Skip to main content

Headless tests with Firefox WebDriver

Note: If you are new to java and selenium then start with selenium java training videos. 
 
There are times when you don't want a browser popping each time you execute the test. Or you just don't have privilege of having a browser display like in UNIX based system running your CI and not having any display. These are the times when you would find it right to execute your tests in headless browser mode.

What we need -
  • Xvfb: X virtual frame buffer is X11 server which does graphical operation in memory, hence no output is displayed. Wikipedia has more on it.
  • Firefox: World famous open source browser
  • A simple selenium test: As simple as launching Google in Firefox
First we need to install Xvfb and FF on Ubantu as -

sudo apt-get install Xvfb firefox

Not you can start Xvfb as -

Xvfb :1 -screen 0 1024x768x24 &

From manual of Xvfb -

-screen screennum WxHxD
           This option creates screen screennum and sets  its  width,  height,
           and  depth  to W, H, and D respectively.  By default, only screen 0
           exists and has the dimensions 1280x1024x8.
Now comes the selenium test. You need to guide Firefox so that it executes test in Xvfb started in previous steps.
This could be done by setting System level property for Xvfb as -

String Xport = System.getProperty("lmportal.xvfb.id", ":1");

and directing Firefox binary to use Xvfb as -

        FirefoxBinary firefoxBinary = new FirefoxBinary();
        firefoxBinary.setEnvironmentProperty("DISPLAY", Xport);
        WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(firefoxBinary, null);

If Firefox is not installed in standard location - /usr/bin/firefox then you can also specify path to Firefox binary as -

        final File firefoxPath = new File(System.getProperty(
                "lmportal.deploy.firefox.path", "/usr/bin/firefox"));
        FirefoxBinary firefoxBinary = new FirefoxBinary(firefoxPath);
        firefoxBinary.setEnvironmentProperty("DISPLAY", Xport);
        WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(firefoxBinary, null);

Whole test looks as -

On execution, FF will be launched in Xvfb and snap shot of google would be saved in your test directory. Since it is headless execution of test, you would not really see any browser popping on your screen.

To execute headless tests in Chrome, start chrome driver as -

ChromeDriverService chromeDriverService = new ChromeDriverService.Builder()
        .usingDriverExecutable(new File("/home/tarun/Downloads/chromedriver"))
        .usingAnyFreePort().withEnvironment(ImmutableMap.of("DISPLAY", ":1")).build();
chromeDriverService.start();
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(chromeDriverService);

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Using xPath to reach parent of an element

Note: If you are new to java and selenium then start with selenium java training videos .   I prefer css locator over xPath but there are times when css locators don't fit requirement. One such requirement is when you want to navigate to parent element of an element and may be parent of parent and even more. Unfortunately css locators don't provide any mechanism to navigate to parent of an element. See this for more. Of late I came across a scenario when I wanted to click on a link depending upon the text in a text box. Herein parent of text box and parent of link were at the same location. More over there could have been many such combinations in application. Fortunately I just need to pick first such instance and Web Driver any way considers only first instance when multiple locators are found matching an element. Element in question is in following html - Here I need to click on highlighted anchor on the basis of input element (which is also hig...
Read more

Selenium Tutorial: Ant Build for Selenium Java project

Ant is a build tool which could be used to have your tests running either from command line or from Hudson CI tool. There is detailed documentation available for ant here but probably you need to know only a little part of it for you selenium tests. The essentials which are needed to know are: Project Target (ant execution point and collection of tasks) Tasks (could be as simple as compilation) And there would usually be following targets for Selenium tools - setClassPath - so that ant knows where you jar files are loadTestNG - so that you could use testng task in ant and use it to execute testng tests from ant init - created the build file clean - delete the build file compile - compiles the selenium tests run - executes the selenium tests Here is my project set up for ant -
8 comments
Read more

Verify email confirmation using Selenium WebDriver

Note: If you are new to java and selenium then start with selenium java training videos .   How to Verify Email Confirmation Using Selenium 4 and JavaMail (2026 Guide) Email confirmation is a critical part of most registration flows — account activation, password reset, multi-factor authentication, and onboarding. Every automation engineer eventually faces the same challenge: How do you verify an email confirmation link inside a Selenium test without making it slow and flaky? The wrong instinct is to automate Gmail's UI with Selenium. It's fragile, slow, and breaks constantly. The right approach: Use Selenium for browser automation Use JavaMail (IMAP) to read the email directly Extract the confirmation link Continue the test in Selenium Why Not Automate Gmail UI With Selenium? Automating the Gmail UI means logging in, searching, clicking a message, and parsing content from a third-party interface that changes frequently. This leads to: Flaky...
13 comments
Read more