If you are in the business of automating web sites,  testing all the bits and bobs on pages, validating workflow, and pushing the boundaries of stress testing application servers, maybe even extend to denial of service tests, well then, look no further than Selenium WebDriver.

Selenium is very powerful and is backed up by major Browser Vendors. It is open source and does not come with any license fees. These are big pluses for both employers , professionals and students who can freely download the library and start using it with their preferred language. Have a look at http://www.seleniumhq.org and navigate through the site to investigate if your language of choice is supported and get on with automating! My language of choice has always been java. If your choice language is C#, Python, Ruby … then go ahead what are you waiting for ?

In this article I will describe how to set up a solid development environment that is scalable and ready for heavy-duty automation. I will describe in detail how to install the latest version of Java JDK and Eclipse EE for java which includes the very powerful Maven. I will then install TestNG which will be used to organize and drive our tests and finally download all the different WebDriver drivers for the various browsers of interest.

Finally I will write the first Selenium class example and execute against a browser.

I am very excited with the capabilities WebDriver especially Remote WebDriver and Selenium’s GRID capabilities. I personally only use this type of setup for my tests at work. It tends to be ready to scale up and also easy to  integrate with dev ops tools such as Jenkins. I will cover Remote WebDriver and GRID setup in a separate article. Jenkins deserves its own set of articles.

One step at a time …

 

Downloading and Installing the Java JDK:

Open your browser and navigate to the site java.oracle.com. On the Top Right hand side locate the link to the latest Java JDK and select it.

Click on the Download button under the JDK. We want the development kit not just the JRE.

Next accept the license agreement and select the right binary for your OS (in my case it is the Windows x64 bit installer).

Once the binary is downloaded successfully, locate it and execute it. Click Yes button for any security prompts and go ahead with the installation.

The installer starts and displays an interactive Window. Click Next Button

In the next screen select optional features. I tend to leave it all with default values. Click the Next Button

The installer starts the background configuration.Then it prompts you to select the destination folder. I leave mine as default and click next

Then the installers starts doing its job. Just sit tight and wait for the installer to complete.

Once the Installer states it has completed the installation, click the  close button.

The next task is very important and this is the way eclipse (my favourite IDE) will know how to find the JDK and be able to launch itself. We need to set a system environment variable JAVA_HOME.

 

From  explorer, select the Computer, right mouse click and select Properties from the menu.

This will open the System window. Choose the Advanced system settings option on the left hand side.

In the new window click Environment Variables.

We want to add a system variable so click the New… button at the bottom of the window.

Enter the following values :

Variable name: JAVA_HOME

Variable value: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_141

Note if you have a different version of java (later version than mine) and also if you have changed the default installation path, this must be reflected in the value field.

Click OK to accept the new system variable. Click OK to close the Environment Variables window.

And Finally to verify that the JAVA_HOME is working , open a command prompt and type in java -version. You should not get any errors and the version of java is displayed on the screen.

So now that we have Java installed we move on to the next part of the setup which is the IDE. In this instance I am installing Eclipse. As of this article Oxygen is the latest version, so I will go ahead with that.

 

Downloading and installing Eclipse:

Go to the URL http://eclipse.org

Select the Packages button.

Select the Java EE version. In my case I am downloading the x64 version for Windows.

Hit the download.

Save the file to your downloads location. We will extract it later.

Once the download completes, extract the zip file to the Installation location.

I tend to keep my installed folders in partent folder called Apps. Do what best works for you.

Click the Extract Button.

Once the Extract is complete we are ready to work on customizing eclipse.

Customizing Eclipse:

To Launch eclipse, navigate to the installed folder. Launch the eclipse executable

Click the Run buton. And off it goes.

Accept the default workspace provided and click the Launch button

The IDE loads and you are presented with a welcome page. Close the page and let’s get down to business.

Installing TestNG:

TestNG will be our mechnism / framework to group and invoke tests. We can do loads of beautiful test customizations. So lets go ahead and install. In the IDE navigate to the Help Menu and select Eclipse Marketplace.

In the Find field enter the string testng and hit Enter. The listing updates and shows the TestNG plugin for Exlipse. Click the Install button.

Click the Confirm button.

Accept the license and click The Finish button.

Notice the installation progress in the bottom right hand corner of the IDE.

When you get a warning about unsigned software click the Install anyway button.

Click the Restart Now button.

Once the Eclipse IDE restarts go to the Window menu and select Preferences

Notice the new addition of a TestNG entry on the left hand side of the window. This means TestNG has installed successfully.

Click the Cancel button to dismiss the window.

 

Setting up a Maven Project and configuring the POM:

The beauty of installing Eclipse IDE for Java EE is that it comes already configured with Maven built in plugin. This is ideal since Maven is one of the most popular tools to maintain external libraries in synch with your java project. Most software companies use the Maven repository to store and regulate softwate library releases. Since we will be using TestNG and also Selenium libraries, we might as well take advantage of Maven.

So first thing is to create a new Maven project.

In your eclipse IDE Select File Menu -> New -> Maven Project

Click the Next button.

Leave the default archetype and click the Next Button

Fill in the Group id with your company’s URL name in reverse. Fill in the project name in the Artifact id. In my case it used the values com.code-test-automate and AutomateMyWay. Click the Finish button.

You will see in the Project explorer and new project listed. In my case it is the AutomateMyWay.

Change the perspective to Java. Select Window menu -> Perspective -> Open Perspective -> Java. The IDE refreshes to the Java perspective.

You can now expand the project and see the package definition and the default source and reference files.

Notice there is a pom file. Double click it to open it. We are going to edit this with references to dependencies we need. Click the tab pom.xml.

Insert the following :

<dependency>
   <groupId>org.testng</groupId>   <artifactId>testng</artifactId>   <version>6.11</version></dependency>
<dependency>
   <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>   
   <artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>   
   <version>3.4.0</version>
</dependency

Click CTRL + s to save the pom.xml

Once the pom.xml is saved. Select Project menu -> Clean. This will force the new dependencies to be downloaded from the maven repos.

Click the Clean button

Now go to your user directory and look for the .m2 directory. Notice the 2 new directories one Seleniumhq and one testng.

 

Now before we delve into the coding world of automation we need to make sure we have the browser and associated driver software. I am going to use Internet Explorer which comes with the OS. If you want to use a different browser consult the http://www.seleniumhq.org pages and go ahead and download the appropriate driver for you browser of choice.

 

Installing the Internet Explorer Driver

In the browser navigate to http://www.seleniumhq.org. Click on the link Selenium WebDriver

 

Select the Download tab.

 

I want to use the 64 bit driver for Internet Explorer for Windows. Click ont the 64 bit Windows IE link.

The download window pops up. Select Save File and click the OK button.

I decided to save mine in a directory structure that is easily maintainable. I chose c:\Drivers\WebDriver\IE. When you have selected the destination click the OK button.

And here we have the driver ready for us to use and abuse.

 

Writing your first automation program

Time to code and run some magic. Under the project structure in ser/main/java locate App.java and double click it. It will oprn int he main view. Select all the code and replace it with the following :

package com.code_test_automate.AutomateMyWay;

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.DesiredCapabilities;

/**
 * Hello world!
 *
 */
public class App {
 public static void main(String[] args) {

String service = "C:/Drivers/WebDriver/IE/IEDriverserver.exe";
 System.setProperty("webdriver.ie.driver", service);
 DesiredCapabilities capabilities = DesiredCapabilities.internetExplorer();
 capabilities.setCapability("requireWindowFocus", true);
 
 // Create a new instance of the Internet Explorer driver
 WebDriver driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();
 driver.manage().window().maximize();
 // Launch the Online Store Website
 driver.get("http://www.code-test-automate.com");

// Print a Log In message to the screen
 System.out.println("Successfully opened the website www.Store.Demoqa.com");

// Wait for 5 Sec
 try {
 Thread.sleep(5000);
 } catch (InterruptedException e) {
 // TODO Auto-generated catch block
 e.printStackTrace();
 }

// Close the driver
 driver.quit();
 }
}

Press CTRL + s to save.

Your IDE should look like below

Provided you did not commit any typing errors you should be ready to run this. Right click on the App.java. Select Run As -> Java Application

The program executes. It launches Internet Explorer and navigates to this website! After 5 seconds it closes the browser and the program terminates.

This concludes out first run! You are now set up and ready to start exploring the world of Selenium WebDriver. In the next posts I will introduce TestNG and we will start writing test scripts that run automation tasks with Selenium WebDriver.

I hope you enjoyed this , come back for more!