Selenium

Selenium is an open-source automation framework used for testing and controlling web applications through browsers. It allows developers and testers to write scripts in multiple programming languages (such as Python, Java, and JavaScript) to simulate user interactions like clicking buttons, filling forms, and navigating between pages. Selenium is widely used for browser automation, UI testing, and web scraping.

Also known as: Selenium WebDriver, Selenium Testing Framework

Comparisons

  • Selenium vs. Playwright: Selenium supports multiple browsers and has broader compatibility, while Playwright offers faster execution and better modern web automation features.
  • Selenium vs. Puppeteer: Puppeteer is mainly designed for Chrome and Edge automation, whereas Selenium supports multiple browsers.

Pros

  • Supports multiple programming languages and testing frameworks.
  • Works across different web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari).
  • Enables automated regression testing and continuous integration (CI/CD).

Cons

  • Can be slow due to browser overhead and network latency.
  • Requires additional setup and dependencies for execution.
  • Some modern web apps (e.g., SPAs) may require extra handling for dynamic elements.

Example

A developer wants to automate the process of opening a webpage and extracting its title using Selenium and Python:


from selenium import webdriver


# Initialize WebDriver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()


# Open a webpage
driver.get("https://example.com")


# Extract and print the page title
print(driver.title)


# Close the browser
driver.quit()

In this example, Selenium launches Chrome, navigates to example.com, retrieves the page title, and then closes the browser. This demonstrates how Selenium can automate web interactions efficiently.

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