Real World Selenium TestingMary Jo Sminkey!CF Webtools

About Me

• 20+ Years in Web Development!

• ColdFusion Developer since CF 3.0 Release by Allaire!

• Author of the ColdFusion ecommerce application CFWebstore!

• Currently working as Lead Developer for a large ecommerce website for classic car parts (Classic Industries)!

• Hobbies include dog training and showing, photography, baking, game playing, scrapbooking and origami.

Software Testing ToolsCapture replay tool:!!A tool that allows you, with the knowledge of only one infinite loop statement, to create an automated script that will run for any required period of time without any verification points and allows you to earn many overtime hours for running as well as for creating the script. Best suited for short-term contactors. Good for cursor moving if you would like to nap in front of the monitor. .

Why Selenium?• Automates Testing Applications in the Browser!!

• Continuous Integration Testing - Testing all the integrated components of your application from server-side code, to all the client side JS that runs the front end.!

!• Will simulate users interacting with the site and find bugs that unit tests can’t!

• Portable across many browsers and coding platforms!

• Popular so easy to find help and plugins, etc. !

• Easy to get started with but can also handle very advanced and complex testing.

Installing Selenium• Includes IDE (Firefox Plugin) and Web Driver (runs tests on Selenium

Server)!

• http://docs.seleniumhq.org!

• We will focus today on building tests to run in the IDE!

• Easy for newbies to learn, uses simple HTML syntax !

• Plugins available that help debug your scripts!

• Many tools available to convert IDE scripts to run on Web Driver

Some IDE Tips• Set your default timeout to something reasonable, based on the slower responding

pages on your site. !

• To run an individual test, use keyboard shortcut “X” !

• If your site uses popup windows, be sure to configure FF to allow them for the address (or just turn off the setting to block popups)!

• The “Find” button can be helpful to highlight the target element, but don’t rely on for most XPath locators!

• The speed slider can be useful to debug a fast-running script, but should not be used for tests that don’t pass at full speed.!

• Some Firefox plugins may cause Selenium tests to work incorrectly (like form fillers) so you may want to have a separate FF profile specific for your testing.

Useful Plugins• Download at http://docs.seleniumhq.org/download/!!

• Favorites !• Save and quick-launch your favorite test suites!!

• File Logging!• Real time logging at different levels for your tests !!

• Highlight Elements!• Highlights target elements on the page as your tests run!!

• Power Debugger!• Adds the Pause on Fail button !!

• Stored Variables Viewer!• View and delete stored variables in the IDE!!

!

User Extensions• You can extend the functionality of Selenium IDE via user extensions.!• Docs at: http://docs.seleniumhq.org/docs/08_user_extensions.jsp!• Also available at the Selenium Downloads page. !• Some useful ones:!• Flow Control - GoTo and While Loops!!

!

Developing a Testing Plan• What makes money (or provides value) most for the website?!

• Which pages are visited most often?!

• Which browsers are used most often? !

• What areas have been the most common to experience bugs? !

• If other test methods in place (unit testing, etc.) what types of things are not tested by these?

Goals For Tests

• Robust, not brittle!

• Don’t rely on data that changes !

• Should be able to run on multiple environments!

• Should run at any speed without errors

Creating Selenium Tests • Macro Recording Feature!

• Useful to get started quickly!• Often creates very unreliable locators!

• Manually writing tests in HTML!!<tr>!! <td>Command</td>!! <td>Target</td>!! <td>Value</td>!</tr>

Verifying Text on the Page!• verifyText(Not)Present/assertText(Not)Present (deprecated)!

• Checks that the text exists/does not exist on the webpage, with no element specified!

!!

• verify(Not)Text/assert(Not)Text!• Checks that the text given is found/not found in the element specified!!!

• verify(Not)Title/assert(Not)Title!• Checks that the page HTML Title tag matches/does not match the text

Verifying Elements on the Page!• verifyElement(Not)Present/assertElement(Not)Present !

• Checks that the element designated can/can not be located on the page!!

• verify(Not)Table/assert(Not)Table!• Checks that the given table designated is found/not found on the page!

