Hello everyone. Hope you are doing well. This post is about how you can get started with building an app on blockchain using Selenium. You might have heard nothing about Selenium, so here’s the official definition:

Selenium Doc

Selenium supports automation of all the major browsers in the market through the use of WebDriver. WebDriver is an API and protocol that defines a language-neutral interface for controlling the behaviour of web browsers. Each browser is backed by a specific WebDriver implementation, called a driver. The driver is the component responsible for delegating down to the browser, and handles communication to and from Selenium and the browser

Getting Started with Selenium and Building Your First Blockchain App

Don’t worry if you’re new to all these – I have tried to keep it in parts and simple and if you ever feel stuck, do comment. We will be happy to help.

Part 1: Getting Started with Selenium Automation

Step 1: Set Up Your Environment

1. Install Python: If you haven’t already, download and install Python from the official website (https://www.python.org/).
2. Install Selenium: Open your terminal or command prompt and use the command pip install selenium to install the Selenium package.

Step 2: Choose a Browser Driver

1. Depending on your preferred browser (Chrome, Firefox, etc.), download the appropriate browser driver. For example, for Chrome, you’ll need ChromeDriver.
2. Add the driver to your system’s PATH or provide its location in your code (For this, search environment variable in your pc and click on open. Then click on new and add the path)

Step 3: Write Your First Selenium Script

Let's create a simple Selenium script that opens a browser and searches for a keyword on Google:

from selenium import webdriver
# Initialize the browser driver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()  # You can use other drivers like Firefox as well
# Open Google
driver.get("https://www.google.com")
# Find the search input element and type a keyword
search_box = driver.find_element_by_name("q")
search_box.send_keys("Selenium automation")
# Submit the search
search_box.submit()
# Close the browser
driver.quit()

Part 2: Building Your First Blockchain App

Blockchain is a distributed and secure digital ledger technology. To start building your first blockchain app, we’ll create a simple implementation using Python and the web3.py library to interact with Ethereum.

Step 1: Set Up Your Environment

1. Install web3.py: Use the command pip install web3 to install the web3.py library.

Step 2: Create a Simple Blockchain App

1. Let’s create a basic blockchain app that deploys a simple smart contract and interacts with it:

from web3 import Web3
# Connect to a local Ethereum node (you can use Infura for a remote connection)
w3 = Web3(Web3.HTTPProvider('http://localhost:8545'))
# Define the simple smart contract code
contract_code = """
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;
contract HelloWorld {
    string public message;
    constructor() {
        message = "Hello, Blockchain!";
    }
    function setMessage(string memory newMessage) public {
        message = newMessage;
    }
}
"""
# Deploy the contract
contract = w3.eth.contract(abi=contract_interface['abi'], bytecode=contract_interface['bin'])
transaction_hash = contract.deploy(transaction={'from': w3.eth.accounts[0]})
transaction_receipt = w3.eth.waitForTransactionReceipt(transaction_hash)
# Interact with the contract
contract_instance = w3.eth.contract(address=transaction_receipt.contractAddress, abi=contract_interface['abi'])
current_message = contract_instance.functions.message().call()
print("Current message:", current_message)

This is it. You have created your own blockchain app. Let me know if you have any questions or faced any trouble.