Selenium News and Updates: A Smattering of Selenium 71

What was in Selenium’s Smattering #71? Published on November 28, 2011, and credited to Adam Goucher, it was a collection of links and notes about Selenium and test automation—not a Selenium release announcement or a single tutorial. The topics ranged from test organization and accessibility to continuous integration, Python bindings, frameworks, and test runners. Its descriptions capture what the author highlighted at the time; they do not establish that the linked tools, browser support, or advice remain current.

What the roundup covered

The official Selenium post gathered resources from several parts of the test automation workflow. Here is a concise guide to its subjects:

Topic	What the 2011 post highlighted
Static checks and accessibility	Ideas for checks alongside Selenium scripts as the web moved toward HTML5, including an article about accessibility and nested figure elements.
Test organization	Using metadata to organize tests, with execution kept separate from organization.
Mobile testing	A screencast about iPhoneDriver and jQuery Mobile.
Continuous integration	A Bash script to set up a Quickstart CI appliance; Goucher remarked that he would personally use Puppet or Chef for that setup.
Test authoring approaches	A short Python implementation presented as an alternative to Cucumber.
Python interactions	A question about hovering over an element with Selenium’s Python bindings, which the author connected to the less-documented ActionChains feature.
Frameworks and runners	Ebselen, described as a Mavenized Selenium test framework; Snowday, an RSpec formatter; and junitparams, described as an alternate JUnit runner for more readable parameterized scripts.
Parallel execution	An article about parallel test execution in Visual Studio 2010.

The author’s introduction suggested another installment might appear later that week: “Looking like there might also be one later in the week too…” The official Smattering archive places issue 71 in a broader series of Selenium and automation link roundups.

How to read this historical roundup

1. Read it as a snapshot. The post documents links and ideas circulating on November 28, 2011.
2. Separate the topic from present-day support. A description in the roundup is not confirmation that a tool, browser integration, or linked page is still maintained or compatible with current software.
3. Use the categories to navigate. The topics map to test organization, accessibility, CI provisioning, language bindings, frameworks, and runners. That makes the post useful as a record of the concerns Selenium practitioners were sharing, even when you need current documentation for implementation.

What this post does not establish

• It does not announce Selenium 71 or a Selenium release; “#71” is the roundup’s issue number.
• It does not provide a single end-to-end setup or runnable implementation for the linked subjects.
• It does not verify that each external link is still available or that the described software works with present-day browsers and test stacks.

For current use, consult the maintainers’ documentation for the specific Selenium binding, browser, framework, or CI system you plan to use. Treat the roundup as historical context and follow its links only with that age in mind.

Capture a page while researching test automation

If your research or documentation work needs a reproducible image of a web page, a browser automation script can capture it, but you must install and maintain the browser setup yourself. For an example using Selenium’s Python bindings, install Selenium and a browser driver supported by your environment, then run:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options

options = Options()
options.add_argument("--headless")
options.add_argument("--window-size=1440,1000")

driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)
try:
    driver.get("https://www.selenium.dev/blog/2011/a-smattering-of-selenium-71/")
    driver.save_screenshot("smattering-71.png")
finally:
    driver.quit()

This captures the current rendering of the URL, not an archived rendering from 2011. Browser and driver installation, version matching, and headless behavior depend on your environment. For Selenium’s current API and setup details, use its official documentation.

Or skip the browser setup

ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server. One GET request returns a PNG, JPEG, WebP, or PDF. The API accepts common screenshot parameters and supports full-page captures, element selectors, viewport and device options, wait conditions, custom CSS or JavaScript, and other capture controls. See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for parameters and response details.

curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://www.selenium.dev/blog/2011/a-smattering-of-selenium-71/ -o shot.webp

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FAQ

Who wrote Smattering of Selenium #71?

The official post credits Adam Goucher.

Was it a Selenium release announcement?

No. It was a link roundup. The number 71 identifies the installment.

Can I rely on the linked tools today?

The roundup alone cannot answer that. Check current maintainer documentation and project status before adopting a tool or following old setup advice.