Sharing the Selenium driver instance to another step on another file

[jkchua]

I have a current problem regarding Selenium with Gauge as the BDD framework using NodeJS as programming language.

Context

For instance, I have the following steps that I need to implement:

specification_one.spec

* Visit the site that I'm testing.
* Click on a button

specification_two.spec

* Visit the site that I'm testing.
* Click on a checkbox.

So in my example above, both specs have Visit the site that I'm testing. in order to visit the site on a different set of test cases. The following code for Visit the site that I'm testing. is as follows:

common_steps.js

let driver;

beforeSpec(function() {
    const edgeOptions = new Options();

    const preferences = {
        user_experience_metrics: {
            personalization_data_consent_enabled: true,
        },
    };
    edgeOptions.setUserPreferences(preferences);
    edgeOptions.excludeSwitches(["enable-logging"]);

    driver = await new Builder().forBrowser(Browser.EDGE).setEdgeOptions(edgeOptions).build();
}) 

step("Visit the site that I'm testing", async function () {
    await driver.get(process.env.BASE_URL);
    await driver.manage().setTimeouts({ implicit: parseInt(process.env.test_timeout) });
    await driver.manage().window().maximize();

    await driver.wait(until.titleIs("Title"), parseInt(process.env.test_timeout));
});

Now if I use this code in other specs, it will throw that the driver is undefined, which is what's happening now.

Questions

• How do I make the step Visit the site that I'm testing. be able to be used by other specifications with driver instance available to the next set of steps? My problem is I can't use the step to other specs because it's looking for a definition of the driver and I am not sure if hooks were the right way to do it (I ran out of ideas.)

[bentoboop]

Hello,

A workaround I have found for a similar issue was to store the object in the gauge datastore in my BeforScenario hook, and map the variable in a before step in every JS file.

So when starting your driver you could use:

gauge.dataStore.scenarioStore.put("current_driver", driver);
And then somewhere in every step implementation JS files:

let driver;

beforeStep(async () => {
    driver = gauge.dataStore.scenarioStore.get("current_driver");
});

It's problably not the most elegant way, and might consume unecessary ressources to run this BeforeStep every single step, but working with Playwright and multiple browser contexts in a single test, it was quite efficient. I needed a way to be able to call steps to switch from a browser to another from the spec file easily, while not having any step implemetations tied to a specific context, and it worked.

I hope it helps.

[jkchua]

Thank you for your kind response. So what I tried is to replicate the issue with Google as test site, and isolated the hooks in hooks.js, and tried to use beforeSpec and specStore in place of scenarioStore and it seems like it's not succeeding as expected.

hooks.js

const { Builder, Browser, By, Key } = require("selenium-webdriver");
const assert = require("assert");
const { Options } = require("selenium-webdriver/edge");

let driver;

beforeSpec(async function () {
    const edgeOptions = new Options();
    const preferences = {
        user_experience_metrics: {
            personalization_data_consent_enabled: true,
        },
    };
    edgeOptions.setUserPreferences(preferences);
    edgeOptions.excludeSwitches(["enable-logging"]);
    driver = await new Builder().forBrowser(Browser.EDGE).setEdgeOptions(edgeOptions).build();

    await driver.manage().setTimeouts({ implicit: parseInt(10000) });
    await driver.manage().window().maximize();

    gauge.dataStore.specStore.put("current_driver", driver);
});

scenario_test_1.js

"use strict";

const { Builder, Browser, By, Key } = require("selenium-webdriver");
const assert = require("assert");
const { Options } = require("selenium-webdriver/edge");

let driver = gauge.dataStore.specStore.get("current_driver");

step("Visit Google.", async function () {
    await driver.get("https://www.google.com");
});

step("Enter <keyword> as the keyword.", async function (keyword) {
    let textbox = await driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id='APjFqb']"));
    await textbox.sendKeys(keyword);
    await textbox.sendKeys(Key.ENTER);
});

step("Click the first result.", async function () {
    await driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id='kp-wp-tab-overview']/div[3]/div/div/div/div/div/div[1]/div/div/span/a")).click();
});

scenario_test_2.js

"use strict";

const { Builder, Browser, By } = require("selenium-webdriver");
const assert = require("assert");

let driver = gauge.dataStore.specStore.get("current_driver");

step("Click the second result.", async function() {
    await driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id='rso']/div[2]/div/div[2]/div/div/g-section-with-header/div[1]/div/div[1]/g-link/a")).click();
});

scenario_test_1.spec

# Scenario Test 1

This is an executable specification file. This file follows markdown syntax.
Every heading in this file denotes a scenario. Every bulleted point denotes a step.

## Test Scenario 1
tags: testing

* Visit Google.
* Enter "Gauge" as the keyword.
* Click the first result.

scenario_test_2.spec

# Scenario Test 2

This is an executable specification file. This file follows markdown syntax.
Every heading in this file denotes a scenario. Every bulleted point denotes a step.

## Test Scenario 2

* Visit Google.
* Enter "YouTube" as the keyword.
* Click the second result.

The error thrown is that it was null, which makes me think that the beforeSpec didn't initialize (but it somehow opened a browser with data:, as URL.

# Scenario Test 1
  ## Test Scenario 1     F
        Failed Step: Visit Google.
        Specification: specs\scenario_test_1.spec:9
        Error Message: {}
        Stacktrace:
        TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'get')
            at Object.<anonymous> (tests\scenario_test_1.js:10:18)

[bentoboop]

My understanding is that you cannot call the gauge functions outside a step:

let driver = gauge.dataStore.specStore.get("current_driver");

has to be called either in a step definition, or in the BeforeStep example I gave.

Try :

let driver;

step("Visit Google.", async function () {
    driver = gauge.dataStore.specStore.get("current_driver");
    await driver.get("https://www.google.com");
});

to see my point. The driver should be found at least for this step, but not the others.

[jkchua]

That made sense now! 😃

I tried your suggestion too, and it did work as expected, but I agree, it's not as elegant as it should be. I still used BeforeSpec to trigger Selenium initialization, and BeforeStep to fetch the driver. I'll have to monitor if it takes up resources as my example is just a Google search scenario.

You're a lifesaver by the way! Thank you very much, mate! 😊