Syntax Formats - SeleniumBase for Rust

SeleniumBase for Rust supports three primary ways to express automation: direct API calls in Rust, CLI commands, and JSON-based scenarios. This page compares the formats and links to deeper guides.

Info

What you will learn

How the same action looks in each format.
How selectors are represented across formats.
When to choose one format over another.

The formats#

The most flexible format. Use it for production tests and complex logic.

# use seleniumbase_rs::BaseCase;# async fn demo(sb: &mut BaseCase) -> Result<(), seleniumbase_rs::SeleniumBaseError> {sb.click("#my-button").await?;let text = sb.get_text("h1").await?;# let _ = text;# Ok(())# }

The pure CDP engine has its own API, in which the selector lives in a Locator instead of being passed to every call:

# async fn demo(page: &seleniumbase_rs::sb_cdp::Page) -> Result<(), seleniumbase_rs::SeleniumBaseError> {page.locator("#my-button").click().await?;let text = page.locator("h1").text().await?;# let _ = text;# Ok(())# }

Useful for quick checks, CI one-liners, and ad-hoc debugging. Every sbrs command starts its own browser and closes it when it finishes, so the one-liners that make sense are the ones that take a URL:

Terminal

cargo run --bin sbrs -- open https://seleniumbase.iocargo run --bin sbrs -- smoke https://seleniumbase.io --title-contains SeleniumBasecargo run --bin sbrs -- deferred --url https://seleniumbase.io \    --assert element=h1 --assert title=SeleniumBase

For a flow with several steps, use a scenario or a Rust test.

Scenarios are portable and do not require recompiling a test binary. A scenario is an object with a name and a list of steps; each step has an action and the fields that action takes (url, css, text, contains, …):

scenario.json

{  "name": "basic_flow",  "steps": [    {"action": "open", "url": "https://seleniumbase.io"},    {"action": "click", "css": "#my-button"},    {"action": "assert_text", "css": "h1", "contains": "SeleniumBase"}  ]}

Run the scenario:

Terminal

cargo run --bin sbrs -- run-scenario --file scenario.json

The list of actions is in Recorder CLI. sbrs record writes a different file, an array of recorded actions, which you replay with sbrs replay.

Selector syntax#

SeleniumBase accepts multiple selector formats. See the Selectors Guide for details.

Format	Example
CSS	`#my-button`
XPath	`//button[@id='my-button']`
Link text	`link=Sign in`
Partial link text	`partial_link=Privacy`
Shadow DOM	`my-app ::shadow button`

A selector beginning with /, ./ or ( (or an XPath axis such as parent::) is XPath, the link=, link_text= and text= prefixes mean link text, and the partial_link=, partial_link_text= and partial_text= prefixes mean partial link text; anything else is CSS.

Choosing a format#

Use case	Recommended format
Production regression tests	Direct API
CI smoke checks	CLI or JSON scenarios
Prototyping / demos	Recorder → Rust or JSON
Non-developer authors	JSON scenarios

Next steps#

Working with seleniumbase-rs

Your first test with BaseCase.

Selectors

CSS, XPath, link text and shadow DOM.

Pure CDP

The driverless engine and its Locator API.

Recorder CLI

The scenario file and the recorded action file.