Presentation about file download tests with Selenium. Presented at the London Selenium Meetup on 26 Feb 2014

1. Mark Collin
@Ardesco
http://ardesco.lazerycode.com/

2. Downloading files,
easy right?

3. Auto It
•
Different script for each browser
•
Script may break with browser upgrade
•
Windows only
•
Not KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

4. Browser set to automatically
download files
•
It’s KISS
•
Cross Platform

6. Let’s look a bit
harder…

8. We need to check the file, but
we have some problems…
•
Has the file finished downloading?
•
What is the downloaded file called?
•
The file isn’t there… What happened?
•
How do we check it’s the right file?
•
Is the file from this test or the last test?

9. Looks like we didn’t keep
it simple after all stupid!

10. What we need to do
•
We need to make sure that we downloaded the
file or provided useful feedback if we couldn’t
•
We need to make sure that the file we
downloaded was the correct file

11. If it’s not in the DOM,
you’re doing it wrong!
Collin’s Law

12. Downloading Files
•
Don’t click the download link with Selenium!
•
Use a library that is designed to download
remote files (Selenium isn’t)

13. Checking downloaded files
•
KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid), don’t try to write
complicated comparison logic!
•
Use the thing that everybody uses, a hash!
•
Save the files if the test fails! We are going to
want to look at them.

14. You don’t have to use
Java!

15. Questions?

16. Mark Collin
@Ardesco
http://ardesco.lazerycode.com/