This is the go to tool for all the web service testing needs. You can do functional testing, regression testing, automate the testing and drive the data from external sources like a Excel spread sheet or an xml document and finally performance testing. It can get better in scenarios where the response is to be compared with UI, with more automation. The license cost needs to be considered when there are many open source tools out there in the market.
When you have to test the UI and how it behaves when certain actions are performed, you need something that can automate the browsers. This is where Selenium comes to the rescue. If you have to test APIs and not the frontend (UI), I would recommend going with other libraries that support HTTP Requests. Selenium is good only when you have no choice but to run the steps on a browser.
The tool is built in such a way that you need minimum to no experience in API testing and you can start using it from day 1. It's that easy. And many features like configuring many end points and choosing the one [on] which you want the tests to be run, easy import of wsdl, etc. are very helpful.
Characterizing the tests and driving the data from external sources like Excel or xml document is easy and very powerful to automate tests. Many assertions are very well built in.
Automating the APIs using this tool is very efficient and easy. It also offers some UI level automation embedded in it so it makes life lot easier to compare the response vs UI.
Performance testing of APIs is also built in and so it makes a one stop solution for all testing needs for API.
Recognize Adobe Flash and MS Silver Light elements without additional help
Detect and locate Java applets ingredients
Having the "Wait-till-Displayed" or "Wait-till-Present" as a built in Web Driver function instead of requirement for writing loops and defining expliccit wait, visiblewait, invisiblewait, etc.
We love this product mainly because of its high customization abilities and the ease of use. Moreover, its free and can be learned easily through online communities and videos. The tests are more consistent and reliable as compared to Manual tests. It has enabled us to test a large number of features all in one go, which would have impossible through manual tests. The reports generated at the end of the tests are really helpful for the QA and the development teams to get a fair view of the application.
As I mentioned earlier, the reason I use Selenium is because there is a fairly widespread community of users, and user support services are at a good level. because the application is open source, it works on many platforms (Windows, Linux, IOS) without any problems. In addition, it gives us a lot of options for writing functional tests. For errors that we receive through the application, we can easily find the reasons for errors in the forums.
Selenium does not have technical support available easily. You have to go through forums to get the information you need. However, there are excellent forums out there that make it easy to troubleshoot. The open-source flexibility makes it difficult to have dedicated support.
We did everything we needed to use it. Now we can execute our tests on different operational systems and browsers running few tests simultaneously. We also implemented Appium framework to execute our tests on mobile devices, such as iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets. We use SauceLabs for our test execution and Jenkins for continuous integration.
At the time of adoption, there were not many other alternatives that were even close to being competitive when it comes to browser testing. As far as I know now to this day, there is still little competition to Selenium for what it does. Any other browser-based testing still utilises Selenium to interact with the browser.
It has been of tremendous help as the ONE STOP TOOL to test the APIs end to end. Ease of use is great and their support staff is excellent. They always conduct brown bag sessions for us to learn about new features. Overall it has given us a great ROI considering how fast we can test and deliver to market.
Generation of detailed finding reports helped in cost savings in regard to direct labor.
Quality Assurance technicians found value in repeating mundane duties that they perform daily. It saved mental energy due to the automation process.
The value was established in high volume usage in setting up meetings as well as new accounts with A/B testing. Also merely cleaning up old test documents by evaluating them and organization or deletion.
