Comments on: Taking Screenshots with Selenium http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/ Binil Thomas' blog Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:05:04 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: mike Z. http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-6252 mike Z. Sat, 22 Dec 2007 19:41:52 +0000 http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-6252 hi, awesome, just AWESOME. your source code is just a '.tar' format not a 'tar.gz'. Thanks a lot. hi,
awesome, just AWESOME.

your source code is
just a ‘.tar’ format not a ‘tar.gz’.

Thanks a lot.

]]> By: Murugesh http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-5663 Murugesh Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:19:29 +0000 http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-5663 Hi, My Selenium tests will be running under xvfb server. For example, if i start my xvfb server on :1 , how could I record the screenshot. The current example assumes the display to be localhost.Any idea how to make capture the screenshots from the remote display? Thanks a lot, Murugesh Hi,
My Selenium tests will be running under xvfb server.
For example, if i start my xvfb server on :1 , how could I record the screenshot.
The current example assumes the display to be localhost.Any idea how to make capture the screenshots from the remote display?

Thanks a lot,
Murugesh

]]> By: Automating web browsers with Selenium « C r a c k . a . s m i l e http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-4969 Automating web browsers with Selenium « C r a c k . a . s m i l e Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:35:36 +0000 http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-4969 [...] You can use it in unit tests and thus help you in web development. Somebody even proposed to take screenshots with it, so you can create your own Browsershots application. In any case, a very nice [...] [...] You can use it in unit tests and thus help you in web development. Somebody even proposed to take screenshots with it, so you can create your own Browsershots application. In any case, a very nice [...]

]]> By: Sunitha http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-4586 Sunitha Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:09:36 +0000 http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-4586 Hi, It will be great if I can get the code which has these ideas in action. Unfortunately I am seeing a 404 when trying to access the code. IS the file moved? Where can I get the code from? Hi,
It will be great if I can get the code which has these ideas in action. Unfortunately I am seeing a 404 when trying to access the code. IS the file moved? Where can I get the code from?

]]> By: Tarjei Huse http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-3838 Tarjei Huse Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:55:07 +0000 http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-3838 Hi, I'm doing a masters thesis on using image verification like this on dynamic websites - i.e. websites where content changes and you want to check other things than the content (for example, is the font used correct?). One of the things I've been considering is using Selenium to do this, so this post comes at a most opportune moment :-) A few questions though: Is it possible to use this against a remote selenium server? If you want to use selenium for more than just one browser, this quickly becomes an issue. Browsershots.org has a service where you can get screenshots of the whole page - not just the top half. The package is open source and written in Python. Well worth a look. Well, I should stop writing and start downloading :-) Regards, Tarjei Hi, I’m doing a masters thesis on using image verification like this on dynamic websites – i.e. websites where content changes and you want to check other things than the content (for example, is the font used correct?).

One of the things I’ve been considering is using Selenium to do this, so this post comes at a most opportune moment :-)

A few questions though: Is it possible to use this against a remote selenium server? If you want to use selenium for more than just one browser, this quickly becomes an issue.

Browsershots.org has a service where you can get screenshots of the whole page – not just the top half. The package is open source and written in Python. Well worth a look.

Well, I should stop writing and start downloading :-)

Regards,
Tarjei

]]> By: binil http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-3627 binil Fri, 29 Jun 2007 03:27:57 +0000 http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-3627 davidm, Sorry that you could not get it working yet. My recommendation is to switch to FF 1.5 product line. I remember Selenium working <i>very</i> well with FF 1.5, but the switch to FF 2.0 didn't go too well. Thanks, Binil davidm,

Sorry that you could not get it working yet. My recommendation is to switch to FF 1.5 product line. I remember Selenium working very well with FF 1.5, but the switch to FF 2.0 didn’t go too well.

Thanks,
Binil

]]> By: davidm http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-3622 davidm Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:54:43 +0000 http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-3622 Thanks for these additional pointers. I've used Ant much more than Maven, and Selenium looks like its own beast, glad it is possible to configure. I gave up trying to get it to work on Mac, am trying on Linux, but it just sits there at "Preparing Firefox profile.." This is Firefox 2.0.4. Maybe its the later version problem. What a mess. Thanks for these additional pointers. I’ve used Ant much more than Maven, and Selenium looks like its own beast, glad it is possible to configure.

I gave up trying to get it to work on Mac, am trying on Linux, but it just sits there at “Preparing Firefox profile..” This is Firefox 2.0.4. Maybe its the later version problem. What a mess.

