An overview and history of the Selenium web application testing tool, by Selenium's creator Jason Huggins. Presented on April 25, 2009 at JSConf in Arlington, Virginia. http://jsconf2009.com/speakers.html#huggins

1. [ Hacking Selenium
]
Jason Huggins
@jhuggins
hugs@saucelabs.com
seleniumhq.org | p13y.com
JSConf - 25 April 2009

2. 1 - Why Selenium?

3. Browser Wars II
6, 7 & 8 2, 3 3, 4 beta
1.0 9.6
Add-ons
Browser configs
Languages/locales
3

4. Test Automation
Source: - F.O.X.: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kv/499219/

5. Dynamic HTML - Ajax

6. End-to-end Workflows

7. Large tests

8. Any browser -
Any platform

9. Selenium Cumulative Downloads
9

10. Firms with: 100+ downloads
January – October 2008
10

11. 2 - Why not Selenium ?

12. Speed
Source: http://desertpastor.typepad.com/paradoxology/Slow%205.jpg

13. Flash, Java Applets,
Silverlight, PDF
Source: http://goldberg.berkeley.edu/art/big-images/doi-box-hi-res.jpg

14. Anything outside the
JavaScript sandbox
Source: http://lug.mtu.edu/wiki/images/2/27/SANDBOX.jpg

15. Small tests

16. 3 - A brief history of
Selenium

17. ThoughtWorks Time &
Expense
Source: - Neal Ford: http://nealford.com/downloads/conferences/2006_nfjs_canonical/Neal_Ford-Testing_with_Selenium-slides.pdf

18. First Attempt -
JWebUnit
• Simulates the browser
• Can’t handle browser-specific bugs
• Can’t handle JavaScript in the DOM

19. Second Attempt -
DriftWood
• Mozilla extension (never published)
• Pro:
– Drove a real browser, so it could handle
JavaScript UI features
• Con:
– Not for IE or Safari :-(
– XML Syntax for tests. Yuck!

20. Third Attempt - JsUnit
• Pro:
– Can test JavaScript in the browser!
– Works in Mozilla/Firefox, IE, and Safari!
• Con:
– Emphasis on single-page unit test (no
page-to-page workflows)
– Couldn’t see what it was doing

21. It’s Green, but what did it
really work?

22. Fourth Attempt - FIT
(part 1)
• Pro:
– More readable tests
– Emphasis on functional testing

23. Example FIT test

24. Fourth Attempt - FIT
(part 2)
Con:
• Wasn’t available for the “JavaScript
platform” yet
• Limited list of “actions” in the API

25. Action Fixture picture

26. Forking FIT
• Selenium initially was an attempt to
implement “FIT for web browsers”
• Ended up forking:
– Wanted to see what the browser was doing
– Wanted a richer API

27. 4 - Side Note:
What’s with the name?

28. “antidote for mecury
poisoning”

29. “results - selenium”

30. Selenium and mercury detox

31. 5 - Selenium Core

32. Selenium Core
(TestRunner)

33. 6 - Selenium IDE

34. Selenium IDE for Firefox

35. 7 - Selenium
Remote Control

36. Selenium Remote Control
Source: - http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/824/5100491.JPG

37. Selenium Remote Control

38. 8 - Selenium Grid

39. Selenium Grid
Which is faster? (1 server, sequential tasks)
4
3
Servers
2
1
Time
Source: - http://factoryjoe.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/pods.jpg

40. Which is faster? (4 servers, parallel tasks)
4
3
Servers
2
1
Time
40

41. p13y.com
Source: - http://www.flickr.com/photos/onetreehillstudios/2958752337/