Selenium IDE, or Selenium Integrated Development Environment is a handy software testing tool, prepared by Apache Software Foundation. Pronounced as the one of the fastest and easiest testing frameworks, the Selenium Automation Framework does not require the users to possess a detailed knowledge of programming and technical aspects. However, some basic understanding of HTML and JavaScript would be helpful when working with the tool.
Downloading and Installing the Plug-in
Selenium IDE is an open source application, which can be downloaded free of charge from the official website of Selenium. Here’s how to do it:
- The first and the foremost requirement for working with this test automation is the Firefox browser.
- Apart from the official Selenium website, you can also download and install it from the ‘Add-ons’ option of your Firefox web browser.
- Just press CTRL + Shift + A on your keyboard when Firefox is open, a new tab will open.
- Now type ‘Selenium IDE’ in the search box, available at top right. You will get a list of related add-ons.
- Choose the plug-in you want to install.
Since there will be many add-ons, you can consider downloading the framework from the ‘Download’ page of the Selenium website to avoid any confusion.
Features of the Selenium Interface
Once you have installed the plug-in, you should restart the browser. Now you are ready to run the test. You will see the Selenium IDE option in the ‘Tools’ tab of your Firefox browser.
When you would open Selenium Window, you would see a Menu bar, URL bar, Tool bar, Editor, Test Case panel, and Log panel.
Menu Bar
In the menu bar, there will be File, Edit, Actions, Options and Help sub-menus. The File menu allows you to create new, open existing, and save current test cases. You can also export your test cases and suites to other programming languages, supported by Selenium RC and WebDriver frameworks.
In Edit menu, you can insert new command and comment within the test case that you are currently working with.
The Action menu allows you to record, play, pause, and resume the test case at any point. You can also set and clear break point and start point of your current test series.
The Options menu gives you several options, to ease and increase the test environment. The testers can take advantage of this menu to augment the test results.
And the Help Menu helps the testing developers with various online documents and discussion boards on the internet.
URL Bar –
It is the bar where you enter the website URL.
Tool Bar –
The Tool bar panel allows the developers to control and set the playback speed, while playing and recording the test suites and test cases.
Editor –
The Editor section allows the user to record all the actions that are performed in a test environment.
Test Case Panel –
The test case panel allows the tester to see the test results.
Log Panel –
And the log pane or panel displays the real-time logs of the concurrent test case.