Selenium - Web Test Automation Framework

Selenium automates browsers. That's it. What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that. Boring web-based administration tasks can (and should!) also be automated as well.

Selenium is a package of various test components which consists of the following three major tools. Each one has a specific role in aiding the development of test automation for a Web application.

1. Selenium IDE – A Firefox extension to record test cases and suites.
2. Selenium RC – Used to run tests on different browsers and systems.
3. Selenium Grid – Runs multiple instances of Selenium RC at once.
4. Qualitia and Tellurium – A wrapper for the Selenium engine.

ref:

Selenium - http://code.google.com/p/selenium/

Selenium downloads - http://code.google.com/p/selenium/downloads/list

Selenium Documentation - http://code.google.com/p/selenium/wiki/Documentation

Getting Started with WebDriver - http://code.google.com/p/selenium/wiki/GettingStarted

WebDriver Wiki - http://code.google.com/p/selenium/w/list?q=label:WebDriver

TestNG Documentation - http://testng.org/doc/documentation-main.html

Selenium Open Source Test Automation Framework Implementation Guide - http://www.open2test.org/QAT_Tech_Docs/Selenium_framework_implementation_guide.pdf

Selenium Tutorials and Videos - http://qtpselenium.com/selenium-tutorial/selenium-webdriver-example/

Introducing Webdriver - http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-webdriver.html

Design Patterns that have worked well on WebDriver projects - http://code.google.com/p/selenium/wiki/DesignPatterns

Miscellaneous -
http://qaselenium.blogspot.com/

JavaScript Engines

JavaScript is an object-oriented scripting language used to enable programmatic access to objects within both the client application and other applications. It is primarily used in the form of client-side JavaScript, implemented as an integrated component of the web browser, allowing the development of enhanced user interfaces and dynamic websites.

A JavaScript engine (also known as JavaScript interpreter or JavaScript implementation) is an interpreter that interprets JavaScript source code and executes the script accordingly. The first JavaScript engine was created by Brendan Eich at Netscape Communications Corporation, for the Netscape Navigator web browser.

There are now a ton of JavaScript engines on the market (even when you only look at the ones being actively used in browsers):

1. JavaScriptCore: The engine that powers Safari/WebKit (up until Safari 3.1).
2. SquirrelFish: The engine used by Safari 4.0. Note: The latest WebKit nightly for Windows crashes on Dromaeo, so it's passed for now.
3. V8: The engine used by Google Chrome.
4. SpiderMonkey: The engine that powers Firefox (up to, and including, Firefox 3.0).
5. TraceMonkey: The engine that will power Firefox 3.1 and newer (currently in nightlies, but disabled by default).
6. Futhark: The engine used in Opera 9.5 and newer.
7. IE JScript: The engine that powers Internet Explorer.

ref:

http://ejohn.org/blog/javascript-performance-rundown/

TCL Language(C/C++) Bindings

Tcl is able to quickly integrate a wide range of technologies, as well as to easily adapt to new technologies and changing end-user requirements. Therefore it is the integration platform of choice for increasing numbers of developers. TCL has in built Language Bindings for C/C++ languages.

Application invoking Tcl - An application(developed in c/c++) calling the Tcl interpreter
Tcl invoking Application - Tcl calling extensions(developed in c/c++)

Why extend Tcl?

Here are a few reasons:

1. To add domain-specific functionality to Tcl
2. To turn Tcl onto a "better Tcl" - or to support a different programming style
3. To interface the Tcl scripting environment to existing software libraries
4. To hide implementation details by providing only object code releases
5. To rewrite Tcl bottlenecks as C/C++ code for improved performance
6. As a way to incorporate Tcl in an existing body of C/C++ code
7. The last reason is actually the opposite of extending the Tcl environment - in this case, the Tcl interpreter becomes part of an existing application and activated when appropriate

How does a scripting language talk to an Application Language(C/C++)?

Scripting languages are built around a small parser that reads and executes statements on the fly as your program runs. Within the parser, there is a mechanism for executing commands or accessing variables. However, in order to access C functions and variables, it is necessary to tell the parser additional information such as the name of the function, what kind of arguments does it take, and what to do when it is called. Unfortunately, this process can be extremely tedious and technical. SWIG automates the process and allows you to forget about it. In any case, it's probably a good idea to know what's going on under the hood.

Wrapper functions

Suppose you have an ordinary C function like this:

int fact(int n)
{
if (n <= 1) return 1; else return n*fact(n-1); } In order to access this function from a scripting language, it is necessary to write a special "wrapper" function that serves as the glue between the scripting language and the underlying C function. A wrapper function must do three things :

1. Gather function arguments and make sure they are valid.
2. Call the C function.
3. Convert the return value into a form recognized by the scripting language.


ref:

Modular tcl - http://www.amath.washington.edu/~lf/software/tcl++/

C++/Tcl - A C++ library for interoperability between C++ and Tcl -

http://cpptcl.sourceforge.net/

http://wiki.tcl.tk/11153

http://wiki.tcl.tk/2262

http://www.swig.org/Doc1.1/HTML/Scripting.html

http://www.beedub.com/book/3rd/Cprogint.pdf

http://hegel.ittc.ku.edu/topics/tcltk/

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~heidrich/Papers/TclTk.95.pdf

http://www.mcs.sdsmt.edu/mcgough/tcltk/tcltk.html

Web Test Automation Tools

HtmlUnit - A Java unit testing framework for testing Web based applications

Selenium - Cross Browser

Watij - IE only

Sahi - An automation and testing tool for web applications, with the facility to record and playback scripts

Canoo WebTest - A free Open Source tool for automated testing of web applications in a very effective way.

JMeter - Apache JMeter is a 100% pure Java desktop application

LoadSim - A web application load simulator

Groovy - Potentially in conjunction with a specialist HTML parser to parse HTML pages as if they were XML

References:

Open Source Web Testing Tools in Java -
http://java-source.net/open-source/web-testing-tools

Watij and Selenium -
http://www.suryasuravarapu.com/2007/10/watij-and-selenium-are-they-ready-for.html

Opensource Testing Automation Frameworks/Tools Links FAQ

Links:

http://www.opensourcetesting.org/

http://www.developer.com/java/ent/article.php/3372151

http://www.sqa-test.com/toolpage.html

http://triumvir.org/articles/guitest-wd-mag/

http://www.tessella.com/Literature/supplements/pdf/autoGUI.pdf

http://www.manageability.org/blog/stuff/open-source-automated-test-tools-written-in-java/view

http://java-source.net/open-source/testing-tools

http://www.softwareqatest.com/qatweb1.html

http://www.aptest.com/resources.html

http://www.verifysoft.com/en_ctapp.html

http://www.parasoft.com/jsp/products/home.jsp?product=CppTest

http://www.veritest.com/services/scalability.asp

http://www.alertsite.com/web_load_testing.shtm

Why Unit Tests Matter and How They Will Save You Time - http://www.ddj.com/development-tools/208403755?cid=RSSfeed_DDJ_All