Selenium Record and Playback

This is Prabhu. Is there a record and playback free download tool available any of the sites.

I am new to automation testing.
Here is the question; we have some test scenarios that we run it every morning after batch. Those scenarios are very simple. Thought record and play back would be the best approach to run these scenarios in short span. I am looking for a free download record and play back tool. Let me know if you have any information regarding this.

Also, if you have any insight about this topic, please feel free to share

Personally I think record playback is a wonderful thing. If you want to get the basics of a script, or learn about a particular object, then I tend to think RP is one of the better ways to do it. There are also points when record playback on it's own *may* be enough to get you to a specific point (though this is probably rare).

I do think you have to be aware that the recorded actions are often not the best way to do something, so I also disagree that record playback is a good intro to automation. In my experience it becomes to easy to not look into better ways to do something, and this is potentially more likely in someone new to automation. I obviously have no data at all to back this up.

But to the subject in hand, this does look like a good start.

Thanks for the mentioning it, I'm off to try it.

some of which I touched on in my own comment but in not quite so well an expressed manner.
On the "common starting point for exploratory testing" I am not, depending on context, sold on that one. I have tried this in the past as have others (Jon Towler being one who i missed at LEWT2, unfortunately) personally I have not found record and playback that good for that as it misses some of the details of the set ups and tear downs on different levels I want and need on the starting conditions. This can be avoided to some extent with the right environment/ change control by making snap shots and having start points i accept but these come at a cost.
However I agree with the principle on using automation to get to a start point for exploration - now if you could blog on that, or get Jonn Towler to (as I have failed) then I for one would love to read them :-)
Agree though it is contextual and I did not condem record and playback out of hand, i hope, just stated it is not my preferance.

Neill McCarthy
"Agile Testers of the World UNIT !"

[textile]I understand your concern Neil. IMHO the main benefit of Record and Playback is rapid learning. I find that it can often speed up the learning process for the syntax, commands and nuances of a tool's scripting language when using record and playback. For example, in my use of the SWExplorerAutomation API, I often find it useful to record some steps to generate the code as a means of learning the API. I always throw that away and then write it from scratch.

This application of record and playback is also useful to speed up the learning process for testers that have less automation experience.

Record and playback can also be useful as a quick and dirty way of automating navigation to a common starting point for exploratory testing.

For extensive test-automation, recording has limited value but it is often useful to have it available to you... as long as it is suitable to the application and can be played back with minimal effort... otherwise, you might as well write the code/keywords from scratch.

As always, it's usefulness depends on context :-)

Antony Marcano

and mixed feelings. I am not a fan of record and playback test tools. One of the aspects of selenium that i liked was that it was a codebased tool that has simple rules and a powerful framework that can be taught fairly effectivily to non-code focused testers to use effectivily.
However record and playback can be useful to bring people into automated testing and is useful for learning the application and help to prototype the paths through the application that then can be coded.
This also looks to be generating keyword functions that I have been an advocate of for sometime too. Guess the next step is to try it and give it a proper assesment, but it is good to see an increase in the take up and development of opensource tools.


Neill McCarthy
"Agile Testers of the World UNIT !"