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Cross Browser Testing using Selenium WebDriver

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To understand the difference between the Selenium Standalone server and the Selenium server, we need to go back to the Selenium history. Released in 2002, Selenium is an open-source tool, shipped with Apache Open Source License 2.0. Since web technologies have undergone many changes, automation frameworks like Selenium also had to go through changes.&nbsp;



Interestingly Selenium is the most popular automation framework today as well. Selenium has survived because it is adopting the latest technology and architecture. Every time Selenium made a new release it ensured that the framework is aligned with the latest technology trends and architecture. 



Selenium framework is designed in such a way that programming language should not be a barrier to testers as it supports Java, JavaScript, Python, C#, etc.



Many are confused that WebDriver API is a Selenium, but WebDriver is one of its components. Selenium has multiple components such as Selenium IDE, Selenium Grid, Selenium WebDriver, etc. As Selenium is the most flexible automation framework, it provides support to local execution, remote execution, and recording of the scripts.



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Difference_between_Selenium_Standalone_server_and_Selenium_server">1 Difference between Selenium Standalone server and Selenium server</a></li><li><a href="#What_is_Selenium_Server">2 What is Selenium Server?</a></li><li><a href="#How_does_Selenium_RC_Selenium_Server_work">3 How does Selenium RC/ Selenium Server work?</a></li><li><a href="#Sample_Selenium_Server_RC_script">4 Sample Selenium Server RC script.</a></li><li><a href="#Why_is_Selenium_ServerSelenium_RC_deprecated">5 Why is Selenium Server/Selenium RC deprecated?</a></li><li><a href="#What_is_Selenium_Standalone_Server">6 What is Selenium Standalone Server?</a></li><li><a href="#When_to_Use_Selenium_Standalone_serverGrid">7 When to Use Selenium Standalone server/Grid</a></li><li><a href="#Challenges_with_Selenium">8 Challenges with Selenium</a><ul><li><a href="#Challenges_of_Selenium_and_other_Test_Automation_Framework">8.1 Challenges of Selenium and other Test Automation Framework</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Features_of_Testsigma">9 Features of Testsigma</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="h-difference-between-selenium-standalone-server-and-selenium-server">Difference between Selenium Standalone server and Selenium server</h2>



The current Selenium version is 4.x. As mentioned earlier, Selenium has undergone many changes whenever it is upgraded to a major version like 1.x, 2.x, etc. With Selenium 4.0, there is no such confusion between Selenium Server and Selenium Standalone server. The only executable server jar available is Selenium Grid.&nbsp;



This article provides concrete and definite answers to the question: Difference between the Selenium Standalone server and the Selenium server.



<h2 id="h-what-is-selenium-server">What is Selenium Server?</h2>



<a href="https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/legacy/selenium_1/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium RC</a> was the initial and core Selenium project even before Selenium WebDriver started. The Selenium RC is deprecated and no longer supported. But to understand the difference and arrive at a definite conclusion, you need to explore the history of Selenium Versions.



Let&#8217;s understand the components of Selenium RC.



Selenium Server



The Selenium Server in Selenium RC was responsible for the below set of actions



<ul><li>Launch the browser</li><li>Interpret and run the Selenium command passed from the test program (code)</li><li>Act as an HTTP proxy by intercepting and verifying the HTTP message passed between the browsers and the Application Under Test</li></ul>



Client libraries



Client libraries in Selenium were used as the interface between each programming language and the Selenium RC Server.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="https://testsigma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Selenium-RC-Architecture.jpg" alt="Selenium RCArchitecture" class="wp-image-21175" width="600" height="400"/><figcaption>Selenium RC Architecture</figcaption></figure></div>



<h2 id="h-how-does-selenium-rc-selenium-server-work">How does Selenium RC/ Selenium Server work?</h2>



The above Architecture&nbsp; diagram shows the working mechanism of the Selenium RC Server



<ul><li>Selenium Client Libraries communicate with the Server by passing the Selenium command for execution one by one</li><li>The server passes the Selenium command to the browser using Selenium Core</li><li>The browser executes the Selenium command</li></ul>



Since the Selenium Server is in context, it existed in Selenium RC, which was the initial version of Selenium. The Selenium Server was one of the key components in Selenium RC. It receives Selenium commands from the test program, interprets, and reports back to your program; the results of running those tests, and tests are then marked as pass or fail.



