--- title: Video Record your Selenium Tests | TestingBot Blog description: When a Selenium test fails, you usually get a clear error message or trace to indicate where the problem is located. A video of your Selenium test ... source_url: html: https://testingbot.com/blog/2012/01/20/video-record-your-selenium-tests md: https://testingbot.com/blog/2012/01/20/video-record-your-selenium-tests.md --- # Record videos of your Selenium tests By [Jochen D.](https://testingbot.com/about/jochen-d)2012-01-20 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Post on Reddit Share link When a Selenium test fails, you usually get a clear error message or trace to indicate where the problem is located. A video of your Selenium test will offer even more help in finding out just why your Selenium test failed. By video-recording your Selenium test, you can track down when and where a problem occurs. At TestingBot video record every Selenium test on our grid. When a test fails, you can log into our member area, click the failed test and see a video of your test. This video is also available through our API, so you can easily integrate this feature into your Continuous Integration system. Together with a video, we also take a full-screen screenshot of every single step in your test. This provides for another method to examine your tests. These screenshots are available in our member area or by accessing our API. It's important to note that video recording your test does not slow down the execution of your test. We use the Windows built-in screen recording capabilities, which uses very little CPU. The video is recorded into a MP4 file. Below is a Ruby code example of running a test and grabbing the video and screenshots from our API. ```ruby require "rubygems" gem "selenium-client" require "selenium/client" gem 'test-unit' require 'test/unit' gem "testingbot" require "testingbot" class ExampleTest < TestingBot::TestCase attr_reader :browser def setup browser = Selenium::Client::Driver.new \ :host => "hub.testingbot.com", :port => 4444, :browser => "iexplore", :version => "9", :platform => "WINDOWS", :url => "http://testingbot.com", :timeout_in_second => 60 browser.start_new_browser_session end def teardown browser.close_current_browser_session end def test_page_open browser.open "/" p browser.session_id end end ``` This code will return a String with the session\_id of the test (a unique identifier for the test). For example, the session\_id we receive is: `7f5br7939150a9f199d2215920403e83` You can then query our API to fetch the video and screenshots of this test: `curl -u key:secret https://api.testingbot.com/v1/tests/7f5br7939150a9f199d2215920403e83` This call will return a JSON formatted string with the following data: ```json { "created_at":"2012-01-20T23:21:23Z", "extra":null, "id":121453, "name":"ExampleTest::test_page_open", "session_id":"7f5br7939150a9f199d2215920403e83", "status_message":"OK", "success":true, "thumbs":["https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbtestingbot/7f5br7939150a.jpg"], "video":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/rectestingbot/7f5br7939150a.mp4", "browser":"IE9", "os":"WINDOWS" } ``` The response contains the video URL (https://s3.amazonaws.com/rectestingbot/7f5br7939150a.mp4) and the thumbnails of every step in your test. This is just one example call to our API, for more information, please consult our [API guide](https://testingbot.com/support/api). [← Previous post Mobile Testing with Selenium and Android Ice Cream Sandwich](https://testingbot.com/blog/2012/01/16/mobile-testing-with-selenium-and-android-ice-cream-sandwich) [Next post → Browser statistics gathered from Selenium testing](https://testingbot.com/blog/2012/02/03/browser-statistics-gathered-from-selenium-testing) ## Sidebar ### TestingBot Cloud Testing Run automated, manual and visual tests on remote browsers and devices. Sign up for a free trial. [Free Trial](https://testingbot.com/users/sign_up) ### Latest articles [![Announcing AI Test Insights](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2026/ai-insights.jpg)](https://testingbot.com/blog/ai-test-insights) #### Announcing AI Test Insights Use AI Insights to quickly discover why an automated test... 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[Read article →](https://testingbot.com/blog/playwright-testing-introduction) [![Announcing AI Test Insights](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2026/ai-insights.jpg)](https://testingbot.com/blog/ai-test-insights "Announcing AI Test Insights") ### [Announcing AI Test Insights](https://testingbot.com/blog/ai-test-insights) Use AI Insights to quickly discover why an automated test failed. [Read article →](https://testingbot.com/blog/ai-test-insights) [![Selenium 20th birthday](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2024/selenium20.webp)](https://testingbot.com/blog/selenium-20-years "Selenium 20th birthday") ### [Selenium 20th birthday](https://testingbot.com/blog/selenium-20-years) Celebrate Selenium's 20th birthday. An overview of the years. [Read article →](https://testingbot.com/blog/selenium-20-years) ## More by Jochen D. 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[See all posts by Jochen D. →](https://testingbot.com/about/jochen-d) ## Ready to start testing? [Start a free trial](https://testingbot.com/users/sign_up)