In this post, we will learn some of the basic selenium commands for performing operations like opening a URL, clicking on buttons, writing in the textbox, closing the browser, etc. For your practice, a dummy webpage with different types of web elements and a dummy ecommerce website is available. Now, let’s see the basic commands of Selenium WebDriver.
Content
Opening a URL
Using Get method-
The driver.get() method is used to navigate to a web page by passing the string URL as parameter. Syntax-
driver.get("https://artoftesting.com");
Using Navigate method-
The driver.navigate().to() method does the task of opening a web page like driver.get() method. Syntax-
driver.navigate().to("https://artoftesting.com");
Clicking on WebElements
The click() method in Selenium is used to perform the click operation on web elements. In our previous tutorial, Locators in Selenium WebDriver, we studied about locating the webElements in Selenium. The click() method is applied on the webElements identified, to perform the click operation.
//Clicking an element directly
driver.findElement(By.id("button1")).click();
//Or by first creating a WebElement and then applying click() operation
WebElement submitButton = driver.findElement(By.id("button2"));
submitButton.click();
Writing in a Textbox
The sendKeys() method can be used for writing in a textbox or any element of text input type.
//Creating a textbox webElement
WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.name("q"));
//Using sendKeys to write in the textbox
element.sendKeys("ArtOfTesting!");
Clearing text in a Textbox
The clear() method can be used to clear the text written in a textbox or any web element of text input type.
//Clearing the text written in text fields
driver.findElement(By.name("q")).clear();
Fetching text written over any web element
In automation, many times we need to fetch the text written over a web element for performing some assertions or debugging. For this, we have getText() method in selenium webDriver.
//Fetching the text written over web elements
driver.findElement(By.id("element123")).getText();
Navigating backward in a browser
Selenium provides navigate().back() command to move backward in the browser’s history.
//Navigating backwards in browser
driver.navigate().back();
Navigating forward in a browser
Selenium provides navigate().forward() command to move forward in a browser.
//Navigating forward in browser
driver.navigate().forward();
Refreshing the browser
There are multiple ways to refresh a page in Selenium WebDriver-
- Using driver.navigate().refresh() command
- Using sendKeys(Keys.F5) on any textbox on the webpage
- Using driver.get(“URL”) with current URL
- Using driver.navigate().to(“URL”) with current URL
//Refreshing browser using navigate().refresh()
driver.navigate().refresh();
//By pressing F5 key on any textbox element
driver.findElement(By.id("id123")).sendKeys(Keys.F5);
//By opening the current URL using get() method
driver.get("https://artoftesting.com");
//By opening the current URL using navigate() method
driver.navigate().to("https://artoftesting.com");
Closing browser
Selenium provides two commands to close browsers close() and quit(). The driver.close() command is used to close the browser having focus. Whereas, the driver.quite() command is used to close all the browser instances open.
//To close the current browser instance
driver.close();
//To close all the open browser instances
driver.quit();
Sample Script
You can use the sample script below to automate the dummy webpage. The comments mentioned throughout the script will guide you through the whole automation process. Also, note that the Thread.sleep() used in the sample script is to pause the automation in between events. This Thread.sleep() is not required and is only included to provide you some time to see the automation events.
Download this java file here – seleniumBasicCommands.java.
package myTestPackage;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.Select;
import org.testng.Assert;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;
public class seleniumBasicCommands {
public static void main(String Args[]) throws InterruptedException{
//Set system property for driver executable's path
System.setProperty("webdriver.gecko.driver", "{path to the browser driver}");
//Create Firefox driver's instance
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
//Set implicit wait of 10 seconds
//This is required for managing waits in selenium webdriver
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
//Launch sampleSiteForSelenium
driver.get("https://artoftesting.com/sampleSiteForSelenium");
//Fetch the text "This is sample text!" and print it on the console
//Use the id of the div to locate it and then fecth text using the getText() method
String sampleText = driver.findElement(By.id("idOfDiv")).getText();
System.out.println(sampleText);
//Waiting for 3 seconds just for the user to efficiently check automation
//Its not mandatory though
Thread.sleep(3000);
//Using linkText locator to find the link and then using click() to click on it
driver.findElement(By.linkText("This is a link")).click();
Thread.sleep(3000);
//Finding textbox using id locator and then using send keys to write in it
driver.findElement(By.id("fname")).sendKeys("Kuldeep Rana");
Thread.sleep(3000);
//Clear the text written in the textbox
driver.findElement(By.id("fname")).clear();
Thread.sleep(3000);
//Clicking on button using click() command
driver.findElement(By.id("idOfButton")).click();
Thread.sleep(3000);
//Find radio button by name and check it using click() function
driver.findElement(By.name("male")).click();
Thread.sleep(3000);
//Find checkbox by cssSelector and check it using click() function
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("input.Automation")).click();
Thread.sleep(3000);
//Using Select class for for selecting value from dropdown
Select dropdown = new Select(driver.findElement(By.id("testingDropdown")));
dropdown.selectByVisibleText("Database Testing");
Thread.sleep(50000);
//Close the browser
driver.close();
}
}
That’s all we have in this Selenium WebDriver commands list article. For a complete step by step selenium tutorial check – Selenium Tutorial for Beginners.
This is a good refresher for Selenium. People forget and once they try, they remember.
import org.testng.Assert; fails so I removed it
import org.testng.annotations.Test; fails so I removed it
Instead of Thread.sleep(3000), use the below to avoid failures:
try
{
Thread.sleep(3000);
}
catch(InterruptedException ex)
{
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
}
It will be more convenient, if there are videos for the whole selenium automation testing course.
Any ways these materials are really helpful.
Thanks for finding this useful. We are working on the Selenium video tutorial part.
its very helpful and easy to understand, i was going through many sites and this found so eSY
and simple
Thanks :-).
You can also check complete Selenium tutorial – Selenium WebDriver Tutorial and Selenium interview questions.
//Creating a textbox webElement
WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.name(“q”));
It should be “Finding a textbox webElement” on the comment right? instead of “Creating a textbox webElement”? Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Yes, you are right.
Or, I would rather like to say – “Creating an object of textbox web element”.
public class seleniumBasicCommands
As you define this as class so selenium “S” should be capital, As classname starts from capital, naming convention is wrong.
The tutorials are so easy to understand & helpful for beginners . Thank you so much.