Use Of ChromeOptions Class

ChromeOptions class provides some advanced arguments to manipulate selenium chromedriver properties. This class can also be used in conjunction with Desired Capabilities. Below are the lists of operations that are commonly used with ChromeOptions class:

• Start-maximized: Opens chrome browser in maximized mode
• Headless: Launch chrome in headless mode i.e. without GUI 
• Incognito: Launch chrome browser in incognito mode
• Version: Displays/print chrome browser version
• Disable -extensions: Disable existing chrome extensions
• Disable-popup-blocking: Disable pop-ups being displayed on chrome

General syntax to declare ChromeOptions class:

 

ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
options.addArguments("start-maximized");
ChromeDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

 

Now since we have understood the basic usage of ChromeOptions class, lets try to understand this better with some above defined operations:

 

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeOptions;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterTest;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeTest;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class Blog {

    public static WebDriver driver;

    @BeforeTest
    public void setUp() {

        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "C://Selenium-java//chromedriver.exe");
        ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
        options.addArguments("incognito");
        options.addArguments("start-maximized");

        // to launch the chrome browser window
        driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

    }

    @Test
    public void loginPage() {
        driver.get("https://www.google.com/");

        WebElement searchField = driver.findElement(By.name("q"));
        searchField.sendKeys("pcloudy");
        searchField.sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);

        WebElement pcloudyLink = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@class='B1uW2d ellip PZPZlf']"));
        pcloudyLink.click();

        WebElement loginPage = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[text()='Login']"));
        loginPage.click();
    }

    @AfterTest
    public void tearDown() {
        driver.quit();
    }
}

 

Code Walkthrough:

Here we have used the same test method as taken in the previous example. The only difference that we have initiated here is the use of ChromeOptions class. With the above example, we are running our test script in incognito mode with a maximized browser window. The operations that we have declared i.e. incognito and start-maximized are added arguments to the ChromeOptions object. The ChromeOptions object is then passed in the default constructor of ChromeDriver.

Here is a list of a few other advanced methods provided by ChromeOptions Class to setup the selenium ChromeDriver properties, let’s have a quick look at those as well:

 

1. To add a new extension:

Syntax-

options.addExtensions(New File( < path of crx > ));

This method is to add an extension to the chrome browser while running your automation test. All extensions are stored in the system with the .crx extension.

 

2. To add a new binary path:

Syntax:

options.setBinary(new File( < path of binary file > ));

This method is used to specify the binary file path. The binary file path can be of chrome binary or any other binary being used in automated tests.

 

3. To accept untrusted certificate:

Syntax:

options.setAcceptInsecureCerts(true);

This method allows the chrome browser to accept insecure website certificates.

 

Manage Chrome Binary with WebDriverManager

As discussed above, we always have to download relevant compatible chromedriver versions to run our automated scripts on the chrome browser. In a case where your chrome browser gets updated to a newer version, then downloading the new compatible chromedriver would be mandatory. These steps become cumbersome as the chrome versions keep on updating. 

To overcome this phase, we have another open-source project named “WebDriverManager” that automates the management of different browser drivers. 

Importing WebDriverManager in our project avoids the explicit downloading of browser drivers and thus avoids the use of setProperty() method to specify the browser driver path. 

To import WebDriverManager in your maven-selenium project, you need to add it’s maven dependency in pom.xml file:

 

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.github.bonigarcia</groupId>
    <artifactId>webdrivermanager</artifactId>
    <version>4.3.1</version>
    <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

 

Now since we have added WebDriverManager maven dependency, let’s look at the general syntax that is being used to instantiate a browser using WebDriverManager in Selenium.

WebDriverManager.chromedriver().setup();

With the above syntax, WebDriverManager does the magic for you:

• It checks the browser version installed in your machine (e.g. Chrome, Firefox). 
• It matches the version of the driver (e.g. chromedriver, geckodriver). 
• If an unknown version is found, it uses the latest version of the driver. It downloads the driver if it is not present on the WebDriverManager cache (~/.cache/selenium by default). 
• It exports the Selenium required WebDriver Java environment variables.

 

Let’s have a look at a practical example using WebDriverManager:

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterTest;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeTest;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

import io.github.bonigarcia.wdm.WebDriverManager;

public class Blog {

    public static WebDriver driver;

    @BeforeTest
    public void setUp() {
        WebDriverManager.chromedriver().setup();
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
    }

    @Test
    public void loginPage() {
        driver.get("https://www.google.com/");
        System.out.println(driver.getTitle());
    }

    @AfterTest
    public void tearDown() {
        driver.quit();
    }
}

 

Console Output:

For more details on WebDriverManager, please have a look at its official GitHub repository.

 

Conclusion

Google Chrome is known to be one of the most popular browsers in the market, and hence the need to automate the browser testing of your web app on the Chrome browser becomes absolutely crucial. Thankfully, using the ChromeDriver we can access the browser with ease to perform the selenium test automation. While this blog is aimed at giving your a basic understanding of the Chromedriver and its functions, we hope that you will explore it even further and broaden its use in automation testing. Here is an additional resource that you might find helpful when exploring the world of automation testing. Feel free to download it and share it with your colleagues and friends.