What should every QA engineer know about Selenium 4?
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Back in August 2018, when the testers community was shocked by the news that Simon Stewart, one of the founders of Selenium, officially approved the release date and advertised some major updates of Selenium 4 at the Selenium Conference in Bangalore. The fourth version of the beloved web testing automation framework was supposed to be released by Christmas 2018.
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Selenium 4 release date
Those who are already familiar with the release history of Selenium 3, which was also going to happen by Christmas, suggested that the new version would be finished by Christmas, but most likely not in 2018. Exactly as it happened with the previous version, which was released three years later than the officially announced date.
And they were right! To date (even with updated information on the release of Selenium 4 in February 2019), there has still been no official release.
Also, there was no official information about the new release dates from the project founders. However, as we see on the official page of the SeleniumHQ project on Github , the developers have closed only half of the tasks that had to be done, so it can be fairly assumed that the official release will not happen before the advent of 2019.
What is the importance of Selenium 4?
If you believe that test automation engineers are the only people in the world who need to take care of the release of the Selenium update, you are mistaken. Of course, Selenium has become the industry standard for automated testing. It is considered the primary tool for testing web applications that are already too large for manual testing.
It also remains without attention that companies that rely to a large extent on Selenium are not just companies who have QA engineers in their staff, but also those who use integrated tools of automated codeless testing based on the same Selenium. Testing without a code based on Selenium was a real salvation for companies that are aware of the need for automation, but do not have QA experts in their staff who can figure it out. Such tools not only make it possible to deploy for those who have a basic understanding of web browsers, but also allow you to run regression tests, perform synthetic monitoring and load testing without any knowledge of the Selenium framework.
Major changes in Selenium 4
Now let's move on to the list of things that SeleniumHQ promised to add or change in the next version.
Standardize WebDriver W3C
First, Selenium 4 WebDriver will be fully standardized by the W3C. The WebDriver API has become relevant outside Selenium and is now used in various automation tools. For example, mobile testing tools such as Appium and iOS Driver are based on it. The W3C standard is also responsible for compatibility between different software applications with the WebDriver API.
Here's how Selenium Grid interacts with the executable driver files for the moment:
The test in Selenium 3.x interacts with the browser in the end node (end node) using the JSON wire protocol at the local end point (local end). This approach requires encoding and decoding API requests.
Judging by the updates that we expect to see in Selenium 4, the test will interact directly without encoding and decoding API requests via the W3C protocol. Despite this, Java compatibility will still be backward compatible, but the W3C consortium protocol will be the focus. But the protocol JSON wire will no longer be used.
Several developers are working on the W3C WebDriver specifications, and you can see the whole process on GitHub .
Selenium 4 IDE TNG
Selenium IDE supports Chrome out of the box. As you know, Selenium IDE is a recording and playback tool. Now it will be available with the following, richer and more advanced functionality:
Superior Selenium Grid
Everyone who has ever worked with the Selenium Grid knows how difficult it is to configure. Selenium Grid supports the execution of tests in different browsers, operating systems and machines that provide parallel execution.
Selenium Grid has two main elements: Hub and Node.
The hub (hub) works as a server, the central point of control for all tested machines on the network. There is only one hub in the Selenium Grid, which allocates a specific node for test execution in accordance with its potential.
A node (node), in simple words, is a machine under test on which tests are run.
To learn more, we advise you to read the complete official guide to the Selenium Grid .
So far, the process of joining a hub to the hub in the Selenium Grid has caused serious difficulties for testers.
In Selenium 4, working with the Grid promises to be simple, since there will no longer be the need to configure and run hubs and nodes separately. After starting the Selenium server, the Grid will operate simultaneously as a node and as a hub.
Selenium 4 will be shipped with a more stable version of Selenium Grid. The thread safety bugs will be fixed and Docker support will be improved.
Improved Selenium Grid User Interface
Another priority in the development of Selenium 4, which was highlighted during the official announcement, was the creation of a more user-friendly Selenium Grid user interface that will reflect all the relevant information about sessions, capacity, etc.
Improved observability
Observability, logs and debugs are no longer limited to DevOps. As part of the upcoming release, query tracing and logging with hooks will be improved to allow debugging engineers to automate.
Updated documentation
Documentation plays a key role in the success of any project. Selenium documentation has not been updated since the release of Selenium 2.0. This means that everyone who tried to study Selenium in the past few years used old tutorials.
Thus, naturally, the updated and up-to-date documentation that SeleniumHQ promises to provide us with version 4.0 has become one of the most awaited updates of Selenium in the testing automation community.
However, you can still access all existing Selenium documentation.
Selenium 4 in a nutshell
Here are all the major changes that we are likely to see when Selenium 4 is finally released. If you are interested in learning more about the history of the framework, its founders and new features of Selenium, we offer to watch this video from the 2018 Selenium conference where it was announced release.
Write comments and sign up for the open day , which will be held on May 22. See you at OTUS!
Back in August 2018, when the testers community was shocked by the news that Simon Stewart, one of the founders of Selenium, officially approved the release date and advertised some major updates of Selenium 4 at the Selenium Conference in Bangalore. The fourth version of the beloved web testing automation framework was supposed to be released by Christmas 2018.
