Selenium Maven – Meaning, Architecture, Lifecycle & More

The revolutionary automation testing tool, Selenium, has greatly simplified the process of testing web applications and software. It has continuously evolved to integrate new automation tools, such as Maven, into the framework. In an automated testing environment, Maven automates the management of complex projects and enables developers to build them from the command line.

Throughout this blog, you will learn everything there is to know about Selenium Maven. It covers various concepts related to Maven, such as its architecture, lifecycle, dependency management, and more.

What is Maven in Selenium?

Maven is an automation tool for managing Java-based projects, built on the Project Object Model (POM). Thus enabling developers to specify settings, dependencies, and build specifications for the project. It simplifies project management, reduces complexity, and provides a standardized framework for easier understanding and maintenance of the project. 

As Maven works with Java-based projects, if you want to understand its programming language, you can learn Core Java course online. 

Why do we need Maven?

We require Maven, which is a powerful built-in automation tool because it addresses the critical aspects of building software:

• It describes how the software is built.
• It describes the dependencies. 
• It rules out the tedious task of manually adding dependencies to a project.
• It handles a huge number of dependencies efficiently.
• It automates the entire build process of the project.

Selenium Maven Dependency

The dependencies are libraries or JAR files that are used in the project:

• A dependency is stored in the pom.xml file format.
• It is much simpler to download and add dependencies for projects that are smaller in size and have fewer features or modules.
• Maven is crucial for project management for medium-sized or large projects that contain multiple modules.
• Maven standardizes dependency versions for easy management and maintenance of Jave-based projects. 
• This feature ensures that all team members are using the same version, leaving no room for discrepancies. 
• Additionally, it offers a predefined folder structure for coding. Maven effectively manages any upgrades to the project if the software has been updated to the latest version.

Two examples of Selenium Maven dependencies are:

• TestNG Selenium Maven Dependency: It imports the Java project’s testing framework dependency.
• Apache POI Selenium Maven Dependency: The libraries for accessing Microsoft format files are downloaded by it

Both of these dependencies use the respective codes to execute their functions. 

Maven pom.xml File 

The Maven pom.xml file is essential to setting up a project. It also reads the pom.xml file to execute the goal. The pom.xml file features:

• This file describes the software project that is being built. 
• It consists of all the configurations and information of the project, such as dependencies, plug-ins, directories, built order, and the dependencies on the external modules and components. 
• This file outlines predefined targets and goals for tasks like code compilation and packaging.

Maven Repositories

We need to understand the repositories used by Maven to access dependencies before we discuss its architecture. There are three repositories in Selenium Maven –

• Local Repository: The project’s local repository is the developer’s PC, where all project files are kept. This repository contains every dependent jar.
• Central Repository: When dependencies are needed but are not discovered in the local repository, the Maven community steps in to act as the central repository. 
• Remote Repository: The web server hosts the remote repository, requiring internet access for downloading dependencies. The downloaded dependencies from this repository are stored in the local repository for project use.

Maven Architecture

The diagram below shows Maven’s architecture:

Maven architecture works in this manner:

• Step 1: The first step is setting up Maven. This is done using a pom.xml file. All of the configurations are contained in this file.
• Step 2: This involves downloading the dependencies. Whenever a dependency is specified in the pom.xml file, Maven will first look for it in the central repository. Maven will copy that dependency onto the local computer or personal computer and then use it.

If the dependency is not present in the central repository, then Maven will fetch it from the remote repository or remote web server using the internet.

Maven Lifecycle in Selenium

Maven builds follow a specific lifecycle during which the target project is deployed and distributed. It consists of three built-in lifecycles:

• Default: This is the main lifecycle because it is responsible for project deployment.
• Clean: It is used to thoroughly clean the project and remove all the files created by the previous build. 
• Site: This step creates the project website documentation.

Maven Phases and Goals

The Maven phases and goals are essential components of every lifecycle of the project. Let us understand what the different phases and goals are:

1. Maven Phases

The Maven phases represent a stage in the Maven-built lifecycle. Each phase is responsible for a specific task. 

a) Default Lifecycle: The default lifecycle consists of twenty-three phases, as it is the primary build lifecycle of Maven. Some of the important phases are:

• Validate: This phase checks if all the necessary information for the build is available.
• Compile: It compiles the source code of the project.
• Test Compile: It compiles the test source code.
• Test: It is responsible for running the unit tests of the application.
• Package: It compiles the source code into a distributable format.
• Integration-Test: It is a phase when the process and deployment of the package are needed to run the integration test.
• Install: It involves installing the package into a local repository.
• Deploy: This phase involves copying the package into a remote repository or a remote web server.

b) Clean Lifecycle: The clean lifecycle consists of three phases as follows:

• Pre-clean
•  Clean
• Post-clean

c) Site Lifecycle: It is made up of four phases as follows:

•  Pre-site
•  Site
• Post-site
• Site-deploy

2. Maven Goals

In Selenium Maven, each phase is a sequence of goals, and each goal comes with a particular task. When a specific phase executes, the goals that are bound to the phase are accomplished in order. The format for specifying the goal is “plugin: phase”. Some of the Maven phases and default goals are:

• Compiler: compile: Here, the compiler is a plug-in and the compiler is a phase. The compile goal from the compiler plugin is bound to the compile phase. 
• Compiler: test-compile: The compiler plugin is bound to the test-compile phase.
• Surefire: test: The Surefire plugin is bound to the test phase.
• Jar: jar and war: war: These goals are bound to the packaged phase.

Conclusion

This blog sums up the basic knowledge and understanding of the Selenium Maven. This tool eases the work of developers as it offers a simple and time-saving method for developing and deploying projects without the need for manual labor. Knowing how to work with Maven will take your career to the next level as a developer because it will help you gain project management expertise.