Selenium is an open-source test automation framework. It has its own benefits and drawbacks. Even if you choose other test automation tools like Sahi, Katalon, QTP, etc every tool has some sort of limitation. The prime advantage of utilizing the Selenium WebDriver is that it supports various programming languages such as Java, C#, .NET, Python, and PHP. Selenium WebDriver easily allows you to execute tests across distinct web browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, etc. As the web gets increasingly complex, using the Selenium Testing Approach has turned out to be even more popular and widespread.
Even though it has made web testing far less complex many teams and enterprises across the globe, it has a considerable amount of issues because of its open-source nature. Much of the difficulties that testers encounter has moderately straightforward solutions, which is the reason we outline the commonest Selenium Webdriver challenges and how to settle them.
Let’s have a look at some of the most common issues or challenges confronted while working in Selenium test automation are:
1. Can’t test windows app- It doesn’t support windows-based apps. It merely supports web-based applications.
2. Can’t test portable applications- We can test on any OS and browser on the desktop using it however we can’t deal mobile testing with selenium alone. But, there is a solution to this. You can make use of Appium to deal with Android and iOS local, portable, and crossbreed applications using the WebDriver protocol.
3. Limited Reports- It is one of the core difficulties and challenges, similarly as with selenium web driver, you couldn’t create a decent report, yet there is a workaround. You can make reports using TestNG or Extent reports.
4. Pop-up Windows-When a simple or confirmation alert pops up, it tends to be the hardest job to automate it to either accept or close. There are basically three distinct kinds of pop-up windows:
o Prompts Alert — It informs the user to input something
o Confirmation alert — It mainly requests the user for confirmation
o Simple alert — It is something that shows some message
Moreover, Windows-based alerts are beyond the abilities of the Selenium since they are part of the OS instead of the browser. Although, since Selenium WebDriver can operate diverse windows, web-based alerts can, by and large, be taken care of with the switchTo method for controlling the pop-up while keeping the browser in the background.
5. Page load- Handful of website pages is client-specific. These pages load different components that rely upon the varied user. Most of the time components appear to rely on the prior activity. In case if you select a nation from nation dropdown, then cities related that country will load in the cities dropdown. In runtime, the script couldn’t find the component. To beat this, we require using explicit waits in the script to give the components enough time to load and to detect the component.
6. Limited Captcha-Handling captcha is restricted in selenium. There are some outside party tools to automate it yet we can’t accomplish 100% outcomes.
7. Scalability-While Selenium WebDriver enables you to test on essentially any browser or OS, it’s yet constrained in what number of tests it can keep running without delay and how fast it can run them dependent on what number of node/hub designs the tester has. Without a Selenium grid, you can simply test sequentially. In any case, with a Selenium grid and a third-party cloud tool like Cross Browser Testing, you can test in equivalent. This implies it can diminish the time it takes to run automated testing and escalating the configurations you can test on.
How would you conquer Selenium test automation challenges?
· Defects When Starting IE (Internet Explorer) -Most of the MS Windows users have their default browser set as IE. Thus, your applications must work with the browser. When it isn’t succeeded to launch, you can fix this selenium automation issue by setting the browser’s zoom level to 100%.
· Timing concerns-The problem generates when testing dynamic web applications. It results when a request takes longer than expected to offer the ideal result. When using Selenium automation, you need to execute a waiting mechanism in the code. This will triumph over the challenges. The program like Ranorex instinctually creates search time-outs for items in the object repository.
· Maintenance of Web Elements-In test automation, you have to conduct test maintenance. It might be enormous work, yet you can’t avoid it. Rather, it is true for complex test scenarios. Thus, how would you manage web components you have addressed in the selenium tests? When using the pure Selenium WebDriver for automation, it can use an exact web component various times. If the web component changes, you need to discover its occurrences and modify them manually. You have to do this even after the use of the page object pattern to deal with the web components. Search out the modified and fix the code.
If you have encountered other Selenium test automation challenges, let us know how you dealt with them in the comment below.
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