WaitFor Commands for AJAX application in selenium ide

AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML. AJAX uses combination of browser built-in XMLHttpRequest to request data from a web server and JavaScript/HTML DOM to display/use the data. Due to asynchronous nature of request and response of the calls, there may be delay in element being displayed in the page after an action has been performed on another element in the page.

To wait for the element to appear in the page, there are different waitfor commands in selenium IDE, which waits for default timeout set up for the element to appear. So in case an element is not displayed straightway, waitfor commands can be used to resolve sync issues in selenium IDE.


Some commonly used waitfor commands are:

• waitForAlertNotPresent/waitForAlertPresent
• waitForElementPresent
• waitForTextPresent
• waitForPageToLoad
• waitForFrameToLoad
• clickandWait

There are lot of commands waiting for different conditions in selenium IDE, you can have a look at all the commands by writing waitfor in command and can use the relevant wait as per the scernario

Validating conditions using assert and verify in Selenium IDE

The purpose of any automation/manual tests is to validate the application is working correctly and validating the actual outcome with the expected outcome for a condition.

• Now the first question arises, what are the commands in selenium IDE which validates the outcome of condition There are different commands in different tools/automated suite. In selenium IDE, we can use assert or verify commands to validate the results.

• Now the question two arises, what is the difference between assert and verify commands, When we use Assert command, it checks whether the given condition is true or false and stops further test execution if the assert statement fails. In case of verify command, in case the execution fails, the execution moves to next step in the test although the test is marked as failed.
• Now coming to question three, when to use verify or assert command. In case of critical condition failing and no point to continue with test, use assert command. In case of minor condition failing in the test and we still wants to continue with further steps in the test, we can use verify statement.
• So what is the next logical question in mind, when and how  to add the validation steps in test.Since Selenium IDE is a record and play tool,
• Record execution flow. Once execution flow is recorded, we can add assertions in Selenium IDE.
• Just right click the element on which the condition needs to be verified in Firefox browser e.g : Validating the text of the link. 
• Click on the assertion to be added as shown below:

Similar to assert/verify commands in selenium IDE, we can use assert and soft.assert class for assert and verify command in Selenium Webdriver.

How to run test with random data in Selenium IDE: store and storeText Command

Selenium IDE is a tool for record and play functionality, which runs the script with same set of data, however we can generate random data. store the values in a variable , and use the value stored in the variable in the later steps in the test.

Expected Learning from this article:

• Store command to store random generated data in the a variable. 

• Using the stored information in later steps in the test.

• Using command storeText to store value of an object in the test and storing in a test.

• Using the stored information in later stage in the test.

Below screenshot shows how to use store and storetext in the test:

• In the above test, we open an application and save the text of the link in variable using command storeText. test in Value is the variable in each we can store the value of the link/object.
• In the next step, we can use the value in the variable using ${variable_name} which is ${test} in our example.
• Similarly using store command and javascript, we can generate random data, store in the variable and use further in the test.
• We have saved the test in an html file and the test file looks as below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head profile="http://selenium-ide.openqa.org/profiles/test-case">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<link rel="selenium.base" href="https://www.google.co.in/" />
<title>testing stored value</title>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="1">
<thead>
<tr><td rowspan="1" colspan="3">testing stored value</td></tr>
</thead><tbody>
<tr>
 <td>open</td>
 <td>/search?q=selenium&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8&amp;client=firefox-b-ab&amp;gfe_rd=cr&amp;ei=r4E6WIqnEeXI8AfOn6awBw</td>
 <td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>storeText</td>
 <td>link=Selenium - Web Browser Automation</td>
 <td>test</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>type</td>
 <td>id=lst-ib</td>
 <td>${test}</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>click</td>
 <td>name=btnG</td>
 <td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>store</td>
 <td>javascript{&quot;Selenium&quot; +Math.random();}</td>
 <td>testrandom</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>type</td>
 <td>id=lst-ib</td>
 <td>${testrandom}</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>click</td>
 <td>name=btnG</td>
 <td></td>
</tr>

</tbody></table>
</body>
</html>

Copy paste the code in a text file and save in html format. Open the test in Selenium Ide and try to run the test and understand how to run test with random data in selenium IDE.

