What is meant by Selenium RC?

Selenium RC is a key part in Selenium. It is a framework for testing that allows testers and developers to design test scripts in multiple languages to automate frontend UI test cases. It has a client library and a server that starts and quits the browser sessions by default

Server injects Selenium core (a program in JavaScript) to the browser. The Selenium Core gets the commands from the RC server. Selenium Core executes the commands in JavaScript. Then the JavaScript commands provide instructions to the browser. Finally, the browser runs the instructions given by the Selenium Core and sends a complete status of the execution to the server. This final result is the output received by the user.

Selenium RC Architecture diagram −

Img src: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/selenium/selenium_rc.htm

Selenium RC is deprecated because of the reasons listed below −

• Selenium RC comprises an additional layer of JavaScript known as the core which makes it slower.

• Selenium RC has complicated and redundant APIs.

• Selenium RC is not compatible with the HTMLUnit browser (required for headless execution).

• Selenium RC has in−built HTML report generation features for test results.

• Selenium RC has selenium.typeKeys and selenium.type APIs which have similar tasks. While Selenium webdriver has only one method sendKeys which takes care of all inputting tasks.

• Selenium RC cannot be used for testing mobile applications like android phones, iphone, iPad, and so on.

• Maintaining a large regression suite is difficult in Selenium RC.

• Additional software and third-party APIs are not supported in Selenium RC.

• Not capable of executing Selenium webdriver scripts from Selenium RC.

  Has in-built report generation features but it is not upto to the mark.

  Installation of Remote Control Server is required prior to running of scripts in Selenium RC.

• Command related usage is present in Selenium RC.

• Execution is slower in Selenium RC as it has the JavaScript program known as the core. Selenium core works closely with the browser.

• Less of object oriented usage in APIs for Selenium RC.

• Has a complicated architecture and operates in between the end-user and the browser.

• Has a very limited community support for development in Selenium RC.