')
Selenium 4 release date
Those who are already familiar with the release history of Selenium 3, which was also going to happen by Christmas, suggested that the new version would be finished by Christmas, but most likely not in 2018. Exactly as it happened with the previous version, which was released three years later than the officially announced date.
And they were right! To date (even with updated information on the release of Selenium 4 in February 2019), there has still been no official release.
Also, there was no official information about the new release dates from the project founders. However, as we see on the official page of the SeleniumHQ project on Github , the developers have closed only half of the tasks that had to be done, so it can be fairly assumed that the official release will not happen before the advent of 2019.
What is the importance of Selenium 4?
If you believe that test automation engineers are the only people in the world who need to take care of the release of the Selenium update, you are mistaken. Of course, Selenium has become the industry standard for automated testing. It is considered the primary tool for testing web applications that are already too large for manual testing.
It also remains without attention that companies that rely to a large extent on Selenium are not just companies who have QA engineers in their staff, but also those who use integrated tools of automated codeless testing based on the same Selenium. Testing without a code based on Selenium was a real salvation for companies that are aware of the need for automation, but do not have QA experts in their staff who can figure it out. Such tools not only make it possible to deploy for those who have a basic understanding of web browsers, but also allow you to run regression tests, perform synthetic monitoring and load testing without any knowledge of the Selenium framework.
Major changes in Selenium 4
Now let's move on to the list of things that SeleniumHQ promised to add or change in the next version.
Standardize WebDriver W3C
First, Selenium 4 WebDriver will be fully standardized by the W3C. The WebDriver API has become relevant outside Selenium and is now used in various automation tools. For example, mobile testing tools such as Appium and iOS Driver are based on it. The W3C standard is also responsible for compatibility between different software applications with the WebDriver API.
Here's how Selenium Grid interacts with the executable driver files for the moment:
The test in Selenium 3.x interacts with the browser in the end node (end node) using the JSON wire protocol at the local end point (local end). This approach requires encoding and decoding API requests.
Judging by the updates that we expect to see in Selenium 4, the test will interact directly without encoding and decoding API requests via the W3C protocol. Despite this, Java compatibility will still be backward compatible, but the W3C consortium protocol will be the focus. But the protocol JSON wire will no longer be used.
Several developers are working on the W3C WebDriver specifications, and you can see the whole process on GitHub .
Selenium 4 IDE TNG
Selenium IDE supports Chrome out of the box. As you know, Selenium IDE is a recording and playback tool. Now it will be available with the following, richer and more advanced functionality:
- New plugin system. Now any browser vendor can easily “connect” to the new Selenium IDE. You can use your own locator strategy and the Selenium IDE plugin.
- New CLI runner. It will be completely based on NodeJS, and not on HTML, as it was before, it will also have the following features:
- WebDriver Playback. The new Selenium IDE runner will be completely based on WebDriver.
- Parallel execution The new CLI runner will support parallel execution of tests and provide useful information, such as elapsed time, as well as a set of passed and failed tests.
Superior Selenium Grid
Everyone who has ever worked with the Selenium Grid knows how difficult it is to configure. Selenium Grid supports the execution of tests in different browsers, operating systems and machines that provide parallel execution.
Selenium Grid has two main elements: Hub and Node.
The hub (hub) works as a server, the central point of control for all tested machines on the network. There is only one hub in the Selenium Grid, which allocates a specific node for test execution in accordance with its potential.
A node (node), in simple words, is a machine under test on which tests are run.
To learn more, we advise you to read the complete official guide to the Selenium Grid .
So far, the process of joining a hub to the hub in the Selenium Grid has caused serious difficulties for testers.
In Selenium 4, working with the Grid promises to be simple, since there will no longer be the need to configure and run hubs and nodes separately. After starting the Selenium server, the Grid will operate simultaneously as a node and as a hub.
Selenium 4 will be shipped with a more stable version of Selenium Grid. The thread safety bugs will be fixed and Docker support will be improved.
Improved Selenium Grid User Interface
Another priority in the development of Selenium 4, which was highlighted during the official announcement, was the creation of a more user-friendly Selenium Grid user interface that will reflect all the relevant information about sessions, capacity, etc.
Improved observability
“Passive observability is the ability to do descriptive tracing.”
- Simon Stewart
Observability, logs and debugs are no longer limited to DevOps. As part of the upcoming release, query tracing and logging with hooks will be improved to allow debugging engineers to automate.
Updated documentation
Documentation plays a key role in the success of any project. Selenium documentation has not been updated since the release of Selenium 2.0. This means that everyone who tried to study Selenium in the past few years used old tutorials.
Thus, naturally, the updated and up-to-date documentation that SeleniumHQ promises to provide us with version 4.0 has become one of the most awaited updates of Selenium in the testing automation community.
However, you can still access all existing Selenium documentation.
Selenium 4 in a nutshell
Here are all the major changes that we are likely to see when Selenium 4 is finally released. If you are interested in learning more about the history of the framework, its founders and new features of Selenium, we offer to watch this video from the 2018 Selenium conference where it was announced release.
Write comments and sign up for the open day , which will be held on May 22. See you at OTUS!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/452198/
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