Auto-suggest and other dynamic elements improve User Experience (UX) but are very challenging to handle and automate because of their unpredictable nature. Selenium WebDriver could help in this problem, but what is Selenium WebDriver? It is a tool under the Selenium ecosystem designed to automate browser interactions. It enables developers and testers to handle complex tasks like interacting with dynamic web elements effectively and efficiently.
To understand this article better, it is important to know about auto-suggestions. So basically, auto suggestions are drop-down lists that pop up when users enter a search box. They provide predictive suggestions based on input. Dynamic elements are web elements that modify or load content without a page refresh.
In this article, we will learn how testers and developers can handle auto-suggest and dynamic elements in Selenium.
Understanding Auto-Suggestions
Auto-suggestions are software tools that offer real-time recommendations when users type in a search field or text input. These recommendations are generated using algorithms comparing user input and suggesting probable results. They are extensively applied across search engines, online shops, and social media sites to enhance UX and conserve time.
However, auto-suggestions can create problems in automation. Their dynamic nature implies that results may be different based on user input, and hence, they are hard to test and optimize. Moreover, irrelevant or confusing suggestions may puzzle users or prompt them to do something unintended.
Some examples of auto-suggestions are Google Suggest, where search queries are provided as one type, and Amazon’s suggestions for products as one type in part. Both these features are usability enhancers but need careful design to remain accurate and relevant.
Techniques to Handle Auto-Suggestions in Selenium
Selenium’s auto-suggestions can play an important role in test automation, particularly when dealing with dynamic dropdown lists that provide real-time suggestions based on user input. However, these real-time suggestions can be challenging to manage due to their asynchronous nature.
To effectively navigate these challenges, there are three key techniques that can be employed: using explicit waits, simulating keyboard events, and traversing the suggestion list.
Using Explicit Waits
The first method is to use explicit waits so that you wait for the auto-suggestion list to be completely loaded before interacting with it. In Selenium, explicit waits help you wait for your script execution until some condition is fulfilled.
WebDriverWait and ExpectedConditions kind of explicit waits can be utilized to wait up to 10 seconds for auto-suggestions to be displayed when the user begins typing in a box, avoiding errors from attempting to interact with yet unloaded elements on the page.
Waiting for the suggestions to load fully ensures that your tests execute smoothly and accurately mimic user interactions.
Using Keyboard Events
Another powerful method is employing keyboard events to move through the suggestions in the dropdown list.
Selenium also supports simulating keyboard actions and is helpful to use when one wants to make a selection out of suggestions without the need to enter exact text. sendKeys(Keys.ARROW_DOWN) enables users to browse through suggestions line by line, and once the preferred option has been selected, sendKeys(Keys.ENTER) can be used for the final choice.
Selenium’s Actions class allows you to combine these keyboard actions together to achieve more accurate control over the process of selecting. This approach has the benefit of allowing speedy navigation within suggestions without the need for manually checking each suggestion’s text.
Traversing the Suggestion List
The third method is to go through the suggestion list directly by retrieving all the available options and iterating over them to locate a match. This method usually employs methods such as find_elements to retrieve all suggestion elements using a shared class name or XPath locator.
After you have retrieved these elements into a list, you can iterate over them and match their visible text with your target value. If there’s a match, you can either click on the associated element or reference its index to select.
The technique proves particularly useful where you are clear on what word you are after in the suggestion list and would want to verify the existence prior to performing some action. Applying the technique is your way of boosting the test resilience and confirming that there will be correct selection only.
Understanding Dynamic Web Elements
Dynamic web elements are major components of a website. They tend to automatically change depending on user behavior, or it could be due to external influences as well, without requiring the page to reload.
We can take examples such as pop-up windows, interactive forms, dropdown menus, and sliders. These elements contribute to making websites more interactive and responsive by changing according to user preference, location, or device type but these are tricky to manage as well.
For example, an online shopping cart refreshes its item quantity when customers add items, indicating the changes immediately. Dynamic components employ technologies such as JavaScript or server-side script languages to retrieve and render new content in real-time.
Techniques to Handle Dynamic Web Elements
Working with dynamic web elements using Selenium is a crucial element of test automation, as these elements usually alter their attributes or locations depending on the interactions of the users and also when the page is reloaded. There are three significant techniques that can be utilized to handle such elements: Relative XPath, CSS Selectors, and Explicit Waits.
Utilizing Relative XPath
Relative XPath is a very effective approach for identifying dynamic web elements by addressing attributes that are partly predictable. Relative XPath, as opposed to absolute XPath that relies on the whole path from the root node, begins with a double forward slash (//) and can look for elements anywhere in the document.
