Why Selenium is the Most Important Tool for a Software Tester?

Selenium is a testing tool, which automates web applications and browsers. It is primarily an open source technology that also provides a portable framework for software testing to testers. Ever since 2004, when Selenium was introduced as a functional testing tool, it has become the leading and most trusted free testing tools found in the software industry.

Because of the fact that it is an open source tool, programmers worldwide can improve its code continuously. Selenium is now available for major platforms like Linux, Mac and Windows.

What is Selenium IDE?

Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is basically a Firefox add-on, which is used to record, create and enhance scripts. It can be used for recording your browser interactions and you can play them too.

Selenium IDE can record scripts in a scripting language, Selenese. This particular language makes it convenient for testers to provide rapid commands to a browser. There are commands to click open a link or retrieve data from pages. These commands are easy to move around and there’s auto completion support to edit them. In Selenese, scripts may be recorded automatically.

Selenium IDE is also used to create exploratory testing scripts and bug reproduction scripts. Because Selenese is easier to understand, testers with basic web application testing knowledge can learn how to use this tool within a week.

What is Selenium WebDriver?

Selenium WebDriver can drive a browser natively. It utilizes Selenium Server, which contributes to an important advancement in the automation technology of the browser. Furthermore, Selenium WebDriver has also rendered its Selenium Remote Control obsolete, referred to as Selenium 2.0.

While the Selenium Remote Control had certain limitations like single host origin policy, issues with file download and upload, pop-up functions, and dialogs that affected functional test coverage, Selenium WebDriver is much superior. It supports Firefox, Chrome, iPhone, Internet Explorer, Android, and other major browsing platforms too.

In addition, Selenium 2.0 doesn’t require any special server. It can start and even control a browser on its own. When tests are conducted on several remote systems, the grid can be utilized. Selenium 2.0 is also supported by Ruby, Java, Python, and C#.

There are 2 primary aims of Selenium WebDriver:

• To become the standard WebDriver in the major programming languages


• To help developers build their domain specific languages

Selenium is an evolving technology which aims to become popular among software testers who desire to scale as well as distribute scripts across various environments.

Jobs That You Can Seek with Selenium Testing Training

• Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer


• QA Test Automation Engineer


• Software Tester


• Test Engineer

Benefits of Learning Selenium

There are several advantages of learning Selenium, the advanced testing tool. Especially web application testers looking for better career options in this industry should take it up.

• For web application testers using manual testing tools, Selenium can be a great change. It is an updated software testing tool with excellent features and automated testing capability.


• Because Selenium is an open source testing tool as it allows contributors from different corners of the world to make improvements.


• Selenium 2.0 supports all browsers, operating systems, programming languages and runs easy multiple tests at one shot. It’s only a few steps away from being crowned as the universal standard for testing


• Open source testing tools like Selenium are robust and offer a higher learning curve.


• By learning automated testing using Selenium, testers can accomplish more work in lesser time, thus offering services to more number of clients.


• Anyone who wants to Selenium training can choose an online tutorial. There are plenty of online Selenium tutorials and support where you can learn the literature of this technology and benefit from the same.

The best way to have a career in Selenium is taking up a Selenium certification course.