Zhimin Zhan - Selenium WebDriver Recipes in Python: The problem solving guide to Selenium WebDriver in Python

After observing many failed test automation attempts by using expensive commercial test automation tools, I am delighted to see that the value of open-source testing frameworks has finally been recognized. I still remember the day (a rainy day at a Gold Coast hotel in 2011) when I found out that the Selenium WebDriver was the most wanted testing skill in terms of the number of job ads on the Australias top job-seeking site.

Now Selenium WebDriver is big in the testing world. We all know software giants such as Facebook and LinkedIn use it, immensely-comprehensive automated UI testing enables them pushing out releases several times a day. However, from my observation, many software projects, while using Selenium, are not getting much value from test automation, and certainly nowhere near its potential. A clear sign of this is that the regression testing is not conducted on a daily basis (if test automation is done well, it will happen naturally).

Among the factors contributing to test automation failures, a key one is that automation testers lack sufficient knowledge in the test framework. It is quite common to see some testers or developers get excited when they first create a few simple test cases and see them run in a browser. However, it doesnt take long for them to encounter some obstacles: such as being unable to automate certain operations. If one step cannot be automated, the whole test case does not work, which is the nature of test automation. Searching solutions online is not always successful, and posting questions on forums and waiting can be frustrating (usually, very few people seek professional help from test automation coaches). Not surprisingly, many projects eventually gave up test automation or just used it for testing a handful of scenarios.

The motivation of this book is to help motivated testers work better with Selenium. The book contains over 190 recipes for web application tests with Selenium. If you have read one of my other books: Practical Web Test Automation, you probably know my style: practical. I will let the test scripts do most of the talking. These recipe test scripts are live, as I have created the target test site and included offline test web pages. With both, you can:

1. Identify your issue
2. Find the recipe
3. Run the test case
4. See test execution in your browser

This book is for testers or programmers who are writing (or want to learn) automated tests with Selenium WebDriver. In order to get the most of this book, basic Ruby coding skill is required.

Usually, a recipe book is a reference book. Readers can go directly to the part that interests them. For example, if you are testing a multiple select list and dont know how, you can look up in the Table of Contents, then go to the chapter 8. This book supports this style of reading.

If you are new to Selenium WebDriver, I recommend you to try out the recipes from the front to back. The recipes in the first half of the book are arranged according to their levels of complexity, I believe readers can get the pattern of testing with Selenium and gain confidence after going through them.

To help readers to learn more effectively, this book has a section of this book.

As an old saying goes, Theres more than one way to skin a cat. You can achieve the same testing outcome with test scripts implemented in different ways. The recipe test scripts in this book are written for simplicity, and there is always room for improvement. But for many, to understand the solution quickly and get the job done are probably more important.

If you have a better and simpler way, please let me know.

All recipe test scripts are Selenium WebDriver 3 compliant, and can be run against Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer on multiple platforms. I plan to keep the test scripts updated with the latest stable Selenium version.

I would appreciate your comments, suggestions, reports on errors in the book and the recipe test scripts. You may submit your feedback on the books site.

Zhimin Zhan

Brisbane, Australia