Selenium various tools comparison

Selenium 1.0

Selenium 1.0 is the first browser-based open source automation testing tool. It can use all programming languages that support the HTTP library, or it can run on all JavaScript-enabled browsers. Of course it also has its drawbacks. Before running the Selenium 1.0 program, we have to start the selenium server side, which is selenium RC. While selenium RC is implemented by JavaScript, each browser has strict security restrictions on executing JavaScript to prevent users from being attacked by malicious scripts, which in some cases can be cumbersome with Selenium 1.0.

Selenium 1.0 has the following 3 problems to be solved urgently:

1. No native mouse and keyboard events
2. Xss/http homology data problem
3. Popup Dialog issues

Webdriver

The Webdriver project was created by Simon Stewart (from Google) and is a very handy automated testing tool. It uses Htmlunit and can be run directly in memory. And Webdriver can also invoke the operating system API, especially when the user needs to simulate the mouse and keyboard for real page operation, this ability is particularly obvious. Webdriver also has its drawbacks, when using it to control the browser, you need to rely on independent clients with native support. Webdriver only provides Java bindings and does not support as many browsers as selenium 1 can support.

Selenium 1.0 vs Webdriver

1. Webdriver can bypass JavaScript black boxes.
2. Selenium 1.0 requires a real-world browser environment, while Webdriver can operate the Htmlunit driver directly. For some browsers, such as Firefox, we can use the Htmlunit driver to perform quickly in system memory.
3. Webdriver does not support parallel testing, while selenium grid can.
4. Webdriver supports a limited number of browsers, while Selenium 1.0 supports almost all browsers and supports many languages for each browser.
5. Some selenium 1.0 unresolved issues, such as "native mouse and keyboard events", Webdriver can be implemented by invoking the system's API.

Selenium 1.0 +webdriver =selenium 2.0

Thus, in order to synthesize the advantages of Selenium 1 and Webdriver, Selenium 2 (also known as Selenium Webdriver) was published. Selenium 2 has a clear object-oriented API from Webdriver and is able to interact with the browser in the best way possible. Selenium 2 does not use JavaScript sandboxing and supports multiple browsers and multi-language bindings. Specifically, the following are:

• Mozilla Firefox
• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Opera
• Apple IPhone
• Android Browsers

Selenium 2 supports languages such as Java, C #, Ruby, and Python. Selenium 2 also offers a htmlunit-based, headless driver, which is the Java framework for testing Web applications. Htmlunit runs very fast, but it is not a real driver associated with a real browser.

Selenium Tools

The selenium, which is currently said, generally includes the following four tools:

Selenium Core: Selenium core content, is the IDE and RC engine. The inside is made up of JavaScript functions, which are invoked to implement various actions on the browser.

Selenium IDE: a Firefox plugin. With the ability to record, edit and play back scripts, easy to get started, for beginners can develop some simple test scripts.

Selenium Webdriver (Selenium 2.0): Merged by Selenium and Webdriver. It supports the Webdriver API and the underlying technology as well as the Selenium 1.0 technology under the Webdriver API. The Selenium 2.0 can still run on the Selenium 1.0 Selenium RC interface to support backwards compatibility.

Selenium RC (Selenium 1.0) : Selenium Remote Control. Remote control, that is, a script to manipulate the browser. It allows testers to expand the complexity and elongation of the test script in a programming language based on demand. Mainly includes three parts: Launcher,http Proxy,selenium core.

Selenium Grid: Allows multiple test tasks to be run on different environments at the same time.

Selenium various tools comparison