Tutorials for Selenium IDE easy understanding

Selenium IDE :: Add-ons for Firefox - Download Selenium IDE from the link for
firefox. Remember Selenium IDE is add-on for firefox browser only.

Download Selenium IDE - Official site for Selenium. Can learn about selenium
IDE and release notes from this page.

Introduction to Selenium IDE - Guru99 - Excellent link to start understanding about Selenium IDE

Introduction to Selenium IDE (Installation and its Features) - Another interesting blog to understand the concept of Selenium IDE.

Useful tutorial Posts for Selenium IDE in this blog:

Mindmap for understanding Selenium IDE - Mindmap to understand what selenium IDE is all about. 

Installing Selenium IDE add-on in firefox - How to install Selenium IDE add-on in firefox.

Understanding and locating Locators in Selenium IDE - What are locators in Selenium IDE and how are locators used to identify an element in Selenium IDE

Log file for Selenium IDE execution using FileLogging addon for firefox - Log file are useful to identify failures in execution and validating the performance of application response.This article explains how to create log file for execution in Selenium IDE

Selenium Commands in Selenium IDE - This article explains what are the selenese commands most commonly used in Selenium IDE

Exporting selenium IDE tests to WebDriver - Test recorded using Selenium IDE can be imported into different languages support. This article explains how to export selenium IDE tests to Selenium WebDriver.

Selenium IDE Panes and Shortcut keys - This article explains the Interface of Selenium IDE with details of different panes and shortkeys for operations in Selenium IDE.

How to run test with random data in Selenium IDE: store and storeText Command - This article explains how to store information in application or using javascript, generating random data and storing in a variable.



Validating conditions using assert and verify in Selenium IDE -This post explains how to add assertions in Selenium IDE and what is the difference between assert and verify statement.

Friends, there may be many interesting blogs/post for Selenium IDE, which you have come across. Please feel free to ion share such links as can be useful for other readers.

Installing Selenium IDE add-on in firefox

Selenium IDE is a record and play automation IDE/add-on with Firefox. It is very simple to install selenium IDE and creating automated script in selenium which can then be imported in different languages and formats. In this article, we will explain how to install Selenium IDE in firefox.

• Pre-condition: Firefox browser is installed. 

• Installation steps:

• Search Selenium IDE and click on the link as shown below:

• Click on the link.In the add-ons Page, click on Add to Firefox

• Once the add-on is installed, Selenium IDE can be accessed by navigating to developer>Selenium IDE or pressing Alt + Ctrl + S

• This will open Selenium IDE on which we can record and play on the applications.

Understanding and locating Locators in Selenium IDE

What is meant by Locator in Selenium

Selenese commands are executed on the target element. The target element is defined in the web application based on the locators. For example, suppose there is an link in the page with id as homepage, the link element will be located and identified by ‘id=homepage’ and then we can execute click command on the link homepage identified by locator ‘id=username’.

What are different locator types in Selenium IDE

The various locator types in Selenium IDE are as follows: 

• Locating elements by ID – an element can be identified using the ‘id’ attribute defined for the object. Since it is assumed that id attribute is unique for an element in the page, hence element will be uniquely identified in the page using id attribute for target. E.g. ‘id=iamunique’.

• Locating elements by name – In case id attribute is not defined for the target element, we can identify the element using name attribute in the target. E.g. ‘name = sonamgupta’. In case of object is not identified uniquely by name locator, we can use multiple locators like ‘name = sonamgupta value = bewafahai’ to uniquely identify the element.

