A Comprehensive Guide to Selenium 4

By Prometteur solutions 20 Min Read

With the advancement of technology, software testing has become an integral part of software development projects. However, the constantly changing testing tools and frameworks can be overwhelming for the software testers.

As a tester, you may spend countless hours trying to figure out how to use different tools and frameworks for various tests. You may even find yourself falling behind on deadlines due to the complexity of these tools.

The solution to your problem is a comprehensive guide to Selenium 4. This guide will provide you with all the information you need to know about Selenium 4 versionand how it can help you streamline all of your testing process. 

With easy-to-follow instructions and practical examples, you will be able to create efficient test automation scripts that save time while increasing productivity. Don’t waste any more time struggling with complex testing tools; get your hands on this guide today and become a master at Selenium 4.

What makes Selenium 3 and Selenium 4 different? 

There are a couple of distinctions between Selenium 3 and Selenium 4, despite the fact that the latter is its successor. Understanding both architectures will make it simpler to comprehend the differences. The main variations between Selenium 3 and Selenium 4 are as follows: 

add-on for the Chrome driver in Selenium 3 and Selenium 4:

The extension of Chrome Driver is the primary distinction between Selenium 3 and Selenium 4. The Chrome Driver is expanded to include the Remote Web Driver in Selenium 3. However, Chrome Driver is added to the Chrome Driver Class in Selenium 4. 

System for Client-Server Communication in Selenium 3 and Selenium 4:

The second significant distinction is dependent on how both parties communicate. The JSON Wire Protocol is used by Selenium 3 to transport data between clients and servers, as indicated in the Architecture. Selenium 4 doesn’t rely on the JSON Wire Protocol, It employs the W3C consortium to make client-server communication easier. 

Starting the Hub & Node Jars in Selenium 3 and Selenium 4:

The third significant distinction between Selenium 3 and Selenium 4 is the beginning of the Hub & Node Jars. The Hub & Node Jars in Selenium 3 must be started in the correct order in order to execute automation. The Hub & Jar nodes do not need to be started for the automation testing procedure in Selenium 4, however.

What is Selenium 4 version and why is it Important for Test Automation?

For many years now, Selenium has been the preferred tool for test automation and more importantly, with the recent updated version, a number of new features and improvements have been added to Selenium 4 version to increase its functionality and test automation power. 

What is cool about the update? A number of new capabilities are included in Selenium 4, including higher grid scalability, better error handling, and improved browser support. The testing procedure will be more effective and efficient thanks to these modifications.

Selenium 4 version offers more versatility and usability as compared to Selenium 3. Additionally, it offers improved integration with other testing plugins with plays crucial role in enhancing its performance and popularity among expert testers.

Selenium 4 version new features and improvements

Alright hear this from us. Selenium 4 version is the latest version of the popular open-source testing framework known as Selenium. It has generated quite a buzz in the test automation community, and for good reason. With Selenium being a crucial tool for automating web browsers, this new version brings forth several significant enhancements and improvements that make it even more important for test automation. 

Selenium 4 version browser compatibility enhancements

One of the key aspects of Selenium 4 version is its enhanced support for browser compatibility. It offers improved compatibility with the latest versions of major web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. This means that test automation engineers can confidently automate their tests across multiple browsers without worrying about compatibility issues. It’s a huge relief for those who need their tests to run seamlessly on different browsers to ensure proper functionality and user experience.

Selenium 4 version parallel testing capabilities

Another noteworthy feature of Selenium 4 version is the introduction of a new tool called Selenium Grid. Selenium Grid allows users to perform parallel testing, which means executing multiple tests simultaneously across different machines and browsers. This feature greatly enhances the efficiency and speed of test execution, enabling teams to reduce testing time significantly. By distributing the tests across multiple machines, it enables faster feedback cycles and accelerates the overall testing process.

Selenium 4 version user-friendly test script creation

Selenium 4 version also brings a more user-friendly and intuitive API. It simplifies the codebase and offers a more cohesive and streamlined approach to writing test scripts. The new API design provides a cleaner and more readable syntax, making it easier for both beginners and experienced automation testers to write and maintain their test scripts. What is the significance? This user-friendly approach encourages more teams to adopt Selenium for their test automation needs, even if they have limited programming experience.

