Record simple test case in Selenium IDE

In scope of this post I will record a simple test case. It is first draft, first attempt to receive something that we can use in the web testing. Initially I do not suspect to have it represented in human readable format and not repeatable until objects repository is implemented. From first look the test application is nothing else but manage tool, including entities with respective relations. And simple test case can check if a user is able to create new object in the application. Also, it has some kind of authentication. Simple scenario I’m proposing to start with consists of the following steps:

• Open home page of the application;
• Log into the application;
• Open objects list for area entity;
• Create new item;
• Log out from the application.

Most of these steps are complex from logic point of view (divided on several elementary actions). For instance login action consists of 3 steps like specify user name, specify user password and click on a button to login. To see objects list first you need to click on item from the main menu, second choose menu item in sub menu. Then objects list is shown. To create new item you have to click on respective button. After that wait for dialog box is opened, then specify meaningful properties, submit changes etc.

The main idea of this scenario is to receive set of steps to work with. So, let’s begin. First, open our test application in FireFox and Selenium IDE. Then, ensure that Selenium IDE is recording (red round button in the top right side is turned on). Then, step by step repeat the scenario above. Afterwards, at the picture below you may see the result I received on my PC:

Let’s review each action in details:

1. First action from the list is open command. With this command we started from home page of the application;
2. Then we filled user name value;
3. Action that fills password value is not recorded for some reason. Let’s postpone with it for awhile. I suggest set low priority for the issues like this and move them to some "outstanding issues" list. And resolve them later;
4. Next action clicks on a button that makes login operation. It clicks on the object known as imageField;
5. selectFrame command is nothing else but just wait until dialog is opened. In this dialog all properties for new object to be specified;
6. Next 3 type commands fill properties for the object (like name, description and other information) in opened dialog box;
7. Last command from the list clicks Submit button on the dialog box. After that the dialog is closed, new object appeared in the objects list;
8. At the very end I clicked on Logout button. Unfortunately. It has not been recorded as well.

Eventually, we received first draft of the test case with the scenario above. As you may see this is not human reader and not repeatable as expected from the very beginning:)