Project in eclipse

• Adding dependencies for Selenium

Understanding the use of maven for creating a selenium Project.

• Maven provides a uniform build system.
• A Project Object Model or POM is an XML file in maven that contains project and configuration information used by Maven to build the project.
• We can add and configure dependencies for selenium, TestNG and other resources in the maven Project using POM.xml file
• Maven helps to define Project structure for better management of resources.
• Maven automatically downloads the necessary files added in dependencies for WebDriver and other resources while building the project.

Installing maven plug-in for eclipse

Below are the steps to install maven plug-in for eclipse

• Open eclipse and click on Help>Eclipse Marketplace
• Search for Maven integration for Eclipse in eclipse marketplace. Install Maven integration for Eclipse
• Restart eclipse.
• Maven plug-in has been added in eclipse.

Creating a maven Project in eclipse:

  Pre-Condition: Maven Plug-in is added in eclipse.Below are the steps to create a maven project in eclipse.

• Navigate to File>New>Project.
• It will ask to select a wizard. Select Maven>Maven Project and click on Next

• To start with, select create a simple project in the window and click on Next.
• Provide the details for the artifact including Group Id, Artifact Id, Version, packaging to start with.
• Click on Finish.

Once we click on finish,maven project is created in Java. As mentioned earlier, All the configurations of the Project are saved in a POM.xml file as shown below:

POM stands for "Project Object Model". It is XML representation of the Maven project. POM.xml file inherits from base superPOM.xml

How to use selenium libraries in the maven Project.

We can use selenium libraries by adding dependencies for selenium in the Project Object model as shown in the code snippet below:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>qaautomation</groupId>
  <artifactId>Selenium_eclipse_maven</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <name>My first maven</name>
  <description>testing</description>  

  <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
        <artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>
        <version>2.48.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
 <groupId>junit</groupId>
 <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
 <version>4.8.1</version>
</dependency>    
  </dependencies>
</project>

References:

• https://maven.apache.org/pom.html - For detailed understanding of Project Object Model. 
• http://www.guru99.com/maven-jenkins-with-selenium-complete-tutorial.html - How to set up selenium with maven, Jenkins and TestNG.