Selenium IDE Download and Installation and Introduction to Its Core Features:
Before moving ahead, let’s take a moment to look at the agenda of this tutorial. In this tutorial, we will learn all about Selenium IDE, starting from its installation to the details about each of its features. At the end of this tutorial, the reader is expected to be able to install Selenium IDE tool and play around with its features.
=> This is the 2nd tutorial in our free online Selenium training series. If you have not read the first Selenium tutorial in this series please get started from here: Free online Selenium Tutorial #1
Note: This is quite an extensive tutorial with lots of images so allow it to load completely. Also, click on an image or open in new window to enlarge images.
What You Will Learn:
Introduction to Selenium IDE
Selenium integrated development environment, acronym as Selenium IDE is an automated testing tool that is released as a Firefox plug-in. It is one of the simplest and easiest tools to install, learn and to go ahead with the creation of test scripts. The tool is laid on a record and playback fundamental and also allows editing of the recorded scripts.
The most impressive aspect of using selenium IDE is that the user is not required to possess any prior programming knowledge. The minimum that the user needs is the little acquaintances with HTML, DOMS and JavaScript to create numerous test scripts using this tool.
Being a Firefox plug-in, Selenium IDE supports only Firefox, thus the created test scripts could be executed only on Firefox. A few more loopholes make this tool inappropriate to be used for complex test scripts. Thus, other tools like Selenium RC, WebDriver comes into the picture.
So, before gripping on to the details of Selenium IDE, let’s have a look at its installation first.
Selenium IDE Download and Installation
For the ease of understanding, I have bifurcated the entire IDE installation process in the following chunks/steps.
Before taking off, there is one thing that needs to be in place prior to the installation; Mozilla Firefox. You can download it from here => Mozilla Firefox download
Step #1: Selenium IDE download: Open the browser (Firefox) and enter the URL http://seleniumhq.org/.This would open the official Selenium headquarter website. Navigate to the “Download” page; this page embodies all the latest releases of all the selenium components.
Refer to the following figure.
Step #2: Move under the selenium IDE head and click on the link present. This link represents the latest version of the tool in the repository.
Refer to the following figure.
Step #3: As soon as we click on the above link, a security alert box would appear so as to safeguard our system against potential risks. As we are downloading the plug-in from the authentic website, thus click on the “Allow” button.
Step #4: Now Firefox downloads the plug-in in the backdrop. As soon as the process completes, the software installation window appears. Now click on the “Install Now” button.
Step #5: After the installation is completed, a pop-up window appears asking to re-start the Firefox. Click on the “Restart Now” button to reflect the Selenium IDE installation.
Step #6: Once the Firefox is booted and started again, we can see selenium IDE indexed under menu bar -> Web Developer -> Selenium IDE.
Step #7: As soon as we open Selenium IDE, the Selenium IDE window appears.
Features of Selenium IDE
Let’s have a look at each of the feature in detail.
(Note – Click to enlarge image if you are not able to read the image text – this is applicable for all images)
#1. Menu Bar
The menu bar is positioned at the uppermost of the Selenium IDE window. The menu bar is typically comprised of five modules.
- File Menu
- Edit Menu
- Actions Menu
- Options Menu
- Help Menu
A) File Menu
File Menu is very much analogous to the file menu belonging to any other application.
It allows the user to:
- Create a new test case, open existing test case, save the current test case.
- Export Test Case As and Export Test Suite As in any of the associated programming language compatible with Selenium RC and WebDriver. It also gives the liberty to the user to prefer amid the available unit testing frameworks like jUnit, TestNG etc. Thus an IDE test case can be exported for a chosen union of programming language, unit testing framework and tool from the selenium package.
- Export Test Case As option exports and converts only the currently opened Selenium IDE test case.
- Export Test Suite As option exports and converts all the test cases associated with the currently opened IDE test suite.
- Close the test case.
The Selenium IDE test cases can be saved into the following format:
- HTML format
The Selenium IDE test cases can be exported into the following formats/programming languages.
- java (IDE exported in Java)
- rb (IDE exported in Ruby)
- py (IDE exported in Python)
- cs (IDE exported in C#)
Notice that with the forthcoming newer versions of Selenium IDE, the support to formats may expand.
