Selenium 3 Tutorial - Step by Step way to learn Test Automation using Selenium 3

Selenium 3 is the latest version on Selenium and is released into the market on Oct 13, 2016.

Change#1 - The big change in this version is that the Selenium RC which is part of Selenium 2 is dropped out in Selenium 3. Selenium RC which was internally implementing Selenium Core’s JavaScript program libraries is now replaced with the backed WebDriver API implementation. i.e. What ever the tasks that can be performed only by Selenium RC’s JavaScript implementation, can now be performed using the backed WebDriver API implementation which is more flexible. There is no change in the WebDriver implementation from Selenium 2 to Selenium 3. Only the Selenium RC JavaScript libraries got replaced with backed WebDriver API implementation from Selenium 2 to Selenium 3. There is less impact due to this change, as most of the users are writing tests in WebDriver, but there is significant impact on the users who are writing tests in Selenium RC, as Selenium RC wont be supported by Selenium team in future releases and hence should migrate to WebDriver for future support.

Change#2 - Another big change in Selenium 3 is that, we have to use Mozilla’s gecko driver for running Selenium Automation scripts on Firefox browser. Till Selenium 2, development and support of selenium driver for Firefox is provided by Selenium guys using FirefoxDriver class in Selenium, but from Selenium 3 the development and support for selenium driver for Firefox will be provided by Mozilla Firefox Browser vendor using the gecko driver. Hence from Selenium 3, we have to use gecko driver in order to execute the Selenium Automation scripts on Firefox browser.

Change#3 - Apple company will be providing the support for Safari Driver for executing the Selenium Automation scripts on Safari browser of macOS Sierra operating system.

Change#4 - Microsoft company will be providing the support for Edge Driver for executing the Selenium Automation scripts on Edge browser.

Conclusion:

Hence major changes in Selenium 3 from Selenium 2 is the dropping out of Selenium RC JavaScript libraries implementation by replacing them with Selenium WebDriver’s API implementation. And the browser vendors have taken the ownership to support the drivers which are required to run the automation scripts on the browser instead of selenium guys supporting their development. i.e. gecko driver is supported by Mozilla, safari driver is supported by Apple and edge driver is supported by Microsoft.

Start automating different scenarios using Selenium Web Driver of version 3 by following the below posts:

1. Selenium 3 - Executing automation scripts on Firefox browser using Mozilla GeckoDriver
2. Selenium 3 - Executing Selenium 3 Automation Scripts on Chrome browser
3. Selenium 3 - Execution Selenium 3 automation scripts on Internet Explorer 11 Browser
4. Selenium 3 and Edge Browser - Executing Selenium 3 Automation scripts on Microsoft Edge Browser
5. Selenium 3 & get( ) command - Using get( ) command for opening the specified URL
6. Selenium 3 & manage().window().maximize() - For maximizing the Browser window
7. Selenium 3 & click() command - For clicking a hyperlink
8. More posts coming soon ....