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In this video we will cover the components that constitute the Selenium project:
Further Reading
A brief history of the Selenium project
Selenium History
Selenium Components
- Selenium Remote Control
- Selenium Server
- Selenium IDE
- Selenium Webdriver
- Selenium Grid
Selenium is a set of tools that automates
browsers, and that's really it.
0:00
You can wield that power
however you'd like.
0:04
The most common use case is to take
that power and use it for testing.
0:06
But it for
sure isn't limited at just that.
0:09
If you have any sort
of repetitive task but
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that perform in a web app,
you can have Selenium do that for you.
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Selenium has been around for
over 15 years.
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It's evolved and
been a lot of things over time.
0:20
And therefore,
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we believe that it's important that you
understand its history, just a bit.
0:23
Let's take a minute to discuss
the different components that make up
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Selenium.
0:30
Selenium Remote Control.
0:31
The very first version of Selenium
require a tool called Selenium RC,
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which stands for remote control.
0:37
The tool worked by opening
up a web page that installed
0:40
a core JavaScript library
that could receive commands.
0:42
That page would then open the web
page under test and then interact and
0:46
send information back.
0:50
However, this was limited due to the scope
of JavaScript's reach and it made
0:52
some things impossible, like working with
file upload controls or native pop ups.
0:56
Selenium Server.
1:01
Selenium Server is a companion
piece to Selenium RC.
1:03
It allows remote machines
to connect to the server,
1:06
which then can be used to control or drive
the browser on various server hardware.
1:09
This enables Selenium-based
test code on multiple machines,
1:15
with potentially different configurations
of operating systems, browsers,
1:18
browser versions, plugins and
any number of other possible variations.
1:22
Selenium IDE.
1:27
Selenium IDE, or
integrated development environment,
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is a plugin in Mozilla Firefox that allows
you to record your actions on a page and
1:32
then play them back.
1:37
It produces commands that
are understood by Selenium RC.
1:39
It can be used to document defects and it
can be used to record exploratory testing.
1:42
But it is definitely not suited for
the large scale automated web testing.
1:47
Now, it's outdated now and support seems
pretty limited, so tread with caution.
1:52
Selenium WebDriver.
1:57
Selenium WebDriver is also
known as Selenium 2.0.
1:59
It is the result of the merging of an open
source project, which was named WebDriver.
2:01
It was created by a Google engineer who
was an admirer of the Selenium project,
2:07
but needed to get around
those JavaScript limitations.
2:12
What it does is to create the ability
to directly program interactions with
2:15
the browser, instead of interacting
with the browser's JavaScript sandbox.
2:19
The merge kept the mature API
inherited from Selenium RC.
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We'll explore this more here in a bit.
2:28
Selenium Grid.
2:30
Selenium Grid is a smart
proxy server that allows for
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communicating with a cluster of machines.
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This allows for
parallel execution of tests.
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It also enables tests to
be run against environments
2:41
with a variety of specific configurations.
2:44
It has been used commercially by companies
to offer test execution environments
2:46
as a service.
2:50
More in the teacher's notes.
2:51
So you can think of Selenium as an
umbrella project for a range of tools and
2:53
libraries that enable and
support the automation of web browsers.
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15 years is quite a lot of time so
3:01
you might encounter some terms or
solutions that are no longer relevant.
3:05
Now that we have a brief
understanding of the components,
3:09
let's talk about the current state of
Selenium right after this quick break.
3:11
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