Testers, This Appraisal Season, Get The Hike You Desire!

71% of businesses are using an agile development methodology. Agile emphasizes continuous integrations to produce incremental value often. Although this strategy is fancy in theory, it involves a lot of regression testing for the testers. Maintaining all the application features and offering continuous testing assistance becomes a headache for testing teams, particularly when the application is moving toward perpetual expansion. 



The majority of teams use the shift-left methodology, where rapid checks are made at the integration point using automated tests. Operations may automatically start a series of tests when the implemented code is pushed for merging with the master branch. Moving away from unicorns and rainbows, we get to see the ground reality of most development teams where the challenge is not just about the number of people, but also about available skill sets, supportive tools, technology, non-supportive processes, etc.&nbsp;



Having worked across different regions, I have been associated with teams of varied organizational structures. In each of those teams, the value proposition of test automation has been driven in a unique way. Why do I say that? test automation turns out to become time intensive activity if it’s not planned well. It is not something that can be done once and forgotten. Test automation requires ongoing attention and upkeep.&nbsp;



The only focus of test automation autonomy is on who is responsible for writing test scripts, running them on a regular basis, making decisions about test environments, maintaining the tests, and scaling these tests. I have seen numerous forms of autonomy and their benefits and drawbacks while working with diverse teams with varying demands.&nbsp;



Let&#8217;s examine a few commonly used <a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/software-project-team-organization/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">test automation team structures</a>.&nbsp;



1. Developer-led test automation team



&nbsp;Organizations with 1-2 scrum teams usually suffer from the non-availability of dedicated resources. Team members play multiple roles to get things done. These are usually energetic and self-driven environments, no formal processes are set up and team members just carry out the tasks according to what they see as right. It is hard to find uniform practices in such teams.&nbsp;



In these cases, developers take ownership of writing a few automated tests along with their unit tests. Most UI developers also take care of front-end and End-to-End testing.&nbsp;



PROS:



Self-managed and driven&nbsp;



Test code is written along with the development



Good test code principles in action&nbsp;



Failing tests can be fixed along/during the development timeline 



CONS



Miss out on various <a href="https://testsigma.com/end-to-end-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">End-to-End testing</a> scenarios&nbsp;&nbsp;



Tries to programmatically get things done by calling DB or log in directly escaping actual checks&nbsp;



The tests added are of limited support&nbsp;



Regular maintenance of failing scripts needs constant followup&nbsp;



Neglected and forgotten after a period of time&nbsp;



2. Split responsibility test automation team&nbsp;



In most small-scale organizations with 2-3 scrum teams, an individual tester is assigned to each scrum team. In such scenarios, the test colleague must take care of new features testing, perform regression, support non-functional tests and be available for any hot fixes/upgrades/migrations planned for the ongoing sprint. A split approach was taken, where developers would write the automated tests for all the new features and hand over the test code to the test colleague for execution, managing, and maintenance.



PROS



Development and test code go hand in hand within sprint&nbsp;



Good code practices are implemented&nbsp;



Shared effort, reduces the burden on single person&nbsp;



CONS



Compromises in test coverage&nbsp;



Added responsibility for developers along with Unit tests&nbsp;



Pressing priorities take away the attention from developers&nbsp;



Maintenance onus leads to more work for test engineers&nbsp;



Technical skills should be sharpened for test engineers to manage and maintain the code&nbsp;



3. Tester-led automation team 



Each scrum team would be given at least two test engineers in organizations where resource fulfilment was not a problem. where the workload on one person is reduced by dividing the testing jobs among the test engineers. Test engineers were solely responsible for writing, running, maintaining, and upgrading the test scripts. In scrum teams, this kind of test autonomy is typically favored. However, the process becomes more difficult because there are so many integration points in large agile teams. if the test cases are not carefully identified and mapped out. Failures start to multiply at the integration points.&nbsp;



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="https://testsigma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/tester-led-automation-team-.jpg" alt="Tester-led automation team" class="wp-image-26793" width="600" height="400" /></figure></div>



PROS:



Clearly defined accountability of test automation&nbsp;



Analysis of automation requirements and scenario coverage are taken care Enough time and care is dedicated to the tools and tech.&nbsp;



CONS



The hygiene of test code is dependent on test engineers’ tech skills Scaled agile can get overwhelming if there are no guardrails put in place&nbsp;



This can be resource intensive, as the application grows there will be a need for more hands on deck.&nbsp;



4. Outsourced (Qaas) test automation team



Organizations are choosing external testing services more frequently these days simply because they have more time to concentrate on innovation and be flexible while developing their expansion strategies. Since delivery times are getting shorter due to intense competition, firms cannot afford to spend their time investing in internal talent development because it is an expensive and resource-intensive activity. By contracting out test activities, a significant amount of responsibility is transferred to the test service provider. Having said that, outsourcing test activities comes with its own framework of challenges.



PROS



Required skills are readily available&nbsp;



Testing and test automation are taken care by the service provider&nbsp;



Test coverage through test automation is achieved. Teams may just have to overlook the ongoing deliverables&nbsp;



CONS



Someone within the team/organisation should lead the discussions with regard to testing&nbsp;



The Leading person should have a good understanding of what should be expected from the service provider&nbsp;



Regular audits of the tests prepared and executed should be carried out&nbsp;



Test code and other artifacts to be handed over should be clearly discussed while drawing the SLAs&nbsp;



Try out Testsigma, the test automation tool that enables collaboration for all members of your team.&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-final-thoughts">Final thoughts&nbsp;</h2>



It goes without saying that test automation is the key to maximizing regression testing in agile teams. It is a significant test activity that cannot be disregarded. Teams should evaluate their current circumstances before deciding on a specific strategy for test automation.&nbsp;



There is only the likelihood and availability game; there is no foolproof technique to move things around. Although large organizations may hire additional people as needed, they occasionally run into trouble finding technically proficient testers in time for a project. However, because they must maintain lower operating expenses, small businesses cannot truly invest in tools, up-skilling, or other areas where outsourcing may be appropriate.

Different test automation team structures and their levels of autonomy

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a web address that specifies the location of a resource on the internet. The URL of an application typically refers to the web address or endpoint that allows users to access or interact with the application.



The URL of an application can vary depending on the specific application and how it is hosted or deployed. For example, if the application is a web-based application hosted on a server, the URL may look something like this:



http://www.example.com/my-application/



If the application is a mobile application, the URL may refer to a specific endpoint or resource that the application interacts with through an API (Application Programming Interface).