B) Edit Menu
Edit menu provides options like Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete and Select All which are routinely present in any other edit menu. Amongst them, noteworthy are:
- Insert New Command – Allows the user to insert the new command/test step anywhere within the current test case.
- Insert New Comment – Allows the user to insert the new comment anywhere within the current test case to describe the subsequent test steps.
Insert New Command
The new command would be inserted above the selected command/test step.
Now the user can insert the actual command action, target and value.
Insert New Comment
In the same way, we can insert comments.
The purple color indicates that the text is representing a comment.
C) Actions Menu
Actions Menu equips the user with the options like:
- Record – Record options fine-tunes the Selenium IDE into the recording mode. Thus, any action made by the user on the Firefox browser would be recorded in IDE.
- Play entire test suite – The option plays all the Selenium IDE test cases associated with the current test suite.
- Play the current test case – The option plays the current Selenium IDE test case that has been recorded/created by the user.
- Pause / Resume – User can Pause/Resume the test case at any point of time while execution.
- Toggle Breakpoint – User can set one or multiple breakpoint(s) to forcefully break the execution at any particular test step during execution.
- Set / Clear Start Point – User can also set start point at any particular test step for execution. This would enable user to execute the test case from the given start point for the subsequent runs.
- To deal with the page/element loads, the user can set the execution speed from fastest to lowest with respect to the responsiveness of the application under test.
D) Options Menu
Options menu privileges the user to set and practice various settings provided by the Selenium IDE. The options menu is recommended as one of the most important and advantageous menu of the tool.
Options Menu is primarily comprised of the following four components which can be sub-divided into the following:
Options
Selenium IDE Options dialog box
To launch the Selenium IDE Options dialog box, follow the steps:
- Click on Options Menu
- Click on the Options
A Selenium IDE Options dialog box appears.
Refer to the following figure.
Selenium IDE Options dialog box aids the user to play with the general settings, available formats, available plug-ins and available locators types and their builders.
Let’s have a look at the few important ones.
General Settings
- Default Timeout Value – Default Timeout Value represents the time (in milliseconds) that selenium would wait for a test step to execute before generating an error. The standard timeout value is 30000 milliseconds i.e. 30 seconds. The user can leverage this feature by changing the default time in cases when the web element takes more/less than the specified time to load.
- Extensions – Selenium IDE supports a wide range of extensions to enhance the capabilities of the core tool thereby multiplying its potential. These user extensions are simply the JavaScript files. They can set by mentioning their absolute path in the text boxes representing extensions in the Options dialog box.
- Remember base URL – Checking this option enables the Selenium IDE to remember the URL every time we launch it. Thus it is advisable to mark it checked. Un-checking this option will leave the base URL field as blank and it will be re-filled only when we launch another URL on the browser.
- Record assertTitle automatically – Checking this field inserts the assertTitle command automatically along with the target value for every visited web page.
- Enable experimental features – Checking this field for the first time imports the various available formats into the Selenium IDE.
Formats
Formats tab displays all the available formats with selenium IDE. The user is levied with the choice to enable and disable any of the formats.
Refer to the following figure.
Selenium IDE Plugins
Plug-ins tab displays the supported Firefox plug-ins installed on our instance of Selenium IDE. There are a number of plug-ins available to cater different needs, thus we can install these add-ons like we do other plug-ins. One of the recently introduced plug-ins is “File Logging”. At the end of this tutorial, we will witness how to install and use this plug-in.
With the standard distribution, Selenium IDE comes with a cluster of following plug-ins:
- Selenium IDE: Ruby Formatters
- Selenium IDE: Python Formatters
- Selenium IDE: Java Formatters
- Selenium IDE: C# Formatters
These formatters are responsible to convert the HTML test cases into the desired programming formats.
Locator Builders
Locator builders allow us to prioritize the order of locator types that are generated while recording the user actions. Locators are the set of standards by which we uniquely identify a web element on a web page.
Formats
Formats option allows the user to convert the Selenium IDE test case (selenese commands) into the desired format.
E) Help Menu
As Selenium has a wide community and user base, thus various documentation, release notes, guides etc. are handily available. Thus, the help menu lists down official documentation and release notes to help the user.
#2. Base URL Bar
Base URL bar is principally same as that of an address bar. It remembers the previously visited websites so that the navigation becomes easy later on.
