Is it possible that Selenium struggles to locate links, buttons, and text within a GWT framework?

Question

Is it possible that Selenium struggles to locate links, buttons, and text within a GWT framework?

I recently attempted to test my GWT web application using Selenium. Using the Selenium IDE Firefox plugin, I recorded a sequence of actions (registration -> login -> logout). However, during the logout step, the test consistently failed because Selenium couldn't locate the link. Strangely, when I ran the test again, it worked without any issues. Could this be related to the speed of the response from the server? I conducted more tests and encountered similar failures due to elements like links, buttons, or text not being found. How can I address this issue? Is it possible that Selenium is checking for elements before the page has fully loaded? Would using Thread.sleep before verification or clicking on elements help, or should I use waitForPageToLoad instead?

java testing gwt selenium

Answer 1

Answer №1

The issue you mentioned is absolutely correct. Selenium executes the test before Javascript has a chance to populate your DOM tree with content, causing timing issues. While you can use Thread.sleep() to wait for elements to load, it may slow down your tests and lead to occasional failures if your application runs slower than expected. It's more reliable to wait for the element until the timeout expires.

In all of my tests, I extend a base class that extends SeleneseTestCase. Instead of using selenium.type(), I directly call the type() method in my test scripts:

public class WebTestCase extends SeleneseTestCase {

  private final long DEFAULT_TIMEOUT = 30;

  protected SeleniumServer server;

  public WebTestCase() {
  }

  public WebTestCase(String name) {
    super(name);
  }

  protected void startServer() throws Exception {
    server = new SeleniumServer();
    server.start();
  }

  protected void stopServer() {
    server.stop();
  }

  public void waitForElement(final String waitingElement) {
    waitForElement(waitingElement, DEFAULT_TIMEOUT);
  }

  public void waitForElement(final String waitingElement, long timeoutInSeconds) {
    new Wait() {
      @Override
      public boolean until() {
        return selenium.isElementPresent(waitingElement);
      }
    }.wait("Timeout while waiting for element " + waitingElement, timeoutInSeconds * 1000);
  }

  public void type(String element, String text) {
    waitForElement(element);
    selenium.type(element, text);
  }

  // Other methods omitted for brevity

}

Answer 2

The issue you mentioned is absolutely correct. Selenium executes the test before Javascript has a chance to populate your DOM tree with content, causing timing issues. While you can use Thread.sleep() to wait for elements to load, it may slow down your tests and lead to occasional failures if your application runs slower than expected. It's more reliable to wait for the element until the timeout expires.

In all of my tests, I extend a base class that extends SeleneseTestCase. Instead of using selenium.type(), I directly call the type() method in my test scripts:

public class WebTestCase extends SeleneseTestCase {

  private final long DEFAULT_TIMEOUT = 30;

  protected SeleniumServer server;

  public WebTestCase() {
  }

  public WebTestCase(String name) {
    super(name);
  }

  protected void startServer() throws Exception {
    server = new SeleniumServer();
    server.start();
  }

  protected void stopServer() {
    server.stop();
  }

  public void waitForElement(final String waitingElement) {
    waitForElement(waitingElement, DEFAULT_TIMEOUT);
  }

  public void waitForElement(final String waitingElement, long timeoutInSeconds) {
    new Wait() {
      @Override
      public boolean until() {
        return selenium.isElementPresent(waitingElement);
      }
    }.wait("Timeout while waiting for element " + waitingElement, timeoutInSeconds * 1000);
  }

  public void type(String element, String text) {
    waitForElement(element);
    selenium.type(element, text);
  }

  // Other methods omitted for brevity

}

Is it possible that Selenium struggles to locate links, buttons, and text within a GWT framework?

Answer №1

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