Selenium 4 version relative locators for robust test scripts

Furthermore, one of the most exciting features introduced in Selenium 4 version is the addition of the new relative locators. Relative locators make it easier to identify elements on a web page by their position relative to other elements. This feature simplifies the test script creation process and reduces the dependency on complex and fragile XPath or CSS selectors. With relative locators, test automation engineers can write more robust and resilient tests that are less prone to failure due to changes in the page structure or layout.

Selenium 4 version improved handling of iframes

Furthermore, Selenium 4 version performs in a way that shows better support for modern web technologies. The fantastic testing tool comes with an improved handling of web components, shadow DOM, and iframes, which are commonly used in modern web applications. This enhanced support enables automation engineers to effectively interact with and test these components, ensuring comprehensive test coverage for the latest web technologies.

Best Practices and Tips for Successful Test Automation Using Selenium 4

One of the key aspects of Selenium architecture best practices is using the right locator strategy. In particular, effective usage of relative locators (Selenium Find By) can greatly improve your test scripts’ stability and reduce maintenance overhead.

By leveraging relative locators, you can locate elements based on their position relative to other elements in the DOM, rather than relying solely on static identifiers like IDs or class names. This approach makes your tests more resilient to changes in page layout or content updates.

Another important consideration for Selenium automation is optimizing test execution time. Parallel execution with Grid 2.0 allows you to distribute your tests across multiple machines or virtual environments, dramatically reducing overall test run time.

Running Selenium Tests on Real Devices

As Selenium continues to be one of the most popular automation testing tools, it is important to follow best practices for its architecture. One such practice is implementing the Page Object Model (POM). POM is a design pattern that helps in creating an organized and maintainable codebase for automated tests.

By implementing POM, you can separate the page-specific elements and actions from your test code.. This makes it easier to manage and update your test scripts as changes are made to the application under test. Furthermore, POM promotes reusability of code by allowing multiple tests to use the same page objects. This reduces development time and increases efficiency in testing.

Take Screenshot

Selenium is a popular automation tool used for testing web applications. However, it is inevitable that Selenium scripts will fail at some point or another due to various reasons such as changes in the application code, network issues, or even unexpected user behavior. As a result, it is crucial to have robust Selenium architecture best practices in place to handle such failures.

One of the best practices that should be implemented is taking screenshots whenever a test fails. Screenshots provide valuable information about the state of the application at the time of failure and can help developers identify and fix issues quickly. Furthermore, screenshots serve as evidence that can be used to communicate issues with stakeholders.

Taking screenshots when Selenium tests fail should be considered an essential part of Selenium architecture best practices. It helps ensure that any issues are identified and resolved promptly while providing evidence to support communication with stakeholders.

Incorporating Wait Commands Use the Browser Compatibility Matrix. 

With so many different browsers, devices, and operating systems in use today, it’s essential to ensure that your web application or website works seamlessly across all of them. This is where the Browser Compatibility Matrix comes in.

The Browser Compatibility Matrix draws on a variety of metrics, including browser usage numbers, device and OS usage data, product analysis, target audience preferences, and more. By analyzing this data, you can gain valuable insights into which browsers and devices are most commonly used by your target audience. This information can help you optimize your web application or website for maximum compatibility and user experience.

Implementing the best practices for Selenium architecture means taking a comprehensive approach to testing and ensuring that your web application or website is compatible with all major browsers and devices. By using the Browser Compatibility Matrix as part of your testing strategy, you can gain valuable insights into which browsers and devices are most important for your target audience – helping you deliver a seamless user experience across all platforms.

Incorporating wait commands

When it comes to testing web applications, Selenium is one of the most widely used tools. Its architecture allows for easy automation of repetitive tasks and efficient testing of web pages. However, as with any tool, there are best practices that should be followed to ensure optimal results.

One such best practice is incorporating wait commands into your Selenium scripts. Wait commands allow your scripts to pause execution until a certain condition is met, such as an element being present or clickable. This can prevent errors and improve the reliability of your tests.

Planning and Designing Test Cases beforehand

Selenium test scripts are effective, it is essential to follow best practices in Selenium architecture. One of the most important practices is planning and designing test cases beforehand.

When you plan and design test cases beforehand, you can ensure that your tests cover all possible scenarios and edge cases. This approach helps to identify issues early in the development cycle, reducing the cost and effort required for fixing them later.

