Protractor acting randomly or occasionally not starting

Question

I've been tasked with writing different suites of tests and tasks automation but Protractor has been acting in a very strange way the past couple days and... I just don't recall having changed anything from the last time my suites ran correctly.

Currently using the latest drivers:

% ./node_modules/webdriver-manager/bin/webdriver-manager status
webdriver-manager: using local installed version 12.1.0
[09:14:25] I/status - selenium standalone version available: 3.13.0 [last]
[09:14:25] I/status - chromedriver version available: 2.40 [last]
[09:14:25] I/status - geckodriver version available: v0.21.0 [last]
[09:14:25] I/status - android-sdk is not present
[09:14:25] I/status - appium is not present

And what appears to be the latest Protractor version:

% ./node_modules/protractor/bin/protractor --version
Version 5.3.2

This is what Protractor's output looks like 80% of the time, when it doesn't run:

% ./node_modules/protractor/bin/protractor ./conf.js --suite scenarios --params.login.usr=$USR_E2E --params.login.pwd=$PWD_E2E --params.env=test
(node:1709) [DEP0022] DeprecationWarning: os.tmpDir() is deprecated. Use os.tmpdir() instead.
[09:03:07] W/driverProviders - Using driver provider hosted, but also found extra driver provider parameter(s): seleniumServerJar
[09:03:07] I/launcher - Running 1 instances of WebDriver
[09:03:07] I/hosted - Using the selenium server at http://localhost:4444/wd/hub
[09:03:08] E/launcher - Error: NoSuchElementError: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"css selector","selector":"[type="email"]"}
  (Session info: headless chrome=67.0.3396.99)
  (Driver info: chromedriver=2.40.565386 (45a059dc425e08165f9a10324bd1380cc13ca363),platform=Mac OS X 10.14.0 x86_64)
    at <anonymous>
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:188:7)
[09:03:08] E/launcher - Process exited with error code 100

The corresponding webdriver-manager's output:

% ./node_modules/webdriver-manager/bin/webdriver-manager start
webdriver-manager: using local installed version 12.1.0
[09:30:49] I/start - java -Dwebdriver.chrome.driver=/Users/cyril/Projects/parkopoly_e2e/node_modules/webdriver-manager/selenium/chromedriver_2.40 -Dwebdriver.gecko.driver=/Users/cyril/Projects/parkopoly_e2e/node_modules/webdriver-manager/selenium/geckodriver-v0.21.0 -jar /Users/cyril/Projects/parkopoly_e2e/node_modules/webdriver-manager/selenium/selenium-server-standalone-3.13.0.jar -port 4444
[09:30:49] I/start - seleniumProcess.pid: 1791
09:30:49.534 INFO [GridLauncherV3.launch] - Selenium build info: version: '3.13.0', revision: '2f0d292'
09:30:49.535 INFO [GridLauncherV3$1.launch] - Launching a standalone Selenium Server on port 4444
2018-07-16 09:30:49.613:INFO::main: Logging initialized @282ms to org.seleniumhq.jetty9.util.log.StdErrLog
09:30:49.752 INFO [SeleniumServer.boot] - Selenium Server is up and running on port 4444
09:30:55.414 INFO [ActiveSessionFactory.apply] - Capabilities are: {
  "browserName": "chrome",
  "chromeOptions": {
    "args": [
      "--disable-extensions",
      "--show-fps-counter=true",
      "--disable-infobars",
      "--incognito",
      "--disable-gpu",
      "--headless"
    ]
  },
  "count": 1
}
09:30:55.415 INFO [ActiveSessionFactory.lambda$apply$11] - Matched factory org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.ServicedSession$Factory (provider: org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriverService)
Starting ChromeDriver 2.40.565386 (45a059dc425e08165f9a10324bd1380cc13ca363) on port 24866
Only local connections are allowed.
09:30:55.951 INFO [ProtocolHandshake.createSession] - Detected dialect: OSS
09:30:56.171 INFO [RemoteSession$Factory.lambda$performHandshake$0] - Started new session 9ea12201cba04ac9e41639501f0c02e1 (org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriverService)
09:30:56.925 INFO [ActiveSessions$1.onStop] - Removing session 9ea12201cba04ac9e41639501f0c02e1 (org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriverService)

Here's the conf.js file I'm currently using:

const SpecReporter = require('jasmine-spec-reporter').SpecReporter;

exports.config = {
  SELENIUM_PROMISE_MANAGER: false,
  rootElement: 'html',
  seleniumServerJar: './bin/selenium-server-standalone-3.12.0.jar',
  seleniumPort: '4444',
  seleniumAddress: 'http://localhost:4444/wd/hub',
  framework: 'jasmine2',
  directConnect: false,
  specs: ['./e2e/**/*.spec.js'],
  suites: {
    cft: './e2e/cft/**/*.spec.js',
    scenarios: './e2e/scenarios/**/*.scenario.js'
  },
  jasmineNodeOpts: {
    isVerbose: true,
    defaultTimeoutInterval: 15000,
    print: function() {}
  },
  capabilities: {
    browserName: 'chrome',
    chromeOptions: {
      args: ['--disable-extensions', '--show-fps-counter=true', '--disable-infobars', '--incognito', '--disable-gpu', '--headless']
    }
  },
  onPrepare: async function() {
    browser.params.ts = Date.now();
    if (browser.params.env === undefined)
      browser.params.env = 'test';
    await jasmine.getEnv().addReporter(new SpecReporter({
      spec: {
        displayStackTrace: true,
        displaySuccessful: true,
        displayFailed: true,
        displayPending: true,
        displaySpecDuration: true,
        displaySuiteNumber: true
      },
      summary: {
        displayFailures: true,
        displayPending: false
      },
      colors: {
        enabled: true,
        successful: 'green',
        failed: 'red',
        pending: 'yellow'
      }
    }));
    await browser.get('https://dashboard-' + browser.params.env + '.website.com');
    await browser.driver.findElement(by.css('[type="email"]')).sendKeys(browser.params.login.usr);
    await browser.driver.findElement(by.css('[type="password"]')).sendKeys(browser.params.login.pwd);
    await browser.driver.findElement(by.css('[type="submit"]')).click();
    return await browser.driver.wait(function() {
      return browser.driver.getCurrentUrl().then(function(url) {
        return /calendar_bo/.test(url);
      });
    }, 10000);
  }
};

Sometimes, whenever Protractor starts and launch the tests, it just suffers from race conditions. I couldn't find any thread, post, comment or anyone that ever had such outputs. I'm running out of ideas and I'd appreciate any ideas or potential solutions. Thanks!

Answer 1

can you try this code before email send keys:

var EC = protractor.ExpectedConditions;
var email_element = element(by.css('[type="email"]'));
browser.wait(EC.visibilityOf(email_element), 10000);

Answer 2

Have not enough reputation to comment..

Could it be that you have a seleniumServerJar AND a seleniumAddress configured at the same time? Documentation specifies to use only 1.

Protractor needs to know how to connect to Drivers for the browsers it is testing on. This is usually done through a Selenium Server.
There are five options - specify one of the following:

1. seleniumServerJar - to start a standalone Selenium Server locally.
2. seleniumAddress - to connect to a Selenium Server which is already running.
3. sauceUser/sauceKey - to use remote Selenium Servers via Sauce Labs.
4. browserstackUser/browserstackKey - to use remote Selenium Servers via BrowserStack.
5. directConnect - to connect directly to the browser Drivers. This option is only available for Firefox and Chrome.