Table of Contents

Getting Started

Introduction

In this series, we will setup an automation framework scratch to test against the frontend of a web application.

The completed repository can be found at https://gitlab.com/testifyqa/Java-Web-Selenium-Maven

We will use the following in our framework:

Selenium WebDriver
- Selenium is a portable software-testing framework for web applications. Selenium provides a playback (formerly also recording) tool for authoring tests without the need to learn a test scripting language (Selenium IDE). It also provides a test domain-specific language (Selenese) to write tests in a number of popular programming languages, including C#, Groovy, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and Scala. The tests can then run against most modern web browsers. Selenium deploys on Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms. It is open-source software, released under the Apache 2.0 license: web developers can download and use it without charge.
  - We will set up WebDrivers for automation in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox
Cucumber
- Cucumber is a software tool used by computer programmers for testing other software. It runs automated acceptance tests written in a behaviour-driven development style. Central to the Cucumber BDD approach is its plain language parser called Gherkin.
TestNG
- TestNG is a testing framework for the Java programming language, inspired by JUnit and NUnit. The design goal of TestNG is to cover a wider range of test categories: unit, functional, end-to-end, integration, etc., with more powerful and easy-to-use functionalities. It is similar to JUnit but has extra capabilities
  - Alternatively, you could use JUnit, but TestNG is usually the favourite by QA Automation folk. However, JUnit5 has now released, which is definitely a worthy contender to TestNG. For a thorough comparison between TestNG and JUnit5, please see the slides on https://seleniumcamp.com/talk/testng-vs-junit-5-battle/ and for details on how the JUnit TestRunner class would differ for using JUnit with Cucumber, please see http://toolsqa.com/cucumber/junit-test-runner-class/

Setting Up Java

Java JDK

The Java Development Kit is an implementation of either one of the Java Platform, Standard Edition, Java Platform, Enterprise Edition, or Java Platform, Micro Edition platforms released by Oracle.

Download the Java JDK appropriate for your Operating System / Architecture from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html
Follow the wizard and complete the installation of the Java JDK

Setting Up Java Environment Variables

An environment variable is a dynamic-named value that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer. Because every developer on a team will have a slightly different Development environment on there local machine, using environment variables is good practice to help easily find and use needed processes and/or paths in an environment.

MacOS:

Open up Terminal and type the following (exclude typing the $’s)…
```
$ nano ~/.bash_profile
```
Add the following lines to your .bash_profile file within Terminal to set the $JAVA_HOME environment variable…
```
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home)
```
```
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
```
Save .profile and exit nano editor by pressing (in order, one at a time)…
```
Ctrl + O
```
```
[Return]
```
```
Ctrl + X
```
Completely quit out of Terminal and restart it to launch a fresh Terminal window with your changes applied
Confirm you have correctly set the $JAVA_HOME environment variable by typing in Terminal…
```
$ java -version
```

Windows:

Click ‘Start’ and search for “System”
Go to ‘Advanced System Settings’ –> ‘Advanced’ –> ‘Environment Variables’
Under the ‘System Variables’ section, click ‘New’ and then add and set the following new System Variable…
1. Variable Name:
```
JAVA_HOME
```
2. Variable Value:
```
C:\Program Files\jdk1.#.#_###
```
  (replace with directory path of where JDK was installed)
Double-click on ‘Path’ in the System Variables pane
Set and append the following PATH environment variable…
```
C:\Program Files\jdk1.#.#_###\bin;
```
({jdk-root-directory-path}\bin)
Click ‘OK’ where applicable to apply your changes
Confirm you have correctly set the $JAVA_HOME environment variable by opening CMD Prompt and entering…
```
$ java -version
```
(exclude typing the $)

Setting Up Maven

Maven is a build automation tool used primarily for Java projects, to manage its dependencies and any external libraries and packages the Java project may need. In Yiddish, the word maven means “accumulator of knowledge”.

Download Maven Binaries

Download the Maven binaries from https://maven.apache.org/download.cgi
1. If on Windows, download the zip file
2. If on MacOS, download the tar.gz file
Create a root directory for all your Framework related downloads (e.g. ‘C:\FrameworkSetup’ or ‘~/Users/username/FrameworkSetup’)
Extract the downloaded Maven binaries and place the extracted Binaries directory inside the root directory you just created

Setting Up Maven Environment Variables

MacOS:

Open up Terminal and type the following (exclude typing the $’s)…
```
$ nano ~/.bash_profile
```
Add the following lines to your .bash_profile file within Terminal to set the $M2_HOME (Maven) environment variable…
```
export M2_HOME=/Users/username/FrameworkSetup/apache-maven-#.#.#
```
(replace directory with where you extracted Maven binaries to on your machine)
```
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
```
Save .profile and exit nano editor by pressing (in order, one at a time)…
```
Ctrl + O
```
```
[Return]
```
```
Ctrl + X
```
Completely quit out of Terminal and restart it to launch a fresh Terminal window with your changes applied
Confirm you have successfully added and set the environment variable for Maven by entering…
```
$ source ~/.bash_profile
```
(exclude the $)
```
$ echo $M2_HOME
```
(exclude the $)

Windows:

Click ‘Start’ and search for “System”
Go to ‘Advanced System Settings’ –> ‘Advanced’ –> ‘Environment Variables’
Under the ‘System Variables’ section, click ‘New’ and then add and set the following new System Variables…
- Variable Name:
```
M2_HOME
```
  - Variable Value:
```
C:\FrameworkSetup\apache-maven-#.#.#
```
    (replace directory with where you extracted Maven binaries to on your machine)
- Variable Name:
```
MAVEN_HOME
```
  - Variable Value:
```
C:\FrameworkSetup\apache-maven-#.#.#
```
    (replace directory with where you extracted Maven binaries to on your machine)
Double-click on ‘Path’ in the System Variables pane
Set and append the following PATH environment variable…
```
%M2_HOME%\bin;
```
Click ‘OK’ where applicable to apply your changes
Confirm you have correctly set the Maven environment variables by opening CMD Prompt and entering…
```
$ mvn --version
```
(exclude typing the $)

Setting Up IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ IDEA is a Java IDE for developing computer software. It is developed by JetBrains, and is available as a free community edition, or as a paid commercial edition. For the purposes of this blog, the free, community edition is fine 🙂

Download IntelliJ IDEA from https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download
Complete installation of IntelliJ IDEA
Launch IntelliJ IDEA and choose to not import any settings (unless you have appropriate ones already)
Select your UI theme and click ‘Next’
Select your keymap scheme and click ‘Next’
Keep clicking ‘Next’ without changing anything on the following screens in the wizard
Click ‘Start using IntelliJ IDEA’

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A blog on QA Automation

Part 1. Getting Started (Maven)

Getting Started

Introduction

Setting Up Java

Java JDK

Setting Up Java Environment Variables

MacOS:

Windows:

Setting Up Maven

Download Maven Binaries

Setting Up Maven Environment Variables

MacOS:

Windows:

Setting Up IntelliJ IDEA

Next Article

Part 1a. Getting Started (Gradle)

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