What are the best practices for Selenium test script creation?

When Writing any UI Tests in your project there are few important rules follow: 1. Make your tests small Small tests are easy to maintain but hard to create it. 2. NEVER ever declare variables in your test method. Make sure to declare them at instance level . 3. NEVER ever use conditional statements or any loop or try catch in your tests. 4. Always hide the complexity with the help of abstraction. When you build tests with abstraction in it. Its easy to read and write for the new junior tester. 5. Naming Convention is important and when you declare a variable give clear intent why you have created it and what is the purpose of that variable. 6. Don't use selenium methods directly in your tests create a utility for abstraction

Maintaining consistent naming convention in selenium scripts not only helps in readability but is also helpful in maintaining your automation framework. It will promote reusability as well in your project hence reducing redundant code.

Using a consistent naming convention in test scripts is crucial not only for your own benefit but also for others who may read the code. It promotes clarity, reduces errors, and prevents redundancy in code, making it easier for anyone to understand and work with the codebase.

Creating effective Selenium test scripts requires careful planning and adherence to best practices. Here are some key tips: Clear Test Objectives Modularise Your Code Use Page Object Model Locators Strategies Test Data Management Error Handling Reporting Cross-Browser Testing Parallel Testing Test Data Management Version Control Continuous Integration Regular Maintenance Documentation Code Reviews Keep Tests Isolated Performance Testing

Here are some of the best practices that can help in Automation Testing at any level : 1. Documentation - A clear and concise documentation is a must 2. Regular Maintenance - Test scripts need to be updated and obsolete code needs to be removed every now and then 3. Page Object Model (POM) - Using POM, implement POM design pattern to organize your code 4. Parallel Testing - In order to speed up the execution, scripts should be implemented in such a way that they support parallel execution 5. Test Reporting: Comprehensive and clear test reports to document test results. Allure, TestNG or Junit for detailed report generation 6. Parametrization and data driven testing 7. Using implicit and explicit waits 8. Error Handling

Make use of page object design pattern to write effective test cases 1. page objects should contain Web Elements and associated actions 2. Tests should contain test related activities and assertions wherever needed. 3. For repetitive steps try to create a common utility which can be used across tests.

Page Object Model (POM) is a powerful pattern for creating organized and maintainable test scripts. POM abstracts web elements and actions into separate classes or objects, code reusability and reducing the tight coupling between test scripts and the web elements. This not only enhances code readability but also ensures that updates to web elements or actions can be made centrally, streamlining maintenance efforts.

Applying page object model is indeed a great way to keep your code modular and maintainable. There are creative ways to tweak this model to suit your automation requirements like segregating classes based on application pages and at the same time collocating object properties in XML to maintain parent-child relation between pages and their respective locators.

Creating Selenium test scripts involves implementing best practices for efficiency, stability, and maintainability. Prioritize code modularity and reusability by dividing scripts into independent modules for easy updates and reuse. Effective management of element selectors is crucial. Prioritize unique and stable identifiers like IDs or class identifiers to minimize script fragility during UI changes. Ensure proper handling of pop-ups, cookies, and browser manipulations for consistent test results. Comprehensive script documentation is recommended. Include clear comments on script logic, preconditions, and test steps to enhance team collaboration and understanding.

POM is the best approach as it has the defined structure of doing the Automation, it uses OOPS concepts and the run time initialization make it faster to execute.

My two cents here: 1. Avoid Thread.sleep() as much as possible. 2. Don't use ImplicitlyWait() in your framework. 3. Always use Explicit wait in the form of webdriverwait and fluentwait to handle dynamic elements, AJAX components. It can work for both web elements and non web elelments like alerts, popups, windows, title, urls etc..

Few points to keep in mind while working with waits in selenium 1. We should not mix implicit and explicit waits together 2. Wait time should be reasonable 3. Try to make best use of expected conditions to handle synchronisation issues.

Make the code more modular & loosely coupled with another. Any changes in one flow should not impact on the existing code.. This way the code management also will be lighter.

I would recommend not to use implicit wait in framework. Use Webdriver wait or Fluent wait instead. Even if you are using implicit wait please don't use any other waits fir the same page.

Instead of using implicit or explicit waits Directly we can create some reusable functions for different conditions like waitForElementToBeVisible(),waitForElementToBeEnable(),waitForElementToBeClickable(),waitForElementToBeDisplay(),etc but definitely we need to highly restrict the use of thread.sleep() as the Automation will expand it will highly affect the execution speed & the time to complete execution.

What is/When to use hard assertions: Hard assertions are the traditional form of assertions used in testing. When a hard assertion fails, the test immediately stops, and the subsequent code in the test script is not executed. It is suitable for situations where the test cannot continue if a critical condition fails. For example, if a login test fails, there's no point in trying to perform further actions in the application. Commonly used in languages like Java with libraries such as JUnit and TestNG. Soft Assertions: It is helpful for scenarios where you want to capture multiple failures in a single test run and report them all together at the end of the test.

Understanding assertions and verifications are fundamental: > Assertions are checkpoints where a test will halt on failure; they validate crucial outcomes. > Verifications allow tests to continue despite failures, checking less critical conditions. > Apply assertions to test vital functions like login processes, ensuring they're non-negotiable. > Employ verifications for more forgiving checks, such as UI element availability or optional messages. > This distinction fine-tunes test robustness and aligns checks with business criticality.

In Selenium testing, think of assertions like a red stop sign. When they spot a problem, they slam the brakes on your test. Use them for must-pass checks, like making sure someone's logged in or payments work. Verifications are like yellow caution signs. They just say, 'Hey, something's not quite right,' but they let your test keep going. Use them for less critical checks, like seeing if a message pops up or a button works. In a nutshell, assertions stop things for big issues, and verifications keep things going for smaller hiccups. They're your trusty helpers in Selenium testing.

