What is Selenium WebDriver?
Inarguably, testing is a crucial part of a software development life cycle. The pressure of debugging and fixing the errors in the code before delivering it to the client is gigantic. Selenium WebDriver, with its inexhaustible list of features, has evolved as a frontrunner among the automation testing tools.
First off, the Selenium automation tool is an open-source, portable tool that is cost-effective, flexible, time-saving, and efficient at the same time. Next, it not just minimizes the errors of manual testing, but with its priceless features like cross-platform functioning, browser independent, multi-language support, and ease of implementation Selenium WebDriver has become one of the preferred testing tools by various organizations like Google, ThoughtWorks, Mozilla, etc.
The maestros in the IT field believe that Selenium WebDriver is here to survive for long; essentially the present and future of the software testing world.
On high-level, the Selenium Suite has four components :
- The simple and easy-to-learn Selenium IDE, an add-on to create simple test cases.
- Selenium Remote Control (RC) aka Selenium 1, a tool that allows the testers to incorporate codes using programming languages for creating complex test cases. Selenium Grid, a tool used in tandem with Selenium RC for running parallel tests across browsers.
- The mighty WebDriver that offers the flexibility to communicate with the browsers using test scripts.
- Selenium 2 integrates Selenium RC and the powerful companion WebDriver to evolve as a much effective testing automation tool than its competitor and alternative, Quick Testing Professional (QTP).