!• verify(Not)Attribute/assert(Not)Attribute!

• Checks that the specified attribute of an element matches/does not match the pattern

Verifying Form Elements• verify(Not)Checked/assert(Not)Checked!

• Checks if a toggle element (checkbox/radio button) is in a checked/ unchecked state!!

• verify(Not)SelectOptions/assert(Not)SelectOptions !• Checks if the array of options for a selectbox matches/does not match a given

array!!• verify(Not)Selected/assert(Not)Selected (deprecated)!

• Checks that the option matching the pattern is selected (or not selected)

Verifying Form Elements, cont.• verify(Not)SelectedId(s)/assert(Not)SelectedId(s) !

• Checks that the ID(s) of the selected option(s) matches/does not match the value(s)!!

• verify(Not)SelectedIndex(s)/assert(Not)SelectedIndex(s) !• Checks that the index(es) of the selected option(s) matches/does not match the

value(s) !!

• verify(Not)SelectedLabel(s)/assert(Not)SelectedLabel(s)!• Checks that the label(s) of the selected option(s) match the pattern !!

• verify(Not)SelectedValue(s)/assert(Not)SelectedValue(s)!• Checks that the value(s) of the selected option(s) match the pattern!!

• verify(Not)Editable/assert(Not)Editable!Checks if a form element is/is not editable, ie hasn’t been disabled!

!

Verifying Cookies• verify(Not)CookiePresent/assert(Not)CookiePresent!

• Checks that the designated cookie is found/not found on the client!!

• verify(Not)Cookie)/assert(Not)Cookie!• Checks all the cookies on the page !!

• verify(Not)CookieByName/assert(Not)CookieByName!• Checks that the value of the specified cookie matches/does not match the

pattern !!

• verify(Not)SelectedValue(s)/assert(Not)SelectedValue(s)!• Checks that the value(s) of the selected option(s) match the pattern

Verifying Alerts• verify(Not)Alert/assert(Not)Alert!

• Checks that the last JS alert matches/does not match the text pattern!!

• verify(Not)AlertPresent/assert(Not)AlertPresent!• Checks if a JS alert occurred/did not occur !!

• verify(Not)Prompt/assert(Not)Prompt!• Checks that the last JS prompt matches/does not match the text pattern!!

• verify(Not)PromptPresent/assert(Not)PromptPresent!• Checks if a JS prompt occurred/did not occur

Let’s Talk Locators!• identifier=id: Select the element with the specified @id attribute. If not found, look for a

match with @name. (default)!!

• id=id: Select the element with the specified @id attribute.!!• name=name: Select the element with the specified @name attribute.!

• May be optionally followed by one or more element-filters, e.g. value!!

• dom=javascriptExpression: Find an element by evaluating the JS DOM expression!!

• link=textPattern: Select the link element which contains the text matching the specified pattern!

!• css=cssSelector: Select the element using css selectors. !!• xpath=xpathExpression: Locate the element using an XPath expression.

Locator Examplesid=loginBox!!name=txtBox!name=username value=myName!

!dom=document.forms['myForm'].myDropdown!dom=document.images[56]!dom=function foo() { return document.links[1]; }; foo();!

!link=Homepage

Locator Examples: CSS SelectorsThis Selector: Finds

css=p first paragraph tag in the documentcss=a first link in the documentcss=a#id3 link with the matching id elementcss=#linkTest :link link inside the element with the id of linkTestcss=a[name^="foo"] link with a name attribute beginning with ‘foo’css=span#firstChild + span span that follows the span with the id of firstChildcss=div#childTest :last-child last child element of the childTest divcss=div#nthTest :nth-child(2n) 2nd child element of the nthTest divcss=div#linkTest a first link inside the linkTest elementcss=a[class~="class2"] the link that has a class containing the word ‘class2’css=input[type="text"]:disabled first text input element that is disabledcss=input[type="checkbox"]:checked first checkbox element that is checkedcss=a:contains("foobar") link that contains the text foobarcss=a[name*="foo"][alt] link with a name attribute that contains foo and has an alt attribute