The Selenium Server was designed to receive the Selenese commands from your test script. The communication was done using the simple HTTP protocol, either GET or POST methods. This method enables support for multiple programming languages. Any programming language supporting HTTP calls can be used to communicate with the Selenium Server.



<h2 id="h-sample-selenium-server-rc-script">Sample Selenium Server RC script.</h2>



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;public class NewTest{



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; public void testNew() throws Exception {



Selenium Selenium = new DefaultSelenium(&#8220;localhost&#8221;, 4444, &#8220;firefox&#8221;, &#8220;https://google.com&#8221;)



Selenium.start



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Selenium.open(&#8220;/&#8221;);



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Selenium.type(&#8220;q&#8221;, &#8220;Testsigma&#8221;);



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Selenium.click(&#8220;btnG&#8221;);



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Selenium.waitForPageToLoad(&#8220;30000&#8221;);&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; }



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;}



The Selenium RC Server architecture was different from the latest Selenium, so the above code is comparatively different from today&#8217;s Selenium Code.



The DefaultSelenium was part of package com.thoughtworks.Selenium in Selenium RC which was used for Initialising the Selenium.



Selenium 2.x introduced the Selenium <a href="https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/legacy/selenium_2/upgrading/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WebDriver API</a>, which removed the complexity of the Selenium RC server. In Selenium RC, the Selenium Server was the mediator between the Selenese command and the browser. The WebDriver was built with new architecture, it does the job similar to Server (not the same); however, WebDriver is not a server. WebDriver makes use of native events to interact with a web page.



Before we explore about Selenium Standalone Server, let&#8217;s conclude the Selenium Server



<ul><li>The Selenium Server was part of the Selenium RC.</li><li>Selenium Server acts as the mediator between the Selenium commands and the browser.</li><li>Selenium Server communicates with the client using HTTP calls such as GET/POST.</li><li>The Selenium Server is deprecated; it is no longer available.</li><li>The Selenium WebDriver replaced the Selenium Server.</li></ul>



<h2 id="h-why-is-selenium-server-selenium-rc-deprecated">Why is Selenium Server/Selenium RC deprecated?</h2>



The Selenium Server/RC had limitations, so the Selenium team decided to introduce a WebDriver and bring the changes to the architectural level.&nbsp;



Some of the challenges with Selenium Server/RC:



<ol><li>Selenium RC architecture was complex.</li><li>Selenium Server needed to start before test execution.</li><li>Selenium RC doesn&#8217;t support headless mode.</li><li>Supporting multiple browsers for a long period was challenging.</li></ol>



Now, let&#8217;s learn about Selenium Standalone Server.



<h2 id="h-what-is-selenium-standalone-server">What is Selenium Standalone Server?</h2>



The Selenium Standalone Server is what you see as a Selenium Grid today. But you may be wondering: Why do we still need a Selenium Standalone Server when Selenium Server was replaced with WebDriver in Selenium 2?



Replacing Selenium Server with Selenium WebDriver solved the problem of local execution. Using WebDriver, you do not need to start the Selenium Server as WebDriver communicates to the browser directly without starting the <a href="https://www.redswitches.com/dedicated-server-hosting/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dedicated server</a>. However, there are some use cases where you need to use the server. Some common scenarios are



<ol><li>If you want to Execute your test on the remote machine</li><li>If you want to distribute tests across the multiple machines</li></ol>



Earlier, the Selenium was shipped with a standalone server, though it was optional. The Selenium Standalone server had the format of <a href="https://selenium-release.storage.googleapis.com/index.html?path=2.39/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium-server-standalone-{version}.jar</a>.&nbsp;



The Selenium 4.0 doesn&#8217;t follow the above format; it follows the format of Selenium-server-{version}.jar. The Selenium Standalone server is optional. You need to use the Selenium Standalone server or Selenium Grid only when you have the above use cases.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="https://testsigma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Selenium-Grid-Architecture-in-Selenium-4-Grid4.jpg" alt="Selenium Grid Architecture in Selenium" class="wp-image-21170" width="600" height="400"/><figcaption>Image: Selenium Grid Architecture in Selenium 4 (Grid4)</figcaption></figure></div>



Not to confuse other sources on the internet, the Selenium Grid has undergone many changes over the versions. For example, the Selenium Grid 2 and 3 had different architecture than the Selenium 4 Grid.