• Locating elements by link text – For link element, we can identify an element using link text in the target. e.g. ‘link =loginkaro’ will identify a link with text as loginkaro.
• Locating elements by XPath – We can also use XPath to identify an element in the page. XPath allows us to query the DOM structure of the page like a XML document. For e.g. //input will find first input box in the page and perform action on the same. Can use firepath/firebug to uniquely identify the element xpath
• Locating elements by css – Elements in the webpage can be identified using CSS selectors to find the objects that you need. Selenium is compatible with CSS 1.0, CSS 2.0, and CSS 3.0 selectors. Syntax for identifying an element using css is ‘css = CSS Selector’ for e.g. ‘css=input.kyabaathain’ where input is the tag name for element and kyabaathain is the classname. Both xpath and css are useful to identify elements with complex identifiers.

Tools to identify the attributes and locators for element in the webpage

We can identify element locators using different developer tools in different browsers. Below are some of the developer tools that help to identify objects in the page.

• Firebug: Firebug is a Firefox developer add-on used to identify elements on the page by using the find functionality.

• FirePath: It is a Firefox add-on used with firebug and helps in testing XPath and CSS on the page. Highlights all elements on the page that match the selector to your element location.

•  IE Developer Tools: IE developer tools helps in identifying element. This is inbuilt with IE browser and can be launched by pressing F12.

• Google Chrome Developer Tools: This is inbuilt in Google chrome and can be launched by Pressing F12.

Log file for Selenium IDE execution using FileLogging addon for firefox

We can create log files of selenium IDE test execution and store in an file using the below process:

1. Download the File Logging add-on to Firefox as shown below.

2. Firefox will restart once the add-on is installed.

3. Now Open Selenium IDE in Firefox.

4. Go to Options>Options. 

5. Selenium IDE options window will open.

6. Go to FileLogging tab.

7. Provide location of file where logs needs to be created.

8. Define the logging level.

9. Select the required checkbox for logging information.

Give it a try, it is quite useful.

Selenium Commands in Selenium IDE

Components of teststep in Selenium IDE

A test step in Selenium comprises of following:
Selenese Commands - set of selenium commands used in Selenium IDE. e.g: Open , type , sendKeys, etc.
Target -  object on which to execute the commands. Target object can be identified based on the locator for the object,i.e. by Id, classname, xpath,CSS, etc.
Value  - acts as input or the expected result on execution of command on the target object. 

Selenium commands in Selenium IDE

Below are some of the useful commands used in Selenium.

• Open - open(url). URL provided accepts both relative and absolute URLs. The "open" command waits for the page to load before proceeding. URL is provided in the target of the command. In case only ‘/’is provided in the target. It will open the URL as provided in base URL. Following are few ways in which open command works. Suppose base url is http://www.google.com, below are the scenarios
•  / in target will open http://www.google.com/ (relative path)
• /#q=google in target will open http://www.google.com/#q=google (relative Path)
• http://www.rediff.com in target will open http://www.rediff.com (absolute Path). Similar to this is OpenWindow(url) – This will open url provided in target in a new window.

• type(Locator, value) - Types the value in the object identified by the locator. This can be used to set the value of combo boxes, check boxes, etc. Target will be object

• Sendkeys(Locator, value) - This command types the value key-by-key defined in value on the object identified by Locator. It may be confusing for new users the use of sendkeys when type command already exists. The difference between Sendkeys and type is when we use sendkeys, it does not replace the existing content in the field, whereas when we use type, it replaces the content of the field. Both the methods are used to input data in an edit field.

• Click(locator) – Clicks an object defined by locator in Target. In case we need to wait for page to load completely before performing further action, we use ClickandWait.

• Select(Locator, value) – This is used to select a value from a webList identified by Locator defined in target and sets the value as defined in the value. In case of Page load in case of selecting value from the weblist, use selectandwait.

• Store(expression, variable Name) – This stores the value of element defined in expression in the target and stores in the variable name defined in value. This value can be used further in the test by using variable as $variableName.

• Similar to store are storeAttribute(an element locator followed by a @ sign and then the name of the attribute, e.g. "id=name@href"), storeText(stores the text of an element) to name a few.waitForPageToLoad(time in millisecond) – This waits for the Page to Load completely in the time defined in target. Will move to next step in case the Page loads before the defined time

• pause(time in milliseconds) – This is similar to wait statement and execution is paused for the time defined for pause command in target.

