What is "Selenium Simplified"?

Learn to Automate Web Sites with Selenium and Java with the Beta Release of New ebook

I am entering the final edit stages of my tutorial guide to Selenium RC in Java e-book "Selenium Simplified". This is a tutorial based book, so it has plenty of screenshots and walks you through the learning process.

But I've written 350, A4 sized, pages jam packed full of Selenium tutorial goodness. It is just bursting at the virtual seams with a desire to get the reader quickly and easily doing test automation in Java with Selenium. You can read a 67 page preview for free online now:

The book takes you right through the following (see the full table of contents here):

Installing the tools: Firefox, Eclipse, Java, Selenium, Firebug, Selenium-IDE, JUnit
Creating your first test using the IDE
Running IDE scripts from the command line
Converting the IDE scripts to Java
Understanding the JUnit SeleneseTestCase class
Using the SeleneseTestCase class to take screenshots
Using Selenium without the SeleneseTestCase class
How to read the Selenium source code, and why you would want to
Refactoring your test methods
Understanding and using XPath Selectors
CSS Selectors
Automatically starting the Selenium Server from your tests
Selenium commands for simple HTML testing
Selenium commands for testing HTML Forms
Selenium commands for testing JavaScript enabled pages
Running tests outside Eclipse using Ant
Integrating the automated tests into Continuous Integration
Running tests under multiple browsers
Refactor tests into page object models
Data Driven Testing in JUnit
Capturing Screenshots on test failure
Cookie Handling
More on JavaScript enabled web applications
How to move your tests to Selenium 2.0 using the Selenium Backed WebDrivers
How to structure your tests, code, data and page object models
JUnit suites
Running your tests on multiple browsers using Ant and Hudson
Creating custom base classes to make your test writing easier
Making your tests run fast by re-using Selenium sessions
Integrating your tests with Subversion
You can download the example code used in the book
The last chapter in the book describes a complete production ready test project,you can download the code for this and can use it as a basis for your own test projects

I've decided to release the book early as an ebook because in it will help beginners get started with Selenium very easily.

I assume no previous experience with Java, or programming, or automated web testing. So I use a lot of screenshots and code examples to explain clearly what is going on.

By the time you finish this book you will be able to write tests on your own, and will have enough information to easily read and understand the various tutorials out there on the web and the official documentation.

I don't waste any time in this book by explaining what test automation is, or why you should do it. There is no fluff. There is enough of that stuff out there on the web. And since reading about that bores me, writing about it would kill me. "Selenium Simplified" is purely geared towards helping the reader learn how to automate web tests.

Benefits of joining the beta programme

At the moment...

If you buy the ebook now while it is in beta you will receive updates to the ebook as they get written.
And you'll receive the final version of the ebook when it is finished.
This is as cheap as the text is going to get. £5.99 (I don't know what that is in dollars, but I'm pretty sure it's still cheap).

If this is a beta, what's missing?

Not a lot, I have now written everything that I planned to:

I still have to edit the text, and make sure the book is consistent throughout
Add more exercises for the reader
Add additional summary sections
I still have to tidy up the formatting for a print edition

To be honest, I'm also getting this out there early to see what people actually need. The comments I have received from the readers in the Beta programme have been great. The book answers the questions that real people learning Selenium (from scratch) have had. This book has already taken people who couldn't code to the point where they are writing pretty advanced test suites in Java. So if you buy the book and discover anything that you don't understand, or want to know how to do (and I don't cover it) then let me know and I'll try and add that to the text.

Why did you spend the time doing this?

When I started writing this the Selenium documentation was not very good. The official documentation has improved massively over the last 6 months, but still doesn't target the beginner audience that I target in this book. I wrote this to act as a supplement to the official documentation so that when you finish this book you can read and understand the official documentation easily. If you don't buy the ebook, then at least read the official selenium documentation to learn about this great tool.
I interview a lot of testers. And it has been hard to recruit good testers with Selenium experience. I speak to so many people who get stuck at the IDE and don't progress further. I speak to so many testers who could get benefits from using automation but don't think they can understand the 'technical' aspects. And there was nowhere I could direct those testers so they could learn. I think those testers can read through this tutorial, work through it at their own pace, and learn to automated web tests.
When I started writing this there were no good training courses on Selenium. Now there are. But they cost upwards of £400. For many people that cost is a bit off putting, so by creating an affordable tutorial ebook there are more options in how people approach the learning of this tool.

I honestly wrote this because I want to see more testers with the technical skills to incorporate automation into their test processes. And I know that it can seem daunting before you start. But automation is actually easy. And I hope that by working through this tutorial, anyone can pick up the basics and start doing automated web testing.

About the Author: Alan Richardson

I've been doing testing my entire professional career - knocking on 18 years now. And over that time I've done a lot of automation, in a lot of different tools. I've also done a lot of programming in a lot of different languages.

At work, we use Selenium for our automation. We use Selenium because it is open source, and it is very actively maintained. Selenium has been adopted and improved by Google so it has a great future.

I write the tests in Java because I work on applications that are written in Java so I can have the developers help me whenever I get stuck. But Java has fantastic free IDE support (as you'll see if you read "Selenium Simplified")

I have been helping the testers that work in my team improve their automation and Selenium skills. This text is a result of the learning I have made while doing that.

New e-book on Automated Testing with Selenium, now Available in Beta Release form - only £5.99.

Read a 69 page preview for free online now