It is important to test the URL-related functionality, and <a href="https://www.selenium.dev/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium</a> helps us validate URL or related content.&nbsp;



getCurrentUrl() is a method in Selenium WebDriver that retrieves the current URL of the web page opened in the browser. This method returns a String value representing the current URL of the web page.



Let’s get started!



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Pre-requisite">1 Pre-requisite</a></li><li><a href="#Selenium_and_Selenium_WebDriver">2 Selenium and Selenium WebDriver</a></li><li><a href="#How_to_get_the_current_URL_in_Selenium_8211_Java">3 How to get the current URL in Selenium &#8211; Java?</a><ul><li><a href="#Code_Snippet">3.1 Code Snippet:</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Conclusion">4 Conclusion</a></li><li><a href="#Frequently_Asked_Questions">5 Frequently Asked Questions</a><ul><li><a href="#What_are_the_different_methods_to_open_a_URL_in_Selenium">5.1 What are the different methods to open a URL in Selenium?</a></li><li><a href="#How_to_get_the_current_URL_in_Selenium_using_JavaScript_executor">5.2 How to get the current URL in Selenium using JavaScript executor?</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="h-pre-requisite">Pre-requisite</h2>



To get started with <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/selenium-based-automated-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium</a> automation getCurrentUrl(), the following components are necessary:



<ol><li>Download and Install JDK</li> <li>Download and Install IDE (Integrated Development Environment) like Eclipse, and IntelliJ</li> <li>Selenium Client Configuration</li> <li>Integrate TestNG with IDE</li> <li>Browser drivers for Firefox, Chrome, IE, etc.</li></ol>



<h2 id="h-selenium-and-selenium-webdriver">Selenium and Selenium WebDriver</h2>



Selenium is an open-source test automation framework that automates web browsers. It is used for functional and <a href="https://testsigma.com/regression-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">regression testing</a> of web applications and supports a variety of programming languages, including Java, Python, C#, and Ruby.



Selenium WebDriver is a component of the Selenium framework that automates the interaction of a web browser with a web application. It provides a programming interface for controlling and automating web browsers. This allows users to perform actions like clicking buttons, filling out forms, and navigating between pages. WebDriver supports several popular web browsers, including Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer.



Selenium WebDriver provides a rich set of APIs that enable developers to write automated tests in their preferred programming language, making it a flexible and powerful tool for automating web applications. Its key features include support for multiple browsers and operating systems, the ability to interact with <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/web-element-in-selenium/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">web elements</a> using a variety of locators, and the ability to wait for elements to load and perform actions asynchronously.



Overall, Selenium and Selenium WebDriver are popular tools in the field of <a href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">test automation</a>, providing a robust and flexible solution for <a href="https://testsigma.com/website-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">automating web application testing</a>.



<h2 id="h-how-to-get-the-current-url-in-selenium-java">How to get the current URL in Selenium &#8211; Java?</h2>



In Selenium-Java, you can use the getCurrentUrl() method of the WebDriver interface to get the current URL of the web page.



Method name &#8211; getCurrentUrl()



<h3 id="h-code-snippet">Code Snippet:</h3> 



import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;

import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class CurrentUrl{
 public static void main(String[] args) {
 System.setProperty(&#8220;webdriver.chrome.driver&#8221;, &#8220;C:\Users\Sgokhru\Desktop\Java\chromedriver.exe&#8221;);
 WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
 String url = &#8221; https://testsigma.com/&#8221;;
 driver.get(url);
 driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
 // get the current URL
 String strUrl = driver.getCurrentUrl();
 //Print the URL
 System.out.println(&#8220;Current Url is:&#8221;+ strUrl);
 //Close the browser
 driver.close();
 }
}



In this example, we first create a new instance of the Chrome driver and navigate to a web page using the get() method. Then, we call getCurrentUrl() to get the current URL of the web page and store it in a String variable called currentUrl. Finally, we print the current URL to the console and close the browser using the close() method.



getCurrentUrl() returns a String that represents the URL of the current web page. This method can be useful for verifying that the browser has navigated to the expected URL, or for capturing the current URL for later use in your test script.



<h2 id="h-conclusion">Conclusion</h2>



The getCurrentUrl() method in Selenium Java is a useful method that returns the URL of the current web page being displayed in the browser. It verifies that the browser has navigated to the expected URL after performing some action, such as clicking a link or submitting a form.



This method is part of the WebDriver interface, which is the main interface used to control the browser in Selenium. It can be called on an instance of the WebDriver object, which is typically obtained by instantiating a subclass of the WebDriver interface, such as the ChromeDriver or FirefoxDriver.



<h2 id="h-frequently-asked-questions">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



<h3 id="h-what-are-the-different-methods-to-open-a-url-in-selenium">What are the different methods to open a URL in Selenium?</h3>



There are several methods in Selenium to open a URL:



<ul><li>get(): The get() method is the most commonly used method to open a URL in Selenium. It opens the specified URL in the current browser window or tab. Example: driver.get(&#8220;https://www.example.com&#8221;)</li> <li>navigate().to(): The navigate().to() method is also used to open a URL, but it provides more flexibility than get(). It allows you to navigate back and forward through the browser history, and also to refresh the page. Example: driver.navigate().to(&#8220;https://www.example.com&#8221;)</li></ul>



<h3 id="h-how-to-get-the-current-url-in-selenium-using-javascript-executor">How to get the current URL in Selenium using JavaScript executor?</h3>



You can get the current URL in Selenium using JavaScript executor in the following way:



JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
String currentURL = (String) js.executeScript(&#8220;return window.location.href;&#8221;);
System.out.println(&#8220;The current URL is: &#8221; + currentURL);



<div class="cta-banner-v2">
<div class="title-with-description ">
Explore Testsigma, a low code test automation tool, to automate your end-to-end UI tests for web, mobile, desktop and APIs, from the same place, 10x faster.
</div>
<a href="https://testsigma.com/signup" target="_blank" class="cta-btn-v1" rel="noopener">Start here</a>
</div>

Selenium Get Current URL using Java: Tutorial

The most fundamental step in <a href="https://testsigma.com/automated-web-application-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">web test automation</a> is element identification. There are numerous methods for QEs to locate elements. In <a href="https://www.selenium.dev/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium</a>, Find element by Text is used to locate a web element based on its text attribute. The text value is mostly used when the basic element identification properties, such as ID or Class, are dynamic and make it difficult to locate the web element.



In such cases,&nbsp; it becomes very difficult to <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/element-locators-automated-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">locate web elements</a>. One option that comes to save us is text or partial text attributes.