If one is validating multiple things in the same test case or validator and those are independent with each other then we have to use soft assertions. But if those are interrelated and the second assert is verifiable only when the first assert is passed then one needs to use a hard assert. Ex: If you have to validate components of the page or details on the page then you can directly use soft assertion because each component is independent and failing of one assertion should not stop whole validation. But if you have to validate flow after login then you need to hard assert whether login is successful or not to validate further.

Have seen many people use hard assertions everywhere but we should use soft assertions at most of place and hard assertion at the critical points only so that even if someone functionalities breaks execution will continue, now we can explore n use visual assertions as well.

Benefits of using logging and reporting in test automation: > quick debugging of test failures. >Provides visibility into test execution status [pass/fail]. > Serves as documentation for test cases. > Enables issue identification through alerts/notifications. > Useful in regression testing by comparing historical data. > Continuous improvement of test suites by analyzing the failures reasons.

Logging and reporting mechanisms provide crucial insights into test executions, aiding in debugging and result analysis. - Integrate real-time logging to track test flow and pinpoint failures swiftly. - Utilize custom markers in logs for easier identification of critical test phases. - Implement hierarchical reporting to reflect module-wise test performance. - Leverage visual dashboards for immediate stakeholder comprehension. - Embed error snapshots within reports for direct evidence of issues. - Automate report generation post-execution to streamline workflow. - Utilize trend analysis in reports for predicting future test improvements.

Loggers make the debugging process easy other than that extent report can help with execution details like pass /fail count, test duration, report logging steps etc

Use fluent wait with explicit wait. Try to put dynamic waits as much as possible with some decent timeout. Try to avoid static wait as much as possible.

Logging & reporting is the most important thing as the upper management only understands this & everything should be included in the logs & reports like screenshots, error messages, exceptions, curls,logs etc

Importance of DRY: - Reusability - Easy to maintain - No Duplicate Code/ Boilerplate code - Reduce the code base size and complexity - Everyone is on the same page This will help you reduce the size and complexity of your test scripts, improve the code quality and consistency, and facilitate the code maintenance and modification examples: - Open Browser using driver for all test cases - it should be a common method - actions like click, sendKeys, getText etc.. should be written in util common class - helper utils like read excelData, read Json, readCSV, DBUtils etc.. should be written in utils with common and generic methods.

The DRY principle advocates for minimizing code duplication to enhance maintainability. - Recognize patterns in test cases; abstract these into utilities for broader use. - Our setup and teardown routines can be modularized for cross-project applicability. - Encapsulate login flows into a single, reusable component to streamline authorization testing. - Standardize data handling methods to ensure uniformity across tests. - Consolidate locator strategies to centralize UI element references, easing updates. - Promote code libraries within teams to foster a culture of reuse and efficiency. - We must continuously refactor to keep our codebase lean and adaptable to changes.

Follow builder pattern while creating the script which will help you to reduce complexity of the scripts. Create dynamic wait as per your requirement.

The DRY principle useful for the elimination of duplicated code within a software system. Instead of writing the same logic or information in multiple places, it encourages developers to create reusable abstractions or components. Readability and Understandability: DRY code is often more concise and easier to read. Repeated code can lead to code bloat, making it harder for developers (including the original author)to understand. Abstraction and Encapsulation: DRY encourages the creation of abstractions that hide complex operations behind a simplified interface. This promotes clean, easy-to-understand code.

When writing code, use as much of the following techniques: - Object Oriented Programming (OOP) - POJO structure for things like API testing - Clear, sensible names to methods and functions - Clear, frequent commenting of code which can produce automatic documentation of every single method (including the name, purpose, and author) - Abstraction, abstraction, and if in doubt, abstraction to decouple as much code as possible increasing reusability Things to avoid: - Creating local variables or objects that are inaccessible to any part of a base or inherited class - Not commenting code on-the-fly, you will likely forget to do it later. - Complex code, do not show off too much. - Large recursion that reduces time efficiency

1. Follow the best design pattern for implementing automation framework as per the nature of AUT. 2. Choose the right locators. 3. Identify the test cases effectively. 4. Try to reuse the existing browser instance. 5. Avoid Thread. Sleep() as much as possible.

Use Sepearation of concerns by keeping the following as logically separate aspects 1. Test data 2. Test Configurations 3. View port selection 4. Reporting 5. Logging 6. Page Objects 7. Reusable business functions 8. Low level functions 9. Dependencies The test script would bind / use the above modules appropriately to perform a test.

In my experience choosing locators for Selenium automation scripting with performance benefits in mind, is an essential basic: -Use ID and Name Attributes: Whenever possible, prefer using unique IDs or Name attributes as locators. -CSS Selectors: CSS selectors are often faster than XPath. -Avoid XPath Where Possible: XPath expressions can be slower, especially for complex queries. -Custom Attributes: Sometimes adding custom attributes to HTML elements can help make your locators more unique and efficient.

WebDriver Manager simplifies Selenium test automation by automating the management of web drivers for various browsers. It ensures browser driver compatibility, automates updates, and integrates with popular test frameworks. It's easy to use, cross-platform, supports parallel execution, and reduces maintenance overhead. WebDriver Manager tools, such as WebDriverManager for Java and webdriver-manager for JavaScript, are well-supported by active communities. Integrating WebDriver Manager enhances test script efficiency and maintainability, making it a recommended best practice for Selenium automation.

Automated software testing should be part of a larger test strategy. Furthermore, solely automated UI testing with Selenium is plain wrong and will lead to a failure in the automation project. Focus on finding large risks in the application and critical areas for the business to function. Start there. Find a balance of different types of tests. Collaborate and communicate.