Now, whenever the user uses “open” command of Selenium IDE without a target value, the base URL would be launched on to the browser.
Accessing relative paths
To access relative paths, the user simply needs to enter a target value like “/download” along with the “open” command. Thus, the base URL appended with “/downloads” (http://docs.seleniumhq.org/resources) would be launched on to the browser. The same is evident in the above depiction.
#3. Toolbar
Toolbar provides us varied options pertinent to the recording and execution of the test case.
-
Playback Speed – This option allows the user to control the test case execution speed from fast to slow.
Play test suite – This option allows the user to execute all the test cases belonging to the current test suite sequentially.
Play test case – This option allows the user to execute the currently selected test case.
Pause – This option allows the user to pause the current execution.
Step – This option allows the user to step into the test step.
-
Rollup– This option allows the user to combine multiple test steps to act as a single command.
Record – This option allows the user to start/stop the recording of user actions. The hollow red ball indicates the start of the recording session whereas the solid red ball indicates the end of the recording session. By default, the Selenium IDE opens in the recording mode.
#4. Editor
The editor is a section where IDE records a test case. Each and every user action is recorded in the editor in the same order in which they are performed.
The editor in IDE has two views, namely:
1) Table View
It is the default view provided by Selenium IDE. The test case is represented in the tabular format. Each user action in the table view is a consolidation of “Command”, “Target” and “Value” where command, target and value refer to a user action, web element with the unique identification and test data correspondingly. Besides recording it also allows the user to insert, create and edit new Selenese commands with the help of the editor form present in the bottom.
2) Source View
The test case is represented in the HTML format. Each test step is considered be a row <tr> which is a combination of command, target and value in the separate columns <td>. Like any HTML document, more rows and columns can be added to correspond to each Selenese command.
Editor Form lets the user to type any command and the suggestions for the related command would be populated automatically. The select button lets the user to select any web element and its locator would be fetched automatically into the target field. Find button lets the user find the web element on the web page against a defined target. Value is the test input data entered into the targets with which we want to test the scenario.
#5. Test case pane
At the instance, we open Selenium IDE interface, we see a left container titled “Test case” containing an untitled test case. Thus, this left container is entitled as Test case pane.
Test case pane contains all the test cases that are recorded by IDE. The tool has a capability of opening more than one test case at the same time under test case pane and the user can easily shuffle between the test cases. The test steps of these test cases are organized in the editor section.
Selenium IDE has a color coding ingredient for reporting purpose. After the execution, the test case in marked either in “red” or “green” color.
- Red color symbolizes the unsuccessful run i.e. failure of the test case.
- Green color symbolizes the successful run of the test case
- It also layouts the summary of the total number of test cases executed with the number of failed test cases.
- If we execute a test suite, all the associated test cases would be listed in the test case pane. Upon execution, the above color codes would be rendered accordingly.
#6. Log Pane
Log pane gives the insight about current execution in the form of messages along with the log level in the real time. Thus, log messages enable a user to debug the issues in case of test case execution failures.
The printing methods/log levels used for generating logs are:
- Error – Error message gives information about the test step failure. It may be generated in the cases when an element is not found, the page is not loaded, verification/assertion fails etc.
- Warn – Warning message gives information about unexpected conditions.
- Info – Info message gives information about the current test step execution.
- Debug – Debug messages give information about the technicalities in the backdrop about the current test step.
Logs can be filtered with the help of a drop-down located at the top-right corner of the footer beside the clear button. Clear button erases all the log messages generated in the current or previous run.
Generating Logs in an external medium
Recently introduced “File Logging” plug-in enables the user to save log messages into an external file. File Logging can be plugged into IDE like any other plug-in. Upon installation, it can be found as a tab named “File Logging” in the footer beside the Clear button.
Reference Pane
Reference Pane gives the brief description about the currently selected Selenese command along with its argument details.
UI-Element Pane
UI – Element Pane allows Selenium user to use JavaScript Object Notation acronym as JSON to access the page elements. More on this can be found in UI-Element Documentation under Help Menu.
Rollup Pane
Rollup Pane allows the user to roll up or combine multiple test steps to constitute a single command termed as “rollup”. The rollup, in turn, can be called multiple times across the test case.