In this blog, we will see how text or partial text can be useful when other IDs or class name are dynamic.&nbsp;



Let’s get started.&nbsp;



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#What_is_Find_Element_in_Selenium">1 What is Find Element in Selenium?</a></li><li><a href="#Difference_between_findElement_and_findElements">2 Difference between findElement and findElements</a></li><li><a href="#How_to_Find_Element_by_Text_in_Selenium_for_a_Complete_Text_match">3 How to Find Element by Text in Selenium for a Complete Text match</a><ul><li><a href="#Code_snippetnbsp">3.1 Code snippet:&nbsp;</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#How_to_Find_Elements_by_Text_in_Selenium_for_Partial_Text_match">4 How to Find Elements by Text in Selenium for Partial Text match</a><ul><li><a href="#Code_Snippet">4.1 Code Snippet:</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Conclusion">5 Conclusion</a></li><li><a href="#Frequently_Asked_Questions">6 Frequently Asked Questions</a><ul><li><a href="#How_do_you_search_text_in_Selenium">6.1 How do you search text in Selenium?</a></li><li><a href="#How_do_I_find_an_element_by_tag">6.2 How do I find an element by tag?</a></li><li><a href="#How_to_use_Selenium_to_find_elements_by_Attribute_Value">6.3 How to use Selenium to find elements by Attribute Value?</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="h-what-is-find-element-in-selenium">What is Find Element in Selenium?</h2>



When you begin writing your Selenium automation script, the interaction with web elements is the first and most important step because it is the WebElements you experiment with within your test script. Interaction with these web elements is now possible only if you identify them correctly.



&#8220;Find Element&#8221; in Selenium refers to the process of locating a web element on a page, such as a button, text box, or link, in order to interact with it through a script. This is typically done using the Selenium WebDriver&#8217;s find_element_by_locator method, where a locator can be a unique identifier of a web element such as &#8220;id&#8221;, &#8220;name&#8221;, &#8220;class name&#8221;, &#8220;xpath&#8221;, etc. The method returns the first web element that matches the search criteria.



The syntax for find element is:



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.xpath(“//*[text()=’xyz’]”));



Different types of locators:



<ul><li>ID</li><li>Name</li><li>Class Name</li><li>Tag Name</li><li>Link Text</li><li>Partial Link Text</li><li>XPath</li><li>CSS Selector</li></ul>



<h2 id="h-difference-between-findelement-and-findelements">Difference between findElement and findElements</h2>



findElement and findElements in Selenium with Java are used to locate web elements on a page.



The difference between the two methods is that findElement returns a single WebElement object that represents the first element on the page that matches the search criteria, while findElements returns a list of all WebElement objects that match the search criteria.



For example, if you want to locate a button with the text &#8220;Submit&#8221; on a page, you could use the following code:



WebElement submitButton = driver.findElement(By.xpath(&#8220;//button[text()=&#8217;Submit&#8217;]&#8221;));



And if you want to locate all the links on a page, you could use the following code:



List links = driver.findElements(By.tagName (&#8220;a&#8221;));



 <h2 id="h-how-to-find-element-by-text-in-selenium-for-a-complete-text-match">How to Find Element by Text in Selenium for a Complete Text match</h2>



To find an element by its text in Selenium for a complete text match in Java, you can use the XPath locator strategy and the text() function.



To understand it better, let’s consider a use case.&nbsp;



Use case:



<ol><li>Launch the Testsigma website.</li> <li>Identify the web element and capture the text of the button ‘Schedule a demo’</li> <li>Compare the expected value to the actual.</li> <li>Close the browser.</li></ol>



<h3 id="h-code-snippet">Code snippet:&nbsp;</h3> 



package demo;
import static org.testng.Assert.assertEquals;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;


public class CompleteText{
	public static void main(String[] args) {

		System.setProperty(&#8220;webdriver.chrome.driver&#8221;, &#8220;C:\\Users\\sgokhru\\Downloads\\chromedriver_win32\\chromedriver.exe&#8221;);

		WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
		String url = &#8220;https://testsigma.com&#8221;;
		driver.get(url);
		driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

		// Locating element with text()
		WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.xpath(&#8220;//span[text()=&#8217;Schedule a demo &#8216;]&#8221;));
		assertEquals(element .getText(), &#8220;Schedule a demo&#8221;);
		System.out.println(&#8220;Both the text are equal&#8221;);
		driver.quit();
	}
}



 <h2 id="h-how-to-find-elements-by-text-in-selenium-for-partial-text-match">How to Find Elements by Text in Selenium for Partial Text match</h2>



The contains() function is a built-in XPath function that is used to search for a substring within a string.



To understand it better, let’s consider a use case.



Use case:



<ol><li>Launch the website&nbsp; &#8211; https://testsigma.com</li> <li>Identify the WebElement and capture the text of ‘&#8217;Build stable and reliable automated tests’</li> <li>Compare the expected value to the actual.</li> <li>Close the browser.</li></ol>



<h3 id="h-code-snippet-1">Code Snippet:</h3> 



package demo;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class PartialText{
	public static void main(String[] args) {

		System.setProperty(&#8220;webdriver.chrome.driver&#8221;,
				&#8220;C:\\Users\\sgokhru\\Downloads\\chromedriver_win32\\chromedriver.exe&#8221;);

		WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
		String url = &#8220;https://testsigma.com&#8221;;
		driver.get(url);
		//It will maximize the browser
		driver.manage().window().maximize();
		
		driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

// Locating element with text()
		WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.xpath(&#8220;//p[contains(text(), &#8216;Build stable and reliable automated tests&#8217;)]&#8221;));

		System.out.println(&#8220;Element with text(): &#8221; + element.getText());
		driver.quit();
	}
}



<h2 id="h-conclusion">Conclusion</h2>



In this blog, we looked at finding an element using text() method. We saw how to use the text() method for both full and partial text matches. We also saw how we could use it in the FindElements case to get a list of Web Elements via text match. Using a text() can be really useful when other attributes such as IDs or class names are dynamic in nature, and they keep changing the moment you refresh your page.



As evident, to use Selenium, one needs to be an expert in one of the programming languages. There is where a no-code test automation comes in.



<div class="cta-banner-v2">
<div class="title-with-description ">
Explore Testsigma, a low code test automation tool, to automate your end-to-end UI tests for web, mobile, desktop and APIs, from the same place, 10x faster.
</div>
<a href="https://testsigma.com/signup" target="_blank" class="cta-btn-v1" rel="noopener">Start here</a>
</div>



Happy Testing..!