The Selenium Grid 3 had Hub and Node architecture, where the hub was a central system to communicate with the Nodes. The Node was the system where the actual browser runs.



The Selenium 4 Standalone Server or simply Selenium Server (in Selenium 4)&nbsp; has the above architecture.



Router: Entry point of Grid, receives all external requests and forwards to Node with the help of Session map and Session Queue.



Distributor: It keeps all the Node details,&nbsp; such as a list of browsers, available node slots, etc.



Node: Node is the place where the actual browser exists. Each grid can have multiple Nodes. The distributor will have every Node&#8217;s information along with its capabilities. The Node&#8217;s responsibility is just to execute the commands. It doesn’t make any judgments; it simply executes the command received.



<h2 id="h-when-to-use-selenium-standalone-server-grid">When to Use Selenium Standalone server/Grid</h2>



<ul><li>To run the cross-browser and/or cross-platform tests parallely</li><li>To execute the tests faster in distributed test execution environment</li></ul>



The confusion between the Selenium Server and Selenium Standalone server arises because of Selenium RC or an older version of Selenium 4. Considering Selenium 4, there is only one Selenium Server available which is Selenium Grid Server.



Example of Selenium Code using Selenium Grid:



ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();



options.setCapability(CapabilityType.BROWSER_NAME,&#8221;chrome&#8221;)&nbsp;&nbsp;



RemoteWebDriver driver = new RemoteWebDriver(new URL(&#8220;http://localhost:4444&#8221;), options);



driver.get(&#8220;https://google.com&#8221;);



driver.close();



To Summarise 



<ul><li>Selenium Server and Selenium Standalone server are different; each is designed to serve a different purpose.</li><li>Selenium Server was part of Selenium RC, which is now deprecated.</li><li>Selenium WebDriver is a replacement for Selenium RC Server with better and faster execution of tests.</li><li>The primary purpose of Selenium Standalone Server / Selenium Grid is to execute the tests in a distributed environment parallelly.</li><li>The Selenium Grid/Selenium Standalone server is still available for use with the latest version of Selenium 4.</li><li>The Selenium Grid /Selenium Standalone server is optional and can be chosen based on the requirement and purpose.</li></ul>



<h2 id="h-challenges-with-selenium">Challenges with Selenium</h2>



Though Selenium is the most popular automation framework, it requires a deep level of technical expertise. Today, there are many test automation frameworks such as Playwright, Cypress, TestCafe, WebDriverIO, etc. One of the major challenges that you and your organization face is skillset. You&#8217;ll have to learn a new API and architecture whenever you switch to a new testing framework.



<h3 id="challenges-of-selenium-and-other-test-automation-framework">Challenges of Selenium and other Test Automation Framework</h3>



<ul><li>The learning curve for every framework is considerably high.</li><li>Complicated setup, requiring a good amount of technical expertise.</li><li>Setting up a framework from scratch is different.</li><li>Testing in a cross-browser and cross-platform environment requires robust infrastructure. Maintaining the infrastructure is complicated.</li><li>Not all frameworks support multi-level testing such as API Testing, UI Testing (Visual Testing), and end-to-end Testing.</li><li>Manual Testers need to put high effort into learning automation.</li><li>Reporting and DevOps integrations are additional complications.</li><li>Whenever there is an upgrade of your tool version you need to learn and upskill. Breaking changes in the latest version may cause false failures, which in turn requires high maintenance.</li></ul>



With all these difficulties, achieving a quality product is a nightmare. Well, Testsigma addresses all these pain points. Imagine writing the test case in plain English, which executes like a charm. Testsigma is an open-source platform that allows you to write tests in simple English. 



