How to Build Selenium Tests Faster with Ranorex Webtestit

In this article, we explore ways to build selenium tests faster with Ranorex Webtestit. Let’s get started.

If you’re like most of the testing professionals, then you are all about efficiency!

When it comes to a task like test automation, you need to focus on building tests rather than configuration and setup.

You especially should not waste time in doing repetitive boilerplate code or troubleshooting the failing tests.

Why Ranorex Webtestit

Currently, Selenium Webdriver is the most popular solution for web test automation. It is open-source, works on major desktops & supports leading development languages. However, it is a chore to set up and requires specific expertise in Selenium to master.

One of the first setup tasks is to select an IDE. There are several IDEs that you can use with the Selenium WebDriver, such as Eclipse, IntelliJ, and NetBeans.

Even the old Selenium IDE has been resurrected from the grave, after going to end-of-life in 2017.

We now have a new option i.e. Ranorex Webtestit. This is an IDE that specializes in building UI tests for websites and web apps for Selenium (or Protractor), using Java or Typescript.

But Ranorex Webtestit is much more than just an IDE. This is a complete web testing toolset that eliminates the hassle of setting up and maintaining a Selenium Webdriver test environment.

Also Read => Ranorex Studio Tutorial

Quickly set up your test environment with Ranorex Webtestit

Selenium WebDriver Vs Ranorex WebTestit Quick Setup:

Here is a quick comparison of the time taken for us to complete a basic setup (with exact steps to take) for Selenium WebDriver and Ranorex WebTestit.

In addition to making the setup much faster, Ranorex Webtestit includes tools that help to save time in automating web tests, such as the automatic generation locators for web elements, conditional execution logic, built-in test reporting, and much more.

Set up and Run a Sample Test

=> To follow along with the below walkthrough steps to download and install the free trial of Ranorex Webtestit.

You can set up a username and password that will also give you access to the Ranorex Webtestit user forum: https://discourse.webtestit.com/, which is a great place to get help or interact with the Ranorex team.

You should also add the free Ranorex Selocity browser extension to Google Chrome and this is incredibly useful for generating UI element locators.

1) Launch and sign in to Ranorex Webtestit. The Start screen will appear.

2) Click Download sample project.

3) Choose Java – Demoshop, and then click Download and open. This sample project is for a fictional web store, which you can find here: http://demoshop.webtestit.com/

4) Ranorex Webtestit project view open. On the left, you will see the project window with the project tree.

In the project tree, you can find several Page Object files. Each will represent a major section of a web page (not necessarily an entire web page).

Using a Page Object model separates the definition of the UI from your test code, thereby making your tests easier to maintain and less likely to break.

If you’re unfamiliar with Page Objects, then you can learn about them here.

5) In the below page objects, you can see two test cases, TC1 and TC2. The first test case adds items to the cart and then checks out. The second test case verifies the “fast checkout” process.

6) In Ranorex Webtestit, you can notice the “Get Started” panel on the bottom left corner (if you don’t see it, you can open it from the menu. Just choose Help => Get Started).

Since this is a demo project, steps 1-3 are already complete. To run the test, all that we need to do is add one or more endpoints.

7) Open the Execution panel. Click Add Endpoint.

8) Choose Local endpoint. Let’s name it “Local Chrome”. Set up Platform on Desktop and choose Google Chrome browser. Then, click on the Save endpoint.

9) The new endpoint appears in the Execution panel and you’re now ready to execute the test suite.

10) Click Run all test files. As this is the first time you have run a test with Ranorex Webtestit, there may be several dependencies to load.

Future test executions won’t need to repeat this initial download and it will go faster. You can track the progress in the Log panel just below the Execution panel.

11) Finally, the test run finishes. Click on Show Report.

12) The test run report shows the duration of the test, the number of test failures (if any), the number of test suites and test cases executed, and much more. Click the down arrow next to the TestSuite(Desktop) item to see the duration of each of the test cases executed.

Start Building Your Own Web Test

So far you have seen a sample test executed on your desktop, let’s take a look at the process for building your own test.

1) Click on New Project and then Create a new project dialogue will appear.

2) Enter a project name, select your preferred programming language, and then click Save. If you select Java, Ranorex Webtestit “scaffolds” your project with Maven, Apache’s build automation tool, and the widely used TestNG testing framework. Then, the Project workspace appears.

3) You may see a warning that Ranorex Webtestit is disconnected from Ranorex Selocity. Install the Ranorex Selocity add-on to Chrome DevTools if you haven’t done so already.

Then, simply open the Chrome browser, right-click on any web element, and choose Inspect. In the DevTools panel, click Ranorex Selocity, and then click Connect.

4) Return to Ranorex Webtestit. Click on the New Page Object file. A file called “newpofile.java” will appear in the Project tree. Let’s rename this to “mainPO.java”.

5) Now, open the Chrome browser and go to your web application. Right-click on the search box and choose Selector actions.

You’ll see a list of available selectors for the search box web element. Just copy and paste the one that you want to use into your new Page Object file.

(If you link Ranorex Selocity with Ranorex Webtestit, then you will also have the option to send the selector directly to Ranorex Webtestit along with a screenshot).

6) Return to Ranorex Webtestit and you’ll see a new element in the Elements panel. If the name of the element isn’t meaningful, then you can edit it. In the example below, the name has been changed to “Searchbox.” Now click on Close.

7) To use the new element in the test, first, add it to your page object. Simply drag the element into the page object and choose an action, such as Click on element or Type into the element. Ranorex Webtestit will automatically create the associated code for you.

8) You can now start coding your test. Right-click on the tests folder in the Project panel, and then choose New => Test file. Ranorex Webtestit creates a new test file and includes the boilerplate code for you. Please refer to the actions in the Page Object to perform your test steps.

9) Once your test is complete, add an endpoint as in the demoshop example above, and then execute your test.

Fine Print

Ranorex Webtestit works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It integrates with tools like TFS, Jenkins, Jira, Git, TestRail, and TravisCI using the command line interface.

Conclusion

If you are using (or thinking about using) Selenium WebDriver, then you should definitely check out Ranorex Webtestit. It will, in turn, save you time upfront by setting up your test project for you.

It will save you time with every web test that you build, through the automatic application of the Page Object model, reduction of boilerplate code, web element locator generation, and much more.

You can read more about Ranorex Webtestit here

Please feel free to share your experience in the comments section below! We would love to hear from you.