Verify login functionality using configuration management for test data

Preconditions (2)

Step 1: Open the browser and navigate to the login page URL

Step 2: Read username and password from the configuration file

Step 3: Enter the username into the username input field

Step 4: Enter the password into the password input field

Step 5: Click the login button

Step 6: Wait for the dashboard page to load

✅ Expected Result: User is successfully logged in and dashboard page is displayed

Automation Requirements - Selenium WebDriver with TestNG

Assertions Needed:

Verify the current URL contains '/dashboard' after login

Verify the dashboard page title is as expected

Best Practices:

Use Page Object Model to separate page locators and actions

Use explicit waits to wait for elements or page load

Load test data from an external configuration file (e.g., properties file)

Use TestNG annotations for setup and teardown

Automated Solution

Selenium Java

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.ExpectedConditions;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.WebDriverWait;
import org.testng.Assert;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterClass;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeClass;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.time.Duration;
import java.util.Properties;

public class LoginTest {
    private WebDriver driver;
    private WebDriverWait wait;
    private Properties config;

    @BeforeClass
    public void setUp() throws IOException {
        // Load configuration file
        config = new Properties();
        FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("config.properties");
        config.load(fis);
        fis.close();

        // Setup WebDriver
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "path/to/chromedriver");
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(10));

        // Open login page
        driver.get(config.getProperty("login.url"));
    }

    @Test
    public void testLogin() {
        // Locate username field and enter username
        WebElement usernameInput = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.id("username")));
        usernameInput.sendKeys(config.getProperty("login.username"));

        // Locate password field and enter password
        WebElement passwordInput = driver.findElement(By.id("password"));
        passwordInput.sendKeys(config.getProperty("login.password"));

        // Click login button
        WebElement loginButton = driver.findElement(By.id("loginBtn"));
        loginButton.click();

        // Wait for dashboard page to load
        wait.until(ExpectedConditions.urlContains("/dashboard"));

        // Assertions
        String currentUrl = driver.getCurrentUrl();
        Assert.assertTrue(currentUrl.contains("/dashboard"), "URL does not contain /dashboard");

        String expectedTitle = config.getProperty("dashboard.title");
        String actualTitle = driver.getTitle();
        Assert.assertEquals(actualTitle, expectedTitle, "Dashboard page title mismatch");
    }

    @AfterClass
    public void tearDown() {
        if (driver != null) {
            driver.quit();
        }
    }
}

This test script uses Selenium WebDriver with TestNG to automate the login functionality.

Setup: The @BeforeClass method loads the configuration file config.properties which contains the login URL, username, password, and expected dashboard title. It then initializes the ChromeDriver and opens the login page.

Test: The test method waits explicitly for the username field to be visible, then enters the username and password read from the config file. It clicks the login button and waits until the URL contains '/dashboard' to confirm navigation.

Assertions: It verifies the URL contains '/dashboard' and the page title matches the expected dashboard title from the config file.

Teardown: The @AfterClass method closes the browser to clean up.

This approach follows best practices by separating configuration data, using explicit waits, and structuring code with TestNG annotations.

Common Mistakes - 4 Pitfalls

Hardcoding test data like username and password inside the test code

Using Thread.sleep() instead of explicit waits

Locating elements with brittle XPath expressions

Not closing the browser after tests

Bonus Challenge

Now add data-driven testing with 3 different username and password combinations from the configuration file

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