]]> By: binil http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-3617 binil Thu, 28 Jun 2007 05:02:37 +0000 http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-3617 davidm, 1) The Tomcat URL is specified in functest/pom.xml. Search for element in the XML. Tomcat developers frequently purge old release bundles from their web servers. So the URL to the release bundle I specify in the POM becomes unreachable in a few months. 2) Selenium <a href="http://openqa.org/selenium-rc/" rel="nofollow">supports</a> a wide range of browsers. You can choose an appropriate browser by editing the XML file in functest\src\it\testng.xml. In this file, you are essentially telling TestNG to pass a parameter named browser into the tests. The value of this parameter decides which browser to run the tests on. browser=firefox runs the test on FireFox. On Mac OS X, Selenium is known to be working well with Firefox 1.5.0.4 and 2.0. But I have noticed that it does not work well with FireFox versions later than 2.0. Since many people configure FireFox to update itself periodically, they might be running versions later than 2.0 - with which Selenium does not run well. You can explicitly download FireFox 2.0 and put it in /Applications and try running the tests. Thanks, Binil davidm,

1) The Tomcat URL is specified in functest/pom.xml. Search for element in the XML. Tomcat developers frequently purge old release bundles from their web servers. So the URL to the release bundle I specify in the POM becomes unreachable in a few months.

2) Selenium supports a wide range of browsers. You can choose an appropriate browser by editing the XML file in functest\src\it\testng.xml. In this file, you are essentially telling TestNG to pass a parameter named browser into the tests. The value of this parameter decides which browser to run the tests on. browser=firefox runs the test on FireFox. On Mac OS X, Selenium is known to be working well with Firefox 1.5.0.4 and 2.0. But I have noticed that it does not work well with FireFox versions later than 2.0. Since many people configure FireFox to update itself periodically, they might be running versions later than 2.0 – with which Selenium does not run well. You can explicitly download FireFox 2.0 and put it in /Applications and try running the tests.

Thanks,
Binil

]]> By: binil http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-3616 binil Thu, 28 Jun 2007 04:27:40 +0000 http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-3616 davidm, 1) The Tomcat URL is specified in functest/pom.xml. Search for element in the XML. Tomcat developers frequently purge old release bundles from their web servers. So the URL to the release bundle I specify in the POM becomes unreachable in a few months. 2) Selenium <a href="http://openqa.org/selenium-rc/" rel="nofollow">supports</a> a wide range of browsers. You can choose an appropriate browser by editing the XML file in functest\src\it\testng.xml. In this file, you are essentially telling TestNG to pass a parameter named browser into the tests. The value of this parameter decides which browser to run the tests on. browser=firefox runs the test on FireFox. On Mac OS X, Selenium is known to be working well with Firefox 1.5.0.4 and 2.0. But I have noticed that it does not work well with FireFox versions later than 2.0. Since many people configure FireFox to update itself periodically, they might be running versions later than 2.0 - with which Selenium does not run well. You can explicitly download FireFox 2.0 and put it in /Applications and try running this - that should work fine. Thanks, Binil davidm,

1) The Tomcat URL is specified in functest/pom.xml. Search for element in the XML. Tomcat developers frequently purge old release bundles from their web servers. So the URL to the release bundle I specify in the POM becomes unreachable in a few months.

2) Selenium supports a wide range of browsers. You can choose an appropriate browser by editing the XML file in functest\src\it\testng.xml. In this file, you are essentially telling TestNG to pass a parameter named browser into the tests. The value of this parameter decides which browser to run the tests on. browser=firefox runs the test on FireFox. On Mac OS X, Selenium is known to be working well with Firefox 1.5.0.4 and 2.0. But I have noticed that it does not work well with FireFox versions later than 2.0. Since many people configure FireFox to update itself periodically, they might be running versions later than 2.0 – with which Selenium does not run well. You can explicitly download FireFox 2.0 and put it in /Applications and try running this – that should work fine.

Thanks,
Binil

]]> By: binil http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-3615 binil Thu, 28 Jun 2007 04:03:54 +0000 http://binil.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/taking-screenshots-with-selenium/#comment-3615 Kam, I have not thought about doing automatic image verification. One idea that I have seen mentioned is this - the testsuite does not use any assertion, but simply captures a series of images. Once the tests are run, the program compares the image captured at each step with some previously known "gold" images. This is a simple pixel-by-pixel comparison. If there is any mismatch, it is considered to be a test failure. A report of failures - what was expected and what was actually got - is send out to the developer. The developer goes through this report, and recognizes bugs. Sometimes the UI might have changed because of a new feature added or improved; in such cases the developer can set the new image as the "gold". I haven't implemented it though :-) Thanks, Binil Kam,

I have not thought about doing automatic image verification.

One idea that I have seen mentioned is this – the testsuite does not use any assertion, but simply captures a series of images. Once the tests are run, the program compares the image captured at each step with some previously known “gold” images. This is a simple pixel-by-pixel comparison. If there is any mismatch, it is considered to be a test failure. A report of failures – what was expected and what was actually got – is send out to the developer. The developer goes through this report, and recognizes bugs. Sometimes the UI might have changed because of a new feature added or improved; in such cases the developer can set the new image as the “gold”.

I haven’t implemented it though :-)

Thanks,
Binil

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