The document discusses the performance issues relating to Selenium automation testing on Internet Explorer 7 compared to Firefox 3, noting that IE 7's JavaScript engine is significantly slower, leading to performance discrepancies in testing. It highlights specific test results showing that scripts can run up to 1798% slower on IE 7, particularly when using optimized Selenium functions or locator techniques. Mitigation strategies are suggested, including using HTMLUnit with an IE profile and providing resources for further learning and support.

1. The Server Side Symposium 2009
Selenium XPath Performance
Problems In Internet Explorer
Frank Cohen, CEO, (408) 871-0122, fcohen@pushtotest.com
March 18, 2009

2. Open Source Test Automation
About PushToTest
‣Our Mission: Test, To Make A More Reliable World
‣Make It Easier To Move From Manual To Automated Testing
‣Support Advanced Testing, including Agile, Load, Integration
‣Open Source Testing (OST) For Everyone
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3. Open Source Test Automation
Next let’s talk about
Performance Anxiety
‣The Perfect Storm: IE 7, Selenium, Appcelerator
‣Mitigation
Research Prepared By
Luis Carlos Lara, llara@pushtotest.com
3 William Martinez, william@pushtotest.com

4. Open Source Test Automation
The Problem
30 s Ajax App, Selenium RC, TestMaker,
Firefox 3
30 m Ajax App, Selenium RC, TestMaker,
Internet Explorer 7
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5. Open Source Test Automation
How Bad?
‣The IE 7 JavaScript engine runs up 8-times slower than Firefox 3
‣performance. page compiler does not appear to be optimized for IE 7
Appcelerator’s
‣runsobserved 30% performance difference in the way Appcelerator
We
text fields between IE 7 and Firefox 3.
‣performance. used Selenium functions are not optimized for
Some commonly
‣Selenium element locator techniques.difference by using different
We observed a 1798% performance
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6. Open Source Test Automation
Test 1: No JavaScript
‣Simple (almost no JavaScript) page (Google)
‣ms for IE. results of the tests were similar. 3800 ms for Firefox and 4000
The total
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7. Open Source Test Automation
Caching Impact
‣Firefox Caches JavaScript Objects
‣Repeat for 1 Minute:
‣Plus IE7/Selenium Exceptions (8 times): Permission Denied
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8. Open Source Test Automation
Test 2: Ajax Application
‣Javascript heavy site
‣TestMaker 5.2.3Calendar sample that ships with PushToTest
Appcelerator’s
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9. Open Source Test Automation
Resource Utilization
Firefox 3 IE 7
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10. Open Source Test Automation
Element Locator
‣Selenium Type Command using various element locator functions
‣This may be because of:
‣Slow JavaScript engine in IE.
‣Selenium not optimized for IE.
‣Slow xpath system engine (if any) in IE.
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11. Open Source Test Automation
DOM API Performance
‣DOM Performance on IE 7
‣Dom Index is 6250 ms to 6750 ms in Link locator.
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12. Open Source Test Automation
Mitigation
‣functional test times. in Selenium RC with IE 7 and expect very long
Run functional tests
‣The test will complete eventually.
‣browsers. the performance to the same test running on other
Do not compare
‣Run functional tests using HTMLUnit with an Internet Explorer profile.
‣engine provided in HTMLUnit. using the faster Rhino JavaScript
Simulates IE functionality while
‣http://selenium.pushtotest.com. for Selenium are found at
Details on PushToTest support
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13. Open Source Test Automation
Where To Go From Here
‣Watch A Screencast and Tutorial
‣http://www.pushtotest.com/screencastcentral
‣Attend An Open Source Test Workshop
‣http://workshop.pushtotest.com
‣Ask For A Proposal on Licenses, Training, Support, Consulting
‣Call +01 408 871 0122, sales@pushtotest.com
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