In order to determine whether a test case has passed or failed, Assertions are used to validate the test case. The assertion is deemed to be true if an application produces results that are consistent with what was anticipated.

When using Selenium to automate web applications, we must validate our tests to ensure that they are functioning as intended or not (that is, whether a test case returns a pass/fails result).

With the aid of assertion, the actual result is contrasted with the anticipated result. It indicates that verification is carried out to see if the application’s status matches or differs from our expectations. We’re going to use the Assert class that TestNG provides to create assertions.

Only after all of the assertions have been satisfied is a test case deemed to have passed. The pre-defined techniques of the Junit and TestNG frameworks can be used to handle assertions in Selenium.

We may determine whether a test case has passed or failed by using assertions to do various types of validations in the test cases. A test is deemed successful if it executes without throwing any errors. A good online Selenium certification course will explain in detail what Assertions in Selenium mean. 

Types of Assertions in Selenium.

In Selenium, there are two different types of assertions, and each is classified according to how it responds to a pass or fail condition. Hard and Soft Assertions are what they are called.

1.Hard Assertions (Or Simply Assertions)

Until the assertion condition is satisfied, a hard assertion does not continue to be executed.

When an assertion condition is not met, hard assertions often throw an Assertion Error. When a hard assertion condition is violated, the test case will be reported as Failed right away.

This type of assertion can be used in situations when you want to confirm that you have logged in properly and fail the test if you haven’t, as there is no use in continuing if the pre-condition (login) itself fails.

2.Soft Assertions.

When an assertion fails, soft assertions do not automatically throw an exception unless specifically requested. This is helpful if you perform numerous validations on a form, but only a small number of validations directly affect the test case status.

Even if the assertion condition is not satisfied, a soft assertion moves on to the next stage of the test execution.

Here, the assertAll() method of the SoftAssert class is used to throw any exceptions that are discovered during execution. When using softAssert, assertion is carried out, and if an exception is discovered, it is not immediately thrown; instead, it continues until the function assertAll() is called to throw all exceptions caught.

It is smart to use different objects of the ‘SoftAssert’ class for each test case.

When To Use Hard And Soft Assertions?

Use Soft Assertions if you need to carry out all of the test case’s actions even if an assertion fails and you also want to report an assertion exception. A smart practice and efficient method for managing the execution of your tests is to use soft assertions in your test scripts.

Use hard assertions if you want your test case execution to start only after an assertion is met (for instance, to verify a valid login before starting the following stages).

Types of Hard Assertions in Selenium.

1. assertEquals: In the selenium webdriver, this is used to compare expected and actual values. The assertion is true whenever the expected and actual values match, without exception.

However, assert fails with an exception and the test is considered to have failed if the real and expected numbers do not match.

2. assertNotEquals: The exact opposite of assertEquals is assertNotEquals. Every time the expected and actual numbers differ, the assertion is true and no exception is raised. However, if the test fails and the actual and expected numbers match, assert fails with an exception.

3. assertTrue: This assertion type is used to determine whether a condition is true. This assertion is utilised when working with boolean values. If a test case is successful, it returns true; if it is unsuccessful, it skips the current method and moves on to the next.

4. assertFalse: It verifies whether the value returned is true or not. When a test case succeeds, the method is aborted and an exception is raised.

5. assertNull: This assertion determines whether or not the object is null. If the object is null, the test is terminated and an exception is raised.

6. assertNotNull: This assertion determines whether or not the object is null. If the object is not null, that is, if the object has any value, the test is terminated and an exception is raised.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a test case is only deemed to pass if all of the assertions have been met. An assertion is used to compare an application’s actual result with the expected result. Visit the online Selenium training to find out more about assertions.