• Refresh – This command refreshes the page.

• verifyText(locator, expected pattern) – This compares the text in the locator element with the expected pattern defined in value. To provide a pattern, you can use text within *value*. This will verify if value appears in the text displayed for locator. Similar to verifyText, we can use verifynottext, verifyalert, verifyattribute to validate information in the Page.

• AssertText(locator, expected pattern) – This compares the text in the locator element with the expected pattern defined in value. To provide a pattern, you can use text within *value*. This will verify if value appears in the text displayed for locator. Similar to AssertText, we can use Assertnottext, Assertalert, Assertattribute to validate information in the Page. Difference between Assert and verify is while test stops in case of assert fails but remaining statements in the test are executed in case of verify statement even if the verify statement fails.

• Highlight(Locator) – highlights the object identified by locator in the page.

• Break – This halts the test execution, test execution will continue once we click on continue in the IDE. This should be used in test but removed once test stabilizes as it results in manual intervention.

• captureEntirePageScreenshot(filename) – This command captures screenshot and save in the location defined in filename in the target

• check(locator) – this checks a radio button/checkbox based on locator defined in target.

• Close() – This command simulates the user clicking the "close" button in the title bar of a popup window or tab

• windowMaximize() – this command will resize currently selected window to take up entire screen

Different types of Selenese Commands

Selenese commands can be classified into following types:

a.    Actions – Performs action on an object. E.g. Click, type

b.    Assertions – Used to add validation steps. E.g. AssertText, verifytext

c.    Accessors – checks the state of application and stores values from the test. E.g. storetext.

Default timeout for Selenium Commands

Default timeout for selenium commands is 30000. The timeout can be changed from Options>General>default timeout of recorded command

Exporting selenium IDE tests to WebDriver

Script created in Selenium IDE can be exported to WebDriver/Remote Control in the languages java/c#/python/ruby that can be run using junit(java), RSpec(ruby), nUnit and testNG. 

To export test in TestNG with selenium webdriver, follow below steps:

• Record the required operations on the application.
• Go to File>Export Test Case as Java / TestNG / WebDriver (can export test script in different formats)

• Export the test.
• A java file will be created with content as shown below

package com.example.tests;

import java.util.regex.Pattern;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.testng.annotations.*;
import static org.testng.Assert.*;
import org.openqa.selenium.*;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.Select;

public class TESTINGAA {
  private WebDriver driver;
  private String baseUrl;
  private boolean acceptNextAlert = true;
  private StringBuffer verificationErrors = new StringBuffer();

  @BeforeClass(alwaysRun = true)
  public void setUp() throws Exception {
    driver = new FirefoxDriver();
    baseUrl = "https://www.google.co.in/";
    driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
  }

  @Test
  public void testINGAA() throws Exception {
    driver.get(baseUrl + "/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=_OMdWJKzEO3I8AeAqrBg&gws_rd=ssl");
    driver.findElement(By.id("lst-ib")).clear();
    driver.findElement(By.id("lst-ib")).sendKeys("TESTING AUTOMATION CONEPTS");
    assertTrue(isElementPresent(By.linkText("TESTING AUTOMATION CONCEPTS")));
    driver.findElement(By.linkText("TESTING AUTOMATION CONCEPTS")).click();
    driver.findElement(By.linkText("Test automation - Wikipedia")).click();
    assertTrue(isElementPresent(By.linkText("Test automation - Wikipedia")));
  }

  @AfterClass(alwaysRun = true)
  public void tearDown() throws Exception {
    driver.quit();
    String verificationErrorString = verificationErrors.toString();
    if (!"".equals(verificationErrorString)) {
      fail(verificationErrorString);
    }
  }

  private boolean isElementPresent(By by) {
    try {
      driver.findElement(by);
      return true;
    } catch (NoSuchElementException e) {
      return false;
    }
  }

  private boolean isAlertPresent() {
    try {
      driver.switchTo().alert();
      return true;
    } catch (NoAlertPresentException e) {
      return false;
    }
  }

  private String closeAlertAndGetItsText() {
    try {
      Alert alert = driver.switchTo().alert();
      String alertText = alert.getText();
      if (acceptNextAlert) {
        alert.accept();
      } else {
        alert.dismiss();
      }
      return alertText;
    } finally {
      acceptNextAlert = true;
    }
  }
}

Selenium IDE Panes and Shortcut keys

Selenium IDE Layout is divided into following areas: 

 MenuBar – Below are the top level menu options available in Selenium IDE.

