Hey folks, I’m new here and could use some help. I’ve been working on smoke and regression tests using Protractor, but I’ve hit a snag. Our CI setup doesn’t have a windowing system, so we need a headless browser solution. We’ve been using PhantomJS with Jenkins, but it’s causing issues with Protractor.
I’m looking for recommendations on a good headless browser that plays nice with Protractor. Ideally, a headless Chrome option would be great. If anyone has experience setting this up, I’d really appreciate some step-by-step guidance. I’ve got my conf.js and e2e.conf.js files ready to go, and everything works fine with regular Chrome.
For context, I’m on an iMac using Selenium WebDriver. I’ve tried different web elements and searched for similar issues online, but I’m coming up empty. Any suggestions would be super helpful! Thanks in advance for your advice.
Having worked extensively with Protractor and headless browsers, I can confidently recommend using Headless Chrome. It’s robust, actively maintained, and integrates seamlessly with Protractor.
To implement, update your conf.js file with the following configuration:
capabilities: {
browserName: ‘chrome’,
chromeOptions: {
args: [‘–headless’, ‘–disable-gpu’, ‘–window-size=1920,1080’]
}
}
Ensure you have the latest Chrome and ChromeDriver versions installed on your CI server. You may need to add a PATH variable for ChromeDriver in your Jenkins setup.
One crucial tip: headless environments can be tricky with certain UI interactions. Consider using browser.waitForAngular() or explicit waits to handle timing issues. Also, thoroughly test your scripts in both headless and headed modes to catch any discrepancies.
If you encounter any specific errors during implementation, feel free to share them for more targeted advice.
I’ve been in a similar situation, and I can definitely recommend using headless Chrome for your Protractor tests. It’s been a game-changer for our CI pipeline.
To set it up, you’ll need to update your conf.js file. Add ‘chromeOptions’ to your capabilities, like this:
capabilities: {
browserName: ‘chrome’,
chromeOptions: {
args: [‘–headless’, ‘–disable-gpu’, ‘–no-sandbox’]
}
}
Make sure you have the latest Chrome and ChromeDriver installed on your CI server. You might need to add some additional configuration for Jenkins, depending on your setup.
One tip: watch out for timing issues. Headless browsers can sometimes be faster than their windowed counterparts, so you might need to adjust your waits or expectations accordingly.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you run into any snags during implementation.
hey John, try using headless chrome. it’s been great for me. just add these lines to ur conf.js:
capabilities: {
browserName: ‘chrome’,
chromeOptions: {
args: [‘–headless’, ‘–disable-gpu’]
}
}
make sure u’ve got latest chrome & chromedriver. good luck!