Protractor to dynamically choose browser based on input - protractor

Question

I am new to protractor and I want to be able to run my chrome browser painted or headless.
So I set up something like this
let chrome = {
browserName: 'chrome',
platform: 'MAC',
'max-duration': '1800',
};
let chromeHeadless = {
browserName: 'chrome',
chromeOptions: {
args: [ "--headless", "--disable-gpu", "--window-size=800,600" ]
}
};
browserDefault = browser.params.browserToUse
exports.config = {
params: {
'browserToUse': "get from user'
},
capabilities: browserDefault,
}
and i ran this code as
protractor config.js --params.browserToUse='chromeHeadless'
But this does not work. Protractor fails saying it does not understand "browser.params.browserInput". Whats the right way to make protractor dynamically choose chrome or chromeheadless based on the input

Answer 1

The global variable browser is only init when code run into onPrepare(). You used browser outside onPrepare() function, browser have not been inited, it is undefined, so you met the error.
Another point you need to get it's when the variable browser inited, a browser window has been opened, means protractor has know which capabilities to launch the browser. Therefore you can't use browser.params.xxx to specify which capabilities, you need to tell protractor the capabilities before it init the browser variable.
let capabilitiesMap = {
'chrome-headful' : {
browserName: 'chrome',
platform: 'MAC',
'max-duration': '1800',
},
'chrome-headless': {
browserName: 'chrome',
chromeOptions: {
args: [ "--headless", "--disable-gpu", "--window-size=800,600" ]
}
}
};
let browserToUse = 'chrome-headful'; // set default value
// extract the browserToUse value from cli
process.argv.slice(3).forEach(function(arg) {
var name = arg.split('=')[0];
var value = arg.split('=')[1];
var name = name.replace('--', '');
if (name === 'browserToUse') {
if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(capabilitiesMap, value) ) {
browserToUse = value;
}
}
});
let config = {
seleniumAddress: '',
specs: [],
onPrepare: function() {}
};
config.capabilities = capabilitiesMap[browserToUse];
exports.config = config;
CLI example: protractor conf.js --browserToUse=chrome-headless

Answer 2

I also came across this issue and soleved it using the getMultiCapabilities() function in your conf.js
const _ = require('lodash');
let capabilities = {
chrome: {
browserName: 'chrome',
platform: 'MAC',
'max-duration': '1800',
},
chromeHeadless : {
browserName: 'chrome',
chromeOptions: {
args: [ "--headless", "--disable-gpu", "--window-size=800,600" ]
}
}
}
getMultiCapabilities() {
const browsers = this.params.browserToUse.split(',');//if you pass more than one browser e.g chrome,chromeHeadless
const cap = _(capabilities).pick(browsers).values().value(); //this uses the lodash npm module
return cap;
},

Answer 3

In a testing context working with just Chrome, I did the following. In capabilities:
chromeOptions: {
args: []
}
beforeLaunch: function() {
//at this point browser is not yet defined, so process command line directly
if (process.argv[process.argv.length-1].search('headless=true')>-1){
config.capabilities.chromeOptions.args.push("--headless");
config.capabilities.chromeOptions.args.push("--disable-gpu");
config.capabilities.chromeOptions.args.push("--window-size=1600,1000");
}
}
That way by the time the browser was launched, it had the right configuration. Where I have "headless=true", you might want "Chrome-headless."
And then on the command line I call it like you do with --params.headless=falseso that should I want to find it in the script itself later (after the browser has launched), it is readily available.
Note I had just one command line parameter and control of the command line, so it felt okay to assume this parameter was the last.