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Selenium Headless Browser

The document discusses how to perform headless browser testing using Selenium. It explains that a headless browser does not have a user interface, so tests run faster. It demonstrates using the HTMLUnitDriver, ChromeDriver, and FirefoxDriver to run tests without a visible browser. The tests load the OrangeHRM login page, enter credentials, and verify the login worked by checking the title. ChromeDriver and FirefoxDriver can be configured to run headlessly in two ways - by setting the headless property to true or adding the "--headless" argument. Running the tests confirms they all pass without a visible browser.

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101 views

Selenium Headless Browser

The document discusses how to perform headless browser testing using Selenium. It explains that a headless browser does not have a user interface, so tests run faster. It demonstrates using the HTMLUnitDriver, ChromeDriver, and FirefoxDriver to run tests without a visible browser. The tests load the OrangeHRM login page, enter credentials, and verify the login worked by checking the title. ChromeDriver and FirefoxDriver can be configured to run headlessly in two ways - by setting the headless property to true or adding the "--headless" argument. Running the tests confirms they all pass without a visible browser.

Uploaded by

Habom
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Selenium

Headless Browser Testing

In this session, we are going to look into headless browser testing using Selenium. It was a request from
a YouTube subscriber and a connection from LinkedIn. A headless browser is a browser that does not
have a User Interface. Therefore, we will not see our Test Script execute in the browser UI. However, the
benefit is Test Scripts execute much faster in a headless browser.

In our Test Script, I’m going to show you how to perform this process using 3 drivers: HTMLUnitDriver,
ChromeDriver, and FirefoxDriver. We can also use EdgeDriver which is similar to ChromeDriver and
FirefoxDriver. PhantomJS has been discontinued as a way to perform headless browser testing.

For HTMLUnitDriver, we must get the dependency from Maven’s Repository or download the jars. I
prefer to use the dependency so let’s search for SeleniumHTMLUnitDriver. The version is 2.52, copy the
dependency, and go to our pom.xml file to paste the dependency.

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Reload all Maven Projects. Our Test Script starts with @Test public void htmlHeadlessBrowser () { }
HtmlUnitDriver driver = new HtmlUnitDriver(); We can also use WebDriver as the type and not
HtmlUnitDriver. By default, HtmlUnitDriver runs without a browser. Therefore, the next step is to load
the browser. Before I load the browser, Let’s go to the AUT which will be OrangeHRM. The Test Script
will enter Username, Password, then click the Login button. Admin is the Username. admin123 is the
Password.

Inspect the Username and we see an id value of txtUsername, Password has an id value of txtPassword,
the Login button has an id value of btnLogin. Copy the URL and go back to our Test Script.

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Now, we write driver.get(“https://opensource-demo.orangehrmlive.com/”); Next step is to find all of
the elements driver.findElement(By.id(“txtUsername”)).sendKeys(“Admin”);
driver.findElement(By.id(“txtPassword”)).sendKeys(“admin123”); Next is to click the button
driver.findElement(By.id(“btnLogin”)).click(); Last step is to print the Page Title. This will help us know
the Test Script executed as expected because we are not going to see the browser. sout(“HTML Title: ” +
driver.getTitle());

In order to run the test for HTMLUnitDriver, we must remove our dependency for selenium-java. If not,
there will be a SessionNotFoundException. In the pom.xml file, I’m going to comment out the
dependency for selenium-java <!-- --> then Reload our Maven Project.

Now, let’s run the HTMLUnitDriver Test Script. It passed, there was no browser but the console shows
HTML Title: OrangeHRM.

There are 2 ways to perform headless browser testing using ChromeDriver and FirefoxDriver. I’m going
to show you both ways starting with ChromeDriver. First, let me remove the comment for selenium-
java, reload the project and start with Chrome. @Test public void chromeHeadlessBrowerOne () { } One
is the first way, I’m going to show you and first is to setup the chromedriver.
WebDriverManager.chromedriver().setup(); ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
ChromeOptions is a class for managing options strictly for Chrome. At this point, our options. is to set
the browser to headless with a value of true. Pass in the object reference is the last step. Now, we are
going to copy and paste remaining Test Script to load the login page. When I say pass in the object

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reference, WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(options); This is where I pass in options. It is the
object reference that I pass in. I’m going to put a space right there. Now, I’m finished with ChromeDriver
the first way. I’m going to change the title to Chrome Title 1 and that’s all we do.

With the 2nd way, we only change setHeadless to addArguments. Copy and Paste and change One to
Two. options.setHeadless go to addArguments(“--headless”) This method let’s our program know we
want to set Chrome to be headless. Change Chrome Title 1 to 2. That’s it.

Those are the 2 ways to perform headless browser testing in Chrome. It’s the same steps for
FirefoxDriver so I’m going to copy and paste these steps and change Chrome to Firefox.

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Let’s Run for all of the methods. No browser for Chrome or Firefox but we see Chrome Title 1:
OrangeHRM, Chrome Title 2: OrangeHRM, Firefox Title 1: OrangeHRM, Firefox Title 2: OrangeHRM and
we see the exception for HtmlUnitDriver SessionNotFoundException. That’s it and Thanks for watching
and I’ll see you in the next video. If you are interested in more videos, feel free to subscribe to my
YouTube channel and click the bell icon. You can also follow me on Twitter, connect with me on LinkedIn
and Facebook. I’ll make sure to place the transcript and code on GitHub.

Contact

✔ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/RexJonesII/videos

✔ Facebook https://facebook.com/JonesRexII

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✔ Twitter https://twitter.com/RexJonesII

✔ GitHub https://github.com/RexJonesII/Free-Videos

✔ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rexjones34/

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