Selenium Server installation

Selenium Server

Selenium Server receives Selenium commands from your test program, interprets them, and reports back to your program the results of running those tests.

The RC server bundles Selenium Core and automatically injects it into the browser. This occurs when your test program opens the browser (using a client library API function). Selenium-Core is a JavaScript program, actually a set of JavaScript functions which interprets and executes Selenese commands using the browser’s built-in JavaScript interpreter.

The Server receives the Selenese commands from your test program using simple HTTP GET/POST requests. This means you can use any programming language that can send HTTP requests to automate Selenium tests on the browser.

Client Libraries

The client libraries provide the programming support that allows you to run Selenium commands from a program of your own design. There is a different client library for each supported language. A Selenium client library provides a programming interface (API), i.e., a set of functions, which run Selenium commands from your own program. Within each interface, there is a programming function that supports each Selenese command.

The client library takes a Selenese command and passes it to the Selenium Server for processing a specific action or test against the application under test (AUT). The client library also receives the result of that command and passes it back to your program. Your program can receive the result and store it into a program variable and report it as a success or failure, or possibly take corrective action if it was an unexpected error.

So to create a test program, you simply write a program that runs a set of Selenium commands using a client library API. And, optionally, if you already have a Selenese test script created in the Selenium-IDE, you can generate the Selenium RC code. The Selenium-IDE can translate (using its Export menu item) its Selenium commands into a client-driver’s API function calls. See the Selenium-IDE chapter for specifics on exporting RC code from Selenium-IDE.

Installation

Installation is rather a misnomer for Selenium. Selenium has set of libraries available in the programming language of your choice. You could download them from downloads page

Once you’ve chosen a language to work with, you simply need to:

• Install the Selenium RC Server.
• Set up a programming project using a language specific client driver.

Installing Selenium Server

The Selenium RC server is simply a Java jar file (selenium-server-standalone-<version-number>.jar), which doesn’t require any special installation. Just downloading the zip file and extracting the server in the desired directory is sufficient.

Running Selenium Server

Before starting any tests you must start the server. Go to the directory where Selenium RC’s server is located and run the following from a command-line console.

java -jar selenium-server-standalone-<version-number>.jar

This can be simplified by creating a batch or shell executable file (.bat on Windows and .sh on Linux) containing the command above. Then make a shortcut to that executable on your desktop and simply double-click the icon to start the server.

For the server to run you’ll need Java installed and the PATH environment variable correctly configured to run it from the console. You can check that you have Java correctly installed by running the following on a console.

java -version

If you get a version number (which needs to be 1.5 or later), you’re ready to start using Selenium RC.

Using the Java Client Driver

• Download Selenium java client driver zip from the SeleniumHQ download pages.
• Extract selenium-java-<version-number>.jar file
• Open your desired Java IDE (Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ, Netweaver, etc.)
• Create a java project.
• Add the selenium-java-<version-number>.jar files to your project as references.
• Add to your project classpath the file selenium-java-<version-number>.jar.
• From Selenium-IDE, export a script to a Java file and include it in your Java project, or write your Selenium test in Java using the selenium-java-client API. The API is presented later in this chapter. You can either use JUnit, or TestNg to run your test, or you can write your own simple main() program. These concepts are explained later in this section.
• Run Selenium server from the console.
• Execute your test from the Java IDE or from the command-line.

For details on Java test project configuration, see the Appendix sections Configuring selenium RC With Eclipse and configuring selenium RC with Intelli.

Using the Python Client Driver

• Install Selenium via PIP, instructions linked at SeleniumHQ downloads page
• Either write your Selenium test in Python or export a script from Selenium-IDE to a python file.
• Run Selenium server from the console
• Execute your test from a console or your Python IDE

For details on Python client driver configuration, see the appendix Python Client Driver Configuration.

Using the .NET Client Driver

• Download Selenium RC from the SeleniumHQdownloads page.
• Extract the folder
• Download and install NUnit ( Note: You can use NUnit as your test engine. If you’re not familiar yet with NUnit, you can also write a simple main() function to run your tests; however NUnit is very useful as a test engine.)
• Open your desired .Net IDE (Visual Studio, SharpDevelop, MonoDevelop)
• Create a class library (.dll)
• Add references to the following DLLs: nmock.dll, nunit.core.dll, nunit. framework.dll, ThoughtWorks.Selenium.Core.dll, ThoughtWorks.Selenium.IntegrationTests.dll and ThoughtWorks.Selenium.UnitTests.dll
• Write your Selenium test in a .Net language (C#, VB.Net), or export a script from Selenium-IDE to a C# file and copy this code into the class file you just created.
• Write your own simple main() program or you can include NUnit in your project for running your test. These concepts are explained later in this chapter.
• Run Selenium server from console
• Run your test either from the IDE, from the NUnit GUI or from the command line

For specific details on .NET client driver configuration with Visual Studio, see the appendix .Net Client Driver Configuration.

Using the Ruby Client Driver

• If you do not already have RubyGems, install it from RubyForge.
• Run gem install selenium-client
• At the top of your test script, add require "selenium/client"
• Write your test script using any Ruby test harness (eg Test::Unit, Mini::Test or RSpec).
• Run Selenium RC server from the console.
• Execute your test in the same way you would run any other Ruby script.

For details on Ruby client driver configuration, see the Selenium Client Configuration