Running Selenium in CI pipeline in Selenium Python - Test Execution Trace

Test Overview

This test runs a simple Selenium script in a Continuous Integration (CI) pipeline. It opens a browser, navigates to a website, finds a search box, enters a query, submits it, and verifies the results page loaded correctly.

Test Code - unittest

Selenium Python

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
import unittest

class TestSearchInCIPipeline(unittest.TestCase):
    def setUp(self):
        chrome_options = Options()
        chrome_options.add_argument('--headless')  # Run in headless mode for CI
        chrome_options.add_argument('--no-sandbox')
        chrome_options.add_argument('--disable-dev-shm-usage')
        self.driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=chrome_options)
        self.driver.implicitly_wait(10)

    def test_search(self):
        self.driver.get('https://www.example.com')
        search_box = self.driver.find_element(By.NAME, 'q')
        search_box.send_keys('selenium testing')
        search_box.send_keys(Keys.RETURN)

        WebDriverWait(self.driver, 10).until(
            EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, 'results'))
        )

        results = self.driver.find_element(By.ID, 'results')
        self.assertTrue(results.is_displayed())

    def tearDown(self):
        self.driver.quit()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

Execution Trace - 7 Steps

Step	Action	System State	Assertion	Result
1	Test starts and Chrome browser is launched in headless mode with CI options	Browser runs without UI, ready to navigate	-	PASS
2	Browser navigates to https://www.example.com	Example.com homepage is loaded	-	PASS
3	Finds search input box by name 'q'	Search box element is located on the page	Element with name 'q' is present	PASS
4	Types 'selenium testing' into search box and presses Enter	Search query submitted, page starts loading results	-	PASS
5	Waits up to 10 seconds for element with ID 'results' to appear	Results section is loaded and visible	Presence of element with ID 'results'	PASS
6	Checks if the results element is displayed	Results section is visible on the page	results.is_displayed() returns True	PASS
7	Browser quits and test ends	Browser closed, resources freed	-	PASS

Failure Scenario

Failing Condition: Search results element with ID 'results' does not appear within 10 seconds

Execution Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

Why is the Chrome browser run in headless mode in this test?

A To run the browser without opening a visible window in the CI pipeline

B To enable debugging with a visible browser window

C To slow down the test execution for stability

D To disable JavaScript on the page

Key Result

Running Selenium tests in headless mode with proper waits ensures smooth automated testing in CI pipelines without UI interruptions.