Selenium is a suite of open-source tools that can be used to automate web-based applications. It was developed by Jason Huggins at ThoughtWorks in 2004. It's a code-based testing framework that allows testers to automate various testing processes. It supports multiple programming languages and libraries and has a wide range of features.
The main component of the Selenium suite is the WebDriver, which is a code-based library that interacts with the browsers. It enables programs to manipulate DOM elements, perform drag-and-drop actions and handle alerts. It is also a bridge between the Selenium framework and the end browser. This helps in facilitating communication between the browser and the test script.
It supports a variety of programming languages and can be integrated with test management systems. It is a great tool for automated testing. It can be used to test websites with a wide array of operating systems. However, it does not support the automation of desktop applications. It is primarily designed for testing web-applications.
It has several components and can be divided into two types: the WebDriver and the Selenium IDE. The Selenium IDE is a browser plugin, which can be installed on Firefox, Chrome and Opera. The WebDriver provides a bridge between the Selenium framework, the browser and the test script. It is a set of APIs that help in implementing communication between the browser and the test script. This is done by sending a script request to the HTTP server. The browser driver then executes the commands according to the request. The resulting output is then sent to the UI. The response is sent through the JSON wire protocol. This makes it easier to read and write data.
The Selenium IDE is an integrated development environment that allows the creation, execution and recording of tests. The IDE allows users to run smaller scale tests before a full WebDriver setup is completed. It is also capable of running larger scale tests. The WebDriver provides support for a wide variety of modern web-browsers, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.
The Selenium IDE is compatible with a number of Java IDEs. It has a launch icon that can be used to launch it. The workspace is a directory containing jar files. You will need a Java development kit and Java 8 or higher to install the WebDriver. If you want to know more about the WebDriver, you can visit the Selenium website. The website contains information on its different components and a download link.
Another component of the Selenium suite is the Chrome DevTools Protocol. This is a new feature of Selenium 4 that helps in emulating the geolocation of the browser in order to create an automation test. The protocol is useful for testing websites with poor network conditions. It is also a debugging protocol.
Selenium is an open-source project that is supported by a community. Its components are available under a GPL license. The community has been working together for more than a decade and provides support to many projects.