Capturing Screenshot in Selenium WebDriver | getScreenshotAs

Capturing a screenshot in Selenium can be done using the getScreenshotAs() method. This method allows you to capture a screenshot and save it as a file.

Here is an example of how to capture a screenshot in Selenium:

File screenshot = ((TakesScreenshot)driver).getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE);
 
FileUtils.copyFile(screenshot, new File("path/to/screenshot.png"));

In this example, the getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE) method is used to capture a screenshot of the current state of the web page. The screenshot is saved as a File object. Then the FileUtils.copyFile(screenshot, new File("path/to/screenshot.png")) method is used to save the screenshot to the specified file location.

It's important to note that the getScreenshotAs() method is part of the TakesScreenshot interface, so it can only be used with web driver classes that implement this interface (such as the FirefoxDriver, ChromeDriver, and RemoteWebDriver classes).

You can also use the saveAs() method to capture the screenshot in a specific folder location

File src=((TakesScreenshot)driver).getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE);
 
FileUtils.copyFile(src, new File("C:\\test\\screenshot.png"));

It's important to note that the screenshots are saved in the default format of the driver (for example, PNG for Chrome, Jpeg for firefox), you can use the OutputType.FILE to change the format.

Capturing a screenshot in Selenium can be useful in several scenarios:

Debugging: Screenshots can be used to quickly identify the state of the web page when an error occurs. This can be useful for developers to debug the test cases and find the root cause of the failure.

Reporting: Screenshots can be included in test reports to provide visual evidence of the results. For example, if a test case fails, a screenshot can be included in the report to show the state of the web page at the time of the failure.

Verification: Screenshots can be used to verify that the web page is displayed correctly. This can be useful for visual regression testing, where the screenshots are compared with the expected results.

Documenting: Screenshots can be used to document the application under test, for example, for creating user manuals or for providing visual aids for customer support.

Demonstrating: Screenshots can be used to demonstrate the functionality of the application under test, for example, for creating marketing materials or for demos.

It's important to note that capturing screenshots can make the test suite slower and can consume more disk space, so it's important to use them judiciously and only when they are needed.