Python, Selenium and PhantomJS – ignore certificate errors

Background

You are done with your work and push all into Git. The Build-Server starts his work and all test scripts are failing. Short look and it is clear – certificate errors. The next example shows, how to ignore certificate errors on PhantomJS.

@classmethod
def setUpClass(cls):
    """starting point for test cases"""

    cls.driver = webdriver.PhantomJS(service_args=['--ignore-ssl-errors=true'])
    cls.driver.implicitly_wait(30)
    cls.driver.set_window_size(1024, 768)
    cls.driver.get(cls.url)

Now it should work….

UI testing with DalekJS and PhantomJS on CentOS

With DalekJS you can automate your functional GUI tests very easy. This article describe how to prepare the test environment on CentOS.

Setup

First, the necessary packages are installed.

# install EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux)
$ yum install -y epel-release

# check repositories
$ yum repolist

# update all
$ yum -y update

# install packages
$ yum install -y vim nodejs npm bzip2 freetype fontconfig

# check versions of nodejs and npm
$ node --version
$ npm --version

# change to tmp folder
$ cd /tmp/

# download PhantomJS and unzip
$ curl -O https://phantomjs.googlecode.com/files/phantomjs-1.9.2-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
$ tar xvf phantomjs-1.9.2-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2

# copy binary, delete unneeded files and check version
$ cp phantomjs-1.9.2-linux-x86_64/bin/phantomjs /usr/local/bin/
$ rm -fr phantomjs-1.9.2-linux-x86_64
$ rm -f phantomjs-1.9.2-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
$ phantomjs --version

# install dalek-cli (global) and check version
$ npm install dalek-cli -g
$ dalek --version

It is also possible to compile PhantomJS itself, but this takes a lot of time.

Prepare test project

Once all is installed without any issues you can start to create the test project.

# change to home folder
$ cd ~/

# create project folder and change into
$ mkdir DalekTest && cd DalekTest

# create package.json interactively
$ npm init

# install dalekjs on project
$ npm install dalekjs --save-dev

Create test case

Now it is time for the first Test Case. I have used the example from Dalek website.

# create test case file
$ touch test_title.js

# insert content
$ vim test_title.js

module.exports = {'Page title is correct': function (test) {
  test
    .open('http://google.com')
    .assert.title().is('Google', 'It has title')
    .done();
  }
};

Run test

By default DalekJS use PhantomJS as browser. For running the test case simple use dalek command and as argument the test case file (*.js).

# run test case
$ dalek test_title.js

Local HAR viewer on Mac OS X

There are several HAR file viewers online but sometimes you need the HAR viewer offline. It is very simple for Mac OS X user to get a local instance running.

Precondition

PhantomJS installed
netsniff.js downloaded
Apache running

Preparation

The first step is generating HAR file.

# create HAR log file
$ phantomjs netsniff.js "http://google.com" > ~/Desktop/result.har

Now download the latest Harviewer.zip and unzip into the user “Sites” folder. Rename the folder and setting up the permissions.

# go into Downloads
$ cd ~/Downloads/

# create new folder
$ mkdir harviewer

# unzip into new folder
$ unzip harviewer-2.0-15.zip -d harviewer

# move folder into user sites
$ mv harviewer ~/Sites/

# go into sites and change access rights
$ cd ~/Sites/
$ chmod +x harviewer/

Result

Now open a browser and call URL like: “http://localhost/~<user>/harviewer/“. As last step drag the generated HAR file into the browser. You should see something like this:

HAR viewer result

Full webpage screenshot

For various reasons screenshots for webpages are needed. If automated test scripts fail, documentations must be created or in some other situations. With PhantomJS it is very easy to create these screenshots very fast by command-line. All what is needed a small JavaScript like this.

JavaScript

var phantom;
var console;
var system = require('system');
var fs = require('fs');
var page = require('webpage').create();

var Info = {
	isDate: function () {
		'use strict';
		var mydate = new Date().toDateString();
		return mydate;
	},
	isTime: function () {
		'use strict';
		var mytime = new Date().getTime();
		return mytime;
	}
};

var Target = {
	isLocation: function () {
		'use strict';
		var args = system.args,
		    mylocation = 'http://google.com';
		if (args.length > 1) {
			mylocation = system.args[1];
			console.log('[LOG] use argument location');
		} else {
			console.log('[LOG] use default location');
		}
		return mylocation;
	},
	isSaveFolder: function () {
		'use strict';
		var folder = 'log';
		if (!fs.exists(folder)) {
			console.log('[LOG] creat directory ' + folder);
			fs.makeDirectory(folder);
		}
		if (!fs.isWritable(folder)) {
			console.error('[LOG] ' + folder + ' is not writable!');
			phantom.exit(1);
		}
		return folder;
	}
};

page.open(Target.isLocation(), function (status) {
	'use strict';
	switch (status) {
	case 'success':
		console.log('[LOG] page open successfully' + Info.isDate());
		var folder = Target.isSaveFolder();
		page.render(folder + fs.separator + Info.isTime() + '.png');
		phantom.exit(0);
		break;
	case 'fail':
		console.error('[LOG] page not open successfully');
		phantom.exit(1);
		break;
	default:
		console.error('[LOG] fail to open with unknown status:' + status);
		phantom.exit(1);
		break;
	}
});

After save the script you can run it like:

# screenshot of softwaretester.info
$ phantomjs screenshot.js "http://softwaretester.info"

Performance measurement with PhantomJS and confess

PhantomJS and confess make it possible to measure your webapplication performance via command-line.

Precondition

PhantomJS is installed
confess is downloaded

Preparation

If your PhantomJS version >= 2.0, phantom.args is deprecated! “TypeError: undefined is not an object” You have to make a quick hack inside the confess.js file.

# add in top of file
var system = require('system');

# replace all
phantom.args
# by
system.args

# change
var a = 0;
# into
var a = 1;

Run the performance measurement

# change to folder with confess.js and config.json
$ cd /path/to/folder

# generation of an appcache manifest
$ phantomjs confess.js <URL> appcache

# run performance measurement
$ phantomjs confess.js <URL> performance

Note: By default the results go to stdout, but you can pipe into a file!

Run your Python Selenium tests headless

This time i show you the headless testing with Selenium WebDriver and PhantomJS. This method can be used for example on continuous integration systems.

Install PhantomJS

Follow the documentation on PhantomJS website or as Mac OS X user simply use Mac Ports.

# on Mac OS X
$ sudo port install PhantomJS

# check version
$ phantomjs --version

Create a tiny test script

#!/usr/bin/env python
import unittest
from selenium import webdriver


class SearchContentOnWebsite(unittest.TestCase):

    def setUp(self):
        # create a new PhantomJS session
        self.driver = webdriver.PhantomJS()
        self.driver.set_window_size(800, 600)
        self.driver.get("http://softwaretester.info")

    def test_search_headline(self):
        title = 'This will fail | - Softwaretester -'
        assert title in self.driver.title

    def tearDown(self):
        self.driver.close()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    unittest.main(verbosity=2)

Just create a instance of PhantomJS WebDriver and run you tests. That is all! 😉

– Softwaretester –

knowledge is power

PhantomJS