In today’s fast-paced business environment, organizations require high-quality software within a short period. To achieve this, effective software Testing is necessary, and automation testing has become increasingly popular with the rise of agile and DevOps methodologies. The use of test automation helps to speed up the testing process with re-usable test suites, and there are various test automation frameworks available for QA testers to use. Selenium is a popular automation testing tool due to its open-source nature and numerous features that make the testing process faster when compared to other tools.

Selenium has undergone a remarkable transformation since its inception, which is why it has become the most popular and powerful automation testing tool today. The recent release of Selenium 4 has generated significant excitement within the testing community, as everyone eagerly awaits the opportunity to explore its enhanced features.

But before delving into Selenium 4, let’s provide a brief overview of its previous versions. Selenium 1, introduced in 2004, established itself as a freely available open-source automation testing framework that comprised Selenium IDE, RC, and WebDriver. In contrast, Selenium 2, released in 2011, included IDE, WebDriver, and Grid.

Notably, the RC server was merged with the WebDriver, making browser automation scripting more convenient. Selenium 3, officially launched in 2016, introduced notable changes such as replacing the Selenium Core with the WebDriver-backed option and introducing the GeckoDriver and W3C WebDriver integration.

What is Selenium 4?

On April 24th, 2019, Selenium 4 was released with the objective of enabling smoother, more accurate, and faster test automation. Selenium 4 brings a plethora of exciting features across its entire suite, including Selenium IDE, WebDriver, and Grid.

Keynote Features of Selenium 4

1.    Relative Locators

Selenium 4 introduces significant changes to the Selenium WebDriver, particularly with the addition of Relative Locators. Traditionally, test engineers have spent considerable time and effort maintaining locators by writing and building codes. Other tools like Sahi and Taiko have features that allow locating nearby elements by specifying directions. However, achieving the same functionality in Selenium has typically involved dealing with complex xpaths and CSS locators, which can lead to fragile and unreliable test cases.

To address this challenge, Selenium 4 introduces Relative Locators, which offer a more efficient solution by enabling the location of elements based on their positions relative to other elements.These locators allow elements to be located in relation to nearby specified elements.

One of the added methods is withTagName(), which returns an instance of the RelativeLocator.RelativeBy class, a subclass of By. This class provides methods to specify the direction of the element to be located.

• above(): Locates an element just above the specified element.
• below(): Locates an element just below the specified element.
• toLeftOf(): Locates an element on the left side of the specified element.
• toRightOf(): Locates an element on the right side of the specified element.
• near(): By default, locates an element at a distance of 50 pixels from the specified element.

By incorporating these five relative locators alongside the existing eight locator strategies, Selenium 4 enables more accurate element location, ultimately reducing the occurrence of flaky test cases.

2.   Selenium Grid Enhancement

The previous version of Selenium Grid had complexities and limitations when it came to setup and scalability.

The new Selenium Grid introduces Docker support, allowing developers and testers to easily spin up containers instead of dealing with resource-intensive virtual machines. Furthermore, it has been redesigned to enable the deployment of the grid on Kubernetes, ensuring better scalability.

Managing Selenium Grid is now seamless and effortless, as there is no longer a need to set up and start hubs and nodes separately.

Teams or individual testers can choose to deploy the grid in three modes:

• Standalone mode
• Hub and Node configuration
• Fully distributed setup

In contrast to its predecessors, Selenium Grid 4 provides support for IPv6 addresses and enables communication with the Grid through the HTTPS protocol. Moreover, configuring grid instances has become more user-friendly with the introduction of TOML (Tom’s Obvious, Minimal Language) as a format for writing configuration files, enhancing readability for humans.

LambdaTest is a cloud-based digital experience testing platform that offers a streamlined and productive approach for Selenium testing using Cloud Grid. By leveraging LambdaTest, you gain access to a vast array of over 3000 real browsers and devices, providing an expansive selection of testing environments for your applications. This empowers you to thoroughly test your applications across various operating systems, browser versions, and devices without the need to establish and manage the infrastructure required for local test execution. LambdaTest simplifies the testing process, allowing you to focus on ensuring the quality and compatibility of your applications.

3.   Selenium IDE Upgrade

Selenium IDE, the popular record and playback tool familiar to many QA engineers using the Selenium tool suite, has undergone significant improvements. Previously, Selenium IDE was only available as a Firefox add-on. However, with the introduction of the latest versions of Firefox, the add-on became deprecated due to the standardization of add-ons under the Web Extension mechanism (starting from Firefox version 55).

The new Selenium 4 IDE introduces several noteworthy features, including:

• Improved graphical user interface (GUI) for a more intuitive user experience.

• The IDE now includes the SIDE tool (Selenium IDE runner), which allows running .side projects on a node.js platform. This SIDE runner enables individual QA testers to execute cross-browser tests on a local or Cloud Selenium Grid.

• Enhanced control flow mechanism that enables testers to write better “while” and “if” conditions.

