Clearer Intents using Selenium

If you've ever had to write Selenium tests, you know it's a pain. Tests are very verbose, so you probably create your own methods as a library on top of Selenium. And when the next project comes, you start again from scratch...

Two colleagues started a project called Fluent Selenium to ease the pain. They wrote their own DSL (Domain Specific Language) over Selenium to make the tests more readable. The DSL is in C# and uses Selenium RC to control the web site. The project is still in its infancy - only basic features are implemented. However I think it looks promising.

Here is an excerpt from one of their sample code. The API is changing fast so it might not be accurate, but it should be enough to give you an idea:

shopper.Goto("Shopping/ShopOnline.aspx");
shopper.WaitFor(ShoppingOnlinePageLoadWait);
shopper.For(UnitPriceField).ShouldSee("5,00$");
shopper.For(NumberOfItemsField).Enters("2");
shopper.For(ProceedToCheckoutButton).Clicks();


shopper is an instance of the User class, which is the actor that drives the web site. You probably guessed that the test drives an online shopping and checkouts two items.

What I really like about Fluent Selenium is that it makes it clear what is the intent of the test. The framework suggests to put xpaths out of the way (using Locators like UnitPriceField above) and to really concentrate on what you want to test from a user's perspective. Reading the test reads almost like you would read a sentence!

So next time you need to write Selenium tests, remember to make it Fluent!