What is Selenese?

Selenese is the command/scripting language used to write test scripts in Selenium IDE. It is a set of commands that the IDE understands and uses to interact with the browser.

Categories of Selenese commands:

1. Actions — Interact with the page:

• ✓open — Open a URL
• ✓click — Click on an element
• ✓type — Enter text into a field
• ✓select — Select from a dropdown
• ✓submit — Submit a form
• ✓pause — Pause execution

2. Accessors — Read values from the page:

• ✓getText — Get element''s text
• ✓getValue — Get input field value
• ✓getTitle — Get page title
• ✓getLocation — Get current URL

3. Assertions — Verify expected values:

• ✓assertText — Assert element text matches
• ✓assertTitle — Assert page title
• ✓assertElementPresent — Assert element exists
• ✓verifyText — Verify (soft check — continues on failure)

Example Selenese test (Selenium IDE format):

Command         | Target                  | Value
----------------|-------------------------|------------------
open            | https://example.com     |
type            | id=username             | admin
type            | id=password             | password123
click           | id=loginBtn             |
assertTitle     |                         | Dashboard
assertText      | id=welcomeMsg           | Welcome, admin!

Assert vs Verify in Selenese:

• ✓assert commands — Stop test on failure
• ✓verify commands — Log failure but continue test

Selenese to Java translation:

Selenese: click | id=loginBtn
Java: driver.findElement(By.id("loginBtn")).click();

Selenese: type | name=username | admin
Java: driver.findElement(By.name("username")).sendKeys("admin");

Selenese: assertTitle | Dashboard
Java: Assert.assertEquals(driver.getTitle(), "Dashboard");

Key point: Selenese is the language used to write test scripts in Selenium IDE — it''s a domain-specific set of commands specific to the Selenium IDE environment.