Why We Choose Java Over The Python In Selenium Web Driver?

Most software testing companies prefer to use selenium web driver with Java for testing of web applications. However, using python instead of Java offers ease of writing scripts.  

This often brings testers to the question that which combination is better for selenium test automation. In the next few minutes, we will dive into the detail to learn why Java is the better choice when using these languages with Selenium web driver.   

Since Automation testing is the process of writing code that tests the application automatically without any human intervention and produced results can be analysed for further testing or reporting purpose. This further reduces testing efforts and helps in delivering quality software with more speed and more affordability.  

Though it initially requires a cost to develop an automation test suite but helps in delivering better quality software with less effort over a period of time as less manpower will be required to perform repetitive tasks. 

Since Repetitive testing or repeating a set of test case execution is very usual in continuous delivery development models and thus software is prone to errors in such environment. Selenium Automation Testing can become a tedious task when it comes to cross-platform or cross-browser testing.  

Exploring Selenium 

Selenium is one of the most frequently used automation testing tools due to its open-source nature and ease of testing using web browsers. Selenium allows you to test web applications while the only thing that can affect your testing experiences is the inability to use selenium for testing software or mobile applications.  

However, to overcome this situation, testers could definitely move towards tools like Appium or QTP which are purposely designed to simplify testing tasks. But still, most testers and IT experts prefer to stick with Selenium to meet their automation goals and this is all because of the open-source framework and zero licensing costs. Besides there are several other benefits of using Selenium that makes it the perfect tool to be used for automation practices with Java.  

[ Related Read: Case Study on Social Media Platform Testing Using Selenium ]

Benefits Of Selenium 

• Testing can be done in any environment or operating system, either Windows, Linux or Mac. 

• Selenium offers support for all browsers which makes it easier for testers to work no matter they are using safari, opera, Mozilla Firefox, google chrome, or internet explorer.  

• It offers easy integrations with tools like JUnit and TestNG that allows easier test management and reporting.  

• It can even be used for continuous testing tasks through effective integration with Docker, Jenkins, and Maven. 

• Last but not least, selenium offers support on multiple programming languages like Java, Python, PHP, Perl, .Net, and Ruby.  

Therefore, despite the availability of many tools in the market for testing purposes, “Selenium” stands out of all these when it comes to web automation testing.  

Now, when we have such a powerful tool that is open source and has large community support spanning many operating systems, browsers and languages; then the question arises: Which language it should be used with?  

As already mentioned, selenium is compatible with numerous languages namely; Perl, Ruby, C#, Java, Python and so on. In the rest of the article, let’s have a look at why using “Java” with Selenium web driver is more advantageous over “Python” and what benefits it can bring. 

Python vs Java 

First, let’s discuss testing with Selenium using Python 

What is Python? 

Python is a high-level language that is interpreted and simple to understand. It is an open-source language known for its flexibility and extensive libraries. 

Why Selenium with Python? 

• It is easy for coding and also easily readable 

• Runs faster while comparing other programming 

• Also provides Dynamic Typing Nature 

• Embeddable which gives python scripting capabilities 

What is Java? 

Java is the most widely used and oldest programming language due to its robust nature.  

It is platform-independent which mean a program written for windows will also run for other types of the operating system. It has a very large supporting community which secures its position on the top in the future as well. 

Why Selenium with Java? 

• A large number of users for Selenium with Java 

• Stronger community options 

• Selenium is also developed by Java 

• More than 80% of experts prefer to work Selenium with Java 

• Learning Java and its set of libraries gives you greater potential for testing 

• Programs written in Java are faster than python 

Apart from this, Java is one of the widely used languages in IT practices making around 77 per cent of selenium testers stick with Java in their routine for convenient knowledge transfer. Besides, the age factor associated with Java has made it easier for testers to find ready to use frameworks, APIs, and plugins. Above all, it is a completely platform-independent language that is statically typed and offer rapid feedback on errors when coding. 

Learning The Pros and Cons 

The phrase “dynamically typed” means that Python performs type checking at runtime, while statically typed languages like Java perform type checking at compile time.  

Compilation 

Python can compile even if the program contains errors due to its dynamic nature and would result in the unsuccessful execution of the script. On the flip side, Java has a JIT compiler, which shows errors at compile time only saving the user’s extra effort of recognizing errors at an early stage of development. 

Debugging 

Java is statically typed which data types of variables should be declared before using them, while Python does not.  

However, Python is more flexible and can save you time and space when running scripts. But still, it can cause issues at runtime. 

Performance 

Choosing a language narrow down to what we are trying to achieve with the code. Performance is not always the parameter, but it is always a basic metric to decide the capability of any technology. Code optimization and virtual machine execution make Java more efficient when it comes to performance and speed. 

Changing Old Systems 

Python is more effective than java when it comes to adapting legacy systems. The existing system can be changed easily using python language due to its embeddable capabilities. Hence, one need not to fully rewrite and revamp the system like it needs to be done for Java. 

As far as choosing one language is concerned, both have their pros and cons. Automation with java is more predictable and reliable due to the language’s static type system, which makes automated refactored. 

On the other hand, Python’s dynamic system relies on brevity, fluidity, and experimentation in code, giving it more versatility than Java’s rigid style. Python has also been adapting to automated testing in modern development, but this happens more frequently in integration instead of unit testing. 

JVM code can be JIT-compiled efficiently, using a fast compiler. But the same would be hard for Python, because of its dynamically typed nature.  

JVM translates to a fairly low level and straightforward native code, but for the dynamic languages, you'd have to generate dynamic dispatch for literally all the basic operations and for all the method calls. This dynamic dispatch is the primary hindrance for python to be faster than java. 

Conclusion 

To sum up, it is obvious from the above arguments that using Selenium test automation with Java is preferred by more than 80% of professionals but it also doesn’t mean that learning Selenium with Python is not useful. Selecting the programming languages depends on where you going to use them. 

We, at BugRaptors, have developed our very own automation framework using java language, delivering many automation projects using the language that satisfies clients’ requirements and produces high-quality software with no language barriers.  

Get over the hassle of choosing the right language for your automation testing adventure. Simply reach an expert selenium testing company like BugRaptors to simplify the process.  

For more information on testing with selenium, connect with us today!