wdio-chromedriver-service

What is wdio-chromedriver-service?

The wdio-chromedriver-service is a WebdriverIO service that provides a simple way to run ChromeDriver seamlessly when running tests with WebdriverIO. It eliminates the need to manually start and stop the ChromeDriver binary, making the setup process more straightforward and less error-prone.

What are wdio-chromedriver-service's main functionalities?

Automatic ChromeDriver Management

This feature allows you to automatically manage the ChromeDriver lifecycle. The service will start the ChromeDriver binary before the tests begin and stop it after the tests are completed. This eliminates the need for manual setup and teardown of the ChromeDriver.

const { remote } = require('webdriverio');

const options = {
    capabilities: {
        browserName: 'chrome'
    },
    services: ['chromedriver']
};

async function main() {
    const browser = await remote(options);
    await browser.url('https://example.com');
    console.log(await browser.getTitle());
    await browser.deleteSession();
}

main();

Custom ChromeDriver Options

This feature allows you to customize the ChromeDriver options such as specifying a custom port or log file. This can be useful for debugging or when running multiple instances of ChromeDriver.

const { remote } = require('webdriverio');

const options = {
    capabilities: {
        browserName: 'chrome'
    },
    services: ['chromedriver'],
    chromedriver: {
        port: 9515,
        logFileName: 'wdio-chromedriver.log'
    }
};

async function main() {
    const browser = await remote(options);
    await browser.url('https://example.com');
    console.log(await browser.getTitle());
    await browser.deleteSession();
}

main();

Other packages similar to wdio-chromedriver-service

selenium-standalone

The selenium-standalone package provides a similar functionality by managing the Selenium server and browser drivers. It can be used to install, start, and stop the Selenium server and browser drivers, including ChromeDriver. However, it requires more configuration compared to wdio-chromedriver-service, which is more tightly integrated with WebdriverIO.

chromedriver

The chromedriver package is a Node.js wrapper for downloading and managing the ChromeDriver binary. While it provides the basic functionality needed to run ChromeDriver, it does not integrate directly with WebdriverIO, requiring additional setup to use it in WebdriverIO tests.

wdio-selenium-standalone-service

The wdio-selenium-standalone-service is another WebdriverIO service that manages the Selenium server and browser drivers, including ChromeDriver. It provides a broader range of browser support compared to wdio-chromedriver-service, which is specific to ChromeDriver. However, it may be overkill if you only need to run tests on Chrome.

README

WDIO ChromeDriver Service

This service helps you to run ChromeDriver seamlessly when running tests with the WDIO testrunner. It uses the chromedriver NPM package that wraps the ChromeDriver for you.

Note: this service does not require a Selenium server, but uses ChromeDriver to communicate with the browser directly.

Obviously, it only supports:

capabilities: [{
    browserName: 'chrome'
}]

Installation

The easiest way is to keep wdio-chromedriver-service as a devDependency in your package.json.

{
  "devDependencies": {
    "wdio-chromedriver-service": "^8.0.0"
  }
}

You can simple do it by:

npm install wdio-chromedriver-service --save-dev

Note: You have to install chromedriver separately, as it's a peerDependency of this project, and you're free to choose what version to use. Depending of which version of Chrome you have installed on your system you should install the same version of chromedriver. Install it using:

npm install chromedriver --save-dev
# if you have Chrome 104 installed on your machine do
npm install chromedriver@104 --save-dev

Instructions on how to install WebdriverIO can be found here.

Configuration

By design, only Google Chrome is available (when installed on the host system). In order to use the service you need to add chromedriver to your service array:

// wdio.conf.js
export.config = {
  outputDir: 'all-logs',
  // ...
  services: [
    ['chromedriver', {
        logFileName: 'wdio-chromedriver.log', // default
        outputDir: 'driver-logs', // overwrites the config.outputDir
        args: ['--silent']
    }]
  ],
  // ...
};

Options

port

The port on which the driver should run on

Example: 7676

Type: number

path

The path on which the driver should run on

Example: /

Type: string

protocol

The protocol on which the driver should use

Example: http

Type: string

hostname

The protocol on which the driver should use

Example: localhost

Type: string

pollTimeout

The startup timeout in ms, it checks if the port is open before starting ChromeDriver and then checks again if the it is closed after starting it.

Example: 10000

Type: number

outputDir

The path where the output of the ChromeDriver server should be stored (uses the config.outputDir by default when not set).

Example: driver-logs

Type: string

logFileName

The name of the log file to be written in outputDir.

Example: wdio-chromedriver.log

Type: string

chromedriverCustomPath

To use a custome chromedriver different than the one installed through "chromedriver npm module", provide the path.

Example: /path/to/chromedriver (Linux / MacOS), ./chromedriver.exe or d:/driver/chromedriver.exe (Windows)

Type: string

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For more information on WebdriverIO see the homepage.