Locator Examples: XPath Selectors

This Selector: Finds

//img[@alt='The image alt text'] image tag with the given alt text//table[@id='table1']//tr[4]/td[2] 4th row, second cell of table1//a[contains(@href,'#id1')]/@class the class of the link with an href of ‘#id1’//*[text()="right"] the element with internal text of ‘right’//input[@name='name2' and @value='yes'] input field with name of ‘name2’ and value of ‘yes’//input[@type='submit' and @name='send'] submit button with name atribute of ‘send’

//input[@type='radio' and @value='1'] radio button with value of 1

//table[@id=’table1’]/tbody/../td/a[2]@href The link location for the second link in the first table cell of table1//*[contains(text(),'Sample Text')]/..//a[2] Locates the element that has the text "Sample Text", then goes up a level from there and finds the //td[contains(text()),’Label’]/following-sibling::td[1]/a Locates the table cell with the text "Label" and gest the link in the next table cell over

More on XPath• There are a variety of browser plugins for both Firefox and Chrome that will

help test and create XPath locators.!!• You can also use Firebug to right-click on an page element in the HTML

Inspector to create the XPath for it. !!• Typically however, these XPaths tend to be way too complex for what we

want in Selenium (which is typically as simple an XPath as will get the job done). !!

• It behooves the Selenium developer thus to learn to write their own XPath locators. !!

• Tutorial : http://www.zvon.org/xxl/XPathTutorial/General/examples.html

So let’s look at some tests!Selenium Source:!!https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium!!!Tests located in:!!/java/server/test/org/openqa/selenium/tests

Selenium Actions• open!

• Opens a specified URL!!• openWindow/selectWindow!

• Opens a popup window; select the popup Window!!• check/uncheck!

• Checks/unchecks a toggle button (checkbox/radio) !!• select!

• Selects an option from a drop-down using an option locator!!• submit!

• Submits the specified form!!!• type!!

• Sets the value of an input field, as if typed into

More Keystroke Actions• click/clickAndWait!

• Click on a link, button, checkbox or radio button (and wait for the next page to load)!!• clickAt/clickAtAndWait!

• Click on a link, button, checkbox or radio button based on specific coordinates (and wait for the next page to load)!!

• fireEvent!• Simulate triggering an event, along with its corresponding “onevent” handler!!

• focus!• Move the focus to the specified element!!

• keyDown/keyPress/keyUp!• Simulates a user pressing and/or releasing a key!!

• typeKeys!• Simulates keystroke events on the specified element

Tips on Testing Window Actions• After running an openWindow action, you will need to run waitForPopup to

wait for the window (or tab) to open and finishing loading. !!• After waitForPopup, if you want to select the window and do further tests on

it, run the selectWindow action, with the target of name=${windowName}. !!• After you finish testing your popup window, use close (no target) and then

run selectWindow with a target of ‘null’. This will close the popup and then return you to the main window.

Tips on Testing Keystrokes• Sending keystrokes don’t always trigger the corresponding “onevent” JS

methods. You can use the “fireEvent” to make sure the onevent gets fired. !!• The ‘typeKeys’ is a convenience way of not having to enter keydown/keyUp/

keyPress events for each character, however this command often does not have a visible effect on the page. You may need to combine it with a ‘type’ command to both have the text visible in a form as well as send the keystroke events. !

!• The ‘type’ command can also be used to set the value of selectboxes,

checkboxes, etc. To do this, set the value to the value of the option selected, versus the visible text.

Selenium Actions: Wait• waitForPageToLoad!

• Use after any action that causes a new page to load. Replaces “andWait” !• waitForPopUp!

• Waits for a popup window to appear and load up!• waitForElement(Not)Present!

• Wait until a specific element is found/not on the page!• waitForElement(Not)Visible!

• Wait until a specific element is visible/not visible on the page!• waitForSelectedID/Index/Label/Value!

• Wait until a specified option is selected !• waitForText!

• Wait for specified text on an element !• setTimeout!

