The more robust and complex web applications get, the more robust and complex the process of testing them becomes. As a crucial part of software development, the testing phase must be as bulletproof as possible, while also providing processes that simplify the management and execution of tests. In this chapter, you will learn what software automation is and how important it is to the development cycle. You will be introduced to Selenium WebDriver, the most commonly used browser automation tool, which is on its way to becoming a W3C standard. You will also learn how to configure a testing environment for Selenium WebDriver.

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

• Explain what automation is and why it is important
• Use the Selenium WebDriver
• Configure the development environment for Selenium