Setting Up Gradle, JUnit 5, and Selenium Jupiter for Java Test Automation

Selenium is a suite of tools for browser automation, primarily used for testing web applications. One of its components, Selenium WebDriver, provides client libraries, a JSON‑wire protocol for communicating with browser drivers, and supports most major programming languages and operating systems.

Test preparation

First, install a Java JDK (OpenJDK is recommended) and Gradle, then choose a Java IDE such as IntelliJ IDEA Community or Professional, and have Git available.

Ensure the following tools are installed before you start:

Java JDK – latest version

Gradle – version 5.6 or newer

IntelliJ IDEA

Chrome browser – for running Selenium tests

Terminal – with basic Unix command support

Git – for source‑code version control

From scratch

To create an empty Gradle project, open a terminal and run:

mkdir demo
cd demo
gradle init --type basic --dsl groovy

The generated project is a bare‑bones DIY project without plugins or dependencies. It includes a redundant settings.gradle file that can be removed:

rm settings.gradle

Java and JUnit 5

Add the following to build.gradle to configure a basic Java project with JUnit 5:

plugins {
    id 'java'
}

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    testImplementation('org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter:5.5.1')
}

test {
    useJUnitPlatform()
    testLogging {
        events "passed", "skipped", "failed"
    }
}

This DSL configures the Gradle Java plugin, uses Maven Central to resolve the declared dependencies, and sets JUnit 5 as the test implementation. You can verify the configuration by running a Gradle build:

./gradlew build

BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 0s
1 actionable task: 1 executed

The ./gradlew command runs the Gradle Wrapper, so a global Gradle installation is not required.

JUnit Jupiter

To simplify Selenium WebDriver configuration, add the Selenium Jupiter extension (a JUnit 5 extension) to the dependencies list in build.gradle:

dependencies {
    testCompile('io.github.bonigarcia:selenium-jupiter:3.3.0')
}

Selenium Jupiter provides integration with Selenium and Appium, supports local and remote browsers, Docker‑based browsers, and Selenide configuration. Internally it uses WebDriverManager to handle browser driver binaries.

Note: To view all project dependencies (including transitive ones), run ./gradlew dependencies.

Directory and project files

The project initially has no Java source files. Create the test directory and a first test file with:

mkdir -p src/test/java/demo/selenium/todomvc
touch src/test/java/demo/selenium/todomvc/SeleniumTest.java

The SeleniumTest.java file contains a minimal test that confirms the project is set up correctly. It uses the Selenium Jupiter‑provided JUnit 5 extension and contains a single test method without assertions:

package pl.codeleak.demos.selenium.todomvc;

import io.github.bonigarcia.seljup.SeleniumExtension;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

@ExtendWith(SeleniumExtension.class)
class SeleniumTest {

    @Test
    void projectIsConfigured(ChromeDriver driver) {}
}

Run the test

Execute a Gradle build to confirm the test passes:

./gradlew build

demo.selenium.todomvc.SeleniumTest > projectIsConfigured() PASSED

BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 1s
3 actionable tasks: 2 executed, 1 up-to-date

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