Unlike Selenium, Testsigma doesn&#8217;t require any complicated setup or infrastructure management. The tests can be recorded, or you can even write your own; same tests can be executed on 800+ browsers.



<h2 id="h-features-of-testsigma">Features of Testsigma</h2>



<ul><li>Ability to record the tests or write your tests.</li><li>No coding knowledge is required, and tests can be written in plain English language.</li><li>Manual testers can quickly learn and upgrade themselves to the automation world.</li><li>Feature to Test on Mobile devices without complicated setup.</li><li>No need to maintain infrastructure; Testsigma takes care of that.</li><li>Supports multiple types of tests such as API Tests, End to End tests, and Visual Tests.</li><li>Supports all major DevOps tools.</li><li>Faster execution and instant reports and analytics,</li></ul>



In addition, Testsigma has a community-driven plugin marketplace where you can easily hook any plugins to your test.&nbsp;



Comparing Selenium and Testsigma, Testsigma can save a lot of time and effort. Selenium testers mostly spend time setting up, configuring, and debugging issues by losing the main focus of writing the automation scripts. Testsigma, on the other hand, takes all those burdens and complications of configuration and setup, enabling testers to focus on their automation script and execution happily.

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When it comes to testing through automation on a web application, Selenium is probably one of the primary choices for a tester. The rich library of methods that can detect and perform an action on any web element makes us wonder whether giving Selenium a try should be worth the effort. 



In addition, when the <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/why-how-to-contribute-to-open-source-projects/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">open-source</a> flag is seen waving high on a cloud repository, we are sure about our next steps and which way we are going through. This is not only my analysis of test automation and open-source inclination, but <a href="https://www.zarantech.com/blog/makes-selenium-hot-favorite-automation-tool-among-enterprises/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">a lot of surveys</a> also point toward the same results:



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/6dQPOUX4lAs1NfLM_onCz_rEJFVGb8biUUEbVzdRDt2lIntuEmKIRsHvZBrQrx68KvN9fEqTY1xnBalh29g5OLur48aF9ysVVRfZPf1jK9xwHMxDmZjfPt24AGl6ygZDCrHOBMFHMCZ32IgJQZ87ZklZuTcX_tevxvh_K5E7W88LUFnW030I6RzRSA" alt="Automation Tools Usage" width="600" height="400"/></figure></div>



If we start discussing Selenium and its properties and everything it offers, we might end up covering up one book&#8217;s worth of material. Therefore, it is better to pick one of the most favorite and most used methods from the Selenium library and see how it helps us identify elements on a web page and take action on the results it returns. To demonstrate this and explore the process, we will use Selenium’s isDisplayed() method that tells us whether the element is displayed or not.&nbsp;



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<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#isDisplayed_Method_in_Selenium">1 isDisplayed() Method in Selenium</a></li><li><a href="#Do_We_Require_isDisplayed_Method_in_Selenium">2 Do We Require isDisplayed() Method in Selenium?</a></li><li><a href="#How_to_Use_isDisplayed_Method_in_Selenium">3 How to Use isDisplayed() Method in Selenium?</a></li><li><a href="#isEnabled_Method_in_Selenium">4 isEnabled() Method in Selenium</a></li><li><a href="#isSelected_Method_in_Selenium">5 isSelected() Method in Selenium</a></li><li><a href="#Conclusion">6 Conclusion</a></li><li><a href="#Suggested_Readings">7 Suggested Readings</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="h-isdisplayed-method-in-selenium">isDisplayed() Method in Selenium</h2>



Unlike biologists and anthropologists, computer software developers and scientists name concepts extremely close to what they would achieve. So, navigate().to would navigate us to the specified URL, findElement() will find an element, and switchTo().window() will switch to another window. 



