Is it a good idea to learn Selenium RC alongside Webdriver

Question

I have recently started exploring Selenium. According to the experts future lies in Selenium Webdriver. But my question is being a predecessor should I also learn Selenium RC? Will it be worth investing the time? Does it help me to grasp the architecture of Selenium more efficiently?

I already know that each have got some advantages/disadvantages against the other but still I would like to know this in detail. Thanks!

Answer 1

These days, I'd say Selenium RC is not worth learning unless you have a specific need for it--for example, to work with legacy test code that uses it.

I don't think it will give you a significantly better appreciation of the Selenium architecture. You can get that by exploring the Selenium code base if you have an interest.

If you the know WebDriver API reasonably well, and you know how to use it to automate stuff, then you will be able to learn Selenium RC quickly if the need arises.

Answer 2

Quite simply No!

1. WebDriver was a project in its own right before it merged with Selenium so looking at the Selenium RC codebase and API is not going to give you any insight as to why certain decisions were made inside WebDriver.
2. Selenium RC is currently deprecated, so if you do start learning it you are learning something that is no longer supported and not supposed to be used moving forwards.
3. Selenium RC encourages bad habits. It tries to guess when things are loaded so it will not teach you how to use explicit waits. It allows you to click on hidden elements that a user could not click on making your tests less representative of the actions a real user would take.

Generally if you have already started with WebDriver there is no reason to look back.

Answer 3

Definite no!

But you should know what it is and its place inside the whole Selenium project. That would help you understand Selenium better. This article provides a very good explanation.