Selenium is an extensively used framework for automation testing. Because of its open-source and several other characteristics, the testing process with this tool is quicker when compared to its competitors. Selenium 4 has been receiving great popularity for its new architecture and added features.
Selenium 4 is a collection of tools that includes Selenium WebDriver, Selenium IDE, Selenium Grid. The main reason for Selenium’s upgrading from Selenium 3 is the W3C WebDriver Protocol in Selenium Webdriver for Selenium 4. In Selenium 3, JSON Wire Protocol sits between Selenium client libraries and WebDriver. It transfers data between the client and the webserver. Selenium 4 drops the JSON Wire Protocol and communicates with the browser directly using the W3C Web Protocol. Due to this new architecture, the tests become faster. The new features in Selenium 4 are
- W3C Web Driver Standardization
W3C standardization of the WebDriver has led to the depreciation of JSON wire protocol which enables the WebDriver to communicate with the targeted browsers directly. - Enhanced Selenium Grid
Selenium 4 Grid offer three deployment methods; Standalone, Hub and Node method, Containerized method - Upgraded Selenium IDE
Selenium 4 provides a much more robust IDE with support for multiple browsers and platforms, from Chrome and Firefox to even direct integration with Microsoft Edge. - Relative Locators
Also known as friendly locators.. Relative Locators find a specific element regarding the position of another element. - Improved Documentation
The revamped documentation covers information about all tools and APIs under the Selenium framework.. This will help testers and developers to find relevant information they need for a specific tool, language binding, etc. - Better Window/Tab Management
Selenium 4 introduces a new API – new Window that allows users to create and switch to a new window/tab without creating a new WebDriver object. - Support for Chrome Debugging Protocol
New Selenium offers native support for the Chrome DevTools protocol, allowing users to utilize native chrome development tools . - Deprecation of Desired Capabilities
In Selenium 4, Desired capabilities objects in Selenium 3 which are used for defining the test environment, are replaced with Options. - With Selenium 4, users can take the screenshot of a specific web element.
- Changes in the Actions Class.
Selenium 4 has updated the Actions class (API) that simulates user inputs from mouse, touch, and keyboards such as clicks, double clicks, etc.
The latest version of Selenium 4 is 4.9.1 which was released on May 08,2023. The upgrade to 4 can be done using Selenium with Maven ,Gradle or installing a fresh instance of Selenium 4 without compromising on the stability of your existing test cases. To conclude, Selenium 4 provides a feature-rich and stable test automation platform that can be used confidently .