Similarly, as you might have already guessed, isDisplayed() method in Selenium returns a boolean value telling us whether the element we are enquiring about is being displayed on the web page or not.&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-do-we-require-isdisplayed-method-in-selenium">Do We Require isDisplayed() Method in Selenium?</h2>



The first question that comes to mind is, do we need to dedicate one post to this method? Is this that important? I mean, not that I question the ability of Selenium Waits and the sense of relief it provides for the elements that load at different times, but can we rely on it entirely?<gwmw style="display:none;"></gwmw>



Let me rephrase the above sentence. If you have an element that does not load at the start, isn’t Selenium Waits enough to check if the element is available in the limited timeout we define in the method?&nbsp;



Selenium Waits let you wait for an element until it is visible (taking reference of a single use case out of many) on the web page. By its core nature, you have to wait for some time if you want to utilize this use case. I know you can implement waits with 0 value also, but calling internal functions and accessing multiple layers would increase the time of script execution.



As far as isDisplayed() is concerned, the method is instant and covers its own use case. Moreover, Selenium Waits do not return the boolean value as can be directly returned by the isDisplayed method in Selenium.



Know More: <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/selenium-wait-for-page-to-load/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Page Loading in Selenium</a>



<h2 id="h-how-to-use-isdisplayed-method-in-selenium">How to Use isDisplayed() Method in Selenium?</h2>



The isDisplayed method is a simple to learn and execute method. This section will demonstrate how to use it inside your scripts and check for an element on the web page. As a prerequisite, you need to be familiar with the concepts of Selenium and basic working around it, such as initializing a web driver and using the web driver for accessing the web-related elements.



The syntax for isDisplayed method in Selenium is as follows:



&lt;webdriver instance&gt;.&lt;method to find element&gt;(&lt;property used&gt;(&lt;property symbol&gt;)).isDisplayed();



I know it looks a bit intimidating due to many variables, especially for people just starting their Selenium journey. But no need to worry about that. It becomes much simpler when we boil this down to individual elements and understand the syntax more clearly.



&lt;webdriver instance&gt;



The webdriver instance is the instance of the webdriver you are using in Selenium. The webdriver instance is declared as:



WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();



If you are using a Firefox driver or:



WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();



If you are using a Google Chrome driver.



&lt;method to find element&gt;



Here, we will ask Selenium to find an element. For this, we will use a method built into the Selenium library for finding an element such as findElement.



&lt;property used&gt;



After writing the method to find an element, we need to tell Selenium the property by which we are looking for that particular element. So, if I am finding an element with “div-header,” is it an ID? A class? Or a name property? Therefore, this is important to distinguish the two elements. In Selenium, you can use the following properties to find the element:



<ul><li>Id</li><li>ClassName</li><li>CSS</li><li>Name</li><li>TagName</li><li>Xpath</li><li>LinkText</li><li>PartialLinkText</li></ul>



After placing each of the values in the above attributes, our line of code for isDisplayed() method in Selenium would look as follows:



boolean isElementVisible = driver.findElement(By.id(&#8220;myHeaderDiv&#8221;)).isDisplayed();



Combining all the elements of code, we get the following snippet:



import org.junit.Test;



import org.openqa.selenium.By;



import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;



import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;



public class TestSigma {



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;protected WebDriver driver;



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;@Test



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;public void check_if_displayed()



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;driver = new ChromeDriver();



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;driver.navigate().to(&#8220;https://testsigma.com/blog/strings-in-javascript&#8221;);



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;boolean isElementVisible = driver.findElement(By.linkText(&#8220;Harish Rajora&#8221;)).isDisplayed();



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;System.out.println(&#8220;We found the element – &#8221; + isElementVisible);



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;driver.close();



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;}



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;}



Here, I am using the linkText through findElement, which can find the text of a link. As expected, the result shown is true. Please note that we have used @Test annotations to work out this test. If you are unfamiliar with this, do read a detailed explanation on Parameterization in the TestNG post.



<h2 id="h-isenabled-method-in-selenium">isEnabled() Method in Selenium</h2>



Since we are talking about finding elements on a web page, we may as well touch upon two more methods that are implemented with the same intentions.&nbsp;



The isEnabled() method in Selenium is used to find out whether an element is enabled on the web page (in the current browsing context) or not. The syntax of this method is as follows:



&lt;webdriver instance&gt;.&lt;method to find element&gt;(&lt;property used&gt;(&lt;property symbol&gt;)).isEnabled();



All the parameter attribute values remain the same as in isDisplayed method.



