WHAT IT’S GOOD FOR

Test automation has specific advantages for improving the long-term efficiency of a software team’s testing processes. Test automation supports:

• Frequent regression testing
• Rapid feedback to developers
• Virtually unlimited iterations of test case execution
• Support for Agile and extreme development methodologies
• Disciplined documentation of test cases
• Customized defect reporting
• Finding defects missed by manual testing

When to automate, and when not to…

If the application’s user interface will change considerably in the near future, then any automation might need to be rewritten anyway. Also, sometimes there simply is not enough time to build test automation. For the short term, sometimes manual testing can be more effective.

An example of the most commonly used Selenium Commands  (See the first link below for exact process to implement)

Open: opens a page using a URL.

click/clickAndWait: performs a click operation, and optionally waits for a new page to load.

verifyTitle/assertTitle: verifies an expected page title.

verifyTextPresent: verifies expected text is somewhere on the page.

verifyElementPresent: verifies an expected UI element, as defined by its HTML tag, is present on the page.

verifyText: verifies expected text and it’s corresponding HTML tag are present on the page.

verifyTable: verifies a table’s expected contents.

waitForPageToLoad: pauses execution until an expected new page loads. Called automatically when clickAndWait is used.

waitForElementPresent: pauses execution until an expected UI element, as defined by its HTML tag, is present on the page.

Links for more info (in order from most important to least):

http://seleniumhq.org/docs/02_selenium_ide.html#chapter02-reference

http://seleniumhq.org/docs/01_introducing_selenium.html#test-automation-for-web-applications

http://oshyn.com/_blog/Software_Development/post/Selenium-IDE-Automated-Testing/

http://www.nickbartlett.com/wordpress/must-know-commands-for-selenium-ide/