How to Take Screenshot in Selenium WebDriver with Timestamp (Java)

By Bhau Automation Lab • Selenium 4 Screenshot Tutorial

🎯 What You Will Learn

• How to capture screenshot in Selenium WebDriver
• What is TakesScreenshot interface
• How to use getScreenshotAs() method
• How to add timestamp in screenshot name
• How to take screenshot when test case fails
• Real-time automation framework use case

💡 In real automation frameworks, screenshots must be captured automatically when test cases fail.

📌 What is TakesScreenshot Interface?

Selenium WebDriver provides a TakesScreenshot interface to capture screenshots during test execution. Using getScreenshotAs() method we can capture the screenshot and store it in a file.

💻 Selenium Screenshot Example (Java)

import org.openqa.selenium.*;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
import java.io.File;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

public class ScreenshotExample {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("https://google.com");

        // Create timestamp
        String timestamp = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss").format(new Date());

        // Take Screenshot
        TakesScreenshot ts = (TakesScreenshot) driver;
        File source = ts.getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE);

        File destination = new File("./Screenshots/Screenshot_" + timestamp + ".png");
        FileUtils.copyFile(source, destination);

        System.out.println("Screenshot captured successfully!");

        driver.quit();
    }
}

📍 How Screenshot Works

• Cast WebDriver to TakesScreenshot
• Use getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE)
• Create timestamp for unique filename
• Save file using FileUtils

⚡ Screenshot When Test Case Fails (Framework Use)

In real-time automation projects, screenshots are captured inside:

• @AfterMethod (TestNG)
• ITestListener interface
• Catch block of try-catch

❓ Interview Questions

🎥 Watch Complete Video

👉 Watch on YouTube: Take Screenshot in Selenium WebDriver

🎓 Key Takeaways

• TakesScreenshot interface is used for capturing screenshots
• getScreenshotAs() captures screenshot
• Timestamp prevents file overwrite
• Must implement screenshot on test failure in framework
• Very important for Selenium interviews

🚀 Created with ❤️ by Bhau Automation Lab