The rapid development and growth of mobile apps have led to the choice of an automated system. The effectiveness of automation testing tools has made it necessary for organizations to rely on these advanced technologies. When it is in its optimum use, this framework has the capability to run tests parallelly on different devices. Therefore, resulting in speedy testing and quicker test results.
It can also reduce the overall time required by developers to create test cases, make tools for better testing, and perform code reviews. Rather than spending time on monotonous and tedious tasks, choosing selenium automation testing can help find bugs faster in the app development life cycle.
However, no matter how great or versatile the automation testing tool is, it is crucial for developers and testers to be aware of the pitfalls to devise effective strategies. These issues show up in the development phase. Staying aware of them can be helpful in providing high-quality results without any bugs. However, addressing them is the most critical aspect of providing a high-quality mobile app.
Selenium Testing Tool:
Selenium is a very popular automation testing tool that most companies use to test and develop web and mobile apps. It is an open-source tool that helps developers seamlessly automate tests for mobile and web applications. As it is an open-source platform, it does not require users to pay any recurring fee. Besides, this framework is known for being a versatile tool. It actively supports quite a huge variety of languages like Python, Java, C++, PHP, Ruby, and others. These are some of the features that make Selenium one of the top automation testing tools preferred by testers and developers.
However, just like any tool which comes with some issues, the same goes for Selenium. So here, we will take a look at some of the most common challenges that you will face while using the framework. Having knowledge about them in advance can improve the overall process.
Challenges with Selenium Testing Tool:
- Pop-ups:
Even when pop-ups are not recommended to professionals over the other simple alternatives, professionals who use them might find it tedious to write tests for handling the pop-ups. Although it is still possible to manage through a WebDriver, it is impossible to run OS best pop-ups. This is one of the typical limitations of selenium automation testing.
You must know that Selenium is not compatible with the native OS based dialog windows,. However, there are several extensions that you can find and use to prevent this issue. Integrating such extensions provides the ability to automate UI based on Windows OS. It again depends on the language of the script, which you will need to use as a bridge between the extension and Selenium.
- Mobile testing:
The next most common challenge faced by developers using Selenium is to test responsive design. It becomes hard to test the web or mobile app on the mobile OS through this framework. It becomes a valid challenge as there are quite a vast number of users consuming content through their mobile devices. However, since it becomes hard for developers to use Selenium for testing a responsive design on the mobile OS, switching to Appium framework for mobile app testing automation is a viable option.
Selenium recommend using the Appium framework as it equally becomes helpful for developers to seamlessly test the apps and their content on the native mobile operating systems. The Appium framework makes use of WebDriver protocol for mobile app test automation.
- Dynamic content:
There has been a massive rise in single-page applications in recent years. The page content present starts changing while it loads. It either changes through requests from the server or hidden elements. Therefore, it makes both the content and the structure fluid. However, the biggest challenge faced with dynamic content with selenium automation is the way to handle web content.
This can be easily eliminated by the use of wait features in Selenium. When professionals clearly specify the predefined time, especially for automation testing, to wait for the loading of the contents, it becomes easier to solve the problem. However, it requires seasoned professionals to work on the Selenium framework to be able to predefine the testing process properly. Another alternative is the implicit wait feature. However, the results are not clearly defined through this.
- Scalability:
Even though it is a versatile framework that allows you to seamlessly run automated tests on different browsers, its main problem is the ability to run tests quickly. When there are limited resources, this testing tool will be able to run tests in a specific order. But, you can still be able to resolve the issue by choosing parallel testing, which requires you to have the right resources for running tests.
When you choose the right tool that can be integrated into the Selenium test, it can efficiently resolve the scalability issue. Using the right tool enables running tests while reducing the time required from development to production.
- Captcha:
The use of a captcha is another challenge with selenium testing. It is imperative that you would undoubtedly make sure of real users. In such cases, you will use a captcha in certain sections of the web application to ensure real users. However, Selenium does not have any such capability of solving captchas.
Creating a different testing environment is the best way to solve this issue. You have to properly configure test environments of web applications in a way that they can work with any of the options mentioned below.
- You can disable the module.
- Keep it as a Hidden value in the DOM structure of the page
- Accept dummy values for captchas.
It does not matter which process you decide to choose; you have to ensure configuration according to the test environment. If not, it will leave the web application vulnerable, resulting in bots seamlessly bypassing the module.
Closing Note: When it comes to web and mobile app test automation tools, Selenium is probably one of the most common and popular choices. As automation has become the new requirement for companies to reduce errors and save hours, Selenium can be a great choice. With its vast range of features and versatility, this cloud-based free, open-source testing tool can be an excellent choice for every developer and tester who wants to improve scalability and enjoy the advantages.
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