By following this best practice, you can also ensure that your tests are maintainable and scalable over time. It helps to create a structured approach towards testing by defining what needs to be tested, how it should be tested, and what results should be expected.

Therefore, planning and designing test cases beforehand is an essential practice in Selenium architecture that ensures effective testing of web applications. It helps to identify issues early on while creating maintainable tests that scale over time.

Implementing POM as part of your Selenium architecture best practices can lead to more reliable and efficient automated tests.

Identifying and Prioritizing Test Cases

One of the best tools for automating testing is Selenium, a widely-used framework for web application testing. However, to get the most out of Selenium, it’s crucial to follow best practices in architecture design.

By doing so, you can ensure that your tests are efficient, maintainable, and scalable. This means identifying and prioritizing test cases based on their importance to the overall functionality of the application.

When it comes to software testing, identifying and prioritizing the best test cases is crucial for ensuring the quality of the end product. One of the key tools in this process is Selenium, a widely-used automation framework for web application testing.

To make the most of Selenium, it’s important to follow best practices when it comes to architecture. This means designing test cases that are modular, reusable, and easy to maintain. By doing so, you can ensure that your tests are efficient and effective in catching any issues or bugs.

But how do you go about identifying and prioritizing which test cases to focus on? One approach is to prioritize based on risk – that is, focusing on areas of the application that are critical or high-risk. Another approach is to prioritize based on frequency of use – focusing on areas that are used frequently by users.

Ultimately, by following best practices for Selenium architecture and carefully considering which test cases to prioritize, you can ensure that your testing efforts are effective in catching issues early and delivering a high-quality end product.

Selenium 4 benefits for test automation teams

We have looked at other important areas of the selenium 4 version upgrade of selenium 3, now let us discuss some of Selenium 4 benefits.

Using less hardware

Selenium 4 benefits include using less hardware than other testing tools as compared to other vendor-focused automation solutions like 

  • QTP
  • UFT
  • SilkTest.

Selenium 4 version is Simple to Use and Learn

There is no complication with the tool. Writing a few lines of code to automate your website’s capabilities is all it takes to create a Selenium script. To get started with Selenium automation testing, Selenium 4 benefits the testers greatly from the documentation on the Selenium website, Selenium free courses, testing, and development help in accessibility.

Regular Updates

Regular updates is another beautiful Selenium 4 benefits. The Selenium community continuously releases updates and upgrades because Selenium is supported by a community, and as we all know, an active community doesn’t like to stagnate. The finest thing about community is that you don’t need any special training because these changes are easily accessible and understandable. Selenium is therefore more resourceful and economical than other tools because to this.

Support for Language and Framework

You can create your scripts in any of these programming languages for software test automation, including Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, Ruby, and Perl and Selenium quickly transforms it into Selenium-compatible scripts. This is one of the Selenium 4 benefits that attracts automation testers to the tool.

Seamless cross-browser testing with Selenium 4 version for test automation teams

“One Selenium script for all browsers” is what Selenium says all day long and they are playing. The most popular browsers are Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Edge, and Selenium script is compatible with each of them. 

Different Operating System Support

For several operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Mac OS, UNIX, etc., you can develop Selenium test suites. This is among the Selenium 4 benefits that makes it simple for software testers and developers to create test automation scripts without having to focus too much on the platform that will host them.

Implementation is really simple.

The Selenium automation framework is a very user-friendly tool because it provides a user-friendly interface that makes it simple to write and execute test scripts. Tests can be observed as they are being conducted. Selenium test results can be thoroughly examined and followed up on.

Integrations and Reusability

Selenium automation test suites are reusable and may be tested on several operating systems and browsers using external frameworks and add-ons that increase the testing’s scope.

Flexibility

Selenium Selenium 4 benefits offers developers and testers a degree of flexibility that facilitates quick modifications to the code, cuts down on duplication, eases difficulties, and enhances maintainability. 

Cost savings and improved ROI for test automation teams with Selenium 4 version benefits

Selenium Grid enables us to run several tests concurrently, hence speeding up test execution. You can save a tone of time by using cloud-grids for cross-browser testing.

Do you want to migrate to Selenium 4? Or would you love to hire the best Selenium 4 testers for your software? We can help you. Reach out to us now!

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