Difference Between Selenium RC and Webdriver

Testing is an integral part of any product’s development. Therefore, it is important for every organization to have a stringent quality testing strategy and framework that helps it ensure the best quality of its products. While a number of software are already present in different frameworks in the market, Selenium is one of the most preferred one.

Selenium is defined as a portable software-testing framework that can be used for web applications. It can be used for authoring tests without the need to learn scripting language Selenium IDE and test domain-Selenese to write tests in a number of popular programming languages, including C#, Groovy, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and Scala. These tests can used to execute against different-or latest web browsers.
A user can use selenium on Windows, Linux, and OS X platforms as well. It is an open-source software, released under the Apache 2.0 license and is available for free for downloading.

Selenium includes a number of components and each of these have a specific function to perform development of web application test automation. Some of the common components are Selenium IDE (integrated development environment), Selenium client API, Selenium RC (Remote Control), Selenium WebDriver and Selenium Grid.
Difference Between Selenium RC and Webdriver
 While it is true that Selenium WebDriver python test automation framework is a successor of Selenium RC, there are still a number of similarities as well as differences between the two. This article can help you develop a better understanding about the same and help you avoid any sort of confusion between the two.

1. Browsers

Both these tools can be used on different browsers such as, Firefox, IE, Chrome, Safari, Opera and others.

2. Recording and playback

Whether a user is using RC or WebDriver, it is possible for him/her to record as well as playback the execution of a test.

3. Executing test script

While RC requires one to start server again before executing the test script, the same is not a mandate in case of WebDriver.

4. Type of program

RC is a separate java program that allow a user execute HTML test suites. Whereas WebDriver is a programming interface which is available in multiple languages.

5. Platform for interaction

RC server executes the test as JavaScript commands whereas WebDriver performs on Selenium commands and a browser.

6. API

The API (Application Programming Interface) of RC is easy and small. But these contain a lot of redundancies and a lot of confusing commands. Various browsers interpret commands differently.
On the other hand, the API of WebDriver is large and a bit complex. These are also simple to comprehend and do not contain any sort of redundancy or confusing commands.

7. Object-oriented

Selenium RC’s are not much object-oriented whereas Selenium WebDriver’s are completely object-oriented

8. App testing

One cannot test any sort of iPhone or Android application on Selenium RC whereas the same can be done using WebDriver.

9. XPath attachment

Selenium RC requires one to attach complete XPath whereas the same is not mandatory in case of WebDriver.

10. Implementation of listeners

It is not possible to implant listeners in Selenium RC whereas one can do the same with a WebDriver.

11. Execution speed

As compared to Selenium RC, WebDriver is faster in its execution as it is directly connected with the browser. The use of JavaScript program called Selenium Core slows down the Selenium RC’s speed.

12. Syntax

While the syntax of RC is quite complex, the same is simple and easy to understand in case of WebDriver.
The basic purpose behind introducing Selenium WebDriver test automation framework in the market was to deal with the problem areas of Selenium RC as well as increase the scope of testing.

It is recommended to make use of Selenium WebDriver test automation framework for testing purposes however, the same depends on one’s choice as well the requirements.