• Specifies the amount of time to wait for an action to complete

Tips On Using Waits• These are going to be critical in testing pages utilizing Ajax!!• When used successfully you should never need to use a “pause” command in your

tests to get around tests failing for not waiting for Ajax code to complete.! !• Use the ‘setTimeout” for page loads or “wait” actions that will take longer typically

than the default timeout. !!• Global Ajax handlers can be very helpful for managing how your pages with Ajax

perform and thus make writing tests a lot simpler. For instance, we disable form submits during Ajax calls and display a “loading” animation. Testing that the animation is not visible (via waitForNotVisible) is a simple, standard way across our tests to ensure that the Ajax action has completed before continuing.

Storing Variables• store (deprecated) / storeExpression!

• Stores the expression in the specified variable!!• storeEval!

• Stores the result of evaluating the specified Javascript code snippet !!• storeText!

• Stores the text inside the element specified!!• storeAttribute!

• Stores the value of an element attribute!!• storeLocation!

• Stores the current page URL!!• storeTitle!

• Stores the HTML Title of the page

Storing Form Data• storeSelectedId(s)!

• Stores the selected Id(s) of the specified selectbox!!• storeSelectedIndex(es)!

• Stores the selected index(s) of the specified selectbox!!• storeSelectedLabel(s)!

Stores the selected index(s) of the specified selectbox!!• storeSelectedValue(s)!

Stores the selected value(s) of the specified selectbox!!• storeSelectOptions!

• Stores all options labels in the specified selectbox!!• storeValue!

• Stores the value of an input field!!• storeChecked!

• Gets whether a checkbox/radio button element is checked

Storing Alerts, Cookies• storeAlert!

• Stores the message of a JS alert dialog in the specified variable !!

• storeConfirmation!Stores the message of a JS confirmation dialog !!

• storePrompt!Stores the message of a JS question prompt dialog!!

• storeCookieByName!• Stores the value of a cookie

More on Stored Variables• Two ways to reference your stored variables:!•${myVar}!•storedVars[‘myVar’]!

!• These are NOT the same. The first makes a copy of your stored var, the

other is a direct pointer to it. !!• You cannot assign anything to ${myVar}.!!• If you change storedVars[‘myVar’], the corresponding ${myVar} will not be

updated until this next Selenium command.

Some Sample Stored Variables<tr>!! <td>storeExpression</td>!! <td>Mary Jo Sminkey</td>!! <td>fullName</td>!</tr>!<tr>!! <td>assertText</td>!! <td>//table[@id='contactDetailTable']//tr[2]//td</td>!! <td>${fullname}</td>!</tr>!<tr>!! <td>storeText</td>!! <td>css=span.spanProdPrice</td>!! <td>partprice</td>!</tr>!<tr>!! <td>storeEval</td>!! <td>parseFloat(storedVars[partprice])</td>!! <td>totalPrice</td>!</tr>

More on Stored Variables - StoreEval• storeEval can be used to perform all kinds of inline Javascript code

during your tests.!!• While we typically use it for things like string concatenation you can also

use it for short circuit tests and simple functions. !!• If you have a storeEval chunk of code that you use frequently, it may be

better moved into a user extension.

Sample StoredEval<tr>!! <td>storeElementPresent</td>!! <td>javascript{storedVars['ButtonA_Xpath']} </td>!! <td>ButtonA</td>!</tr>!<tr>!! <td>storeElementPresent</td>!! <td>javascript{storedVars['ButtonB_Xpath']} </td>!! <td>ButtonA</td>!</tr>!<tr>!! <td>storeEval</td>!! <td>(storedVars['ButtonA']==true)?storedVars['ButtonA_Xpath'] :! ! ! ((storedVars['ButtonB']==true)?storedVars['ButtonB_Xpath']:null);</td>!! <td>linkToClick</td>!</tr>

Handling Alerts & Prompts• answerOnNextPrompt!

• Sets the answer to response with for the next Javascript prompt !!

• chooseCancelOnNextConfirmation/chooseOkOnNextConfirmation!Stores the response to the next Javascript confirmation dialog !!

• assertAlert/verifyAlert!• Use this to consume the alert and remove it from the browser!!

• assertConfirmation/verifyConfirmation!• Use this to consume the confirmation dialog and remove it from the browser!!

