Web Test Automation with SHAFT

This guide covers everything you need to start automating web browser tests using SHAFT and Selenium WebDriver.

What You Get Out of the Box

• Auto driver management — Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. No manual driver downloads.
• Smart waits — Automatic element synchronization. No Thread.sleep() or WebDriverWait.
• Fluent API — Chain browser, element, and validation actions in a single statement.
• Allure reports — Screenshots on failure, execution video, and detailed step logs.
• Parallel execution — Run tests concurrently with thread-safe drivers.

Choose Your Test Runner

TestNG

TestNG Setup

Best for: Teams needing flexible test configuration, built-in parallel execution, and data providers.

Project Structure

src/
├── main/resources/properties/
│   └── custom.properties          # SHAFT configuration
└── test/java/com/example/
    ├── pages/                     # Page Object classes
    │   └── SearchPage.java
    └── tests/                     # TestNG test classes
        └── SearchTest.java

Example: Search Test with Page Object Model

Page Object — SearchPage.java:

public class SearchPage {
    private final SHAFT.GUI.WebDriver driver;

    // Locators
    private final By searchBox = By.name("q");
    private final By searchButton = By.cssSelector("button[type='submit']");

    public SearchPage(SHAFT.GUI.WebDriver driver) {
        this.driver = driver;
    }

    public SearchPage open() {
        driver.browser().navigateToURL("https://duckduckgo.com/");
        return this;
    }

    public SearchPage search(String query) {
        driver.element().type(searchBox, query)
              .and().element().click(searchButton);
        return this;
    }

    public SearchPage verifyResultsContain(String expected) {
        driver.assertThat().browser().title().contains(expected).perform();
        return this;
    }
}

Test Class — SearchTest.java:

import org.testng.annotations.*;

public class SearchTest {
    private SHAFT.GUI.WebDriver driver;

    @Test(description = "Verify search returns relevant results")
    public void searchReturnsResults() {
        new SearchPage(driver)
            .open()
            .search("SHAFT Engine test automation")
            .verifyResultsContain("SHAFT");
    }

    @BeforeMethod
    public void setUp() {
        driver = new SHAFT.GUI.WebDriver();
    }

    @AfterMethod
    public void tearDown() {
        driver.quit();
    }
}

Run Tests

# Run via Maven
mvn test

# Generate and open the Allure report
mvn allure:serve

JUnit 5

JUnit 5 Setup

Best for: Teams that prefer modern Java testing conventions, @DisplayName, and @ParameterizedTest.

pom.xml Dependency

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.github.shafthq</groupId>
    <artifactId>SHAFT_ENGINE</artifactId>
    <version>RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

Example: Search Test

import org.junit.jupiter.api.*;

public class SearchTest {
    private SHAFT.GUI.WebDriver driver;

    @Test
    @DisplayName("Verify search returns relevant results")
    void searchReturnsResults() {
        driver.browser().navigateToURL("https://duckduckgo.com/")
              .and().element().type(By.name("q"), "SHAFT Engine")
              .and().element().click(By.cssSelector("button[type='submit']"))
              .and().assertThat().browser().title().contains("SHAFT").perform();
    }

    @BeforeEach
    void setUp() {
        driver = new SHAFT.GUI.WebDriver();
    }

    @AfterEach
    void tearDown() {
        driver.quit();
    }
}

JUnit 5 Annotation Mapping

JUnit 5	TestNG Equivalent	Purpose
@BeforeEach	@BeforeMethod	Run before each test
@AfterEach	@AfterMethod	Run after each test
@BeforeAll	@BeforeClass	Run once before all tests
@AfterAll	@AfterClass	Run once after all tests
@DisplayName	description param	Human-readable test name
@ParameterizedTest	@DataProvider	Data-driven testing

Cucumber (BDD)

Cucumber BDD Setup

Best for: Teams practicing Behavior-Driven Development where non-technical stakeholders write test scenarios.

Additional Dependencies

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
    <artifactId>cucumber-java</artifactId>
    <version>7.15.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
    <artifactId>cucumber-testng</artifactId>
    <version>7.15.0</version>
</dependency>

Feature File — search.feature

Feature: Web search
  As a user I want to search the web to find relevant results.

  Scenario: Search returns relevant results
    Given I am on the DuckDuckGo homepage
    When I search for "SHAFT Engine test automation"
    Then the page title should contain "SHAFT"

  Scenario Outline: Search with multiple queries
    Given I am on the DuckDuckGo homepage
    When I search for "<query>"
    Then the page title should contain "<expected>"

    Examples:
      | query                     | expected  |
      | SHAFT Engine              | SHAFT     |
      | Selenium WebDriver Java   | Selenium  |

Step Definitions — SearchSteps.java

import io.cucumber.java.After;
import io.cucumber.java.Before;
import io.cucumber.java.en.*;

public class SearchSteps {
    private SHAFT.GUI.WebDriver driver;

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
        driver = new SHAFT.GUI.WebDriver();
    }

    @Given("I am on the DuckDuckGo homepage")
    public void navigateToHome() {
        driver.browser().navigateToURL("https://duckduckgo.com/");
    }

    @When("I search for {string}")
    public void search(String query) {
        driver.element().type(By.name("q"), query)
              .and().element().click(By.cssSelector("button[type='submit']"));
    }

    @Then("the page title should contain {string}")
    public void verifyTitle(String expected) {
        driver.assertThat().browser().title().contains(expected).perform();
    }

    @After
    public void tearDown() {
        driver.quit();
    }
}

Test Runner — TestRunner.java

import io.cucumber.testng.AbstractTestNGCucumberTests;
import io.cucumber.testng.CucumberOptions;

@CucumberOptions(
    features = "src/test/resources/features",
    glue = "com.example.steps",
    plugin = {"pretty", "io.qameta.allure.cucumber7jvm.AllureCucumber7Jvm"}
)
public class TestRunner extends AbstractTestNGCucumberTests {}

Essential Properties for Web Testing

Configure browser behavior in src/main/resources/properties/custom.properties:

# Browser — chrome | firefox | microsoftedge | safari
targetBrowserName=chrome

# Run headless (no visible browser window)
headlessExecution=false

# Timeouts (seconds)
browserNavigationTimeout=60
elementIdentificationTimeout=5

# Screenshots & reporting
screenshotParams_whenToTakeAScreenshot=ValidationPointsOnly
createAnimatedGif=true

See the full properties reference →

Cross-Browser Testing

Run the same tests on different browsers without changing code:

# Run on Firefox
mvn test -DtargetBrowserName=firefox

# Run on Edge
mvn test -DtargetBrowserName=microsoftedge

# Run headless
mvn test -DheadlessExecution=true

Cloud Execution

Execute tests on BrowserStack or LambdaTest by setting the execution address:

executionAddress=https://hub.browserstack.com/wd/hub

See the Integrations page → for full cloud setup instructions.