chromedriver

What is chromedriver?

The chromedriver npm package provides a way to manage and control the ChromeDriver, which is a standalone server that implements the WebDriver protocol for Chrome. It is used for automating web applications for testing purposes, enabling you to interact with web pages and perform various browser automation tasks.

What are chromedriver's main functionalities?

Browser Automation

This code sample demonstrates how to use the chromedriver package with Selenium WebDriver to automate a simple browser task. It opens Google, searches for 'webdriver', and waits for the search results page to load.

const { Builder, By, Key, until } = require('selenium-webdriver');
const chrome = require('selenium-webdriver/chrome');
const chromedriver = require('chromedriver');

chrome.setDefaultService(new chrome.ServiceBuilder(chromedriver.path).build());

(async function example() {
  let driver = await new Builder().forBrowser('chrome').build();
  try {
    await driver.get('http://www.google.com/ncr');
    await driver.findElement(By.name('q')).sendKeys('webdriver', Key.RETURN);
    await driver.wait(until.titleIs('webdriver - Google Search'), 1000);
  } finally {
    await driver.quit();
  }
})();

Headless Browser Testing

This code sample shows how to run Chrome in headless mode using the chromedriver package. Headless mode is useful for running tests in environments without a graphical user interface.

const { Builder, By, Key, until } = require('selenium-webdriver');
const chrome = require('selenium-webdriver/chrome');
const chromedriver = require('chromedriver');

chrome.setDefaultService(new chrome.ServiceBuilder(chromedriver.path).build());

(async function example() {
  let options = new chrome.Options();
  options.addArguments('headless');
  let driver = await new Builder().forBrowser('chrome').setChromeOptions(options).build();
  try {
    await driver.get('http://www.google.com/ncr');
    await driver.findElement(By.name('q')).sendKeys('webdriver', Key.RETURN);
    await driver.wait(until.titleIs('webdriver - Google Search'), 1000);
  } finally {
    await driver.quit();
  }
})();

Taking Screenshots

This code sample demonstrates how to take a screenshot of the current browser window using the chromedriver package. The screenshot is saved as a PNG file.

const { Builder, By, Key, until } = require('selenium-webdriver');
const chrome = require('selenium-webdriver/chrome');
const chromedriver = require('chromedriver');

chrome.setDefaultService(new chrome.ServiceBuilder(chromedriver.path).build());

(async function example() {
  let driver = await new Builder().forBrowser('chrome').build();
  try {
    await driver.get('http://www.google.com/ncr');
    await driver.findElement(By.name('q')).sendKeys('webdriver', Key.RETURN);
    await driver.wait(until.titleIs('webdriver - Google Search'), 1000);
    let screenshot = await driver.takeScreenshot();
    require('fs').writeFileSync('screenshot.png', screenshot, 'base64');
  } finally {
    await driver.quit();
  }
})();

Other packages similar to chromedriver

geckodriver

The geckodriver package provides a way to manage and control the GeckoDriver, which is a WebDriver implementation for Firefox. It is similar to chromedriver but is specifically designed for automating Firefox browser tasks.

edgedriver

The edgedriver package provides a way to manage and control the EdgeDriver, which is a WebDriver implementation for Microsoft Edge. It offers similar functionalities to chromedriver but is tailored for automating tasks in the Edge browser.

selenium-webdriver

The selenium-webdriver package is a JavaScript implementation of the WebDriver API, which allows you to write tests that interact with various browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. It provides a higher-level API compared to chromedriver and can be used with different browser drivers.

README

ChromeDriver

An NPM wrapper for Selenium ChromeDriver.

Building and Installing

npm install chromedriver

Or grab the source and

node ./install.js

What this is really doing is just grabbing a particular "blessed" (by this module) version of ChromeDriver. As new versions are released and vetted, this module will be updated accordingly.

The package has been set up to fetch and run ChromeDriver for MacOS (darwin), Linux based platforms (as identified by nodejs), and Windows. If you spot any platform weirdnesses, let us know or send a patch.

Custom binaries url

To use a mirror of the ChromeDriver binaries use npm config property chromedriver_cdnurl. Default is http://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com.

npm install chromedriver --chromedriver_cdnurl=http://npm.taobao.org/mirrors/chromedriver

Or add property into your .npmrc file.

chromedriver_cdnurl=http://npm.taobao.org/mirrors/chromedriver

Another option is to use PATH variable CHROMEDRIVER_CDNURL.

CHROMEDRIVER_CDNURL=http://npm.taobao.org/mirrors/chromedriver npm install chromedriver

Running

bin/chromedriver [arguments]

And npm will install a link to the binary in node_modules/.bin as it is wont to do.

Running with Selenium WebDriver

require('chromedriver');
var webdriver = require('selenium-webdriver');
var driver = new webdriver.Builder()
  .forBrowser('chrome')
  .build();

(Tested for selenium-webdriver version 2.48.2)

The path will be added to the process automatically, you don't need to configure it. But you can get it from require('chromedriver').path if you want it.

Running via node

The package exports a path string that contains the path to the chromdriver binary/executable.

Below is an example of using this package via node.

var childProcess = require('child_process');
var chromedriver = require('chromedriver');
var binPath = chromedriver.path;

var childArgs = [
  'some argument'
];

childProcess.execFile(binPath, childArgs, function(err, stdout, stderr) {
  // handle results
});

You can also use the start and stop methods:

var chromedriver = require('chromedriver');

args = [
	// optional arguments
];
chromedriver.start(args);
// run your tests
chromedriver.stop();

Note: if your tests are ran asynchronously, chromedriver.stop() will have to be executed as a callback at the end of your tests

Versioning

The NPM package version tracks the version of chromedriver that will be installed, with an additional build number that is used for revisions to the installer.

A Note on chromedriver

Chromedriver is not a library for NodeJS.

This is an NPM wrapper and can be used to conveniently make ChromeDriver available It is not a Node JS wrapper.

Contributing

Questions, comments, bug reports, and pull requests are all welcome. Submit them at the project on GitHub.

Bug reports that include steps-to-reproduce (including code) are the best. Even better, make them in the form of pull requests.

Author

Giovanni Bassi

Thanks for Obvious and their PhantomJS project for heavy inspiration! Check their project on Github.

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.