• assertPrompt/verifyPrompt!• Use this to consume the prompt and remove it from the browser

More on Alerts and Other Dialogs• The proper sequence of commands is to use the “onNext” command as appropriate

for the next item, then the action that will generate the dialog, then the command to “consume” it. !

!• Note that in Selenium you typically will not see JS alerts and dialogs in the browser. !!• For newer sites, you may want to consider switching to jQuery UI dialogs or other

modal dialogs that are handled by making page elements visible/not visible. These are typically more reliable and easily handled in Selenium tests, and you can see what is happening as well while the test is running.!

!• For these dialogs, you typically will be using “waitForElementVisible” and/or

“waitForText” commands to determine when the dialog is showing and the corresponding “Not” version to determine when it’s been removed.

Working with Cookies• createCookie!

• Adds a new cookie, with path and domain of the page under test as default!

!• deleteAllVisibleCookies!

• Deletes all cookies visible to the current page!!

• deleteCookie!• Delete a named cookie with the specified name and domain

`• If you need to delete cookies prior to starting a test, be sure you start with an

open command so you are on the right URL, delete the cookies, and then run another open command to reload the page with the cookies removed.!

!• The cookie commands will work for the current path of the page that is

loaded. You can set a different path and other parameters such as recurse in the value setting for the command. !

!• Note that Selenium cannot delete cookies that are set with HTTPOnly.

Typically we use this setting on production sites for additional security against XSS attempts, so if you are generally running your tests only on dev and/or staging sites, you can programmatically set the HTTPOnly attribute for only production sites, allowing Selenium to act on the cookies in other environments.

More About Cookies

Logging/Debugging Commands• echo!

• Prints the specified message to the log, also helps debug when viewing the list of tests!

!• captureEntirePageScreenshot !

• Not widely supported but useful for grabbing a screenshot in your tests!!

• highlight!• Briefly changes the background of the specified element to yellow. Similar to the

Highlight Elements plugin!!

• frames!• selectFrame, waitForFrameToLoad, !!

• advanced scripting!• addLocationStrategy, addScript, rollup, runScript, waitForCondition

Other Types of Commands• mouse events!

• mouseDown, mouseUp, mouseOut, mouseOver, mouseUp, doubleClick, rightClick, etc. !

!• dragAndDrop events!

• dragAndDrop, dragAndDropToObject, setMouseSpeed!!

• more keyboard events!• altKeyDown/Up, controlKeyDown/Up, metaKeyDown/Up, shiftKeyDown/Up!!

• frames!• selectFrame, waitForFrameToLoad, !!

• advanced scripting!• addLocationStrategy, addScript, rollup, runScript, waitForCondition

Creating Test Suites<html>!<head>! <title>Test Suite</title>!</head>!<body>!<table id="suiteTable" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="1" class="selenium">!<tbody>!! <tr><td><b>Test Suite</b></td></tr>!! <tr><td><a href="testLogin.html">Test Login</a></td></tr>!! <tr><td><a href="testShopping.html">Test Shopping</a></td></tr>!! <tr><td><a href="testCheckout.html">Test Checkout</a></td></tr>!</tbody>!</table>!</body>!</html>

Let’s Look at a Real Site

Classic Industries !!

• Large ecommerce site with 300,000+ product inventory!!

• Heavy use of jQuery and Ajax!!

• Active development in process so frequent updates to production!!

• Some critical areas include product search, user functions and shopping cart/checkout processes

Some Challenges• Search results always changing due to inventory/stock changing!!• Different messages, checkout process based on type of product(s)

ordered!!• Creating user accounts rely on unique email addresses!

!• Multiple server environments to test on, some using SSL !!

• Wholesale site that requires users to be logged in to shop!!• Dev/staging environments already handle some common issues like

test orders, PayPal sandbox usage, etc.

Handling Dynamic Site Data• Our solution here was to create a page for adding “test products” to use!!

• This page runs stored procedures that are only available on development and staging servers. !!

• The test products are created with specific attributes to make them easy to locate in searches. !!

