Selenium Python Introduction and Installation

Selenium’s Python Module is built to perform automated testing with Python. Selenium Python bindings provides a simple API to write functional/acceptance tests using Selenium WebDriver. Through Selenium Python API you can access all functionalities of Selenium WebDriver in an intuitive way. To check more details about Selenium visit – Selenium Basics – Components, Features, Uses and Limitations. 

Selenium Python Introduction

Selenium Python bindings provide a convenient API to access Selenium WebDrivers like Firefox, Ie, Chrome, Remote etc. Selenium released it’s latest version 4.5.0. The current supported Python versions are 3.7 and above. 

• Open Source and Portable – Selenium is an open source and portable Web testing Framework.
• Combination of tool and DSL – Selenium is combination of tools and DSL (Domain Specific Language) in order to carry out various types of tests.
• Easier to understand and implement – Selenium commands are categorized in terms of different classes which make it easier to understand and implement.
• Reduce test execution time – Selenium supports parallel test execution that reduce the time taken in executing parallel tests.
• Lesser resources required – Selenium requires lesser resources when compared to its competitors like UFT, RFT, etc.
• Supports Multiple Operating Systems – Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris.
• Supports Multiple Browsers – Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, Opera, Safari, etc.
• Parallel Test Execution – It also supports parallel test execution which reduces time and increases the efficiency of tests.

Selenium Python Installation

For any operating system selenium can be installed after you have installed python on your operating system. If not, checkout – Download and Install Python 3 Latest Version 

First Method
Open Terminal/Cmd and Write Command as written Below 

python -m pip install selenium

Second Method
Alternatively, you can download the source distribution here, unarchive it, and run the command below:  

python setup.py install

Installing Webdrivers

One Can Install Firefox, Chromium, PhantomJs(Deprecated Now), etc.  

• for using Firefox you may need to install GeckoDriver 
• for using Chrome you may need to install Chromium 

In this article, Firefox is used so One can Follow the Below Steps to Install:-

Steps for Linux:-
1. Go to the geckodriver releases page. Find the latest version of the driver for your platform and download it. 
For example:  

wget https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver/releases/download/v0.24.0/geckodriver-v0.24.0-linux64.tar.gz

2. Extract the file with:  

tar -xvzf geckodriver*

3. Make it executable:  

chmod +x geckodriver

4. Move Files to usr/local/bin  

sudo mv geckodriver /usr/local/bin/

Steps for Windows:-
1. Same as Step 1 in Linux Download the GeckoDriver
2. Extract it using WinRar or any application you may have.
3. Add it to Path using Command Prompt

setx path "%path%;GeckoDriver Path"

For Example:-  

setx path "%path%;c:/user/eliote/Desktop/geckodriver-v0.26.0-win64/geckodriver.exe"

Creating Simple Code 

Output: