What Is WebDriver?

WebDriver is a remote control communication interface that enables introspection and control of user agents. It provides a platform- and language-neutral wire protocol as a way for out-of-process programs to remotely instruct the behavior of web browsers.

WebDriver interface is defined in the WebDriver specification published by W3.org at www.w3.org/TR/webdriver/.

WebDriver interface is provided as HTTP Web services from specific WebDriver servers connected to specific Web browsers.

For example, if you run the Chrome WebDriver server on the same machine as the Chrome Web browser, then you can run any HTTP client tool on a client machine to remotely control the Chrome browser by sending Web service request to the Chrome WebDriver server.

The diagram below shows you how WebDriver interface is used by WebDriver Servers to allow client tools to control Web browsers.

⇒ Google ChromeDriver WebDriver Server

⇐ WebDriver and WebDriver Servers

⇑ WebDriver and WebDriver Servers

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