I hear people claiming that Selenium is easy to use?

[Tristonc]

I hear people claiming that Selenium is easy to use? Is it, and how does it compare to eValid?

[eValid]

I hear people claiming that Selenium is easy to use? Is it, and how does it compare to eValid?

The answer depends on whether you are a skilled programmer in Java or JavaScript or not.

Selenium drives a browser using the built-in JavaScript APIs -- the same ones that are present in browsers to support AJAX operation. These APIs were orignally developed for IE 4 and then perfected in IE 5.

A test runs as a JavaScript program that executes as a SCRIPT in the browser. Actions that you program into your "test script program" cause the browser to behave as if a user were driving the browser.

To create a script, or to edit an already existing one, you need to be a JavaScript programmer, and you may also need to know about PERL or RUBY or some other environment -- usually an interpretive execution programming language like system -- into which your tests are embedded.

If you have all those skills, then creating and perfecting a test is relatively easy to do. From what we have heard, and from the limited experience we have in creating tests in this way, it generally will take a few minutes to a few hours to construct a script in this way.

Is this "easy to use"? Is it "simple"? We think the answer, for most software testers even including those who are highly skilled programmers, is no. Certainly possible and certainly the script that results can be a good one, but no, this is not "easy" or "simple."

(Important note: This discussion forgets, for sake of simplicity, the issue of contention betwen the JavaScript engine executing your test and simultaneously trying to implement AJAX operation, which may make your Selenium-based test invalid.)

eValid Support