Conclusion
Through this tutorial, our objective was to make you familiar and accustomed with the basic terminologies and nomenclatures of Selenium IDE. We also presented a detailed study on all the features of Selenium IDE.
Here are the cruxes of this tutorial:
- Selenium IDE is an automated testing tool which supports record and playback.
- The user is not required to have any prior programming knowledge except for the basic understanding of HTML, JavaScript and DOM.
- The menu bar allows the user to create, save, edit and convert the recorded Selenium IDE test scripts. It also allows the user to set formats and plug-ins.
- The toolbar allows the user to set the test execution speed, to pause and resume test case, to roll up commands etc.
- Roll-ups combine more than one test step and thus the rolled up commands acts and executes as a single command.
- The editor allows the user to record or create test scripts. The editor has two views “table” and “source”.
- In the table view, each test step is comprised of a command, target and a value.
- Source view displays the test case in the HTML format.
- Test case pane shows a comprehensive list of failed and passed test cases with the relevant color-coding.
- Log Pane displays the test execution heath in the form of message.
- Log messages can be saved in a file using “File Logging” plug-in.
- Reference pane shows the description of every selected command.
- UI-Element and Rollup are generally used while creating advance Selenium IDE scripts.
Next Tutorial #3: Now that we are acquainted and comfortable with Selenium IDE Download and install with its features, in the next tutorial we would practice these features by creating our own test script using Selenium IDE.
A remark for the readers: While our next tutorial of the Selenium series is in the processing mode, install the tool and the required utilities to get started. Experience the features by playing around with the tool till we meet next with the next tutorial on “My first Selenium IDE script”.
Stay tuned till then and share your views, comments and knowledge to help us groom. Also, let us know if you find anything that we missed out so that we can include them in the subsequent tutorials.
Finally, if you like this tutorial please consider sharing it with friends and on social media sites.
thank you. nice job. very clear and easy to understand.
Thanks for the tutorial. Eagerly waiting for Webdriver tutorial. Please post as soon as possible. Thank you once again for helping people like us.
Very helpful article
Can you post selenium webdriver tutorial
Sorry, but I think the loss of time teaching selenium IDE in today’s times
@Rafael
I totally agree with your concern but the series has been designed in a way considering the newbies entering automation testing. Moreover the tutorial would also help readers to know about locators and how to find them using Selenium IDE which we do even while working with WebDriver.
I would request you to have patience as you would get to see a lot more coming on the WebDriver side after a couple of tutorials.
@Rahul
The series has been designed in a way considering the newbies entering automation testing. Moreover the tutorial would also help readers to know about locators and how to find them using Selenium IDE which we do even while working with WebDriver.
I would request you to have patience as you would get to see a lot more coming on the WebDriver side after a couple of tutorials.
@Gopi
Thank you for your kind words.
Please have patience as you would get to see a lot more coming on the WebDriver side after a couple of tutorials.
I agree with Shruti. Although Selenium IDE should not be used by any decent Automation Engineer, it is the very basics of Selenium. Learning how to use this and what it does is just to introduce individuals to the capabilities of the tool. After that, we can transition to Web Driver with ease. Knowing that all we have to do is convert Selenise to actual code.
Thnx for the efforts that STH people are putting in to give knolwdge on selenium from novice to experts.
i cant get into this selinium.org
Hey Guys,
Great Job, truly appreciate.
Have you guys maintained any index sort of thing so that we know how many such posts gonna be there and what they areas they will be targetting?
Cheers
@Jithin
Thank you for letting us know.
Please try and access the link now. It should be working.
Please let us know if you still have any trouble accessing the link.
Thanks STH team, all these posts are very informative. definitely these posts will be helpful to me in learning selinium. keep it up. eagerly waiting for next posts on selinium. Once again thanks a lot.
– Santosh
Well Done guys!! ????
From my Understanding it seems that Selenium IDE allows the Tester to convert Selenese cmds / or HTML test case format (from Source View) in the Programming language of your choice? Is that Correct?
Btw you didn’t show how you Installed that new File Logging” plug-in.