The availability of methods like contains() or starts-with() makes it best suited to handle elements with changing attributes. For example, you can utilize a dynamically classed button with the following expression like //button[contains(@class, ‘dynamic-class’)]. It is robust and resistant to changes in document structure, so it is perfect for dynamic situations.
Working with CSS Selectors
CSS selectors offer another effective means to select dynamic web elements based on attributes or classes. They support the utilization of operators such as *= (contains) or ^= (starts with) to match partial attribute values.
For instance, a selector like a button[class*=’dynamic-class’] can easily find buttons when class names are dynamically updated but in a predictable pattern. CSS selectors are generally quicker compared to XPath and are supported by most browsers, making them a preferred tool for most testers while working with dynamic elements.
Applying Explicit Waits
Explicit waits are used to ensure that your script does not interact with web elements until they have fully loaded and are ready for interaction. In Selenium, it is accomplished through WebDriverWait and conditions like visibilityOfElementLocated.
Through a maximum waiting time, you can suspend the execution of your script until the target element is visible or clickable. This method can be very effective in dealing with dynamic elements that take time to appear because of asynchronous operations or network requests. Explicit waits prevent synchronization problems and ensure that your test script interacts with the element at the right time.
Cloud Testing for Handling Auto-Suggest & Dynamic Elements in Selenium
Cloud testing is critical for handling auto-suggest and dynamic components when testing with Selenium. LambdaTest is an efficient cloud testing platform that eases out Selenium automation on multiple browsers, devices, and Operating Systems (OSs).
LambdaTest is an AI-native test orchestration and execution platform that lets you run manual and automated tests at scale across 5000+ real devices, browsers and OS combinations.
This platform offers a distributed infrastructure for executing tests in parallel in diverse environments to verify dynamic components under different conditions. This aspect turns LambdaTest into an effective platform for teams seeking to discover what is Selenium? and its functionalities.
LambdaTest has intelligent waits, such as implicit and explicit waits, to deal with asynchronously loaded elements. It comes fully integrated with widely used frameworks JUnit and TestNG, making Selenium test implementation easier. Real-time test capabilities enable users to interact with dynamic elements under real-time conditions, making debugging and test accuracy easier.
Cloud testing accelerates runtimes over local environments. Parallel testing is facilitated by LambdaTest, significantly decreasing test cycles and delivering detailed logs and screenshots for debugging. Strong infrastructure guarantees easy handling of dynamic elements, so it is a great choice for agile teams handling Selenium automation.
Best Practices for Selenium Automation Testing
The following are the best practices for Selenium-based automation testing:
- Use Explicit Waits: Use explicit waits rather than hard-coded delays such as Thread.sleep(). Explicit waits wait for a particular condition to occur before continuing. This prevents unnecessary waiting when elements load quicker or slower than anticipated. Hardcoded delays cause tests to wait unnecessarily, which makes them inefficient.
- Validate Element Values: Verify element values prior to accessing them. Ensure that elements are visible and enabled prior to performing actions. This avoids errors due to accessing not-ready or unavailable elements during test execution.
- Refrain from Hardcoding Locators: Do not hardcode locators and employ dynamic strategies. IDs, names, or relative paths should be selected cautiously to make scripts resilient. Hardcoded locators will fail if the UI is modified. Dynamic locators respond more effectively to application changes.
- Implement Page Object Model (POM): Use the POM design pattern. POM structures locators and methods for a page in different classes. This enhances the readability of code and minimizes duplication, making it simpler to maintain tests.
- Use Parallel Testing: Make use of parallel testing for optimization. Executing tests in parallel across various browsers and devices optimizes time. It also supports compatibility across different environments without escalating execution time.
- Maintain Tests Regularly: Perform regular test upkeep. Make locators up-to-date, eliminate unnecessary tests, and optimize scripts regularly. This maintains your test suite stable and minimizes failures because of stale code or app changes.
By following these best practices, you can build stable Selenium test scripts. The scripts would be simpler to maintain, faster to execute, and more capable of handling dynamic web applications.
Conclusion
To conclude, auto-suggestion and dynamic elements management in Selenium automation scripts are crucial for building stable tests for better application performance. Auto-suggestions are dynamic components that respond to user input, so they are difficult to automate.Â
Some best practices are using explicit waits to wait for the list of suggestions to load completely, using unique locators such as ID or class for stable identification of the elements, and verifying the suggestion values prior to selection. Keyboard events like arrow keys and the Enter key can make interactions easier when exact terms are not predefined. These practices improve script resilience and flexibility.
Handling auto-suggestions and dynamic content in Selenium scripts efficiently is crucial for smooth automation. Using cloud-based platforms in combination with techniques like explicit waits and accurate locators guarantees successful test execution. Applying these practices enables testers to control dynamic web elements effectively, enhancing the accuracy and reliability of automation processes.