Selenium IDE Test Tips

Here are a few things to bear in mind when creating Selenium IDE tests.

Setting and Getting Variables

store | 10 | x

This obviously sets x=10. There are a couple of ways to reference it: ${x} or storedVars['x']. They're not the same.

The first, ${x}, is from Prototype. Its a shortcut and returns a copy of storedVars['x'], it doesn't actually point to the real value. The second, storedVars['x'] directly references the array of Selenium's stored user variables. I recommend using storedVars['x'] and not ${x} (even though it's shorter).

You can't assign anything to${x}. Within a single Selenium command, if you modify storedVars['x'], the value of ${x} won't get updated until the next command. Stick with storedVars and you'll be ok.

When you want to use a previously stored variable as an argument to a subsequent command, use the "javascript{...}" notation. For example:

assertElementPresent | javascript{storedVars['myElementsXpath']}

XPATH from Firebug

You tend to use xpath queries a lot in Selenium tests. Sometimes figuring out the xpath expression for an element is a real pain. Firebug can help. Just click on the "inspect" tab and highlight the element you want. Right-click on it in the HTML code display and select "Copy Xpath" from the context menu. Paste it and give it a try. You may have to replace "/html/body/" with "//" though.

Xpath can get interesting. I like Zvon's tutorial.

Using storeEval

There are ways of defining functions even in Selenium IDE, but a simple approach is to use storeEval to run some Javascript code and put the result in a variable you can use for subsequent commands. For example, say you need to click on ButtonA if its present, or else click on ButtonB if its present. If neither one is present you want to do something else.

In this example I've got my xpath expressions for ButtonA and ButtonB stored as variables (just to illustrate the aforementioned javascript{} syntax). I'm going to fetch them and use them in my evaluation.

storeElementPresent	javascript{storedVars['ButtonA_Xpath']}	ButtonA
storeElementPresent	javascript{storedVars['ButtonB_Xpath']}	ButtonA
storeEval	(storedVars['ButtonA']==true)?storedVars['ButtonA_Xpath'] :((storedVars['ButtonB']==true)?storedVars['ButtonB_Xpath']:null);	linkToClick

That's one way to do it. Another is to use conditional logic and flow control to set up an if-else structure. Check out the Selenium IDE FlowControl post for info on how to do conditional logic-based flow control.

In the end, if you're testing a web application you've designed and your test case is getting this ugly, you'd better re-evaluate your design. If you're testing something other than a web app though, for example a test case that spans multiple sites, you might need to get creative.