[ Hacking Selenium
]
Jason Huggins
@jhuggins
hugs@saucelabs.com
seleniumhq.org | p13y.com
JSConf - 25 April 2009

1 - Why Selenium?

Browser Wars II
6, 7 & 8 2, 3 3, 4 beta
1.0 9.6
Add-ons
Browser configs
Languages/locales
3

Test Automation
Source: - F.O.X.: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kv/499219/

Dynamic HTML - Ajax

End-to-end Workflows

Large tests

Any browser -
Any platform

Selenium Cumulative Downloads
9

Firms with: 100+ downloads
January – October 2008
10

2 - Why not Selenium ?

Speed
Source: http://desertpastor.typepad.com/paradoxology/Slow%205.jpg

Flash, Java Applets,
Silverlight, PDF
Source: http://goldberg.berkeley.edu/art/big-images/doi-box-hi-res.jpg

Anything outside the
JavaScript sandbox
Source: http://lug.mtu.edu/wiki/images/2/27/SANDBOX.jpg

Small tests

3 - A brief history of
Selenium

ThoughtWorks Time &
Expense
Source: - Neal Ford: http://nealford.com/downloads/conferences/2006_nfjs_canonical/Neal_Ford-Testing_with_Selenium-slides.pdf

First Attempt -
JWebUnit
• Simulates the browser
• Can’t handle browser-specific bugs
• Can’t handle JavaScript in the DOM

Second Attempt -
DriftWood
• Mozilla extension (never published)
• Pro:
– Drove a real browser, so it could handle
JavaScript UI features
• Con:
– Not for IE or Safari :-(
– XML Syntax for tests. Yuck!

Third Attempt - JsUnit
• Pro:
– Can test JavaScript in the browser!
– Works in Mozilla/Firefox, IE, and Safari!
• Con:
– Emphasis on single-page unit test (no
page-to-page workflows)
– Couldn’t see what it was doing

It’s Green, but what did it
really work?

Fourth Attempt - FIT
(part 1)
• Pro:
– More readable tests
– Emphasis on functional testing

Example FIT test

Fourth Attempt - FIT
(part 2)
Con:
• Wasn’t available for the “JavaScript
platform” yet
• Limited list of “actions” in the API

Action Fixture picture

Forking FIT
• Selenium initially was an attempt to
implement “FIT for web browsers”
• Ended up forking:
– Wanted to see what the browser was doing
– Wanted a richer API

4 - Side Note:
What’s with the name?

“antidote for mecury
poisoning”

“results - selenium”

Selenium and mercury detox

5 - Selenium Core

Selenium Core
(TestRunner)

6 - Selenium IDE

Selenium IDE for Firefox

7 - Selenium
Remote Control

Selenium Remote Control
Source: - http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/824/5100491.JPG

Selenium Remote Control

8 - Selenium Grid

Selenium Grid
Which is faster? (1 server, sequential tasks)
4
3
Servers
2
1
Time
Source: - http://factoryjoe.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/pods.jpg

Which is faster? (4 servers, parallel tasks)
4
3
Servers
2
1
Time
40

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Source: - http://www.flickr.com/photos/onetreehillstudios/2958752337/