Best Practices for Building and Maintaining Selenium Regression Tests

Best Practices for Building and Maintaining Selenium Regression Tests

16 July 2024 Stephan Petzl Leave a comment QA

Building and maintaining regression tests using Selenium can be challenging, especially in a fast-paced development environment. Ensuring your tests remain robust and require minimal updates is crucial for maintaining efficiency. This guide will explore effective strategies for structuring your Selenium tests to minimize maintenance efforts.

Adopting the Page Object Pattern

One of the most recommended approaches is to use the Page Object pattern. This pattern helps in modeling the areas of your web application’s UI as objects within your test code. By doing this, you can reduce duplicated code and ensure that changes in the UI only need to be updated in one place.

For example, instead of directly interacting with web elements in your test scripts, you create a separate class to represent the page, encapsulating the interactions with the web elements. Here’s a simple illustration:

public class LoginPage {
    private WebDriver driver;
    
    @FindBy(id = "username")
    private WebElement usernameField;

    @FindBy(id = "password")
    private WebElement passwordField;

    @FindBy(id = "login")
    private WebElement loginButton;

    public LoginPage(WebDriver driver) {
        this.driver = driver;
        PageFactory.initElements(driver, this);
    }

    public void login(String username, String password) {
        usernameField.sendKeys(username);
        passwordField.sendKeys(password);
        loginButton.click();
    }
}

Centralizing Control Mappings

Map your controls in a single place. This approach allows you to make a one-line code change if a developer re-maps the controls. By centralizing control mappings, you can change the control type easily, ensuring that your tests remain functional even if the underlying control changes from a link to a button, for instance.

Abstracting Test Automation Actions

Abstract the test automation tool where possible. Define generic actions such as Invoke, SetValue, and GetValue to handle most of your interactions with the web elements. This abstraction allows you to isolate the specific Selenium commands from your test logic, making it easier to update the underlying automation tool without modifying the test scripts.

Regular Expressions for Dynamic Controls

Use regular expressions to map your control names. Many web applications dynamically generate control names based on their location on the page. Regular expressions can help define controls in a way that ensures your tests remain functional even if the control’s location changes.

Creating Test Data Objects

Create test data objects to hold your test data. These objects should map closely to the controls on a page, allowing you to pass expected and actual data around various layers in your testing stack. This approach simplifies the process of creating new tests by reusing existing test structures with different data.

Separating Test Logic from Implementation

Separation of concerns is a key design principle. The intent of the test case should be separated from the physical implementation that interacts with the page. For instance, instead of embedding Selenium commands directly in your test methods, use a domain-specific API to abstract these commands.

Discussion and Collaboration

Discussing your automated test needs with your developers up front can often help. Developers can proactively make design choices that facilitate easier maintenance of your automated tests, saving significant time and effort in the long run.

Leveraging Repeato for Test Automation

For those looking for a more streamlined approach to test automation, consider using Repeato. Repeato is a no-code test automation tool for iOS and Android, designed to create, run, and maintain automated tests efficiently. Its computer vision and AI capabilities make it particularly fast and easy to set up and use, providing a robust solution for quality assurance.

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