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javascriptseleniumwebdriver
Tanmay
Tanmay

Reputation: 237

Develop Selenium webdriver scripts using javascript

Can we develop selenium webdriver scripts using javascript only. If yes what are the advantages of using javascript instead of using java or C# or any language.? In what scenario we should consider Javascript over other languages?

Thank you.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 479

Answers (2)

sonhu
sonhu

Reputation: 961

There are numerous Javascript frameworks written on top of the JS selenium bindings (webdriver.io, nightwatch, protractor).

Benefits of JS over C# or Java

  • Less boilerplate
  • Grunt or gulp for build automaton > maven, msbuild or even gradle
  • Better integration with front-end frameworks (protractor)
  • JS is generally used in all web projects so it works as a universal language that all devs can understand.
  • NPM for dependency management and the massive number of libraries in it that may drastically reduce your workload.

Drawbacks

  • The Java bindings have more documentation / resources available to debug issues.
  • Speed (I find using the AjaxPageFactory in Java to be a lot faster than protractor and I have not found an equivalent in Javascript)
  • Promises can be complicated coming from Java or C#.
  • No support for Microsoft Edge currently.

As far as specific use cases if you use Angular heavily on the front-end Protractor is a tool designed specifically for functional testing of angular and should be used over C# or Java. Protractor can be used with frameworks such as React.js but it wasn't designed for it and you may need to include a lot of waitForElement type code.

A few things I have found really nice about protractor specifically is the configuration for more comprehensive multi-browser testing. To set this up in Java or C# involves a lot of configuration and in Protractor it could be as simple as make two changes to your conf.js file. I also find myself using a lot of grunt plugins to set up and tear down my tests which are very simple to configure.

I would recommend using Babel.js so you can utilize the es2015 JS syntax which makes the transition from Java or C# simpler due to the inclusion of classes and I personally find it much more cleaner for writing page objects.

One thing to be aware of is a lot of simple actions in Selenium for Java and C# are more complicated in Javascript because most actions return promises.

Java Version

int previousNumberOfItems = driver.findElements(By.className(".item")).size();
driver.findElements(By.cssSelector(".addItemButton")).click();
int currentNumberOfItems = driver.findElements(By.className(".item")).size();
assert.AssertTrue(currentNumberOfItems .contentEquals(previousNumberOfItems +1));

Protractor (JS) Version

element.all(by.className(".item")).count().then(function(number){
    element(by.css(".addItemButton")).click();
    expect(element.all(by.className(".item")).count()).toBe(number+1);
});

I can't really speak for nightwatch or webdriver.io they may be much better for testing non-angular apps using Javascript.

Upvotes: 2

user6167421
user6167421

Reputation:

Yes you can use Nodejs protractor Jasime framework with WebDriver.

Here is some link:

Webdriver java script binding

Angularjs Jasmine

Upvotes: 1

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