<h2 id="h-frequently-asked-questions">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



<h3 id="h-how-do-you-search-text-in-selenium">How do you search text in Selenium?</h3>



You can search for text in Selenium using the findElement or findElements method. The getText() method in Selenium Java is used to retrieve the text content of an element on a web page.



<h3 id="h-how-do-i-find-an-element-by-tag">How do I find an element by tag?</h3>



In Selenium, you can find an element on a web page by its HTML tag name using the findElement or findElements method and the By.tagName locator strategy. Here&#8217;s an example using the findElement method to find a single input element:



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.tagName(&#8220;input&#8221;));



<h3 id="h-how-to-use-selenium-to-find-elements-by-attribute-value">How to use Selenium to find elements by Attribute Value?</h3>



In Selenium, you can find elements on a web page by their attribute value using the findElement or findElements method and a locator strategy such as By.xpath or By.cssSelector. Here&#8217;s an example using the findElement method to find an element with a specific value for the &#8220;value&#8221; attribute:



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.xpath(&#8220;//*[@value=&#8217;Search Value&#8217;]&#8221;));



In this example, the driver is an instance of the WebDriver interface, and By.xpath(&#8220;//*[@value=&#8217;Search Value&#8217;]&#8221;) specifies the locator strategy and the value to search for.



You can replace &#8220;value&#8221; with any other attribute name, and &#8220;Search Value&#8221; with the desired attribute value, to search for elements with different attribute values.

How to Find Element by Text in Selenium: Tutorial with Example

Suppose you are leveraging the Ghost platform’s powers to run your business or blogging websites and are wondering what factors you need to consider before you deploy and publish it. In that case, this guide should prove helpful, and by the end, you should have a better understanding of testing a website built with Ghost.



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#What_is_Ghost">1 What is Ghost?</a></li><li><a href="#The_moving_parts">2 The moving parts</a><ul><li><a href="#GScan_Testing">2.1 GScan Testing</a></li><li><a href="#Unit_Testing">2.2 Unit Testing</a></li><li><a href="#Browser_Testing">2.3 Browser Testing</a></li><li><a href="#Mobile-Friendly_Testing">2.4 Mobile-Friendly Testing</a></li><li><a href="#Visual_UI_Testing">2.5 Visual UI Testing</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Conclusion">3 Conclusion</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="h-what-is-ghost">What is Ghost?</h2>



<a href="https://ghost.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ghost</a> is an open-source blogging platform built to simplify the process of online publishing for individual bloggers and online publications. One can use its tools to create blogging websites, publish content and even send newsletters to their paid audience.



It launched in 2013, with the project founder having worked in WordPress &#8211; a Content Management Site (CMS) also used for making websites and blogs. Today, Ghost is a popular choice amongst individuals and organizations for publishing blogs and content. Some notable users of the platform are IBM, Tinder, Sky News, VEVO, and Zappos.



Also, It is the #1 CMS on GitHub, having 42k stars (by the time of writing this blog) and being used by millions of people.



It offers an on-prem solution and also a managed service &#8211; Ghost (Pro) that requires minimal to no maintenance and handling of servers. If you are a person who wants flexibility, is tech savvy, or has a tech team to manage and monitor the servers, the on-prem solution might be the one for you, whereas if you don’t want all that hassle and just want to focus on the content, Ghost (Pro) would be a good choice.



On top of this, it offers multiple third-party integrations like Stripe, Google Analytics, Twitter, YouTube, and many more that can enhance your website.



There are, of course, other CMS alternatives available to start your blogging site or other websites, like Substack, WordPress, Medium, Patreon, etc.



<h2 id="h-the-moving-parts">The moving parts</h2>



So, you must be wondering that since everything is being handled by the Ghost blogging platform itself and that there is a lot of abstraction from the internal workings, what is there left to be tested by you? Let’s see.



Ghost is built on NodeJS, and uses technologies like ExpressJS, MySQL &amp; SQLite databases, and Markdown, Ember, Handlebars for templating and user interface. Most of these things are used internally and abstracted from you as a user.



However, what we can control is the Handlebars part of it, which is used for creating the user interface (HTML) of your website. Ghost provides various themes out of the box, and one can also create a theme and upload it. So, we can use Handlebars, which is a templating language, to create custom themes to be used by the platform.



Another variable is the version of the platform you’re using. Even though the Ghost.org team thoroughly tests and then releases a version, upgrading to the newer versions could cause regression. So, one should have test cases in place to prevent this from happening.



So, as we can see, the moving parts over which we have control are quite small. Hence the scope of testing is also minimal. The relevant aspects to be tested could be as follows:



<ol><li>GScan Testing (Ghost Theme Scanner)</li><li>Unit Testing</li><li>Browser Testing and Cross-Device Testing</li><li>Mobile-friendly Testing</li><li>Performance Testing</li></ol>



<h3 id="h-gscan-testing">GScan Testing</h3>



GScan is the authorized tool for scanning Ghost themes. It checks for errors and feature support.&nbsp;



GScan works on a set of rules. Each rule has a way of checking whether it has failed or passed and also gives a descriptive solution on how to resolve that. There are three error levels associated with each rule, which are as follows:



<ol><li>recommendation:&nbsp; these are things the dev might want to know about</li> <li>warning: usually used for deprecations, things that will be errors in the next version</li> <li>error: anything that makes the theme invalid or incompatible with the current version of Ghost</li></ol>



In addition, an error can be marked as fatal. It means that if it is left unchecked, a Ghost publication would throw 500 errors on certain pages because of the detected out-of-date or erroneous code.



<h3 id="h-unit-testing">Unit Testing</h3>



Unit Test is performed to test the different “units” in a source code, to ensure that every single unit is functioning properly.



There are several JavaScript Testing frameworks to choose from, such as Jest, Mocha, and Jasmine. Any one of these can be used to define the test cases, which can then be run on your custom Ghost Themes.



One way to test and streamline your unit tests is to use a testing tool like <a href="https://testsigma.com/">Testsigma</a>. The tool helps in the easy creation, execution, and management of your test cases, saving effort and time while improving your code&#8217;s quality. 



One can write test cases in simple English language, which means that anyone can contribute to testing. Besides, the platform reduces or even eliminates the complex setup processes, and the learning curve to use the tool is also not steep.



<h3 id="h-browser-testing">Browser Testing</h3>



Browser Testing is done to check whether the published website is rendering according to the expectations or not in a Web Browser. All the different aspects of the website’s UI (User Interface) can be tested through this test. Also, the test is not just limited to one Web Browser. Users all around the world use different browsers to access content on the internet. Some of the popular web browsers are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Opera.



