Learn To Run Selenium Tests On Chrome With Selenium ChromeDriver

What is Selenium ChromeDriver?

Selenium ChromeDriver is an open-source tool that enables Selenium WebDriver to automate interactions with the Chrome browser for testing web applications.

Initializing the ChromeDriver object can be done easily with the following command:

In Python.

from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Chrome()

In Java.

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver

Note: Automate your tests on a Selenium cloud grid of 3000+ real browsers. Try TestMu AI Today!

How to Check the Installed Version of Selenium ChromeDriver?

To check the installed version of Selenium ChromeDriver, one can follow these steps:

• Open a terminal or command prompt.
• Type the following command:

chromeDriver --version or chromeDriver -v`

• The terminal will display the version number of the installed Selenium ChromeDriver.

Alternatively, one can run the command chromeDriver without additional arguments. This will start ChromeDriver, and the output will display the version information.

This command only works when that chromedriver is installed explicitly in the environment variables path.

NOTE: While working with specific ChromeDriver versions for compatibility, you might encounter challenges during the maintenance phase. Updates to browsers and WebDriver versions can lead to mismatches that result in test failures. When a newer version of the browser, your existing test scripts might not function as expected due to version discrepancies. Manual download and setup as discussed above can be automated to make the lives of the testers or developers easy, which will be discussed later in this blog.

Automating the Manual Process Of Managing Drivers

The pain of following the manual procedure. Selenium has used this concept to ship “Selenium Manager” out of the box as soon as you install the Selenium bindings. With Selenium Manager, you no longer have to worry about finding the right version, downloading it, setting it up, and maintaining it in the system path as it automates the steps involved.

We just need to write the following piece of code,

In Python:

driver = webdriver.Chrome()

In Java:

WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

A Chrome’s driver object is instantiated, but this time, without having to download the driver binaries and mention a path as we saw in the manual procedure. This line of code works in a way such that it first identifies the current version of the browser, looks for a compatible driver in the environment, if found, uses it to instantiate the chrome driver object, otherwise, it downloads as per the version of chrome being used and manages it.

In Python

from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/")
driver.quit()

In Java

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

public class Example {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/");
        driver.quit();
    }
}

Note: Automate your tests on a Selenium cloud grid of 3000+ real browsers. Try TestMu AI Today!

Steps to Run Automation Selenium Tests On TestMu AI Cloud Grid

To run your automation test on TestMu AI Cloud Grid, follow these steps:

1. Sign up for a TestMu AI account: Go to the TestMu AI website and sign up for an account if you still need to.

2. Retrieve your TestMu AI credentials: You can find these credentials in the “Automation” section of your TestMu AI account dashboard.

Note: access key information is present on the right hand side.

3. Update your test code to integrate with TestMu AI: To generate capabilities, go to capability generator. Select the code for which you want to generate and paste it. Here’s an example of how you can modify your code:

import pytest
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.common.action_chains import ActionChains
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options as ChromeOptions
import time


@pytest.fixture
def driver(request):
    # Set the desired capabilities for LambdaTest Cloud Grid
    lt_options = {
        "build": "First build",
        "name": "First Test",
        "platformName": "Windows 10",
        "video": True,
        "w3c": True,  # informing latest Selenium 4 being used
        "browserName": "Chrome",
        "browserVersion": "114.0",
        "selenium_version": "4.9.0",
    }
    # Replace "YOUR_LAMBDATEST_USERNAME" and "YOUR_LAMBDATEST_ACCESS_KEY" with your actual LambdaTest credentials
    username = ""
    access_key = "xx"
    remote_url = "http://{}:{}@hub.lambdatest.com/wd/hub".format(username, access_key)
    browser_options = ChromeOptions()
    # adding the capability to the chrome
    browser_options.set_capability("LT:Options", lt_options)

    # Create the WebDriver instance with the desired capabilities
    driver = webdriver.Remote(command_executor=remote_url, options=browser_options)

    yield driver

    # Quit the WebDriver instance after the test completes
    driver.quit()


def test_scenario(driver):
    # Open the website
    driver.get("https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/")

    # Get the title of the page
    title = driver.title
    assert title == "Your Store"

    # Scrolling the entire webpage
    driver.execute_script("window.scrollTo(0, document.body.scrollHeight)")
    time.sleep(10)


    # Add assertions or additional steps as per your test scenario


if __name__ == '__main__':
    pytest.main()

Make sure to replace the placeholders (Your Build Name, Your TestMu AI Username, Your TestMu AI Access Key) with the appropriate values from your TestMu AI account.

This code is a Python script using the pytest testing framework and the Selenium framework to automate browser testing on the TestMu AI cloud platform. The purpose of this script is to demonstrate how to set up and perform automated tests on a website using the Selenium WebDriver and interact with the TestMu AI Cloud Grid for testing on different browsers and platforms.

Here’s a step-by-step code walkthrough:

• Import Statements:
  The code starts with importing necessary libraries: pytest for testing and modules from Selenium for browser automation.
• Fixture Definition (driver):
  The @pytest.fixture decorator defines a fixture named driver. A fixture is a way to set up and tear down resources needed for testing. Inside the fixture, the desired capabilities for the TestMu AI Cloud Grid are defined using the lt_options dictionary. These capabilities specify the browser, version, platform, test name, build information, and other options for the test.

Finally, a WebDriver instance is created using the webdriver.Remote class. The instance connects to the TestMu AI hub using the constructed remote URL and Chrome options.

• Fixture Teardown:
  A yield statement is used, which means that the code after yield will run after the test is done executing.

In this case, the WebDriver instance is closed using driver.quit().

• Test Scenario (test_scenario):
  The actual test is defined as a function called test_scenario that takes the driver fixture as an argument.

The test involves the following steps:

• Opening a specific website using driver.get().
• Getting the title of the webpage and asserting that it’s equal to “Your Store”.
• Scrolling down the page using JavaScript (driver.execute_script()).
• Performing a hover action over an element on the page using ActionChains.
• Adding some wait time using time.sleep() to simulate interactions and visual checks.
• The test is followed by a comment suggesting that more assertions or steps can be added based on the test scenario.
• Main Execution:

The script’s main block is wrapped in an if __name__ == ‘__main__’: condition to ensure that its code is only executed when the script is run directly (not when imported as a module). It invokes the pytest.main() function to run the test.

4. Run the test with TestMu AI integration: Execute the following command in the terminal to run your test code with the TestMu AI integration:

pytest name_of_your_test.py

5. Review test results: Once the test run is complete, you can review the test results and logs on the TestMu AI dashboard. You’ll be able to see the screenshots, video recordings, and other details related to the test execution.

That’s it! Your automation test will now run on the TestMu AI Cloud Grid using the desired capabilities you specified.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Selenium ChromeDriver is a vital tool for automating web browser interactions, enabling precise testing and validation of web applications. The introduction of Selenium Manager streamlines the manual process of ChromeDriver management, making setup and maintenance more efficient.

Through Selenium Manager, ChromeDriver version compatibility challenges are alleviated, allowing for seamless automation. Integration with the TestMu AI Cloud Grid expands testing coverage across diverse browsers and platforms. As the realm of automation evolves, a solid grasp of Selenium ChromeDriver and its efficient management is crucial for delivering high-quality web applications.