How many times have your Selenium test suites run beautifully on one browser, only to fail when run in any other browser? This is an extremely common problem faced when incorporating cross-browser tests into your test runs. Not all browser drivers are created equally, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create a robust suite of cross-browser tests. This presentation shares strategies for making cross-browser tests invincible. It focuses on topics such as using as choosing the best locators for all browsers, explicit vs. implicit waits and how to leverage cloud-based testing tools. This presentation was given at SeleniumConf London in November 2016.

1. Making
Cross-Browser
Tests
Beautiful

2. Outline
● Why
● How
● Case Study
● Problems
● Solutions
● Lessons Learned

3. What do you expect
to get out of this
session?

4. Why
● Gives confidence the application works the same in all browsers
● Can easily test changes in browsers
● Saves time from manually testing all features

5. How
● Answer the following questions:
○ Which browsers will be supported?
○ What is the most important workflow test?
○ How will the tests be run?

6. TASK:
Build automated tests
for a student loan
refinance application

8. PROBLEM:
Don’t know how
application works in
other browsers

9. SOLUTION:
Implement automated
cross-browser tests

10. Step 1: Decide supported browsers

11. Step 2: Decide what will be automated
● Determine what is the most
critical workflow to test

12. Step 3: Decide how to
run tests
● Run tests in CI
● Need access to all
supported browsers
● Consider cloud testing tools

13. Step 4: Write tests!

14. It should be as easy as
changing the driver,
right?

15. Problem 1:
Page Elements

16. On page elements
● Dropdowns, radio buttons and checkboxes are tricky
● Use the same locator for all browsers
● Stick to CSS when possible

17. Element is not clickable

19. Problem 2:
Timing Issues

20. On timing issues...
● Some drivers are faster than others
● Discrepancies between physical and virtual machines
● Need to wait for elements

21. Implicit Waits
● Set for the entire duration of the webDriver object
● Tells WebDriver to wait for X units of time

22. Explicit Waits
● Confined to a particular web element
● Tells WebDriver to wait for the element up until X units of time

23. Problem 3:
Driver Capabilities

24. Drivers are not created equally
● Drivers are managed by different individuals
● Native capabilities differ
● Same functionality isn’t always available

25. File Upload

26. The Safari Driver is implemented in
JS and does not have the privileges
necessary to manipulate an <input
type = “file”> element. Therefore,
the SafariDriver does not support
file uploads.

27. Resolution

28. ● Maximize browser window
● Set a specific resolution at run-time
● Scroll an element into view

29. Soon, the
Cross-Browser Tests
were complete!

30. Lessons Learned...

31. Start testing early.

32. Automate one feature first.

33. Run tests in CI regularly.

34. Questions?
LinkedIn: meaghan-lewis
Twitter: @iammeaghanlewis
Email: meaghan@lever.co