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Complete Guide To Install Selenium Webdriver With C# with Visual Studio

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Install Selenium with C# When I started my Test Automation journey I started Selenium with Java and then I also explored Selenium with Python and with C# as well. Before we start Install Selenium Webdriver With C# let us discuss few things about what is Selenium and C# and few more points

What is Selenium

Selenium is a portable software testing suite for web applications. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purpose, but it certainly not limited to just that. Selenium is open source. Selenium is highly flexible. There are many ways you can add functionality to both Selenium test scripts and Selenium’s framework to customize your test automation i.e. We can modify the built-in selenium functions based on our requirement. This is perhaps Selenium’s greatest strength when compared with other automation tools. Selenium is a set of different software tools each with a different approach to supporting test automation. It has 4 components.
  1. Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
  2. Selenium Remote Control (RC).
  3. Selenium WebDriver.
  4. Selenium Grid.
Selenium Scripts can be written in any programming languages like C#, Groovy, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, JavaScript. Selenium Scripts can run on any browser like Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari or Opera. Selenium Scripts can run on OS like Windows, Mac, Android or Linux.

What is C#

C# is a general Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) language for networking and Web development. C# is specified as a Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) language. C# is highly expressive, yet it is also simple and easy to learn. C# syntax simplifies many complexities of C++. For more detailed information of C# please refer following links
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/getting-started/introduction-to-the-csharp-language-and-the-net-framework.
https://www.javatpoint.com/c-sharp-tutorial.
  1. Differences between Selenium with C# and Selenium with Java?
There is no Major differences between Selenium with Java and Selenium with C#.
Selenium with Java Selenium with C#
In Selenium with Java we have WebDriver to create web browser instance. In Selenium with C# we have IWebDriver to create web browser instance.
In Selenium with Java we use WebElement to find out web elements in the application. In Selenium with C# we use IWebElement to find out web elements in the application.
In Selenium with Java we use @FindBy annotation is used in Page Objects in Selenium tests to specify the object location strategy for a WebElement or a list of WebElements. In Selenium with C# we use [FindBy] annotation is used in Page Objects in Selenium tests to specify the object location strategy for a WebElement or a list of WebElements.

IDE used for C#

C# development can be done using many IDEs like Visual Studio, MonoDevelop, #develop, Rider and Many more. In this tutorial we will develop C# in Visual Studio.  

How to Install Visual Studio in windows?

Let’s download and install visual studio in following steps. Step 1: Download the latest Visual Studio from the following link https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/. Download Visual Studio Its preferable to download Visual Studio Community 2017 or Visual Studio Professional 2017 (30days free trail). Step 2: Once its downloaded, click on the executable(.exe) file. save exe Step 3: Next, click on continue. Click On Continue Step 4: Visual Studio will start downloading the initial files. Installer Step 5: In next screen, click on install. Community Edition   Step 6: In next screen select .NET desktop development and click on install.   select dot net Step 7: Visual Studio will download .NET desktop development related files. Wait for download Step 8: Once download is completed. It will ask for Reboot. reboot required Step 9: After Reboot Open Visual Studio   . It will ask for sign in or sign up. If you Microsoft account sign in else click on Not now, may be later link. Sign in Required Step 10: In next screen, Select General from dropbox and select the color theme of your choice and click on Start Visual Studio button. theme select Step 11: Visual Studio is ready to use. You can now create C# Project by clicking on new Project and by giving name to it. get started  

Install Selenium Webdriver With C#

Let’s see how to write “Hello World!!” Program in C#. Step 1: Launch Visual Studio. Start->Visual Studio ->click. It will launch Visual Studio. Step 2: Click on File-> New -> Project. new project Step 3: Next screen project name 1.Give project name. 2.Select the folder where you want project to be saved. 3.Click on OK button. Project will be created with name HelloWorld.   Step 4: After creation of project screen looks like below  sample project first look Keywords:
  1. using – using keyword is used to include namespace in the program.
  2. namespace – namespace is a collection of classes. HelloWorld namespace contains the class Program.
  3. class – class contains different data and method definitions.
  4. Main – Main method is an entry point for C# programs. Execution starts from Main method.
  Step 5: Add Console.WriteLine(“Hello World!!”) to the above project. console write line Console.WriteLine() is used to print message in console. Save the program and press F5 to execute the program. A command prompt window will appear that contains the line Hello Word!! The execution of the program will be too fast. To see console output Debug-> Start Without Debugging or Ctrl+F5. Output Screen will be like below. output  

How to Install Selenium to Visual Studio?

