In order to test a system, we need to be able to interact with it and make assertions about it. When the system we wish to test is a web application UI, we need to be able to interact with the page/browser and making assertions about the same. Let’s look at how we can this with Selenium Remote Control and JUnit.

The most common interactions are accomplished through the following methods in DefaultSelenium:

Now that we have a way of interacting, we need to be able to get information about a page. DefaultSelenium has many methods for getting information about a page. The ones that I use the most are:

Rather than trying to describe all of the methods above (that’s what the JavaDoc is for), lets look at some code.

Getting Started
First, let’s create the test class with the set up, tear down, and constants we’ll need. (Note that the example code refers to a real page.)

public class TestPageForSeleniumRemoteControlTest
   extends TestCase
{
   private static final String MAX_WAIT_TIME_IN_MS = "60000";
   private static final String BASE_URL = "http://www.bitmotif.com";
   private static final String TEST_PAGE_URL =
      BASE_URL + "/test-page-for-selenium-remote-control";
   private static final String TEST_PAGE_TITLE =
      "Bit Motif » Test Page For Selenium Remote Control";

   private Selenium selenium = new DefaultSelenium( "localhost",
                                                    4444,
                                                    "*firefox",
                                                    BASE_URL);
   private SeleniumServer seleniumServer;

   public void setUp()
      throws Exception
   {
      seleniumServer = new SeleniumServer();
      seleniumServer.start();
      selenium.start();
   }

   public void tearDown()
      throws Exception
   {
      selenium.stop();
      seleniumServer.stop();
   }
}

Checking the Title
Now, let’s open a page and check the title.

public void test_NavigatingPages_WithoutClickingLink()
   throws Exception
{
   selenium.open(BASE_URL);
   selenium.open(TEST_PAGE_URL);
   assertEquals(TEST_PAGE_TITLE, selenium.getTitle());
}

Navigating
Next, let’s test clicking a link that takes us to a new page. We need to use waitForPageToLoad. If we don’t, funny things can happen. For example, we could ask for information before the page is loaded. It wouldn’t be there and the test would fail.

public void test_NavigatingPages_ClickingLink()
   throws Exception
{
   selenium.open(BASE_URL);

   selenium.click("link=Test Page For Selenium Remote Control");
   selenium.waitForPageToLoad(MAX_WAIT_TIME_IN_MS);

   assertEquals(TEST_PAGE_TITLE, selenium.getTitle());
}

Verifying an Element Exists
If we want to check that an element exists, we can do the following:

public void testIsElementPresent()
   throws Exception
{
   selenium.open(TEST_PAGE_URL);

   assertTrue(selenium.isElementPresent("id=textInput"));
}

Text Inputs
Let’s type something in a text box. Notice that we use the getValue to check what is in the text input.

public void testEnterValuesIntoTextField_CheckWithGetValue()
   throws Exception
{
   selenium.open(TEST_PAGE_URL);
   assertEquals("", selenium.getValue("id=textInput"));

   selenium.type("id=textInput", "Text In The Field");

   assertEquals("Text In The Field", selenium.getValue("id=textInput"));
}

What happens when we use getText to check what we typed? In this case, the text we are interested in is actually the value of the input. Since the input element does does not have any text, the getText method returns an empty string.

 public void testEnterValuesIntoTextField_CheckWithGetText()
    throws Exception
{
    selenium.open(TEST_PAGE_URL);
    assertEquals("", selenium.getText("id=textInput"));

    selenium.type("id=textInput", "Text In The Field");

    assertEquals("", selenium.getText("id=textInput"));
}

Checkboxes
Let’s click a checkbox:

public void testClickingACheckBox_UseCheckAndIsCheckedMethods()
   throws Exception
{
   selenium.open(TEST_PAGE_URL);
   assertFalse(selenium.isChecked("id=checkBoxInput"));

   selenium.check("id=checkBoxInput");

   assertTrue(selenium.isChecked("id=checkBoxInput"));
}

Now, let’s look at clicking a checkbox and checking its value a different way — let’s use click and getValue.

public void testCheckingACheckBox_UseClickAndGetValueMethods()
   throws Exception
{
   selenium.open(TEST_PAGE_URL);
   assertEquals("off", selenium.getValue("id=checkBoxInput"));

   selenium.click("id=checkBoxInput");

   assertEquals("on", selenium.getValue("id=checkBoxInput"));
}

Radio Buttons
When working with radio buttons, the form of the locator is a little different. In the locator, we give both the name (input name) and value (value of the radio button).

