Table of Contents

Universal WebDriver factory

A common requirement when performing browser testing is to conduct tests using a variety of browsers. This helps ensure that app functionality is not reliant upon a particular browser feature or quirk and it's truly cross-browser compatible. The universal WebDriver factory is a configuration-driven mechanism by which WebDriver instances may be constructed. It is based upon Microsoft Dependency Injection and optionally the Options Pattern and Configuration.

The WebDriver factory is the mechanism by which other functionality in this library is activated. To begin using it, follow the three steps below.

1. Add the factory to dependency injection

It is recommended to use AddWebDriverFactory with your dependency injection configuration. This enables the Microsoft Options Pattern and Configuration for the WebDriver factory. You may alternatively use AddWebDriverFactoryWithoutOptionsPattern if you do not with to use those technologies, although some features will be unavailable to you if you choose this.

services.AddConfiguration();
services.AddWebDriverFactory();

There are overloads of AddWebDriverFactory available to:

  • Specify a non-default configuration path for the WebDriver factory options; the default is WebDriverFactory
  • Specify a configuration section from which to build the WebDriver factory options
  • Specify an additional configuration callback to provide extra options outside the configuration system

Read the documentation for these functions (linked above) for more info.

2. Include configuration for one or more WebDrivers

This configuration should be written using whichever configuration mechanism you wish to use. Here is an example using the common appsettings.json format:

{
    "WebDriverFactory": {
        "DriverConfigurations": {
            "MyRemoteSafari": {
                "DriverType": "RemoteWebDriver",
                "OptionsType": "SafariOptions",
                "GridUrl": "https://gridurl.example.com/url-path"
            },
            "MyLocalChrome": {
                "DriverType": "ChromeDriver"
            }
        },
        "SelectedConfiguration": "MyLocalChrome"
    }
}

You may set one of your configurations to be 'the selected default' if you wish, enabling you to use GetDefaultWebDriver(). Do not forget that you may provide configuration from multiple sources; for example you may specify your available driver configurations in a JSON file but specify the default selected one via a command-line parameter such as:

--WebDriverFactory::SelectedConfiguration MyConfigurationName
Tip

Do not store secrets such as passwords in your configuration. The methods of IGetsWebDriver and ICreatesWebDriverFromOptions provide parameters whereby secrets may be injected into the DriverOptions from external sources, such as environment variables. This avoids the need to add secrets to source-controlled files.

3. Inject and use the services

Use dependency injection to inject an IGetsWebDriver. Use this service to get WebDriver instances.

IGetsWebDriver is unavailable if you used AddWebDriverFactoryWithoutOptionsPattern when setting this functionality up. In that case you must use ICreatesWebDriverFromOptions instead. This service offers the same functionality except that the consumer is responsible for specifying the WebDriverCreationOptions; they are not retrieved from Options.

Edit this page