In today’s digital world, new software and applications are releasing every other day. While the users are presented with a variety of options and are given the benefit of choice, the developers and testers, on the other hand, are faced with a hard situation to perform better. Even a small glitch in the application can make you lose valuable customers to your competitors. Hence software testing is gaining more importance in the recent times.
What is Functional Testing?
Functional testing ensures that the software has all the required functionality of a particular application i.e., all the components of an application works well or not. It is a type of black box testing where a set of test cases are tested against the functional requirements of the application. It tests if the functional properties that are available to use for the users work across all probabilities and test case scenarios. In this testing, the code or the structure of the program isn’t tested and just the functional elements and the flow of it are tested. Functional testing is absolutely essential to check if all the functions presented to the users work as intended.re.
Why Should You Automate Functional Testing With Selenium?
Testing can be time-consuming and tiring. To quickly perform the tests and gather insights into the performance of the application, automating a functional testing is the best and the easiest way.
Testing applications regularly and thoroughly is essential. But with a variety of software platforms to develop and test, choosing the right testing application is crucial. The right platform can help in saving the time and in obtaining better output efficiency.
Selenium is being preferred by a lot of developers now to test their platforms effectively and efficiently. To execute the tests, Selenium comes in three different modes:
- Record Playback Mode
- to record test cases with respect to Firefox. You can also export the tests to different languages thereby providing the option to edit it according to the requirements, build a test and run it across other different platforms.
- Selenium Remote Control Mode
offers to run tests that take care of testing in the preferred language with the intention of covering all bases with the test cases. It runs tests in the browser one after another after which its results will be the saved in the chosen language.
- Test Runner Mode
records the test cases and replays the tests with the reports recorded to check the scenarios.
Here are the reasons why Selenium Test Automation is the best platform for functional testing:
1. Free and open source
Selenium is free software; therefore it greatly reduces the cost that one needs to invest for testing software. It can be freely downloaded and used without any costs. Since it is open source software, it is easy to modify, extend and share the code. Also, it has a large community of developers who roll out updates and new features that further make the testing process easier. These upgrades do not need any specific training to use which is the main advantage for people who use Selenium.
2. Supports various languages
One of the main problems developers face is the integration of tools among software of different languages. But selenium doesn’t limit the software to be in one particular language and instead, allows the user to code in any of the languages like Java, Perl, Python, C#, Ruby, Groovy, Java Script, etc. Therefore, developers can concentrate on writing an efficient code in the language they are in comfortable in without worrying about the compatibility of the languages or learning new languages for new software.
Also, with Selenium one can easily implement frameworks related to Object Oriented Programming like Keyword Driven, Data driven, Hybrid, etc.
3. Compatibility across various operating systems
The ease with which Selenium helps to code and run tests are one of the other important factors for testers to prefer it. One can easily automate Selenium testing across all the operating systems: Windows, Mac, Linux, UNIX, etc. You can create a set of customized code in Mac and run the tests in Windows too.
4. Seamless working across all browsers
Name any browser and Selenium will be able to run tests successfully on it. From Chrome, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, UC Browser to any other browser that may even be developed in the future, Selenium can effectively run its code and perform tests with it. The tests can also be modified as and when required; this helps to improve the performance and promote efficient maintenance.
5. Parallel test execution
With Selenium, you can run functional tests simultaneously in an integrated environment. Without any lag in a single test, a same set of tests can be used on different platforms or browsers to cut down the time and costs in times when working on a large project.