In the previous section, we verified whether the link text is displayed or not. Since it is a link, we can use the same code with the isEnabled() method in Selenium as follows:



import org.junit.Test;



import org.openqa.selenium.By;



import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;



import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;



public class TestSigma {



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;protected WebDriver driver;



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;@Test



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;public void check_if_enabled()



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;driver = new ChromeDriver();



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;driver.navigate().to(&#8220;https://testsigma.com/blog/strings-in-javascript&#8221;);



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;boolean isElementEnabled = driver.findElement(By.linkText(&#8220;Harish Rajora&#8221;)).isEnabled();



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;System.out.println(&#8220;We found the element – &#8221; + isElementVisible);



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;driver.close();



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;}



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;}



This will also return the value true. This method is generally used for elements that are disabled depending on situations such as disabling the submit button unless the form is completely filled.



<h2 id="h-isselected-method-in-selenium">isSelected() Method in Selenium</h2>



The final element that we will consider in this post is the isSelected() method in Selenium. As its name suggests, the isSelected() method is used to find out whether an element is selected on the web page or not. With reference to the above two stated methods, this method resembles a lot in the syntax and the working. The syntax of the isSelected() method in Selenium is as follows:



&lt;webdriver instance&gt;.&lt;method to find element&gt;(&lt;property used&gt;(&lt;property symbol&gt;)).isSelected();



The meaning of various attributes defined in the syntax remains the same. The usage of isSelected is also extremely similar to the above:



import org.junit.Test;



import org.openqa.selenium.By;



import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;



import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;



public class TestSigma {



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;protected WebDriver driver;



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;@Test



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;public void check_if_selected()



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;driver = new ChromeDriver();



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;driver.navigate().to(&#8220;https://testsigma.com/blog/strings-in-javascript&#8221;);



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;boolean isElementSelected = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector(&#8220;input[type=&#8217;checkbox&#8217;]:indian-national&#8221;)).isSelected();



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;System.out.println(&#8220;We found the element – &#8221; + isElementVisible);



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;driver.close();



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;}



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;}



Since the element differs from the one used in isEnabled() method, we have used cssSelector instead. If there are any doubts about the program execution, do let us know in the comment section, and we will be happy to clarify them.



Also, please note that the primary use case of the isSelected method in Selenium is around the elements that can be selected or are “checkable.” For example, this method will be most suitable to find out if a radio button is checked or a checkbox is checked or not, etc.



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



Selenium is inarguably one of the best platforms for scripted testing in the market. Even though credit goes out to its open-source nature and the large community that supports us in every hurdle, a lot of other things contribute to its success too. 



For instance, developers have always maintained a habit of listening to testers and implementing the most demanding features as soon as possible. They have also kept the concepts and the working of each method considerably simple compared to other frameworks. In this post, we tried to pick out three such things from the large pool and see how they can help us in testing web applications faster and more efficiently.



The isDisplayed() method in Selenium is used to test whether the referenced element is displayed on the web page or not. It returns a boolean value and can be used with any locator found in Selenium. Unlike Selenium Waits, the result is instant and requires fewer calls within. 



In addition, we discussed two more similar functions that are used exactly the same way as isDisplayed method with specific use cases. For instance, if you are using isEnabled() method in Selenium, its expertise falls within links, buttons, etc., that can be enabled. 



Similarly, isSelected() method works best where there are checkable elements on the web page. Apart from these three methods, you can use getTagName, getRect, etc. methods to get element-specific information. However, their motive deviates us from the essence of this post, and so we would like to wrap things up here.



Please let us know in the comment section if you have any suggestions, queries, or comments. Thank you for giving this post your valuable time.&nbsp;



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<h2 id="suggested-readings">Suggested Readings</h2>



<a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/sendkeys-selenium/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium SendKeys: A Detailed Usage Guide</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;



<a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/selenium-get-current-url/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium Get Current URL using Java: Tutorial</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;



<a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/selenium-headless/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium Headless Tests on Browsers</a>



<a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/python-selenium-example/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium with Python Tutorial</a>

How does Selenium isDisplayed() method work?