Conducting <a href="https://testsigma.com/cross-browser-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cross-Browser Testing</a> will ensure that every user consuming the content will have the same experience, without any surprises.



Also, one can test how a website would look and function on different devices like Desktops, Tablets, Mobiles, TVs, etc, to ensure multiple device support.



It is very important to know your user base and the kind of devices you want your website to function properly on.



While conducting Browser Testing, one has to make a list of devices and browsers they want to target for running their website seamlessly. This can be a time taking, manual and tedious task to complete.&nbsp;



But by using a tool like Testsigma, we can run all the tests parallelly and complete all the tests in a short period.



<h3 id="h-mobile-friendly-testing">Mobile-Friendly Testing</h3>



As mobile phones and tablets have become more powerful and prominent in today’s world, in most cases the traffic generated on websites is from these devices.&nbsp;



So, it is wise to test if your websites are mobile responsive, and whether all the features and functionalities are accessible from these devices, and offer the same experience as on other devices.



Testsigma can be used here as well. As it helps you in delivering an amazing mobile experience to your clients and users of the website. Since it is a no-code tool, anyone without any kind of coding expertise can run the tests.



<h3 id="h-visual-ui-testing">Visual UI Testing</h3>



Your Website’s UI must look according to the expected requirements. Hence, all the visually identifiable aspects should be checked for and asserted properly. For instance:



<ul><li>Text Alignment with Images</li> <li>UX distortion on the device’s resolution change</li> <li>All interactive elements are accessible and not hidden because of any kind of overlapping.</li> <li>No UI distortion on zooming in and out.</li></ul>



Use Testsigma to run visual UI tests as well. It takes snapshots of the UI, which you can use to compare before and after scenarios and catch visual bugs.&nbsp;



<button class="btn bg-primary cta-btn" style="display: block;
 margin: auto;"><a href="https://github.com/testsigmahq/testsigma" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:#fff">Try out Testsigma open source for your test automation needs here.</a></button>



<h2 id="h-conclusion">Conclusion</h2>



Millions of websites are published using the Ghost platform, as it is user-friendly and quick to publish. If your website is one of those millions, I hope you have a better understanding of what to test and how to test when building a Ghost website.



We saw what Ghost is and what services they provide. Following that, we dived into the internals and the moving parts of a Ghost website, which are the factors we have control over. Then we learned about all the aspects of software testing, and what all tests are required to ensure the proper functioning of the website or application.



As it is evident, Testsigma allows us to test all these aspects and provides us with all the features required for testing a Ghost Website.



I hope I left you with something new to learn!



<customlinks>
<ts-link-item>
<ts-linktext-value>ghost inspector alternatives</ts-linktext-value>
<ts-linkurl-value>https://testsigma.com/blog/ghost-inspector-alternatives/</ts-linkurl-value>
</ts-link-item>
</customlinks>

A beginner’s guide to testing your websites built with the Ghost platform

Ghost Test: 5 Key Aspects to be Tested on Ghost Platform

A Complete Guide to Selenium Grid 4: Architecture and Configuration

Selenium Headless Tests on Browsers: A Step-by-Step Guide

Selenium SendKeys: A Detailed Usage Guide

Are you looking to automate your cross browser tests using the <a href="https://www.selenium.dev/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium web automation framework</a>? If so, you must understand <a href="https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/webdriver/elements/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Web Elements</a> and how to handle them in Selenium. Whether it’s locating Web Elements in Selenium or performing actions on them, interacting with Web Elements is a key part of any automated test script.&nbsp;



In this article, we&#8217;ll discuss everything you need to know about Web Element handling in Selenium. We will also cover different strategies for handling dynamic Web Elements in Selenium and ways to improve your code&#8217;s execution time by avoiding unnecessary waits.&nbsp;



So let&#8217;s get started!



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#What_is_Web_Element">1 What is Web Element?</a><ul><li><a href="#Syntaxnbsp">1.1 Syntax&nbsp;</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Common_Selenium_WebDriver_Commands_for_Web_Elements">2 Common Selenium WebDriver Commands for Web Elements</a></li><li><a href="#Operations_performed_on_the_WebElements">3 Operations performed on the WebElements</a></li><li><a href="#Locators_In_Selenium_WebDriver">4 Locators In Selenium WebDriver</a></li><li><a href="#Final_Words">5 Final Words</a></li><li><a href="#Frequently_Asked_Questions">6 Frequently Asked Questions:</a><ul><li><a href="#What_are_the_types_of_Web_Elements">6.1 What are the types of Web Elements?</a></li><li><a href="#What_is_the_purpose_of_WebElement">6.2 What is the purpose of WebElement?</a></li><li><a href="#Is_size_a_WebElement_method">6.3 Is size() a WebElement method?</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="h-what-is-web-element">What is Web Element?</h2>



Web page components such as text boxes, checkboxes, buttons, drop-downs, radio buttons, web forms, etc. are called web elements. These can be identified by attributes like id, classname, name, or XPath.



Via Selenium, you can interact with these web elements to perform tasks like clicking a button or filling in text boxes.



<h3 id="h-syntax">Syntax&nbsp;</h3>



The syntax for interacting with a text box is given below:



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;TextBox&#8221;));

element.sendKeys(&#8220;stqatools&#8221;);



Or



driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;TextBox&#8221;)).sendKeys(&#8220;stqatools&#8221;);



<h2 id="h-common-selenium-webdriver-commands-for-web-elements">Common Selenium WebDriver Commands for Web Elements</h2>



Let us learn in-depth about the commonly used commands for common web elements on a web page in Selenium &#8211; 



1. Clear Command



The clear() command in Selenium is used to clear the text from a text box or text area. It is equivalent to selecting the contents of the element and pressing the DELETE or BACKSPACE key.



Method &#8211; clear() : void&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.clear();&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;&nbsp;



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;UserName&#8221;)); 
element.clear(); 
 
//Or can be written as 
 
driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;UserName&#8221;)).clear();



2. Sendkeys Command



The Sendkeys command in Selenium simulates the keyboard input of a user. It is used to type text into input boxes, text areas, and any Web Element allowing text input. It also simulates pressing special keys such as Enter, Tab, and other function keys.



Method &#8211; sendKeys(CharSequence? KeysToSend) : void&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.sendKeys(&#8220;text&#8221;);&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;&nbsp;



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;UserName&#8221;)); 
element.sendKeys(&#8220;JavaTpoint&#8221;); 
 
//Or can be written as 
 
driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;UserName&#8221;)).sendKeys(&#8220;JavaTpoint&#8221;);



3. Click Command



The Click command in Selenium is a user action that simulates a mouse click on an element, typically a button or a link, which can open a new page, submit a form, or perform other actions on the web page.



