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Protractor vs Selenium: What are the differences?
Introduction:
Protractor and Selenium are popular automation testing frameworks used for web application testing. While both tools serve the same purpose, there are several key differences between them that make each tool unique in its own way.
Selenium is a generic automation framework, while Protractor is specifically designed for Angular applications: One of the main differences between Protractor and Selenium is their target applications. Selenium is a generic automation framework that can be used to test any web application, regardless of the technology stack. On the other hand, Protractor is primarily designed for testing Angular applications. It has built-in support for Angular-specific elements and features, making it easier to write and maintain tests for Angular applications.
Protractor uses a different locator strategy for elements: Selenium primarily relies on CSS selectors and XPath to locate elements on a web page. Protractor, however, introduces a new locator strategy called "ng-model", which specifically targets elements in Angular applications. This locator strategy makes it easier to locate and interact with Angular-specific elements, such as input fields bound to Angular models.
Protractor has built-in support for Angular synchronization: Angular applications often rely on asynchronous operations, such as AJAX requests and data binding. Protractor has built-in support for automatic waiting and synchronization with Angular, ensuring that tests are executed at the right time when the application is in a stable state. Selenium, on the other hand, requires explicit waits and synchronization to handle such scenarios.
Protractor has better integration with Angular-specific testing utilities: Protractor provides seamless integration with Angular-specific testing utilities such as "ByAngular" and "ExpectedConditions". These utilities make it easier to write tests that interact with Angular-specific elements and features. Selenium, being a generic framework, does not have these Angular-specific utilities available out of the box.
Protractor supports the Page Object pattern: Protractor promotes the use of the Page Object pattern, which helps in creating modular and maintainable test scripts. The Page Object pattern encapsulates the elements and functionalities of a web page into reusable classes, making test code more readable and maintainable. While Selenium also supports the Page Object pattern, Protractor has better inbuilt support for it.
Selenium supports a wider range of browsers: Selenium supports a wider range of browsers compared to Protractor. Selenium WebDriver has official support for popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. Protractor, being an Angular-centric tool, has limited support for non-Angular applications and may not provide the same level of cross-browser compatibility as Selenium.
In summary, Protractor is specifically designed for testing Angular applications and offers built-in support for Angular-specific elements and features. It uses a different locator strategy, provides better integration with Angular-specific testing utilities, and promotes the use of the Page Object pattern. Selenium, on the other hand, is a generic automation framework that supports a wider range of browsers and can be used to test any web application.
In the company I will be building test automation framework and my new company develops apps mainly using AngularJS/TypeScript. I was planning to build Protractor-Jasmine framework but a friend of mine told me about Cypress and heard that its users are very satisfied with it. I am trying to understand the capabilities of Cypress and as the final goal to differentiate these two tools. Can anyone advice me on this in a nutshell pls...
I've used both Protractor and Cypress extensively. Cypress is the easier and more reliable tool, whereas Protractor is the more powerful tool. Your choice of tool should depend on your specific testing needs. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of each tool:
Cypress advantages:
Faster
More reliable (tends to throw fewer intermittent false failures)
Easier to read code (handles promises gracefully)
Cypress disadvantages:
Cannot switch between browser tabs
Cannot switch to iFrames
Cannot specify clicks or keypresses explicitly as if a real user was interacting
Cannot move the mouse to specific co-ordinates
Sometimes has trouble switching between different top-level domains, so not good for testing external links
Cypress is a newer tool with less extensive documentation and less community support
Protractor advantages:
More powerful because it is Selenium-based - it can switch between tabs, it can handle external links to other domains, it can handle iFrames, simulate keypresses and clicks, and move the mouse to specific co-ordinates within the browser.
More extensive community support and documentation
Protractor disadvantages:
Slower and more brittle - in general there is a higher likelihood of cryptic and/or intermittent errors which may cause your tests to fail even though there is nothing wrong with your application
For highly experienced automation engineers, the fundamental "brittle" nature of Selenium can be worked around - it can be reliable but only if you really know what you are doing
Less graceful handling of promises - relies on async/await or .then to manage the order of execution. Therefore it is a bit harder to read the code.
Harder to set up, and the method of setup impacts its reliability. For example, a hub/node configuration where the selenium jar is on a different physical machine than the browser under test will cause unreliability in your tests. Not everyone knows about this type of thing, so it's common to find Selenium frameworks that are set up poorly.
It's probably better to use Cypress if
you're at a smaller company and have a close relationship with developers who can help write hooks or stubs in their code to assist your testing
you don't need to do things like switch between tabs or test links to external top-level domains
It's probably better to use Protractor if
You might need to switch between tabs or test external links to other domains within the scope of your framework
You want to use a more accurate simulation of how a real user interacts with a browser (i.e. click at this location, type these keys)
You're at a company where you won't have any support from developers in writing hooks or stubs to make their code more testable in a less powerful framework like Cypress
Please try Handow, the e2e tool basing on Puppeteer.
Gherkin syntax compatible
Chrome/Chromium orentied, driven by Puppeteer engine
Complete JavaScript programming
Create test suites rapidly without coding (or a little bit), basing on built-in steps library
Schedule test with plans and arrange stories with sequential stages
Fast running, execute story groups in parallel by multi-workers
Built-in single page report render
Cover page view, REST API and cookies test
we are having one web application developed in Reacts.js. in the application, we have only 4 to 5 pages that we need to test. I am having experience in selenium with java. Please suggets which tool I should use. and why ............................ ............................ .............................
with the help of selenium we can automate react js for functional testing
Pros of Protractor
- Easy setup9
- Quick tests implementation8
- Flexible6
- Open source5
- Promise support5
Pros of Selenium
- Automates browsers177
- Testing154
- Essential tool for running test automation101
- Record-Playback24
- Remote Control24
- Data crawling8
- Supports end to end testing7
- Easy set up6
- Functional testing6
- The Most flexible monitoring system4
- End to End Testing3
- Easy to integrate with build tools3
- Comparing the performance selenium is faster than jasm2
- Record and playback2
- Compatible with Python2
- Easy to scale2
- Integration Tests2
- Integrated into Selenium-Jupiter framework0
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Cons of Protractor
- Limited4
Cons of Selenium
- Flaky tests8
- Slow as needs to make browser (even with no gui)4
- Update browser drivers2