Everything You Need to Know to Automate Chrome eDriver.

Tired of manual testing taking too long or missing critical bugs? Want to speed up your QA process and free up time for more impactful work? Then it's time to learn how to harness the power of Chrom eDriver to automatically test Chrome like a scripting master.

Chrome Driver is one of the most popular options for automating the world's most used browser, Google Chrome. In this article, you'll learn everything needed to download, set up and efficiently use Chrome Driver to remotely control Chrome from test automation code. We'll cover the latest versions, compatibility with Chrome, configuration for all major languages and frameworks, best practices to avoid instabilities and more.

By the end, you'll be able to launch Chrome on demand, navigate pages, find, and interact with elements, emulate devices and take screenshots - all without touching the browser yourself. So, whether you're a seasoned tester looking to improve skills or just starting out with automation, this guide will have you scripting Chrome like a pro in no time. Let's get started!

The Ultimate Guide to Downloading and Using Chrome Driver

If you're looking to automate tests for a web application built for Google Chrome, look no further than Chrome Driver. As one of the most popular options for web browser automation, Chrome Driver allows you to programmatically control Chrome using the WebDriver API. In this comprehensive guide, we'll cover everything you need to know to successfully download and use Chrome Driver.

What is Chrome Driver?

Chrome Driver is an open-source automation tool developed by the Chromium team to allow automation of Chrome browser across Windows, Mac and Linux. It acts as a server that implements the W3C WebDriver standard to accept commands and communicate with the Chrome browser. This allows test automation tools and frameworks that support WebDriver to remotely control and automate Chrome.

Some key things to note about Chrome Driver:

- It is compatible with Chrome browser on desktop platforms only. For Chrome on Android, Appium should be used instead of WebDriver.

- It implements the W3C WebDriver JSON wire protocol to remotely communicate between the client test code and the browser itself. This enables automated cross-browser testing.

- The WebDriver protocol supports navigating to web pages, finding UI elements, clicking, typing, JavaScript execution and more useful capabilities required for automated testing.

- It is released in sync with new Chrome browser versions to ensure compatibility between Chrome Driver and Chrome. This requires periodic Chrome Driver updates along with Chrome updates.

- It is bundled with Selenium, a popular framework for browser automation, so you don't need to download it separately when using Selenium.

Downloading the Latest Chrome Driver Binary

To control Chrome browser using Chrome Driver, you first need to download the correct Chrome Driver binary for your platform and Chrome browser version. Here are the recommended ways to get the latest Chrome Driver:

1. Check Chrome Driver Releases Page:

The official downloads page at https://chromedriver.chromium.org/downloads lists the latest Chrome Driver versions grouped by Chrome version support. Download the version matching your Chrome browser.

2. Use Chrome Driver JSON API:

For automated downloading, use the Chrome Driver JSON API endpoints to programmatically fetch the latest binary URL for your platform. This is useful in continuous integration workflows.

3. Reference Chrome for Testing Dashboard:

Google's Chrome for Testing dashboard at https://chromeenterprise.google/browser/headless/ shows availability of headless Chrome and Chrome Driver binaries across all major Chrome release channels - Stable, Beta, Dev and Canary.

4. Install via Package Managers:

On Linux, you can install Chrome Driver using package managers like Homebrew on macOS or apt-get on Debian/Ubuntu based systems. This keeps Chrome Driver automatically up to date.

Something important to note is that Chrome Driver is tightly coupled to specific Chrome versions for compatibility. So always download the Chrome Driver version labeled as supporting your Chrome browser under test.

Setting Up Chrome Driver for Use

Once you have downloaded the Chrome Driver binary, you need to set it up correctly depending on the language/framework you are using for test automation:

- On Java projects using Selenium: No setup required since Selenium packaged drivers will pull the right version.

- For Java projects without Selenium: Set the web driver. chrome. driver system property to the Chrome Driver file path before initializing Chrome Driver.

- On Python projects using Selenium: pip install selenium and it will fetch the correct driver.

- For Python without Selenium: Use web driver manager to install Chrome Driver or set the web driver path manually.

- On C# projects using Selenium: Install Selenium package and it will pull the driver.

- For C# without Selenium: Reference the driver executable path before initializing Chrome Driver.

- On Node.js projects using Web driver IO: Install web driver io package and it handles Chrome Driver setup.

So in summary - if using a test automation framework, let it manage Chrome Driver setup. Else set the Chrome Driver executable path system/environment variable before instantiating Chrome Driver instance.

 

Launching and Controlling Chrome Browser

Once Chrome Driver is configured correctly, you can start automating Chrome browser tasks programmatically. Here are some examples:

- Create Chrome Options to set browser preferences.

- Instantiate Chrome Driver passing Chrome Options.

- Navigate to URLs using driver.get(url).

- Find elements by ID, name, class etc. using driver.FindElement ().

- Interact with elements - click (), sendKeys(), clear() etc. 

- Execute JavaScript with driver.executeScript().

- Take screenshots using driver.getScreenshotAs().

- Verify page title with driver.getTitle().

- Close and quit the driver instance when done.

This allows you to control Chrome browser like a real user from test code using the powerful WebDriver API. Check Selenium, WebDriverIO or Protractor documentation for language specific usage samples.

 

Tips for Stable Chrome Driver Usage

Here are some tips to ensure stable and reliable usage of Chrome Driver in your tests:

- Always use the latest Chrome Driver release matching your Chrome version. Old drivers may have bugs.

- When upgrading Chrome, also upgrade Chrome Driver to maintain compatibility.

- Gracefully close driver after tests to avoid potential crashes on driver re-use.

- Handle exceptions and timeouts properly to avoid flaky tests.

- Run tests on a reliable network to prevent flakiness due to network issues.

- Consider using a popular browser testing library like Selenium which has more stable drivers. 

- Enable verbose driver logging to debug issues via driver.getLog('driver').

- Isolate tests using different drivers to avoid conflicts if running in parallel.

- Use Chrome in headless mode for CI runs to speed up tests without GUI.

- Validate Chrome Driver capabilities before initializing driver.

With these best practices, you can ensure smooth and robust automated testing of Chrome using the powerful Chrome Driver. Let me know if you have any other questions!

 

In conclusion, Chrome Driver is a must-have tool for anyone automating tests on web applications targeting Google Chrome. With its ability to remotely control Chrome browser, it opens up many exciting testing possibilities. By following the setup and usage guidelines outlined in this guide, you can easily incorporate Chrome Driver into your automation workflow. So go ahead and start scripting tasks in Chrome today!