After install selenium IDE, you are eager to know how to use it. Now we will introduce each element and it’s function.
Selenium IDE window intorduction
- Menu Bar: Located at the top of the IDE. Most frequently used menus includes File, Edit, Options.File menu: Contain menus to create, open, close or save tests. Tests script saved in html file. “Export” menu is very useful, you can use it to translate Selenium IDE testing scripts into file formats which can execute with WebDriver and Selenium RC“Export Test Case As…” export exactly the current launched testing case only.
“Export Test Suite As…” export all the test suite test cases.
Edit Menu: Contains Cut, Copy, Undo, Redo, Paste, Delete, Select All, “Insert New Comment”, “Insert New Command” menus.
When you use “Insert New Comments” or “Insert New Commands” menu, the comment or command will be inserted on top part of the currently chosen line. Commands are black color while comments are purple color.
Options Menu: You can configure several IDE settings us this menu. We will focus on Options and “Clipboard Format” sub menus.
Selenium IDE Options popup dialog: You click Options > Options on menu bar to launch Options dialog in Selenium IDE.
Default Timeout Value: The time that Selenium should wait for a particular web element to show up or accessible before it produces an error message. The default value of this filed 30 seconds.
Selenium IDE extensions. Specify the extensions you can use to improve Selenium IDE’s abilities. You can search keyword “Selenium” in webpage http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox to find the particular extensions.
Remember base URL. Check this checkbox when you require Selenium IDE to save the Base URL any time you start it. If unchecked , it will start with a blank value in Base URL.
Autostart record. Check this checkbox to let Selenium IDE record web browser actions immediately on startup.
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Clipboard Format: The Clipboard Format is used to copy Selenese command in editor and then paste it as code snippet.
The code format follows the choice you chose here. The default selection is HTML. So when you copy test commands in test case panel then the related formatted code snippet will be copied in the clipboard. For instance, if you select Java/JUnit 4/WebDriver clipboard format, then each Selenese command copied from Selenium IDE’s test case editor panel is Java code.
- Base URL: Initial URL address of the system to be tested.
- Toolbar: There are following buttons in toolbar. You can control, debug, record your test case’s execution with these buttons.
Speed Control: adjust test running speed.
Run All: Run all tests in a test suite.
Run: Run current selected test case.
Pause / Resume: Pause a running test case / Resume a paused test case.
Step: Used to debug test case by step into test case script.
Apply Rollup Rules: This command is used to package a series of selenium IDE commands together into a single command.
Record Button: Record tester’s actions in browser. - Test case list: List all test cases.
- Test case panel: List test scripts for selected test case. Each step consist of three columns that are Command, Target and Value.
1) Command: Select or input selenium command in this drop-down list. Command input can be completed automatically when you only input first characters of the command.
2) Target: Input the expression used to locate web element by id, name, xpath, css class etc.
3) Value: Input the value of the targeted web element.
4) Find: Click this button to search and highlight the targeted web elements in the web page.
- Information Panel: Include Log, Reference, UI-Element and Rollup.
1) Log: Displays log information when the test run.
2) Reference: Display command related documents.
3) UI-Element: Display web UI elements’s properties.
4) Rollup: helps you to run a list of selenium IDE commands in a single step.
