Handling Multiple Browser Tabs With Selenium Automation Testing

Automation testing with Selenium has been a lifeline for budding automation testers interested in becoming professionals. Selenium being open-source has allowed it to be largely adopted on a global scale, resulting in huge support from the community. There are multiple frameworks for different languages that offer integration with Selenium. When you have got everything to get started with Selenium, now you run your first test script to perform automation testing with Selenium. The scripts will involve basic test scenarios if you are learning Selenium automation. You may validate:

• A simple login form with Selenium automation testing.
• Capture screenshots of a web page with Selenium WebDriver.
• Web elements using CSS locators in Selenium WebDriver.
• Set up a Selenium Grid for parallel execution of test cases.
• Generating Selenium test reports.

These are just a few of the many things you may look to validate as you aim to perform automation testing with Selenium. Today, I am going to help you perform one of the basic and fundamental validations for test automation with Selenium. I will demonstrate how you can handle multiple browser tabs using Selenium automation testing.

Getting Started With A Practical Scenario

Sometimes you may come across a complex scenario where you have to open a new tab or window and perform the desired actions on the opened tab/window. Handling multiple tabs or windows may seem complex in the beginning, but once you know how to handle them, it becomes really easy. Let’s look at a scenario.

For example, assume you open the homepage of Airbnb and wish to open the details of a homestay in another tab, perform some actions on the opened tab, and then switch back to the previous tab. How do you do so?

You may find multiple solutions on the web regarding this. Some people use the sendkeys method Control + T to open a tab after locating the body of the homepage. This approach usually does not work due to a sendKeys issue with browser. The best approach to open tab is using a Robot class or using JavascriptExecutor. The Robot class ensures your tab is opened using the Control + T command, while through JavascriptExecutor, you can simply open the tab using  windows.open. After opening the tab you can switch to the tab using either the Action Class approach or using Selenium WebDriver interface methods getWindowHandle  and getWindowHandles. I will be showcasing both approaches in this article.

These test steps need to be taken in order to open a tab in Airbnb.

1. Open Airbnb URL.
2. Search for "Goa" location.
3. Store the URL of any stay.
4. Open a new tab
5. Switch to the new tab and launch the desired stored URL.

In order to open a new tab, the following Robot class code can be used:

Robot r = new Robot();                 
r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);         
r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_T);        
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);         
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_T);

This code helps to open a tab using the Control + T command on the keyboard. This can be performed using sendKeys but its effectiveness is, again, sporadic owing to the behavior of the browser with which it is used. You can use the sendKeys command below to replicate the above behavior.

driver.findElement(By.cssSelector(“body”)).sendKeys(Keys.CONTROL+ “t”);

Handling Tabs In Selenium Using The Window Handler Method

Now, all we need to do is switch to this opened tab using the Window Handler methods. The code snippet below is for your reference:

import java.awt.AWTException;
import java.awt.Robot;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
public class HandlingMultipleTabs {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException, AWTException { // TODO Auto-generated method stub                  
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", ".\\ChromeDriver\\chromedriver.exe");
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS); //Navigating to airbnb         
        driver.get("https://www.airbnb.co.in/");
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        String currentHandle = driver.getWindowHandle();
        //locating the location, looking for homestays         
        driver.findElement(By.id("Koan-magic-carpet-koan-search-bar__input")).sendKeys("Goa", Keys.ENTER);
        //Clicking on search button         
        driver.findElement(By.xpath("//button[@type='submit']")).click();
        String urlToClick = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[text()='Luxury Three Bedroom Apartment with Pool & Jacuzzi']/ancestor::a")).getAttribute("href"); //opening the new tab         
        Robot r = new Robot();
        r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);
        r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_T);
        r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);
        r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_T); //getting all the handles currently available         
        Set < String > handles = driver.getWindowHandles();
        for (String actual: handles) {
            if (!actual.equalsIgnoreCase(currentHandle)) { //switching to the opened tab              
                driver.switchTo().window(actual); //opening the URL saved.              
                driver.get(urlToClick);
            }
        }
    }
}

Use the below command if you wish to switch back to the original tab.

driver.switchTo().defaultContent();

