Strategies for Migrating from Selenium IDE
Unless you are living under a rock, you probably already know that Selenium IDE has been discontinued and no longer supported. This is largely due to trends in our industry that show more and more organizations are utilizing test automation not just for the UI tier but also middle and database tiers. Selenium IDE was primarily used in UI based testing only. As automation transforms the industry, it forces testers to look for more comprehensive tools such as Katalon Studio, that can automate all their needs. Selenium IDE just could not keep up with the rapid evolution of testing automation, hence the reason Firefox decided to discontinue the IDE. Katalon Studio is the perfect alternative in migrating from Selenium IDE as it can automate all your needs.
OK, now I know what you’re thinking and panic mode has started to set in:
“I have tons of scripts written with Selenium IDE!”
“ What am I supposed to do with those scripts?”
“ I don’t have the bandwidth to re-write all those scripts in the new tool”
“ How do I migrate my old scripts?”
Now breathe….Migration of scripts does not have to be a daunting task. This is the perfect chance to come up with a sound migration strategy that will help your organization transform to the next level. Migrating Automated scripts is nothing more than any other data migrations you may have done in past. The same strategy and practices will apply here as well. When deciding to move to a new platform such as Katalon, the following tips will help ease the process.
- Do some housekeeping: Now is the perfect time to remove scripts or tests that are no longer valid due to application changes. This also provides an extra benefit of reducing execution time.
- Leverage Tools: This is the most important part of your strategy. Migrating scripts can take a lot less time if you can just simply take your old scripts from Selenium IDE and port them over to your new tool of choice. For example, Katalon Studio has a built-in feature that allows you to import your old Selenium IDE scripts. If your automation tool of choice does not have a migration tool or import feature you should really consider a more robust tool that can handle that for you. (Hint: You can visit this forum post for a step by step guide on Katalon migration.)
- Create a Checklist: You will need to know exactly what you will be migrating, so it’s important to create a detailed list of all scripts, prerequisites and data files to be migrated. This is basically a finalized list of artifacts from your housekeeping!
- Execute and verify the migration: This can be as simple as the import feature we mentioned above with Katalon. You want to make sure that everything you need has been brought over and is working as designed.
- Take advantage of new features: Selenium IDE had very limited functionality. The new tool you have chosen probably has a lot of new features that will accelerate your test automation and help deliver quality applications. For example, Katalon integrates with your CI/CD tool and can help kick off your automation suites right when builds are deployed. This is very important if your organization is transforming to a DevOps model.
As you can see, Selenium IDE being discontinued threw a wrench in a lot of organizations, but it doesn’t have to be as troublesome as you might think. It actually can be a good thing as it will now get organizations to think of automation in a broader spectrum which will ultimately lead to quicker releases with higher confidence.