• File – Allows creating new test case, test suite, open existing test case, test suite, exporting tests to other formats.
• From the File Menu, We can perform various tasks:
• Create New Test Case.
• Create new Test Suite.
• Save test cases and test suites.
• Export Test cases/test suites to various formats. E.g : Ruby/Python/java/c# with WebDriver or RC.
• Open existing test cases and test suites.
• Rename a test case

• Edit – Allows editing existing test steps, and adding new commands and comments
• Actions – Allows to record, play a test, execute command, toggle breakpoint and set entry point.
• Options – Allows changing of settings including set the timeout value for commands,specifying the format used for saving test cases and creating log file for selenium execution
• Help – provides documentation for selenium IDE.

Understanding Panes in Selenium IDE

•      Toolbar – Provides buttons to manage test execution including test execution and test execution.
•      Test Case Pane – Test Case Pane shows the list of test case on the left and test steps in table or    source pane on the right. We can add/modify commands, target and value in the table for the test.
•      Log/Reference/UI-Element/Rollup Pane – This pane helps us to view logs of execution, reference explaining the selected command. We can also set to filter logs for info, warning, error and debug in this window.

ShortCut Keys: Selenium IDE

New Test - Ctrl + N
Open a test - Ctrl + O
Save a test - Ctrl + S
Add test to test suite - Ctrl + D.
Close Selenium IDE - Ctrl + W
Undo - Ctrl + Z
Redo - Ctrl + Y
Cut - Ctrl + X
Copy - Ctrl + C
Paste - Ctrl + V
Delete - Del
Select All - Ctrl + A

Switching to frame, Windows, alert in Selenium WebDriver

1. How to Switch from one frame to another

 // How to Switch from one frame to another  
 WebElement iFrmeElement = driver.findElement(By.xpath("xPath for Frame"));  
 driver.switchTo().frame(frameElement);  
 //Or  
 driver.switchTo().frame(id or name)  
 //Or  
 driver.switchTo().frame(index of frame)  

2. We can switch to default again by:

 driver.switchTo().defaultContent();  

3. We can switch to a window based on name, Id or Windows handle

 driver.switchTo().window("windowName");  

4. We can switch to an alert

 Alert alert = driver.switchTo().alert();  
 // We can close an alert using methods for alert object  
 alert. accept();  

Extracting Tooltip text using Selenium WebDriver : Quick Codes

Tooltip displayed for an element is identifed based on the attribute title defined for the element. Knowing that title of the element is the tooltip resolves half of the problem.

Suppose there is an element with id as abcde, the tooltip of the element can be stored in a string using code as below: 

//example 1: getting tooltip of the elemet 
String strToolTipText = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@id='abcde']").getAttribute("title");

//example 2 : Validating tooltip is displayed correctly for an webElement 

public boolean verifyTooltipText(WebElement webElem, String expToolTiptext)
 {
  String acttooltiptext = webElem.getAttribute("title");
  if(acttooltiptext.contentEquals(exptooltiptext))
  {
  return true
  }
  else
  {
  return false
 }
}

Mindmap for understanding Selenium IDE

In this article, I am trying to explain how Selenium IDE works through mindmap.



Below are some articles for understanding the concepts in Selenium IDE.

• First Steps in Selenium IDE - Understanding Selenium: Questions and Answers

• Understanding Commands in Selenium IDE: Questions and Answers

• Creating First Test in Selenium IDE using FireFox

• Understanding Locators in Selenium IDE : Questions and Answers

• Enhancing and Understanding features in Selenium IDE: Questions and Answers