Selenium IDE, RC

Selenium IDE

Selenium IDE is a browser extension that records user actions (clicks, typing, navigation) and plays them back, letting testers create simple automated tests without writing code.

Selenium RC (Remote Control)

Selenium RC was the original tool for programmatically controlling a browser through code, requiring a separate RC server process to relay commands between the test script and the browser.

Why These Matter Historically

Both were important early tools in Selenium's evolution — IDE for quick, code-free recording, and RC for the first programmable automation approach — before WebDriver replaced RC as the modern standard.