Update selenium-java Dependency in axe-core-selenium to Latest Version

[Amandeque]

Summary

The axe-core-selenium Maven package (com.deque.html.axe-core:selenium) currently bundles selenium-java at version 4.13.0, which is significantly behind the current latest release of 4.41.0. This version mismatch is causing compatibility issues for customers running modern Selenium-based test frameworks and is a blocker for adoption of the latest axe-core-selenium release.

Acceptance Criteria:

The selenium-java dependency in com.deque.html.axe-core:selenium should be updated to the latest stable version (4.41.0) or, preferably, declared as a provided/optional dependency with a broad compatible version range so that customers can manage their own Selenium version without conflicts.

[Garbee]

Just for clarity during the hackathon, this issue is known to be a "best-effort" attempt. Due to the nature of driver dependencies, especially Selenium, we do not have an expectation that the results of this are merge able for a solution.

What we would like to see is an analysis of how AI did throughout the task. What problems were hit that it couldn't cross? Could anything be done to help it get reliable? When a new thread was started, what signs prompted it? Did AI consider the possible impacts given the use-case of the package?

Far more exploratory about AI given a task with many nuances.

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This comment does mean, do not run AI against this issue directly. It should not know about it. Give it the issue description as the prompt content manually.

[scottmries]

Using the prompt content manually, and after steering it away from an alternative approach that would just update java-selenium to latest, this is the plan we landed on:

Problem

selenium-java is declared as a compile-scope dependency in selenium/pom.xml at version 4.13.0. This means it is transitively forced on every consumer, causing version conflicts for customers running modern Selenium-based test frameworks.

Updating to the latest version (4.41.0) is not a safe fix — Selenium dropped Java 8 support around 4.18, which would break consumers still on Java 8.

Solution

Change selenium-java to provided scope. This makes it available for our own compilation and CI tests, but removes it as a transitive dependency. Consumers bring their own selenium-java and are not pinned to any version.

Additionally, remove the unused webdrivermanager dependency, which is declared at compile scope but not used in any source or test file. Its only effect is pulling selenium in transitively.

Changes

selenium/pom.xml

• Add <scope>provided</scope> to the selenium-java dependency (version unchanged at 4.13.0)
• Remove the webdrivermanager dependency (unused, adds transitive selenium)

selenium/README.md

• Update the selenium-java version example from 4.8.1 to 4.13.0
• Update the artifact version example from 4.6.0 to 4.11.0
• Clarify that selenium-java is a required peer dependency

Notes

• provided scope is on the classpath during compilation and test execution, so all existing CI tests continue to pass
• Java 8 users can continue using any Selenium 4.x version that supports Java 8
• Consumers on modern Selenium (4.41.0+) are no longer blocked by a transitive pin to 4.13.0
• Every realistic consumer already declares selenium-java themselves, since they need WebDriver etc. in their own test code

Acceptance Criteria

• selenium-java is declared as provided scope in selenium/pom.xml
• webdrivermanager is removed from selenium/pom.xml
• README installation instructions reflect current versions and clarify the peer dependency
• All existing CI tests pass (Java 8, 11, 17 matrix)

[scottmries]

@Garbee That plan seems reasonable to me. Do you want to give the go-ahead to implement this?