TestingBot Blog

2024 marks the 20th anniversary of Selenium, the pioneering tool in web browser automation. What started as a side project by ThoughtWorks engineer Jason Huggins has grown into a popular framework that has shaped modern automated web testing.

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The Beginning: Selenium was created by Jason Huggins at ThoughtWorks. As a tool to help automate repetitive testing for web applications, Selenium was born out of the need to speed up testing processes for internal projects. The initial version allowed for basic automation through JavaScript, capturing user interactions and simulating these actions within a browser.

Selenium 4 is the latest version of the widely-used open-source browser testing framework. A new feature introduced in this version is support for the WebDriver BiDi protocol.

TestingBot is happy to announce that it is now possible to run Selenium automated tests on the TestingBot browser grid with WebDriver Bidi.

The WebDriver BiDi protocol is designed to offer a stable, cross-browser API that enables bidirectional communication between the test script and the (remote) browser. This new protocol improves upon learnings from the WebDriver protocol, which is based on HTTP and only supports unidirectional communication.

TestingBot now offers macOS Sequoia beta testing for automated, visual and manual tests. This update allows developers to run tests on the upcoming macOS release and ensure their applications are ready for the newest macOS that Apple will release.

Testing on upcoming releases of operating systems like macOS Sequoia ensures that your websites are compatible with the latest and greatest from Apple, before it becomes mainstream. This proactive approach helps to catch and resolve compatibility issues early, giving you ample time to fix and improve your product before the general audience ever notices.

Even though macOS 15 is still in beta, there are some features already included in this preview release.

TestingBot has released a Chrome Browser Extension and a Firefox Extension, which will allow you to test any webpage, on a remote browser, with the click of a button.

The TestingBot Browser Extension is free to install and use. It's very easy to add it to your current browser. Simply go to the link below and click the Add Extension button.

TestingBot now offers macOS Sonoma (14.0) beta testing in the cloud. Test your website on Apple's upcoming new macOS version, ahead of the public release, later in 2023.

macOS Sonoma comes with Safari's newest version, Safari 17. By testing now on Sonoma, you can make sure your website will look and function correctly on Safari 17, before it is rolled out to everyone.

Safari 17

Safari Technology Preview is an experimental browser that Apple releases to developers and users interested in testing upcoming features and improvements.

It serves as a sandbox environment for developers to test new web technologies and APIs before they are officially released. As Safari Technology Preview receives updates frequently, it allows QA testers testers to stay ahead of the curve and anticipate changes in web standards and make sure the websites they test keep working fine.

There's another Safari version as well called Safari Beta. This version refers to the pre-release version of Safari made available to users. It acts as a preview of the upcoming stable release.

This means you can test the Safari version that will be rolled out to the general public in a later stage.