There are two ways of installing Selenium to Visual Studio.
  1. Downloading Selenium libraries from seleniumhq.org.
  2. Downloading Selenium via NuGet Package Manager.
  Let’s see installation of selenium with Visual studio by downloading via NuGet Package Manager with an example. Create C# project by using steps mentioned in Section 7. Step 1: Create a new project called FirstProgram using above mentioned steps. create selenium project   Step 2: Navigate to Tools-> NuGet Package Manager-> Manager NuGet Packages for Solution… NuGet package manager   Step 3: In next screen search for selenium
  1. Select Browse tab.
  2. Enter Selenium in search field.
  3. Selenium latest Selenium.WebDriver available.
  4. Select the project created in step 1(i.e FirstProgram)
  5. Click on Install.
Step 4: In next screen click on OK button. preview Step 5: Once WebDriver is installed. We should get following message. downloading confirm Step 6: Once WebDriver is installed let’s install ChromeDriver. Tools-> NuGet Package Manager-> Manager NuGet Packages for Solution… NuGet package manager for Chrome Driver
  1. Enter ChromeDriver in search field.
  2. Select the ChromeDriver.
  3. Select the project created.
  4. Click on Install.
search for Chrome Driver In Next screen click on OK button. chromedriver confirmation Once ChromeDriver is installed. We will get the following message. chromedriver download   Step 7: Selenium is installed to FirstProgram. Now let’s write code to perform goggle search. Code Explanation. 
            // Create a driver instance for chromedriver
            IWebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

            //Navigate to google page
            driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("http:www.google.com");

            //Maximize the window
            driver.Manage().Window.Maximize();

            //Find the Search text box using xpath
            IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//*[@title='Search']"));

            //Enter some text in search text box
            element.SendKeys("learn-automation");

            //Close the browser
            driver.Close();
Install Selenium Webdriver With C# Navigate to Start button on the top and click on it. It will launch console 1st and after few seconds it will launch ChromeDriver and will perform action mentioned in the code. run Selenium Program We will get output as shown below. final output

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Comments

  1. Sonal says

    Thanks, It’s really a very well documented each and every steps.
    Any clue for Lambda automation using c#, please.

    Reply

  2. Myroslav says

    Hi,
    Maybe I am doing something wrong, but my test fail with Message:
    ► System.InvalidOperationException : session not created: This version of ChromeDriver only supports Chrome version 85 (SessionNotCreated)

    I cannot understand where I have to set up my Chrome version

    Reply

      • MrPittala says

        Hi Mukesh,

        First of all Thanks a lot for the step-by-step explanation. It helped me.

        I tried the same way but was unable to fix the issue “System.InvalidOperationException : session not created: This version of ChromeDriver only supports Chrome version 85 (SessionNotCreated)”
        the current version of Google is 103, could you please check again and help.

        Regards,
        Madhu

        Reply

  6. Antonio says

    I would suggest to update the XPath since google seems to dynamically change element attributes:

    IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(By.XPath(@”/html/body/div/div[3]/form/div[2]/div[1]/div[1]/div/div[2]/input”));

    Reply

  12. Renuka says

    Hi Mukesh,

    Thanks for the learning sessions which you share. Very easy to understand and gives confidence.

    Can you please share details on how to create a BDD Framework using selenium and C#

    Thanks

    Reply

  13. Imran says

    Thanks for sharing your knowledge, I have successfully run at first attempt, one question is there any framework like TestNG?

    Reply

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