protractor

What is protractor?

Protractor is an end-to-end test framework for Angular and AngularJS applications. It runs tests against your application running in a real browser, interacting with it as a user would.

What are protractor's main functionalities?

End-to-End Testing

Protractor allows you to write end-to-end tests for your Angular applications. The code sample demonstrates navigating to an AngularJS website, selecting elements, and making assertions about their state.

const { browser, element, by } = require('protractor');

browser.get('http://www.angularjs.org');

const todoList = element.all(by.repeater('todo in todoList.todos'));
expect(todoList.count()).toEqual(2);
expect(todoList.get(1).getText()).toEqual('build an AngularJS app');

Automatic Waiting

Protractor automatically waits for Angular to finish rendering and for any outstanding $http calls to be completed before performing the next action. This reduces the need for explicit waits in your tests.

const { browser, element, by } = require('protractor');

browser.get('http://www.angularjs.org');

const addButton = element(by.css('[value="add"]'));
addButton.click();

const todoList = element.all(by.repeater('todo in todoList.todos'));
expect(todoList.count()).toEqual(3);

Integration with Jasmine

Protractor integrates seamlessly with the Jasmine testing framework, allowing you to write tests in a behavior-driven development (BDD) style. The code sample shows a Jasmine test suite that adds a new todo item and verifies its presence.

describe('angularjs homepage todo list', function() {
  it('should add a todo', function() {
    browser.get('http://www.angularjs.org');

    element(by.model('todoList.todoText')).sendKeys('write a protractor test');
    element(by.css('[value="add"]')).click();

    const todoList = element.all(by.repeater('todo in todoList.todos'));
    expect(todoList.count()).toEqual(3);
    expect(todoList.get(2).getText()).toEqual('write a protractor test');
  });
});

Other packages similar to protractor

cypress

Cypress is a next-generation front-end testing tool built for the modern web. It offers a more developer-friendly experience with features like time travel, real-time reloads, and automatic waiting. Unlike Protractor, Cypress does not require WebDriver and runs directly in the browser.

webdriverio

WebdriverIO is a popular testing framework that allows you to run tests based on the WebDriver protocol and Appium. It supports both synchronous and asynchronous commands and can be used for both web and mobile applications. WebdriverIO is more versatile compared to Protractor, which is specifically designed for Angular applications.

testcafe

TestCafe is a Node.js tool to automate end-to-end web testing. It works without WebDriver and is compatible with any modern web application. TestCafe provides a simple syntax and powerful features like parallel test execution and easy integration with CI/CD pipelines. Unlike Protractor, TestCafe is framework-agnostic and can be used with any web application.

README

Protractor

Protractor is an end to end test framework for Angular applications built on top of webdriverJS.

Protractor can be run as a standalone binary runner, or included into your tests as a library. Use Protractor as a library if you would like to manage WebDriver and your test setup yourself.

To run the sample tests

Install protractor with.

npm install protractor

Start up a selenium server (See the appendix below for help with this). By default, the tests expect the selenium server to be running at http://localhost:4444/wd/hub.

The example folder contains multiple versions of a simple test suite which runs against angularjs.org.

onJasmineNodeSpec.js and onMocha.js show how to use the Protractor library with jasmine-node and mocha. Run these with:

jasmine-node example/onJasmineNodeSpec.js
mocha example/onMocha.js

You can also run the example suite using the Protractor runner. The runner accepts a configuration file, which runs the tests at example/onProtractorRunner.js.

bin/protractor example/protractorConf.js

Using the Protractor runner

The Protractor runner is a binary which accepts a config file. The Protractor runner runs tests written in Jasmine, but other adapters may be added in the future.

Install protractor with

npm install protractor

Create a configuration file - an example is shown in node_modules/protractor/conf.js.

cp node_modules/protractor/conf.js myConf.js

Edit the configuration file to point to your tests.

exports.config = {
  jasmineNodeOpts: {
    specs: ['myTest.js', 'myFolder/myOtherTest.js']
  }
}

The configuration file must also specify a way of connection to webdriver. This can be

• seleniumAddress: The address of a running selenium standalone server.
• seleniumServerJar: The location of the selenium standalone .jar file on your machine. Protractor will use this to start up the selenium server.
• sauceUser and sauceKey: The username and key for a SauceLabs account. Protractor will use this to run tests on SauceLabs.

Run with

node_modules/.bin/protractor myConf.js

Or, if you installed protractor globally (using npm install -g protractor)

protractor myConf.js

When using the runner, the protractor library is exported to the global namespace as protractor. The current instance can be grabbed with ptor = protractor.getInstance().

Using the Protractor library

Use the Protractor library if you would like to manage webdriverJs yourself.

Install protractor with

npm install protractor

In your test, set up a webdriver instance, then wrap it with protractor.

var protractor = require('protractor');
var driver;
// Set up driver as a webdriver however you'd like.
var ptor = protractor.wrapDriver(driver);

Cloning and running Protractor's own tests

Clone the github repository.

git clone https://github.com/angular/protractor.git
cd protractor
npm install

Start up a selenium server. By default, the tests expect the selenium server to be running at http://localhost:4444/wd/hub.

Protractor's test suite runs against the included testapp. Start that up with

cd testapp
./scripts/web-server.js

Then run the tests with

npm test

Appendix A: Setting up a standalone selenium server

WebdriverJS does not natively include the selenium server - you must start a standalone selenium server. All you need is the latest selenium-server-standalone.

To use with chrome browsers, download chromedriver. More information about chromedriver

A script is included to do the download for you - run with (add the --nocd option if you do not want to install ChromeDriver)

./node_modules/protractor/bin/install_selenium_standalone

Start the selenium standalone with

java -jar selenium/selenium-server-standalone-2.34.0.jar -Dwebdriver.chrome.driver=./selenium/chromedriver

Changelog

0.7.0

Note: Major version 0 releases are for initial development, and backwards incompatible changes may be introduced at any time.

Features

• (7966912) Updating to Selenium 2.24.

• (90f0a94) Instead of having tests run with the protractor runner need to require() the protractor library, publish it to the global namespace. This insures the instance of protractor used within the tests is the same as the one used on the command line. Closes #36. Version bump for incompatible API changes.

• (cb373c9) Adding glob matching to the spec files from the config. Closes #29.

Breaking changes

• Now running on selenium 2.24. Requires updating WebDriverJS and the selenium standalone binary.

• The protractor runner now publishes protractor to the global namespace and sets up the Jasmine-WebDriver adapter. Tests run with this should no longer include

// var protractor = require('protractor'); // No longer needed!
// require('protractor/jasminewd'); // No longer needed!

var ptor = protractor.getInstance(); // This should just work now.