Web application testing in the digital world is essential to ensure that it is bug-free and runs as per end-user requirements. Thinking about web automation testing, the first tool that comes to mind is selenium automation testing.
Developers and testers use it for software quality assurance. Selenium testing had gained popularity from the time when it was created. There is a lot of information about selenium testing facts, which is also associated with the influx of myths about Selenium testing.
In this blog, we will explore the top 10 myths about Selenium testing. However, before diving into this, let’s get some brief about Selenium testing, which will help in getting a clear picture of the myth about Selenium testing.
Brief on Selenium testing
Selenium is an automated testing framework mainly used to validate web applications across diverse platforms and browsers. It is known to support different programming languages like C#, Perl, and Python.
The basic advantage of the use of Selenium testing involves its ability to use source code, free to use, improves code readability, makes easy reporting, and makes the test execution fast.
Selenium testing framework has a set of tools for testing web-based applications. The tester mainly used this to write test scripts in different languages and perform tests in diverse browsers and operating systems. Selenium testing allows the running of parallel testing, which makes the process easy and fast.
Tests performed using Selenium testing.
The testers and software developers use Selenium testing as an automation tool to perform different types of tests. Some of the common tests include:
Ten common myths about Selenium testing
1. Selenium testing is insecure
The issue of cyber-attacks and breaches of data has surged to a high level over the past years. The use of data and digital means benefits businesses but also gives rise to data breaches. Selenium testing is open source and accessible; it is thought that it is not a secure approach for testing web applications.
However, this is just a myth, as it is the most secure set of tools. It is sponsored by the reliable Apache Software Foundation, which considers security to be the most crucial element in the testing process.
It has an integrated suite of tools and framework that helps the tester perform automation and manual tests to ensure the security of significant information, system, and data in transit. It is equipped with reliable safety protocols; thus, software developers and testers can use this without any issues with security vulnerabilities.
2. Not suitable for the large-scale businesses
In a highly competitive market, the emergence and development of new software tools come with the qualities of security and enhancing performance. It is built to support the large-scale project. Selenium is the most chosen tool by developers and testers; it is often questioned, believing that it is not suitable for large-scale projects. It is the most common myth noted about Selenium testing.
However, as Selenium testing comes with the latest techniques and enhanced performance, it is developed for large firms. The companies like Bloomberg, Twitter, PayPal, Yahoo!, eBay, and Netflix leverage the Selenium testing framework, which itself proves that it is appropriate for large-scale firms.
Many companies looking to leverage the Selenium testing framework for the purpose of automating the test of large-scale websites have the option to choose a cloud-based Selenium Grid like LambdaTest.
3. Selenium testing is free
Selenium testing is established to be an open-source, free automation tool. Many of the QA think that it is free as it does not incur any license fees; however, that’s not what the real cost lies. In the field of software testing, the real cost involves the time and effort of the people.
Selenium testing is not always cost-effective. Some of the paid automation tools save huge amounts of time and effort, which cost less in the long run. Selenium testing involves lots of maintenance and compatibility issues, which signifies it is not as cost-effective an option as others; for example, Micro Focus UFT.
4. Rare bug fixes
Selenium testing is open source, and many software developers and testers think that it does not have bug fixes as compared with the premium version of the software. However, it is just a myth associated with Selenium testing because open-source software testing tools are available to expert communities across the world.
The main outcome is the improvement in remote collaboration of the developers across the community. The benefit associated is that individuals can contribute to commending bug fixes and improvements.
5. Updates to testing are limited
The tech-driven communities work collaboratively, giving widespread exposure that aids the Selenium testing framework provide competitive aspects and features. In turn, it gives the opportunity to the testers to translate innovative ideas into reality. Such types of innovation are mainly crucial updates and aspects for Selenium testing.
It has support from the firm community by contributors across the world, which facilitates updates to the testing. In this current era, Selenium testing, including Selenium WebDriver, endures to progress repeatedly toward a comprehensive browser automation tool. Thus, it is a just myth that in Selenium testing, there are no updates in line with competitive features.
6. Comes with various limitations secondary to its free accessibility
The general thought of the people is that product with good features and services comes with a price. Along the same line, the developers and testers have the perspective that tools with cost provide good experience than open-source software like Selenium. However, the above views are just a myth.
Selenium testing involves a large community of contributors inclined to keep the projects and work up to date, ensuring no error. There are no issues evident by using Selenium testing and searching for a solution with the utilization of forums like Selenium Slack Community.
7. Testing APIs possible in Selenium testing
Many software developers and testers think about using Selenium testing for testing Application Programming Interface tests. However, it is a myth to believe that Application Programming Interface tests are possible in Selenium testing.
In explanation to this, testing using Selenium only provide flexibility for integration with the parts in the DOM by identifying its locations and making use of the Selenium techniques in order to associate with the stated elements.
Then, for executing testing APIs, you are required to access those programmatically, which can be accomplished using an Application Programming Interface testing tool like REST Assured. In addition, the LambdaTest platform offers REST APIs for Selenium test automation for retrieving related details on testing done in Cloud Grid.
8. No role of software developer in Selenium testing
One of the common myths associated with Selenium testing is related to no requirement or role of software developers in Selenium testing. Looking into deeper insight into Selenium testing, software developers could provide great information on the automated test based on the skills and knowledge related to App functions and the result of any modifications.
In the testing process, the person involved generally has less understanding of coding and programming, which makes them quite incompetent in understanding the complete development process of the web application.
It is usually evident that Selenium testing is mainly carried out without having sound knowledge of the codes. Therefore, including software developers is crucial for the success of the development of web applications.
They can have access to end-user requirements and give information on the software testers to improvise the outcome and performance.
9. Selenium testing can do database testing
Selenium testing offers different types of testing; it is believed that it can do database testing. However, this is not true. Selenium testing does not support database testing. It can only be partially utilized with the help of ODBC and JDBC.
This shows that only features available in the programming language can be used. For example, if a software developer or tester is using Java, he needs to add .jar file and write specific methods to read and manipulate data in the database table.
10. Selenium testing is effective for performance testing
Selenium testing being free and easily accessible, it is often thought that it lacks resources to put forth updates for enhancing the performance of the web application using Selenium Grid. However, the use of Selenium Grid is not a justified reason for improving performance testing.
It only helps in performing tests parallelly, which lowers the time for test execution. Standalone Selenium cannot be used for performance tests. It requires to be integrated with JMeter for different tests.
Although, Selenium and JMeter can be used for some level of performance test, but not utilized to their full extent. It is mainly used for small-scale projects and applications.
Conclusion
In the field of software development, a testing process using Selenium has gained popularity due to its effective and easy use. However, it is surrounded by several myths that raise questions in the process of Selenium testing.
Selenium testing is open-source and free to use. Such facts have caused some testers to believe that it does not guarantee security, bug fixes, and others.
In fact, Selenium testing allows easy identification of bugs with complete success. LambdaTest offers an accessible port of web automation testing using Selenium Grid to a cloud-based Selenium Grid. Using LambdaTest, you can run Selenium testing on a cloud browser to ensure reliability to real user conditions.