• The new IDE incorporates an improved element locator strategy, acting as a backup strategy in case the primary web element cannot be located. This contributes to the creation of stable test cases.

These enhancements in Selenium IDE empower QA testers with more flexibility and efficiency in their test automation workflows.

4.   Enhanced Documentation

The documentation section has undergone a significant revamp, featuring a clean and user-friendly interface that enables easy navigation to specific sections or pages. This improvement greatly assists testers and developers in quickly finding the relevant information they require, whether it pertains to a particular tool, language binding, or any other aspect.

The comprehensive documentation now encompasses detailed information about all the tools and APIs within the Selenium ecosystem. This extensive coverage proves invaluable, particularly for individual testers, including beginners, as it equips them with the necessary knowledge about features and prerequisites to initiate their automation testing journey.

Overall, the improved documentation serves as a valuable resource, enabling testers and developers to access the information they need effectively and efficiently.

5.   Chrome Debugging Protocol Integration

Selenium 4 introduces built-in support for the Chrome DevTools Protocol. As a result, QA testers can now utilize the Chrome development properties, including Fetch, Network, Profiler, Performance, Application cache, and more. This integration enables testers to leverage the APIs provided by Chrome DevTools, allowing them to simulate various network conditions and conduct geolocation testing.

By utilizing this API, developers and QA testers can expedite the process of testing and resolving critical bugs for specific web pages. This integration empowers them to address issues more swiftly and dynamically, facilitating faster bug fixes and enhancing the overall testing and development workflow.

6.    Enhanced Window/Tab Management in Selenium 4

In test automation, there are often scenarios where it is necessary to open a specific link in a new tab or window to perform certain actions. In Selenium 3, achieving this required creating a new driver object and subsequently using the WindowHandle method to switch between windows.

7.   Deprecation of Desired Capabilities

Previously, Desired Capabilities were commonly utilized in test scripts to specify the test environment, including browser name, version, and operating system, for executing tests on the Selenium Grid.

However, in Selenium 4, capabilities objects have been deprecated and replaced with Options. As a result, testers now need to create an Options object, configure the desired test requirements, and pass the object to the Driver constructor.

Moving forward, the following Options objects should be used to define browser-specific capabilities:

• Firefox: FirefoxOptions
• Chrome: ChromeOptions
• Internet Explorer (IE): InternetExplorerOptions
• Microsoft Edge: EdgeOptions
• Safari: SafariOptions

By adopting this approach, testers can effectively define and manage the capabilities specific to different browsers in their test automation scripts within Selenium 4.

8.    Enhancements in the Actions Class

The Actions class in Selenium is widely utilized to emulate mouse and keyboard input actions on specific web elements (e.g., left click, right click, double click, etc.).

Selenium 4 introduces several modifications and additions to the Actions class, including the following new methods:

• click(WebElement): This method replaces the previous approach of using moveToElement(onElement).click(). It allows for directly clicking on a specific web element.

• clickAndHold(WebElement): This method replaces the previous method moveToElement(onElement).clickAndHold(). It enables clicking on an element without releasing the click.

• contextClick(WebElement): This method replaces the previous method moveToElement(onElement).contextClick(). It performs a right-click operation on the specified element.

• doubleClick(WebElement): This method replaces the previous method moveToElement(element).doubleClick(). It performs a double click on the given element.

• release(): In previous versions, this method was part of the org.openqa.selenium.interactions.ButtonReleaseAction class. However, in Selenium 4, it has been moved to the Actions class. It is used for releasing the pressed mouse button.

These additions to the Actions class in Selenium 4 offer improved functionality and make the process of simulating input actions more convenient and efficient.

It is worth noting that while Selenium 4 brings promising features to enhance the testing process, it is essential to conduct tests on real devices for accurate results. To accomplish this, teams can leverage LambdaTest’s Cloud Selenium Grid, which supports Selenium 4 and enables parallel testing across 3000+ real devices and browsers. This platform facilitates testing at scale and ensures that tests are performed under real user conditions.

Conclusion

In the realm of test automation, the Selenium framework has undergone remarkable evolution since its inception with Selenium 1.0. Now, with the advent of Selenium 4, we are presented with a more robust and feature-rich version. This latest release introduces game-changing features such as Relative Locators, integration of the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) APIs, enhanced window/tab management, and improved observability.

The introduction of Relative Locators in Selenium 4 addresses the challenges faced by testers when locating elements, offering a more efficient and reliable solution. Additionally, the integration of CDP APIs allows testers to leverage advanced capabilities for better testing and debugging experiences. The enhancements in window/tab management streamline the handling of multiple windows, while improved observability features provide valuable insights into test execution and enable the creation of more resilient test cases.

Furthermore, Selenium 4 eliminates deprecated features from its predecessor, Selenium 3, ensuring a more streamlined and up-to-date framework. These advancements in Selenium 4 empower testers to overcome obstacles, enhance their test automation efforts, and ultimately create more robust and effective test cases.

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