Down and Uploading files

Introduction

This repo will explain how to test down and uploading on Sauce Labs VM's with WebdriverIO V5., for support of V4 see here.

Make sure the SAUCE_USERNAME and SAUCE_ACCESS_KEY are set as environment variables. They will be used for uploading and test execution. Also make sure Chrome and Firefox are installed on the local machine to execute the local tests

Downloading files

In comparison to what many sites say, files can be downloaded with Selenium. There are only a lot of downsides to downloading files to local or cloud machines:

• downloading files with Selenium can be very time consuming. Creating and debugging a script can cost a lot of time and there might be faster and better ways do test downloads (depending on the business case)
• downloaded files can be verified on local machines, because you have rights on a local machine to check the file structure, but cloud machine don't give you the possibility to access the directory structure (see Sauce Labs Download Test for a possible solution)

NOTE: The files that have been downloaded to the Sauce Labs VM can NOT be downloaded from the Sauce Labs VM to the local machine / CI-instance!

Run the download tests

For more information about running the download tests in this project please check here.

Local download configurations

For local download tests the browser setting for downloading files is the most important and most blocking setting. To make sure all tests on a local machine work make sure the browser will store all downloads to a default location. This prevents the browser from showing the dialog for selecting a location. If this can't be done only Chrome and Firefox can be used by adding some settings.

Chrome settings

Chrome can be configured in such a way that it will overwrite the default download location and will not show the dialog. This can be done by adding the following to the capabilities:

config.capabilities = [
  {
    browserName: 'chrome',
    // this overrides the default chrome download directory with our temporary one
    'goog:chromeOptions': {
      prefs: {
        'download.default_directory': 'your-temporary-folder'
      }
    }
  },
];

Firefox profile settings

Firefox needs to load a profile with all the settings. This can be done by using the WebdriverIO Firefox profile service. When the service is installed it can be used like this

config.services = [ 'firefox-profile' ];
// For the options see
// http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_:_FAQs_:_About:config_Entries
config.firefoxProfile = {
  'browser.download.dir': global.downloadDir.firefox,
  "browser.download.folderList": 2,
  // Check the allowed MIME types here
  // https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Basics_of_HTTP/MIME_types
  'browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk': 'application/octet-stream',
};

config.capabilities = [
  {
    browserName: 'firefox',
  },
];

Uploading files

Testing uploading files from a local machine isn't that complicated in comparison to testing it from a cloud solution. There are 2 ways to do this. First of all WebdriverIO has the method called uploadFile, see also this blogpost.

NOTE:
Keep in mind that this is only working for Chrome

If you want to test is with multiple browsers then you have a different way to do that, see also Uploading Files to a Sauce Labs Virtual Machine during a Test, but it will also be explained here.

Chrome with uploadFile

Please read this blog post, see also this blogpost for more information and check this file on how to script it.

Pre-run executable for more browsers

A Sauce Labs VM starts in a clean state, meaning there is no data on the machine. To be able to test uploading files there needs to be an example file on the Sauce Labs VM.

Sauce Labs provides a way to upload a file to a Sauce Labs virtual machine prior to testing that can be used for testing uploads. This can be done with a pre-run executable. More info can be found here Downloading Files to a Sauce Labs Virtual Machine Prior to Testing

NOTE:
If you want to download a file that is only accessible on your network, this won't work even if you have Sauce Connect running. This is because the connection from the VM to your network is limited only to the browsers and doesn't work on all outbound connections

The pre-run executable should hold a script that can download a file from a public (ftp) server to a folder on the Sauce Labs virtual machine.

Create a script

Each platform needs to have it's own script Sauce Labs provides 2 different platforms, see all the links to see how the scripts should look like

• Windows* script
• Mac script

*Windows uses %userprofile% because Chrome and Firefox VM-images have a different root user (Administrator) in comparison to the MicrosoftEdge and internet explorer (sauce). The variable fixes this when downloading and pushing the file.

Sauce Storage

When all the scripts are created they need to be uploaded to the Sauce Storage. This is a temporary private storage space where all assets are cleared after seven days. If it has been over seven days since the last test execution with the usage Sauce Storage, you will need to upload it again.

Advice is to upload all the pre-run executables in one call. This can be done by creating 1 script that will be ran before WebdriverIO starts and can be found here. When the test command npm run test will be used the script will upload all the pre-run executables as a preprocess before all tests are executed.

NOTE:
The push_to_storage.sh-script in this repo is used and made for a Mac, check the platform you are using and create your own script

Add script to capabilities

When the scripts are stored in the Sauce Storage the capabilities need to be enriched with the prerun capability, see the example below

capabilities: [
    {
        browserName: 'chrome',
        platformName: 'Windows 10',
        // Because WebdriverIO is W3C compliant by default you need to provide Sauce options,
        // see https://wiki.saucelabs.com/display/DOCS/Selenium+W3C+Capabilities+Support
        'sauce:options': {
            seleniumVersion: '3.141.59',
            // This is the `prerun` capability that needs to point to the 
            // platform specific script
            prerun: 'sauce-storage:windows_download.bat',
        },
    },
] 

Keep in mind that each plaform has his own script, see Create a script.

The pre-run executable will download the file before the tests starts and stores it in the given location.

Run tests

1. Clone the project

    $ git clone 
   

2. Install all the dependencies

    $ npm install
   

Local Download Test

NOTE:
Make sure you have Chrome and Firefox installed on you local machine

Run the following command

$ npm run test.local.download

This will run the local download test, which can be found here, on Chrome and Firefox.

Sauce Labs Download Test

NOTE:
Make sure the SAUCE_USERNAME and SAUCE_ACCESS_KEY are set as environment variables. They will be used for uploading and test execution.

Run the following command

$ npm run test.sauce.download

This will run the sauce download test, which can be found here, on the following OS/browser combinations

• Windows:
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
• Mac:
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Safari

In this testcase we found a way to verify that the file has been downloaded.

Local Download Test

NOTE:
Make sure you have Chrome and Firefox installed on you local machine

Run the following command

$ npm run test.local.upload

This will run the local download test, which can be found here, on Chrome and Firefox.

Sauce Labs Upload Test for Chrome with uploadFile

NOTEs:
Make sure the SAUCE_USERNAME and SAUCE_ACCESS_KEY are set as environment variables. They will be used for uploading and test execution.

Run the following command

$ npm run test.sauce.chrome.upload

This will run the upload test, which can be found here only on Chrome.

Sauce Labs Upload Test for more browsers

NOTEs:
Make sure the SAUCE_USERNAME and SAUCE_ACCESS_KEY are set as environment variables. They will be used for uploading and test execution.

Keep in mind that push_to_storage.sh-script in this repo are used and made for a Mac, check the platform you are using and create your own script

Run the following command

$ npm run test.sauce.upload

This will run the upload test, which can be found here, on all 7 different browser and OS combinations

• Windows:
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Internet Explorer
• Mac:
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Safari