Case Study: Wait for File Download to Complete Safely in Selenium

How to increase reliability in an automated test for a file download.

A repost of my daughter’s article, I added a few notes. This is also included in my “How to in Selenium WebDriver” series.

This article will show you how to verify a file download completes successfully in Selenium WebDriver.

Table of Contents:
∘ Test Design
∘ Fixed Wait
∘ Check the Downloaded File’s Size
∘ Wait for the Browser Download to Complete
∘ Complete Test Script
∘ Zhimin’s Notes

The test site for this article is http://zhimin.com/books/pwta. There is a sample PDF download that I will use for the tests.

Test Design

The test design is quite straightforward.

1. Click the download button
2. Wait…
3. Verify the file contents