Why we don t use Selenium IDE

Question

I want to understand why we don't use Selenium IDE, and we use Selenium WebDriver, even if Selenium IDE is easy to use. 

Why can't we record all of our test cases in Selenium IDE, export it to test script and execute it on WebDriver?

Answer 1

Selenium IDE is a Mozilla Firefox plugin, which means tests can be recorded only on Firefox browser and not on any other browser.

The test cases which are recorded on Selenium IDE can be exported to other programming languages. They can be exported to either C#, Java, Ruby or Python. But, don’t mistake this tool’s simplicity for a full-fledged testing tool because it is not meant for complex test cases or test suites. This is just a prototyping tool and works well only with static web pages. Testing dynamic (real-time) web pages brings about numerous challenges.

In contrast to IDE, Selenium WebDriver provides a programming interface to create and execute test cases. Test cases are written such that, web elements on web pages are identified and then actions are performed on those elements.

WebDriver is an upgrade to RC because it is much faster. It is faster because it makes direct calls to the browser. RC, on the other hand, needs an RC server to interact with the web browser. Each browser has its own driver on which the application runs. The different WebDrivers are:

• Firefox Driver (Gecko Driver)
• Chrome Driver
• Internet Explorer Driver
• Opera Driver
• Safari Driver and