Method &#8211; click() : void&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.click();&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;&nbsp;



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.linkText(&#8220;javaTpoint&#8221;)); 
element.click(); 
 
//Or can be written as 
 
driver.findElement(By.linkText(&#8220;javaTpoint&#8221;)).click();



4. IsDisplayed Command



The IsDisplayed command in Selenium determines if an element is currently visible on the page or hidden from view. Depending on the element&#8217;s visibility, it will return a Boolean value (true or false). This ensures that elements are visible on the page before continuing with a test.



Method &#8211; isDisplayed() : boolean&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.isDisplayed();&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;&nbsp;



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;UserName&#8221;)); 
boolean status = element.isDisplayed(); 
 
//Or can be written as 
 
boolean staus = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;UserName&#8221;)).isDisplayed();



5. IsEnabled Command



The IsEnabled command in Selenium is used to check whether the specified element is enabled or not. It returns true if the element is enabled and false if the element is disabled. It is used to verify the state of the web page elements.



Method &#8211; isEnabled() : boolean&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.isEnabled();&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;&nbsp;



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;UserName&#8221;)); 
boolean status = element.isEnabled(); 
 
//Or can be written as 
 
boolean staus = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;UserName&#8221;)).isEnabled();



6. IsSelected Command



The IsSelected command in Selenium determines whether an element has been selected or not. This command returns a boolean value of True or False depending on the state of the element. This command is mainly used for checkboxes, radio buttons, and options in a select element.



Method &#8211; isSelected() : boolean&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.isSelected();&nbsp;&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;&nbsp;



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;Sex-Male&#8221;)); 
boolean status = element.isSelected();



7. Submit Command



The submit command in Selenium is used to submit a form. One can use it on any element that is a descendant of a form element.



Method &#8211; submit() : void&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.submit();&nbsp;&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;SubmitButton&#8221;)); 
element.submit(); 
 
//Or can be written as 
 
driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;SubmitButton&#8221;)).submit();



8. GetText Command



GetText is a command in Selenium used to retrieve the innerText of an element. It retrieves the text from a drop-down list, a paragraph, a list item, a button, etc.



Method &#8211; getText() : String&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.getText();&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.xpath(&#8220;anyLink&#8221;)); 
String linkText = element.getText();



9. GetTagName Command



The GetTagName command in Selenium retrieves the tag name of an element. It returns a string containing the tag name of the element on which this command is being called.



Method &#8211; getTagName() : String&nbsp;&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.getTagName();&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;SubmitButton&#8221;)); 
String tagName = element.getTagName(); 
 
 //Or can be written as 
 
 String tagName = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;SubmitButton&#8221;)).getTagName();



10. getCssValue Command



The getCssValue command in Selenium is a method used to retrieve the value of a given CSS property of an element on a webpage. It is useful for verifying the attributes of an element, such as its font size, color, or visibility.



Method &#8211; getCssvalue() : String&nbsp;&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.getCssValue();&nbsp;&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;



WebElement element = driver.find_element_by_css_selector(&#8220;body&#8221;)
bg_color = element.value_of_css_property(&#8220;background-color&#8221;)



11. getAttribute Command



The getAttribute command in Selenium is a method used to retrieve the value of an attribute of a Web Element. It checks the value of an attribute of an element, such as its ID, class, name, title, etc. It can also be used to check the state of a checkbox or radio button.



Method &#8211; getAttribute(String Name) : String&nbsp;&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.getAttribute();&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;SubmitButton&#8221;)); 
String attValue = element.getAttribute(&#8220;id&#8221;); //This will return &#8220;SubmitButton&#8221;



12. getSize Command



The getSize command in Selenium is used to return the width and height of an element. It returns a dictionary object with two keys, width, and height, which contain the width and height of the element, respectively.



Method &#8211; getSize() : Dimension&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.getSize();&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;SubmitButton&#8221;)); 
Dimension dimensions = element.getSize(); 
System.out.println(&#8220;Height :&#8221; + dimensions.height + &#8220;Width : &#8220;+ dimensions.width);



13. getLocation Command



The getLocation command in Selenium is used to retrieve the current URL of the page that is currently loaded in the browser. This command can be used to verify that the page has loaded correctly and that the URL matches the expected URL.



Method &#8211; getLocation() : Point&nbsp;



Command &#8211; element.getLocation();&nbsp;



Code Syntax &#8211;



WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;SubmitButton&#8221;)); 
Point = element.getLocation(); 
System.out.println(&#8220;X coordinate : &#8221; + point.x + &#8220;Y coordinate: &#8221; + point.y);



 <h2 id="h-operations-performed-on-the-webelements">Operations performed on the WebElements</h2>



Working with Web Elements in Selenium can be complex and challenging. However, there are several operations that can be performed on Web Elements to be identified by their attributes like id and name, or they can be located with the help of XPath or CSS selectors.&nbsp;



Furthermore, Web Element states can also be inspected in terms of whether they are enabled or disabled, visible or hidden on the page. As a result, all these operations make Web Elements in Selenium an incredibly useful <a href="https://testsigma.com/automated-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">test automation</a> tool for web applications.



Some basic operations performed on the WebElement are &#8211;



<ul><li>Browser Operations &#8211; Launch, navigate, maximize, minimize, refresh and exit.</li><li>Web Page Operations &#8211; Get the title of the page, URL of the page</li><li>Link Operations &#8211; Click on the Link, Return to the home page, and return to the link name</li><li>Edit Box Operations &#8211; Enter a value, get a new value, delete</li><li>Button Operations &#8211; Enable/disable button status, display status update</li><li>Text Operations &#8211; Capture or return messages/texts on the webpage</li><li>Image Operations &#8211; General image display, clickable image function, redirecting image link</li><li>Frame Operations &#8211; Switch to a specific web page frame from the top window and vice versa</li><li>Checkbox Operations &#8211; Tick and undo</li><li>Drop Down Operations &#8211; Click on the drop-down menu, select and get the count</li></ul>



<h2 id="h-locators-in-selenium-webdriver">Locators In Selenium WebDriver</h2>



Selenium WebDriver supports many different locators to help you find Web Elements and interact with them. The basic locators include id, className, name, linkText, partialLinkText, tagName and XPath. Each of these is used in a slightly different way to provide you with the capability to locate Selenium Web Elements quickly and accurately.&nbsp;



Id is one of the most popularly used locators. It helps locate an element based on its unique ID assigned by web developers, while className can help select Web Elements that follow the same style. The name helps identify Web Elements that have the same name tag, and linkText is apt for Web Elements in Selenium with text hyperlinks associated with it.&nbsp;



Similarly, partialLinkText uses part of the text string with Web Elements, and tagName allows you to <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/element-locators-automated-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">locate Web Elements</a> using its HTML tag, while XPath helps to parse through the web pages or XML documents for Web Elements.



