{"id":740,"date":"2020-02-04T11:36:10","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T06:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gallop.net\/blog\/?p=740"},"modified":"2022-07-19T15:38:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T10:08:00","slug":"programing-language-to-build-selenium-based-test-automation-suite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cigniti.com\/blog\/programing-language-to-build-selenium-based-test-automation-suite\/","title":{"rendered":"Selecting a programming language to build Selenium Test Automation suite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Selenium is a widely used open source, portable software testing framework for web applications. Though Selenium comes with a test domain specific language (<\/span>Selenese<\/span><\/b>), other programming languages (Java, C#, Ruby, Python) can be used to script tests as well. Tests made in other languages communicate with Selenium via calling methods in the Selenium Client API. Selenium is therefore\u00a0<\/span>neutral to the\u00a0<\/span>client language<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All organizations shifting to Selenium for their web app testing face one common question:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What language do we select to build Selenium based test automation suites?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start off by looking at programming languages as a whole. Though many different languages\u00a0<\/span>exist,<\/span>\u00a0and new ones are still being created, one must note that roughly 90% of the concepts one learns in a specific language are also applicable to entirely different languages. When one is familiar with the core basics (program design, control structures, data structures, and basic operation of a programming language), developing similar skills with another language simply boils down to understanding the syntactical nuances.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, which language should one pick? As an individual, the answer is straightforward: go with what you\u2019re most comfortable with.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dima Kovalenko, in his book titled\u202f<\/span>Selenium Design Patterns and Best Practices<\/span><\/b><\/a>, illustrate<\/span>d<\/span>\u00a0the flexibility of Selenium by showing how some common Selenium command sendkeys translate across major scripting languages.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Consistency offered by the WebDriver API across languages, simplifies the process of porting test knowledge of one language to another. Test engineers become greater assets to their organizations as they can be relocated to any web project, written in any programming language, and still be able to create tests for it instantly.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Uniformity between different Selenium bindings is applicable to most commands in the Selenium API. But one must note that the quoted example is a<\/span>\u00a0bit<\/span>\u00a0oversimplified. Action commands are framed in the same format in every language. But when different languages<\/span>\u00a0are used<\/span>\u00a0to script code, over time, differences will become apparent between the languages. Therefore, actions that function well in a particular language might be redundant and counter intuitive in a different one.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As explained above, no clear favorite emerges when choosing a scripting language for Selenium.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But which one should an organization select?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer to this question is less straightforward. Some factors have to be considered:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n