What selenium tools are good alternatives for SeleniumIDE?

Question

I am looking for a tool that can help me automate test cases on website. I am currently using Selenium WebDriver, but it takes a lot of time to write down the test cases using WebDriver. Also many times a test written for one browser doesn't run perfectly on other browser.

So I am looking for a tool (other than Selenium IDE) through which I can generate the test scripts (preferably for Selenium) and those scripts can be run on different browser without much maintenance in case any elements id changes on the page.

If that tool can provide a good reporting and performance analysis like which page took how much time to open, that would be awesome.

Answer 1

Yes, that would be awesome, but there is no such tool. (If you are very ambitious, you can try writing it yourself.)

The reality of cross-platform UI automation is that it is brittle and requires a lot of maintenance. Any vendor who claims otherwise is more interested in taking your money than solving your problems.

Here are some alternatives:

• Hire someone who is better at using WebDriver than you are.
• Ask yourself whether you are trying to be too ambitious with your UI automation. Choose areas where WebDriver makes sense. Leave the rest for manual testing.
• Look for ways to change your product so that WebDriver is easier to use.

Answer 2

You can try various TDD framework, I have used Robot before and it was really good.

http://robotframework.org/

You can also take a look here,

http://toolsqa.com/cucumber/cucumber-tutorial/

Robot and Cucumber both offer a high level of selenium scripting.

Answer 3

I think a code-less test automation like http://www.testing-whiz.com/ will fit your needs. Of course, you need to pay to use.

Answer 4

The commercial edition of iMacros can export the recorded scripts as Selenium WebDriver code.

So you first use the (very good) iMacros recorder, then use the iMacros Editor to export/convert the scripts to Selenium.

those scripts can be run on different browser without much maintenance in case any elements id changes on the page.

In this case I would recommend a screenshot-based solution such as Sikuli or Kantu. Picture-driven scripts are by design insensitive to element ID changes. Sikuli is desktop-based and thus will work with every browser. Kantu works inside Chromium, so the web automation scripts run very stable, but you are limited to testing with the Chrome browser engine.

Answer 5

You can use Nightwatch.js instead of Selenium as this is easy to use and learn.

You can write your script in less time and it will fulfill almost all requirement as Selenium.

This is node.js based testings environment. The good thing is, It uses selenium server to run the cases.

here is the guide by which you can set up test environment quickly: http://nightwatchjs.org/guide

And it is Free :)

Answer 6

I would suggest getting down to HTTP protocol level and focus on simulating browser rather than driving a real browser.

Pros:

• Reliable record and replay (at least more reliable, with minimal correlation)
• Increased execution speed
• Functional tests can be converted to load tests in few seconds (even more increased execution speed)
• Multiple browsers can be simulated by sending the relevant User-Agent header

Cons:

• Client-side JavaScript won't be executed. You will still be able to record and replay JavaScript-driven calls i.e. AJAX
• Actual page "rendering" won't happen. You will still get the response in HTML form, but you will treat it as plain text.

If you're interested, there is a number of free and open source tools available, i.e. check out Open Source Load Testing Tools: Which One Should You Use? article for the most popular ones highlighted and compared.

Answer 7

For automated testing I can recommend Ranorex. We’ve been using it for years because it allows us to easily execute the same test in different browsers, without changing the original test. Both generating a test with drag & drop functionality and coding is possible.