public void testClickingARadioButton_UseCheckAndIsCheckedMethods()
   throws Exception
{
   selenium.open(TEST_PAGE_URL);

   assertFalse(selenium.isChecked("name=radioButton value=a"));
   assertFalse(selenium.isChecked("name=radioButton value=b"));

   selenium.check("name=radioButton value=b");

   assertTrue(selenium.isChecked("name=radioButton value=b"));
   assertFalse(selenium.isChecked("name=radioButton value=a"));
}

We could also use click and getValue when working with radio buttons. But, it gets a little hard to work with. We can’t just ask for the value of the input. And, the individual buttons have a value of “off” or “on”. Consider:

public void testClickingARadioButton_UseClickAndGetValueMethods()
   throws Exception
{
   selenium.open(TEST_PAGE_URL);
   assertEquals("off", selenium.getValue("name=radioButton"));
   assertEquals("off", selenium.getValue("name=radioButton value=a"));
   assertEquals("off", selenium.getValue("name=radioButton value=b"));

   selenium.click("name=radioButton value=b");

   assertEquals("off", selenium.getValue("name=radioButton"));
   assertEquals("off", selenium.getValue("name=radioButton value=a"));
   assertEquals("on", selenium.getValue("name=radioButton value=b"));
}

Selects
Selects can be a little more complex than your average input. First, there is the select itself we must identify. Then, there are the options in the select. The options in a select may be identified with ids and values, just the visible text in the option, or some combination thereof. So, we have to use a locator for the select itself and a locator for for the option(s) we are interested in. The locator of the option(s) can be the option element’s id, value, label, or index in the select.

Once something is selected, we can use getValue, getSelectedValue, and getSelectedLabel.

public void testSelectFromDropDown_NoValuesInSelect_UseLabelOptionLocator()
   throws Exception
{
   selenium.open(TEST_PAGE_URL);
   assertEquals("option one", selenium.getSelectedLabel("id=selectWithLabelsOnly"));
   assertEquals("option one", selenium.getValue("id=selectWithLabelsOnly"));

   selenium.select("id=selectWithLabelsOnly", "label=option two");

   assertTrue(selenium.isSomethingSelected("id=selectWithLabelsOnly"));
   assertEquals("option two", selenium.getSelectedLabel("id=selectWithLabelsOnly"));
   assertEquals("option two", selenium.getValue("id=selectWithLabelsOnly"));
}

Lets look at the same test but using the index verison of the select locator.

public void testSelectFromDropDown_NoValuesInSelect_UseIndexOptionLocator()
   throws Exception
{
   selenium.open(TEST_PAGE_URL);
   assertEquals("option one", selenium.getSelectedLabel("id=selectWithLabelsOnly"));
   assertEquals("option one", selenium.getValue("id=selectWithLabelsOnly"));

   selenium.select("id=selectWithLabelsOnly", "index=1");

   assertTrue(selenium.isSomethingSelected("id=selectWithLabelsOnly"));
   assertEquals("option two", selenium.getSelectedLabel("id=selectWithLabelsOnly"));
   assertEquals("option two", selenium.getValue("id=selectWithLabelsOnly"));
}

Notice what we get if we look at a select with values.

public void testSelectFromDropDown_LabelsAndValuesInSelect_UseLabelLocator()
   throws Exception
{
   selenium.open(TEST_PAGE_URL);
   assertTrue(selenium.isSomethingSelected("id=selectWithLabelsAndValues"));

   String selectedLabel = selenium.getSelectedLabel("id=selectWithLabelsAndValues");
   assertEquals("option one", selectedLabel);
   assertEquals("1", selenium.getValue("id=selectWithLabelsAndValues"));
   assertEquals("1", selenium.getSelectedValue("id=selectWithLabelsAndValues"));

   selenium.select("id=selectWithLabelsAndValues", "label=option two");

   assertTrue(selenium.isSomethingSelected("id=selectWithLabelsAndValues"));

   selectedLabel = selenium.getSelectedLabel("id=selectWithLabelsAndValues");
   assertEquals("option two", selectedLabel);
   assertEquals("2", selenium.getValue("id=selectWithLabelsAndValues"));
   assertEquals("2", selenium.getSelectedValue("id=selectWithLabelsAndValues"));
}

Alert Boxes
Often we need to work with alert boxes. The getAlert method is the man. Invoking this method is the same as clicking “OK” on the alert box. It also returns the text in the alert box.

public void testAlertBox()
   throws Exception
{
   selenium.open(TEST_PAGE_URL);
   selenium.click("id=popUpDiv");
   assertEquals("You clicked the div.", selenium.getAlert());
}

Conclusion
With Selenium and JUnit, we can easily test web UIs. The examples here are basic, but they demonstrate how just a few basic Selenium commands can get you most of what you need to test the UI.