Thanks a lot for this Great Tut
Luke
For those who are Interested, you can Install File Logging plug-in Selenium IDE thru Firefox>Tools tab>Addons>Search For File logging>Install:-)
Thanks,
Luke
I’ll emphasize a point that some people here were implying, and which would have been best made in the tutorial itself. Although it’s useful to learn how to use the Selenium IDE, it should ONLY ever be used for prototyping and experimentation with the features of Selenium. The results you get with it are NOT scalable or maintainable. The best way to use Selenium is to write tests using the Selenium WebDriver API, and utilizing the “page object model” strategy to separate the responsibility of the page design from the test design. The function in Selenium IDE to export tests as JUnit, or other APIs, is not a maintainable substitute for that strategy.
@Santosh
Thank you for your kind words.
@Luke
Thank you for the appreciation and for sharing information regarding File Logging.
You are absolutely right about converting the Selenium IDE scripts into the desired programming language but like David in the above comment said that the scripts are not scalable and maintainable. Thus, they require manipulation and more coding constructs to be incorporated to get the best benefits.
@David
Thank you for the information and suggestion.
I completely agree with your views.
I would surely try to add that information in the tutorial.
Keep sharing such suggestions…:)
@Shruti, @David
Thank You both for the explanations, I totally get the Idea and Concept of the limits a Tool such as Selenium IDE might Show at some point, in terms of Scalability and code maintenance on Big Projects.
TY,
Luke
Hello,
How do I get print friendly versions of this tutorials?
very helpful article for my studying
Thank you for sharing nice stuff regarding selenium. All the tutorials are really helpful. Keep all the stuff live on your website for software testing community.
Hi Guys,
Thanks for this very useful tutorial.Can you add next page link in the end of the article like Free Software Testing Training on a Real Time Live Project.
Very good, easily understandable
Really impressed on each tutorial… Very useful tutorial and it is very user friendly to understand each and every thing…. Keep going…All the best…
thankyou…….
Very good article, if you share some live project experience, that should be great to understand.
Great Tutorial for Beginners , very understanding 🙂
Thank you for the wonderful training. I am stuck with one issue. I converted my codes in IDE into JUnit format. Now.. i cannot get this test out of edit screen, nor can I open a new test case. Would you please help? Thank you soooo very much.
really helpful article .
Thanks
Nice job sir,
[error] Could not connect to Selenium Server. Have you started the Selenium Server yet?.
I have started selenium server ,but it showing an error as I mentioned above.
Great Article Thanks!!
Easy To Understand, Great Job.
Many Many Helpful…
Thanks, very crystal clear post for begineer in selenium
Thanks, Its really helpful and friendly described.
how to insert command and comment…any one can tell me…plz….
One of the best tutorial i have seen.. The last one i remember i was taught paint like this where our teacher explained all options from left to right highlighting all..
Thanks shruti Keep up the good work.. Thanks luke for showing us how to install ‘file logging’ option
Shruti – i think you can include that one line in tutorial itself… rest is just perfect…
I can’t able to install selenium ide in my pc as i hav new version of firefox…
whenever i click on download a jar file is copying in my Pc
Hamsa perhaps you installed the `Selenium Standalone Server` instead of `Selenium IDE`.
Very clear and easy to understand.
I am not able to download the Selenium IDE on my lappy, so many times it displayed that the file size is 749 KB and it downloaded successfully but what process is going on, not exactly getting, How it will work out? Can anyone please suggest?
Thanks in Advance!!!
Saurabh Agrawal
In which windows, Selenium IDE displayed the results?
Is it Result windows, report windows, log windows or any other windows?
hello sir ,
im new in testing . and i m doing self study . i read the all theory ,but now im trying to use Selenium tool .. now i don’t know how to install it . its newer version is selenium server standalone .2.48.2 jar . a jar file . now please tell me how actually use it .. with Firefox ?? Please revert
Hi Team,
Very Impressed and Thanks a lot!! Could you please let me know how to debug the scripts in IDE?
Thanks in advance.
http://seleniumhq.org/
this link is redirected to Selenium Standalone Server so i am not able to IDE part please help me to download IDE part
Facing the same problem as Avirat.
http://seleniumhq.org/
This link is redirected to Selenium Standalone Server so i am not able to IDE part please help me to download IDE part. Thaks in advance. Please help.
very helpfull thank you..
go to http://seleniumhq.org/ scroll down the page there you can get selenium IDE with version code just click on that version it will be download. only from FireFox(FF) browser.
Many thanks !!