Now, let’s try to open the tab using JavascriptExecutor and switch to that tab for the same scenario above. Below is the referenced code snippet:

import java.util.Set;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.JavascriptExecutor;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

public class multipltabsonce123 {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", ".\\ChromeDriver\\chromedriver.exe");
        WebDriver driver=new ChromeDriver();
        driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        
        //Navigating to airbnb
        driver.get("https://www.airbnb.co.in/");
        
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        
        String currentHandle= driver.getWindowHandle();
        
        //locating the location, looking for homestays
        driver.findElement(By.id("Koan-magic-carpet-koan-search-bar__input")).sendKeys("Goa", Keys.ENTER);
        
        //Clicking on search button
        driver.findElement(By.xpath("//button[@type='submit']")).click();
        String urlToClick=driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[text()='Luxury Three Bedroom Apartment with Pool & Jacuzzi']/ancestor::a")).getAttribute("href");
        
        //opening the new tab
        ((JavascriptExecutor)driver).executeScript("window.open()");
        
        //getting all the handles currently avaialbe
        Set<String> handles=driver.getWindowHandles();
        for(String actual: handles)
        {
            
         if(!actual.equalsIgnoreCase(currentHandle))
         {
             //switching to the opened tab
             driver.switchTo().window(actual);
             
             //opening the URL saved.
             driver.get(urlToClick);
         }
        }
        
    }

}

import java.util.Set;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.JavascriptExecutor;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
 
public class multipltabsonce123 {
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
 
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", ".\\ChromeDriver\\chromedriver.exe");
        WebDriver driver=new ChromeDriver();
        driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        
        //Navigating to airbnb
        driver.get("https://www.airbnb.co.in/");
        
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        
        String currentHandle= driver.getWindowHandle();
        
        //locating the location, looking for homestays
        driver.findElement(By.id("Koan-magic-carpet-koan-search-bar__input")).sendKeys("Goa", Keys.ENTER);
        
        //Clicking on search button
        driver.findElement(By.xpath("//button[@type='submit']")).click();
        String urlToClick=driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[text()='Luxury Three Bedroom Apartment with Pool & Jacuzzi']/ancestor::a")).getAttribute("href");
        
        //opening the new tab
        ((JavascriptExecutor)driver).executeScript("window.open()");

Congratulations! You have successfully performed automation testing with Selenium for switching different browser tabs with the help of the Windows Handler method. Now, let us go about it in a different manner.

Handling Tabs In Selenium Using The Action Class

As mentioned above, we can switch to tabs using both Window Handler and Action Class. The below code snippet showcases how to switch to tabs using Action class. Since the Action Class also uses sendkeys, it may or may not work depending on the browser being used.

import java.awt.AWTException;
import java.awt.Robot;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
public class HandlingMultipleTabs {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException, AWTException { // TODO Auto-generated method stub                  
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", ".\\ChromeDriver\\chromedriver.exe");
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        //Navigating to airbnb         driver.get("https://www.airbnb.co.in/");                  
        river.manage().window().maximize();
        String currentHandle = driver.getWindowHandle();
        //locating the location, looking for homestays         
        driver.findElement(By.id("Koan-magic-carpet-koan-search-bar__input")).sendKeys("Goa", Keys.ENTER); //Clicking on search button         
        driver.findElement(By.xpath("//button[@type='submit']")).click();
        String urlToClick = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[text()='Luxury Three Bedroom Apartment with Pool & Jacuzzi']/ancestor::a")).getAttribute("href"); //opening the new tab         
        Robot r = new Robot();
        r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);
        r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_T);
        r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);
        r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_T);
        //switch using actions class         
        Actions action = new Actions(driver);
        action.keyDown(Keys.CONTROL).sendKeys(Keys.TAB).build().perform(); //opening the URL saved.         
        driver.get(urlToClick);
    }
}

And that is it! You have handled multiple browser tabs with Selenium automation testing using both Windows Handler method and using the Action Class. Now, we know that Selenium WebDriver is a great open-source tool for automating web applications. However, the primary pain point with WebDriver is the sequential execution of test scripts.

As a solution, ThoughtWorks, the organization behind Selenium, came up with Selenium Grid to help users run multiple test cases simultaneously. This drastically brought down the test builds execution.

So we have a way to run multiple test cases in parallel as we perform automation testing with Selenium. But how scalable is it?