<h2 id="h-final-words">Final Words</h2>



While we use Selenium to automate our cross browser tests, scripting all the user actions is possible only with the help of supported programming languages like JAVA, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, C# or .NET. This means that to work with Selenium, you need to have expertise in one programming language at least.This is where Testsigma can help. <a href="https://testsigma.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Testsigma</a> low-code test automation platform. Here, you can automate even you complex test scenarios without needing to code. Testsigma lets you automate your end-to-end UI tests for web, mobile, desktop and APIs, from the same. And, the test automation and execution is 5x faster.



<div class="cta-banner-v2">
<div class="title-with-description ">
 Make your test automation journey easier, with Testsigma
</div>
<a href="https://testsigma.com/signup" target="_blank" class="cta-btn-v1" rel="noopener">Try for free</a>
</div>



<h2 id="h-frequently-asked-questions">Frequently Asked Questions:</h2>



<h3 id="what-are-the-types-of-web-elements">What are the types of Web Elements?</h3>



Web Elements are the objects that comprise a web page. They can be divided into a number of categories, such as windows, web browsers, web forms, and web objects.&nbsp;



Web forms consist of web elements like text fields, buttons, and checkboxes used to extract information from end users. Last but not least are web elements which include images, videos, hyperlinks, and documents like PDFs.&nbsp;



<h3 id="what-is-the-purpose-of-webelement">What is the purpose of WebElement?</h3>



WebElement (an HTML element) is the interface that allows the Selenium code to interact with various elements on web pages. It allows users to manipulate and assert Web Elements on web pages by selecting, clicking, entering data, etc.



<h3 id="is-size-a-webelement-method">Is size() a WebElement method?</h3>



No, size() is not a WebElement method. It is a method of the built-in Java class java. util.Collection.

The Complete Guide to Handling Web Elements in Selenium

Page Object Model and Page Factory in Selenium WebDriver

Page Factory and Page Object Model in Selenium WebDriver

A Firefox Driver for Selenium is a web driver for the Firefox browser that allows you to programmatically interact with a web page in a Firefox browser using Selenium. It helps you automate various actions as if you were interacting with the website manually. This can be useful for tasks such as web scraping, <a href="https://testsigma.com/automated-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">automated testing</a>, and automating repetitive tasks on a website.



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#The_Significance_of_using_GeckoDriver">1 The Significance of using GeckoDriver</a><ul><li><a href="#A_Step-by-Step_Walkthrough_to_setting_up_GeckoDrivernbsp">1.1 A Step-by-Step Walkthrough to setting up GeckoDriver&nbsp;</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Run_Tests_using_Selenium_Firefox_Driver">2 Run Tests using Selenium Firefox Driver</a></li><li><a href="#How_can_I_use_Selenium_WebDriver_to_configure_a_proxy_in_Firefox">3 How can I use Selenium WebDriver to configure a proxy in Firefox?</a></li><li><a href="#Summing_Up">4 Summing Up</a></li><li><a href="#Frequently_Asked_Questions">5 Frequently Asked Questions:</a><ul><li><a href="#Is_Firefox_or_Chrome_better_for_Selenium">5.1 Is Firefox or Chrome better for Selenium?</a></li><li><a href="#Can_a_website_detect_when_you_are_using_Selenium_with_Firefox">5.2 Can a website detect when you are using Selenium with Firefox?</a></li><li><a href="#Which_Firefox_version_is_best_for_Selenium">5.3 Which Firefox version is best for Selenium?</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="h-the-significance-of-using-geckodriver">The Significance of using GeckoDriver</h2> 



<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/45ZJZvCqJMIhJx6crCQQm_ScshgzaMqgIMjQj6d53-n_IqI3CAv_DV68ovmC486GVN0mDiY1AKAHgNlfSXJEgF7hhmJ_gj_pJzrn5B4Tjc_Enk55Jrso3WWvpuxrkHA6WxhQMa_ubPJN" style="width: 600px;">



<a href="https://www.toolsqa.com/selenium-webdriver/selenium-geckodriver/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Source </a>



GeckoDriver is used as a proxy between Selenium and the Firefox browser for your automated browser tests. The protocol followed for communication here is the <a href="https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/testing/marionette/Intro.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Marionette automation protocol.</a>&nbsp;



Since Selenium is designed to be cross-browser compatible, GeckoDriver enables Selenium to interact with Firefox in a similar way it interacts with other browsers like Chrome, Internet Explorer and Edge, etc.



<h3 id="h-a-step-by-step-walkthrough-to-setting-up-geckodriver">A Step-by-Step Walkthrough to setting up GeckoDriver&nbsp;</h3>



Here are the steps to set up GeckoDriver for use with Selenium WebDriver:



<ol><li>Download the latest version of GeckoDriver from the official GitHub release page.</li></ol>



<ol start="2"><li>Extract the downloaded archive to a location on your system. The executable file inside the archive is the GeckoDriver.</li></ol>



<ol start="3"><li>Add the location of the GeckoDriver executable to your system&#8217;s PATH environment variable. This will allow the Selenium WebDriver to locate and communicate with the GeckoDriver.</li></ol>



<ol start="4"><li>In your Selenium script, import the Selenium WebDriver library and use the FirefoxDriver class, which is provided by the Selenium WebDriver to interact with the Firefox browser.</li></ol>



<ol start="5"><li>Finally, use the FirefoxDriver to create a new instance of the WebDriver for Firefox. You can now interact with the Firefox browser using Selenium WebDriver commands.</li></ol>



After you&#8217;ve instantiated the FirefoxDriver, you can use it to interact with web pages just as you would with other web drivers like Chrome or Edge driver. For example, you can navigate to a web page using the get() method, find elements on the page using the find_element_by_*() method, and interact with those elements using methods like click() and send_keys().



It&#8217;s worth noting that Mozilla has been working to implement the WebDriver protocol in Firefox directly, and there is a plan to deprecate GeckoDriver. From Firefox ver 79 onwards, you no longer need to download and set the path for GeckoDriver; Firefox itself includes the implementation of the WebDriver protocol.