I am unable to follow download instructions . When I go to http://www.seleniumhq.org/download/ , I see Selenium Standalone Server (Download version 2.49.1) instead Selenium IDE. When I downloaded 2.49.1 , only jar file downloaded.
Please Help!
Can i know when they will release selenium IDE scripts tutorial 3 ?
Yes, this content is outdated as of Jan 2022.
hello
i have a doubt i have downloaded selenium IDE
when i tried to record and play I’m getting and error the execution is in complete
all the time I’m getting clickandwait id=searchsuggestion4
its not redirecting to the selenium ide page
i think thats my mistake
but I’m unable to overcome it
please help me
thanku
Overcome it by scrolling down to simply see IDE
Hi anjali,
Kindly update your firefox browser.
Thanks team ….thanks for sharing info on Selenium…..
Thank you .Very Very useful for info on selenium
how to write script for the registration page, for testing in Selenium IDE.
kindly suggest me on my Email ID.
[error] Could not connect to Selenium Server. Have you started the Selenium Server yet?
when playback the record script in selenium ide
[error] Could not connect to Selenium Server. Have you started the Selenium Server yet?
when playback the record script in selenium ide
Thank you .Very Very useful for info on selenium
Hi, thank you very much for the great job, i love it?
I have one question, why by installing the standard distribution of Selenium IDE, I didn’t became the cluster of following plug-ins:
Selenium IDE: Ruby Formatters
Selenium IDE: Python Formatters
Selenium IDE: Java Formatters
Selenium IDE: C# Formatters
What should I do?
Regards
Very good effort.
How to convert selenium ide html files into Selenium builder json file format? I tried saving in every single type of export test case as but it could not open the selenium IDE .java files or ruby file formats. Ideas?
I have installed latest Selenium IDE add-on on firefox. Selenium IDE is installed successfully. But default plug-in (Ruby, Python, C#, and Java formatters are not installed. how can I install this?
I have installed Selenium IDE 2.9.1.1 on Mozilla Fire Fox browser but don’t see Selenium icon on tool bar so how to get it?
Thanks,
Sam
I have installed Selenium IDE 3.9.1..but unable to install it..Instead of installing am getting an error msg saying “selenium-server-standalone-3.9.1.jar” can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.How can i fix this?
HI, I Downloaded Firefox latest ver 59.01
and proceed to http://seleniumhq.org/
Download the latest IDE and it is “not compatible with “Firefox Quantum” ..I found this note Selenium IDE will NOT work on Firefox version 55 onwards. Please stay on Firefox version 54 or older. To keep yourself secure, install a separate older version of Firefox just for automated testing
Hi Guys ,
I have installed selenium IDE 2.9.1 . I cant see any plugin by default there?
Hi, thank you very much for the great job, i love it?
I have one question, why by installing the standard distribution of Selenium IDE, I didn’t became the cluster of following plug-ins:
Selenium IDE: Ruby Formatters
Selenium IDE: Python Formatters
Selenium IDE: Java Formatters
Selenium IDE: C# Formatters
What should I do?
Regards
Hi
i face a problem while downloading the IDE
im getting the message:
“This add-on is not compatible with your version of Firefox.”
i have latest FF version
can i have any help with that please??
having the same issues with Selenium IDE, install not allowing 2.9.1 and I can’t see plugins
i am not able to see the selenium IDE in Firefox and crome with latest versions.
please guide me any of you known
hi i downloaded firefox version60.0.2 and when i tried to download it firebug it says that firebug not supported plz help send me the link to downlaod the correct version for S IDE
My Firefox is 61, and there is no Selenium IDE for it. Is it really need to learn, or today testers don’t use it now?
nice writeup about selenium
Is Selenium IDE used any more ? I am new to automation , scripting , selenium . Do I need to install this and learn how to create test scripts?
I had a Selenium IDE plugin in Chrome, as well as, Firefox. I have ditched Chrome. However, I can look for the steps if anyone is interested.
Thank you for your effort. its a really nice webpage with all the info that help us kickstart selenium use
I recommend that you update the instructions to state to download “Latest Zip” rather than “Selenium IDE”. The target web page has apparently been updated to reflect 3 IDE’s (google, firefox, zip). This makes your reference ambiguous. Of course I wasted about 2 hours trying to figure out why my chrome IDE did not match your instructions.