Why Page Object Model · Page Object Model in Selenium | Selenium

The Problem With Flat Scripts

In your first tests, locators and actions sit inside the test method. That works for five tests. With 300 tests, the ShopEase team changes the login button id from #login-btn to #sign-in and 120 tests break. You now edit 120 files.

@Test
public void addToCart() {
    driver.findElement(By.id("email")).sendKeys("[email protected]");      // locator copy 1 of 120
    driver.findElement(By.id("password")).sendKeys("Secret@123");
    driver.findElement(By.id("login-btn")).click();
    driver.findElement(By.id("search")).sendKeys("headphones" + Keys.ENTER);
    driver.findElements(By.cssSelector(".product-card")).get(0).click();
    driver.findElement(By.id("add-to-cart")).click();
    Assert.assertEquals(driver.findElement(By.id("cart-count")).getText(), "1");
}

The Idea

Page Object Model (POM) is a design pattern: every page (or big component) of the app gets one Java class. The class holds the page's locators and exposes actions as methods (login(email, password), searchFor(text)). Tests call those methods and only contain the test steps and assertions.

Test class (what to check)        Page classes (how to do it)           Browser
-------------------------         ---------------------------           -------
LoginTest.validLogin()  ------->  LoginPage.login(email, pwd)  ------>  #email, #password, #login-btn
CartTest.addToCart()    ------->  SearchPage.searchFor("tv")   ------>  #search, .product-card
                        ------->  ProductPage.addToCart()      ------>  #add-to-cart, #cart-count

Benefits

Benefit	What it means for ShopEase tests
One place per locator	the login button id changes, you edit `LoginPage` only
Readable tests	`loginPage.login(user)` reads like a manual test case
Reuse	search, cart and checkout steps are shared by many tests
Easier reviews	test logic and page logic are reviewed separately
Less flakiness	waits are written once inside page methods, not in every test

Tip: Rule of thumb: no driver.findElement inside a test class. If you see one in a code review, move it into a page class.