<h2 id="h-run-tests-using-selenium-firefox-driver">Run Tests using Selenium Firefox Driver</h2>



Here&#8217;s how you can use Selenium with GeckoDriver to launch Firefox:



Keep in mind that it&#8217;s a good practice to put the ‘driver initialization’ and ‘quit’ in the ‘try’ and ‘finally’ blocks. This is to make sure that the driver is closed and resources are freed no matter what happens.



<styled-code>
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxOptions;

public class FirefoxExample {
 public static void main(String[] args) {
 // Specify the path of the GeckoDriver executable
 System.setProperty(&#8220;webdriver.gecko.driver&#8221;, &#8220;/path/to/geckodriver&#8221;);

 // Create a new instance of the Firefox driver
 FirefoxOptions options = new FirefoxOptions();
 WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(options);

 try {
 // Navigate to a web page
 driver.get(&#8220;http://www.yourwebsite.com&#8221;);

 // Interact with elements on the page
 driver.findElement(By.name(&#8220;q&#8221;)).sendKeys(&#8220;Firefox Driver for Selenium&#8221;);
 driver.findElement(By.name(&#8220;q&#8221;)).submit();
 } finally {
 // Close the browser
 driver.quit();
 }
 }
}
</styled-code>



It&#8217;s important to note that you need to download the GeckoDriver executable, put it in your machine and specify the path of the executable in the code.



On Windows, this path should use forward slashes &#8216;/&#8217; or double backslashes &#8216;\&#8217; instead of single backslashes &#8221;, also need to prefix the path with &#8216;r&#8217; for example, r&#8217;C:\path\to\geckodriver.exe&#8217;



<h2 id="h-how-can-i-use-selenium-webdriver-to-configure-a-proxy-in-firefox">How can I use Selenium WebDriver to configure a proxy in Firefox?</h2>



You can set a proxy using the FirefoxDriver for Selenium by creating a FirefoxOptions object, setting the proxy information in the object, and then passing the object to the FirefoxDriver constructor.



Here is the code for how you can set a proxy in Firefox using Selenium WebDriver:



<styled-code>
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxOptions;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.GeckoDriverService;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;

// Create a FirefoxOptions object
FirefoxOptions options = new FirefoxOptions();

// Set the proxy information
options.setPreference(&#8220;network.proxy.type&#8221;, 1);
options.setPreference(&#8220;network.proxy.http&#8221;, &#8220;proxy_host&#8221;);
options.setPreference(&#8220;network.proxy.http_port&#8221;, 8080);
options.setPreference(&#8220;network.proxy.ssl&#8221;, &#8220;proxy_host&#8221;);
options.setPreference(&#8220;network.proxy.ssl_port&#8221;, 8080);

// Set the path to the GeckoDriver executable
System.setProperty(GeckoDriverService.GECKO_DRIVER_EXE_PROPERTY, &#8220;/path/to/geckodriver&#8221;);

// Create a WebDriver for Firefox
FirefoxDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(options);

// Navigate to a web page
driver.get(&#8220;http://www.examplewebsite.com&#8221;);

// Close the browser
driver.quit();
</styled-code>



Here, &#8220;network.proxy.type&#8221; is set to 1 to indicate that a proxy should be used. &#8220;network.proxy.http&#8221; and &#8220;network.proxy.http_port&#8221; is set to the host and port of the HTTP proxy, and &#8220;network.proxy.ssl&#8221; and &#8220;network.proxy.ssl_port&#8221; are set to the host and port of the SSL proxy.



Please make sure to provide the correct host and port of the proxy you would like to use.



<div class="cta-banner-v2">
<div class="title-with-description ">
Automate tests for firefox, 10x faster, with Testsigma
</div>
<a href="https://testsigma.com/signup" target="_blank" class="cta-btn-v1" rel="noopener">Try for free</a>
</div>



<h2 id="h-summing-up">Summing Up</h2>



Selenium is great for testing web applications and pages. However, this tool requires technical expertise and programming skills. Besides, it is hard to maintain or modify tests in Selenium; this is where Testsigma comes in.



<a href="https://testsigma.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Testsigma</a> is a no-code test automation tool that can help you write automated tests up to 5 times faster, without the need to learn to code. The platform lets you execute your tests for <a href="https://testsigma.com/automated-web-application-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">web applications</a>, mobile applications and APIs. It is much more simpler and intuitive to handle tests and manage test reports with Testsigma. Thus, you can execute your tests on different types of browsers including Firefox.&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-frequently-asked-questions">Frequently Asked Questions:</h2>



<h3 id="h-is-firefox-or-chrome-better-for-selenium">Is Firefox or Chrome better for Selenium?</h3>



The choice between Firefox and Chrome for Selenium testing can depend on a variety of factors, and ultimately it is up to the individual or team using Selenium to decide which browser is the best fit for their specific needs. In general, Chrome is the most preferred browser (<a href="https://www.w3schools.com/browsers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">79.9% market share as of October 2022</a>) for all kinds of tasks.



<h3 id="h-can-a-website-detect-when-you-are-using-selenium-with-firefox">Can a website detect when you are using Selenium with Firefox?</h3>



It is possible for a website to detect when you are using the Firefox Driver for Selenium, it automates a real web browser, and the browser&#8217;s user agent string will be the same as if a real user were browsing the site.



Website administrators can use browser fingerprinting techniques to detect Selenium by looking at the browser&#8217;s characteristics, such as browser version, installed fonts, screen resolution, plugins, and more. Each request sends these characteristics as HTTP headers, so a website can use JavaScript or server-side code to read these headers and detect Selenium automation. However, this technique is not 100% accurate, as there may be many legitimate reasons why a browser&#8217;s characteristics would match those of a Selenium-controlled browser.



<h3 id="h-which-firefox-version-is-best-for-selenium">Which Firefox version is best for Selenium?</h3>



The best version of Firefox to use with Selenium depends on the specific requirements of your project, as well as the versions of Selenium and the Firefox browser you are using. Selenium supports a wide range of Firefox versions, but the most recent version of Firefox is recommended as it will have the latest features and bug fixes. It&#8217;s also important to note that the version of Firefox you are running your tests on should be compatible with the version of Selenium WebDriver you are using. You can check <a href="https://www.selenium.dev/categories/releases/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium&#8217;s release notes</a> for the version compatibility matrix.

A Simple Guide to using Firefox Driver for Selenium to Run your Tests

A Comprehensive Guide to Automating Clicks using Selenium