What is the use of pom.xml File In Maven apart from dependencies - Selenium

Question

I need some clarification about the interview question on pom.xml file:

what is the use of pom.xml file apart from the dependencies in selenium?

Answer 1

There are lot more things that a POM.xml specifies apart from dependencies. To answer it as in an selenium interview question: Build tool(Maven here) is used to setup everything which is required to run your java code independently. This can be applied to your entire java project. It generates source code, compiling code, packaging code to a jar etc.it provides a common platform to perform these activities which makes programmer’s life easier while handling huge project. Maven provides pom.xml which is the core to any project. This is the configuration file where all required information’s related to Plugins(eg reporting plugins for your framework), Configuration details of your tests execution (eg format of result reports, output directory of the reports, src directory path, test suites to execute incase if you are using tesng,) also you can link up libraries in other maven projects by adding the group and artifact id to the pom.xml..etc

Answer 2

I have found this selenium template that you can review.

https://github.com/Ardesco/Selenium-Maven-Template/blob/master/pom.xml

It shows you some of the elements that are often used.

An important element is the WebDriver which defines which browser driver you want your selenium server to use.