• The form allows for creating all the different types of products that we will need to test for. !

!• We then store the created product numbers that are output by the test data

creation form to use in our tests.

Demo of Test Data Creation Form

Demo of Test Data Creation Form, cont.

Generating Unique Users• We wanted to create users with a real email address in order to verify email sent by

various site actions.!!

• The site normally does not remove users once added, this is a function handled outside the website, but an option might be to add a Delete User function that would run after the tests complete. !!

• Instead we decided to rely on a trick involving gmail accounts. !!

• A gmail address can be modified with a plus sign (+) and random string of characters, and will email to the same base account address. !

!• So for instance, I can use my email account “mjsminkey@gmail.com” and add a

random string of characters and use that for a unique email address on the website

Sample Code for Unique Email Account<tr>!! <td>store</td>!! <td>mjsminkey</td>!! <td>gMailAccount</td>!</tr>!<tr>!! <td>storeEval</td>!! <td>Math.random().toString(36).slice(5)</td>!! <td>emailString</td>!</tr>!<tr>!! <td>storeEval</td>!! <td>storedVars['gMailAccount'] + "+" + storedVars['emailString'] + "@gmail.com"</td>!! <td>email</td>!</tr>

Running Test Suites on Different Servers• Both the IDE and the tests themselves allow for a baseURL!!

• However, it can be tedious to have to change these anytime you want to run on a different URL!!

• Instead, we create a “setEnvironment” file for each server that creates stored variables for our base URL, SSL URL, any other settings unique to that environment, etc.!!

• All “open” commands or “assertLocation” commands append a path and/or query string to the baseURL or sslURL variables.!

!• We then run this setEnvironment as the first test for our suite for that server. !!• Can include variable settings for commonly used items in our tests

Sites that Require Logins• One approach you can use here is to create a test case that handles the login and

then run that as the first test case after your set environment test case. !!

• Alternatively, there is a command available called ‘rollup’ which allows you to include a “batch” of commands into your script. !!

• To use rollup, you will need to include the commands for the batch as a user extension. !!

• Example of rollup:!• http://sanjitmohanty.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/using-the-rollup-feature-of-selenium/

Dealing with Whitespace and Locators• Most of the assertions for text will treat whitespace as part of the string. !!

• Where possible, consider updating your HTML to remove unnecessary whitespace.!!

• Selenium supports Regex which can be a good option particularly when you are trying to store data and there may be whitespace in the element:!• parseFloat(storedVars['partprice'].replace(/[^0-9-.]/g, ''))!

!• For assertions, you can use contains() to search anywhere in the text for matches:!

• //*[contains(text(),'Sample Text')]/..//a[2]!!

• Alternatively you can use “normalize-space” to strip leading and trailing spaces:!• //td[normalize-space(text())='My Cell Contents']

More Problem-Solving: CAPTCHA• We prefer to use cfformprotect and this is one area it will greatly help you in not

having to deal with Captchas in your tests!!!

• Most ideal is to set up a test setting for the captcha for your dev/staging environment that will return a known value!!

• If you are using a 3rd party captcha system that does not have a method for testing, you may want to swap it out for a different one that can be configured as above in test environments. !

!• A last resort might be to use JS prompt for the tester to enter the captcha (use

storeEval to create a prompt and store the result in a variable that can then be used to type in the captcha)

Building a Complete Test: Checkout Test1. Set up environment !

2. Create stored variables to hold a test user’s contact data, etc. !

3. Add some test products to order. !

4. Search for test products and add to the shopping cart. !

5. Create a user account and login to start checkout!

6. Enter shipping address and submit form!

7. Enter billing address and payment and complete order!

8. Verify order confirmation page

Step 1: Environment Setup

Step 2: Checkout Stored Variables

Step 3: Create Test Products

Step 4: Add Test Products to Cart

Step 5: Create Account and Start Checkout

Step 6a: Check Shipping Form Validations

Step 6b: Shipping State/City Lookup

Step 6c: Complete Shipping Form

Step 7a: Check Billing Form Validations

Step 7b: Submit Billing Form

Step 8: Verify Confirmation Page

Questions?