How can you effectively use Page Object Model in automation?

1 What is POM?

POM is based on the principle of encapsulation, which means hiding the implementation details of a class and exposing only the relevant methods and properties. In POM, each web page or section of a web page is represented by a class that contains the web elements as properties and the actions on them as methods. For example, if you have a login page, you can create a LoginPage class that has the username, password, and login button as properties and the methods to enter the credentials and click the login button.

2 How to implement POM?

To implement POM, you need to identify the web pages or sections of a web page that you want to automate and create a class for each of them. Afterwards, locate the web elements using any locator strategy (such as id, name, class, xpath, css selector, etc.) and store them as properties in the corresponding class. Then define the methods that perform the actions on the web elements, such as clicking, typing, selecting, etc., and use the properties to access the web elements. Finally, create a test class that imports the page classes and uses the methods to perform the test scenarios. For example, in Python using Selenium you can create a LoginPage class with methods to enter credentials and click the login button.

3 Why use POM?

POM (Page Object Model) is a popular and effective design pattern for automation due to its various advantages. It improves the readability and maintainability of the code by separating web elements and actions into logical units, reducing code duplication and hard-coding. Additionally, it enhances scalability and reliability by allowing easy changes and updates to web elements without affecting test cases. Furthermore, POM supports modularity and reusability, enabling the creation of reusable components and libraries that can be imported into different test cases.

4 What are the challenges of POM?

POM is not a perfect solution and has some drawbacks that you need to be aware of. It requires more effort and time to set up the page classes and web elements, particularly for complex and dynamic web pages. Furthermore, it can increase the complexity of your code by creating multiple classes and files that must be managed and coordinated. Additionally, POM may not be suitable for all types of web applications, like single-page applications that often have changes to web elements and actions.

5 How to improve POM?

POM is not a fixed or rigid design pattern and it can be improved and modified according to your needs and preferences. To do so, you can use a framework or tool that supports POM and provides built-in features for creating and managing page classes and web elements. Additionally, inheritance and composition can be used to create a hierarchy of page classes and web elements. Lastly, data-driven or keyword-driven approaches can help separate the test data and test logic from the page classes and web elements by using external files or databases to store and retrieve the test data, as well as using a keyword interpreter or test engine to execute the test keywords.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?