Setting up a Selenium Grid of your own would demand a lot of CPU consumption and maintaining it is a hassle. The greater the number of tests you wish to perform using parallel execution with Selenium, the higher is the demand for computation. So how can you perform automation testing with Selenium at scale?

Executing Automation Testing With Selenium On Cloud

A cloud-based Selenium Grid will allow you to run your test cases without the hassle of infrastructure setup; all you would require is an Internet connection. We have multiple platforms that help us provide a rich bed of browsers, versions, mobile devices, android versions, etc.

Let us execute the above-demonstrated test cases on LambdaTest Selenium Grid. I will be showcasing how we can open multiple tabs, on a cloud-based platform and access the required details like video, screenshots, console logs, etc. for LambdaTest.

All you need to do is set up the LambdaTest URL while instantiating the remoteWebDriver. This URL is a combination of username, access key, and LambdaTest hub URL. Now, all you need to do is define the platform, browser, version and the add-ons you require. Once this setup process is complete, use the same multiple tab script and run it on the LambdaTest platform. The referenced code snippet is below:

import java.awt.AWTException;
import java.awt.Robot;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.JavascriptExecutor;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.DesiredCapabilities;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterClass;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeClass;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;
public class HandlingMultipleTabs {
    public RemoteWebDriver driver = null;
    public String url = "https://www.lambdatest.com/";
    public static final String username = "sadhvisingh24"; // Your LambdaTest Username     
    public static final String auth_key = "abcdefghi123456789"; // Your LambdaTest Access Key     
    public static final String URL = "@hub.lambdatest.com/wd/hub"; //This is the hub URL for LambdaTest               
    @BeforeClass public void setUp() {
        DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
        capabilities.setCapability("browserName", "chrome");
        capabilities.setCapability("version", "73.0");
        capabilities.setCapability("platform", "win10"); // If this cap isn't specified, it will just get the any available one         
        capabilities.setCapability("build", "MultipleTabs_Lambdatest");
        capabilities.setCapability("name", "MultipleTabs_Lambdatest");
        capabilities.setCapability("network", true); // To enable network logs        
        capabilities.setCapability("visual", true); // To enable step by step screenshot         
        capabilities.setCapability("video", true); // To enable video recording         
        capabilities.setCapability("console", true); // To capture console logs         try {                       
        driver = new RemoteWebDriver(new URL("https://" + username + ":" + auth_key + URL), capabilities);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        System.out.println("Invalid grid URL" + e.getMessage());
    }
    System.out.println("The setup process is completed");
}
@Test public void handleMultipleTabs() throws InterruptedException, AWTException { // TODO Auto-generated method stub                  
        driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        //Navigating to airbnb         driver.get("https://www.lambdatest.com");                  
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        String currentHandle = driver.getWindowHandle(); //locating the blog url         
        String urlToClick = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[text()='Blog']")).getAttribute("href");
        //opening the new tab         ((JavascriptExecutor)driver).executeScript("window.open()");                  
        //getting all the handles currently availabe         Set<String> handles=driver.getWindowHandles();         
        for (String actual: handles) {
            if (!actual.equalsIgnoreCase(currentHandle)) { //switching to the opened tab              driver.switchTo().window(actual);                           
                //opening the URL saved.              driver.get(urlToClick);          }         }                             
            }
            @AfterClass public void closeDown() {
                driver.quit();
            }
        }

This script will help you handle browser tabs in Selenium through an on-cloud Selenium Grid with zero-downtime. You can view the status of these test on the LambdaTest automation dashboard. You can view the video, screenshots, console output, and more as you perform automation testing with Selenium on LambdaTest. The referenced screenshot below:

Console Output of the test:

Conclusion

We demonstrated automation testing with Selenium to handle multiple tabs using both Action Class & Windows Handler method. We came to realize the pain point of running Selenium WebDriver, & Grid, locally. Moving to cloud-based Selenium Grid such as LambdaTest will help you scale effortlessly, so you could reduce your build times significantly & ship products faster.

Let me know in case you have any queries regarding this topic. I will be coming up with more articles around fundamental topics of Selenium automation testing, to help you grow better as a professional automation tester. Stay tuned for more & happy testing!