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Selenium vs Watir: What are the differences?

Introduction

Selenium and Watir are both popular open-source web automation frameworks used for testing web applications. While they serve a similar purpose, there are key differences between the two.

  1. Programming Language Support: Selenium supports multiple programming languages like Java, C#, Python, Ruby, etc., making it more versatile for developers who have expertise in different languages. On the other hand, Watir primarily focuses on Ruby as its core language, limiting the options for developers who prefer other programming languages.

  2. Browser Support: Selenium has excellent cross-browser compatibility and supports a wide range of browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc. It provides dedicated browser driver executables for each browser, allowing testers to automate their tests on different browsers seamlessly. Watir, on the other hand, relies on Selenium-WebDriver for browser automation, which means it can also support multiple browsers but may not have the exact same level of compatibility and driver support as Selenium.

  3. API Design: Selenium follows the WebDriver API design, which is a well-established and widely adopted standard for web automation. It provides a clean and straightforward API for interacting with web elements, making it easy to understand and use. Watir, on the other hand, has its own API design, which may have a slight learning curve for those familiar with Selenium WebDriver. However, Watir's API emphasizes simplicity and readability, providing a more intuitive approach for testers.

  4. Community and Documentation: Selenium has a larger and more active community compared to Watir, which means there is more community support, resources, and documentation available. Selenium has been around for a longer time and is widely used by organizations and individuals, resulting in a vast knowledge base. Watir has a smaller community but still maintains a good level of support and documentation.

  5. Development Activity and Updates: Selenium is actively maintained and continuously updated with new features, bug fixes, and improvements by its large community of contributors. It has a more frequent release cycle, ensuring that it keeps up with the latest web technologies and trends. Watir, although not as actively developed as Selenium, still receives updates and bug fixes, but the frequency might be comparatively lower.

  6. Integration with Other Tools/Frameworks: Selenium integrates well with various testing frameworks and tools like TestNG, JUnit, Maven, Jenkins, etc., allowing testers to build robust and scalable test automation frameworks. It also has extensive support for service virtualization, mobile testing, and other third-party libraries. Watir, being predominantly Ruby-based, has good integration with Ruby ecosystem and tools but may have limited support for other languages and third-party frameworks.

In summary, Selenium offers broader language support, better browser compatibility, a widely adopted API design, a larger community, and more frequent updates. Watir, on the other hand, focuses primarily on Ruby, offers simplicity in API design, and still maintains good support and integration within the Ruby ecosystem.

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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 ............................ ............................ .............................

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Prashanth Marappa
Senior Software Engineer at Mphasis · | 1 upvotes · 214.5K views
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with the help of selenium we can automate react js for functional testing

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Pros of Selenium
Pros of Watir
  • 175
    Automates browsers
  • 154
    Testing
  • 101
    Essential tool for running test automation
  • 24
    Record-Playback
  • 24
    Remote Control
  • 8
    Data crawling
  • 7
    Supports end to end testing
  • 6
    Easy set up
  • 6
    Functional testing
  • 4
    The Most flexible monitoring system
  • 3
    End to End Testing
  • 3
    Easy to integrate with build tools
  • 2
    Comparing the performance selenium is faster than jasm
  • 2
    Record and playback
  • 2
    Compatible with Python
  • 2
    Easy to scale
  • 2
    Integration Tests
  • 0
    Integrated into Selenium-Jupiter framework
    Be the first to leave a pro

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    Cons of Selenium
    Cons of Watir
    • 8
      Flaky tests
    • 4
      Slow as needs to make browser (even with no gui)
    • 1
      Update browser drivers
      Be the first to leave a con

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      What is Selenium?

      Selenium automates browsers. That's it! What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that. Boring web-based administration tasks can (and should!) also be automated as well.

      What is Watir?

      Watir, pronounced water, is an open-source (BSD) family of Ruby libraries for automating web browsers. It allows you to write tests that are easy to read and maintain. It is simple and flexible. Watir drives browsers the same way people do. It clicks links, fills in forms, presses buttons. Watir also checks results, such as…

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      What companies use Selenium?
      What companies use Watir?
      See which teams inside your own company are using Selenium or Watir.
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      What tools integrate with Selenium?
      What tools integrate with Watir?

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      What are some alternatives to Selenium and Watir?
      Protractor
      Protractor is an end-to-end test framework for Angular and AngularJS applications. Protractor runs tests against your application running in a real browser, interacting with it as a user would.
      Cypress
      Cypress is a front end automated testing application created for the modern web. Cypress is built on a new architecture and runs in the same run-loop as the application being tested. As a result Cypress provides better, faster, and more reliable testing for anything that runs in a browser. Cypress works on any front-end framework or website.
      Nightwatchjs
      Nightwatch.js is an easy to use Node.js based End-to-End (E2E) testing solution for browser based apps and websites. It uses the powerful Selenium WebDriver API to perform commands and assertions on DOM elements.
      Puppeteer
      Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome over the DevTools Protocol. It can also be configured to use full (non-headless) Chrome.
      Cucumber
      Cucumber is a tool that supports Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD) - a software development process that aims to enhance software quality and reduce maintenance costs.
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