WebdriverIO Configuration Guide: Setting Up Your Test Automation Framework

In this blog, we will dive into setting up and configuring WebdriverIO V9, which forms the foundation of your Automation framework.

WebdriverIO Setup:

WebdriverIO can be installed and configured in two main ways:

• Custom configuration via the terminal: You answer a series of questions to tailor the setup to your needs.

• Cloning a boilerplate project: You can fork a pre-existing project from a repository (like GitHub).

Option 1: The terminal-based setup asks questions like:

• Type of testing: E2E testing (for web/mobile applications) or unit/component testing.

  

• Automation backend: Options include local machine, or cloud services like BrowserStack, Sauce Labs, etc. We are focusing on local setup.

  

• Environment to automate: Typically, web applications (browser-based).

  

• Browser selection: Start with Chrome (you can add others like Firefox, Safari, or Edge later).

  

• Framework: Default options are Mocha or Jasmine. WebdriverIO also supports Cucumber for BDD. (We are Using Cucumber)

  

• Compiler: Use TypeScript (recommended for type safety).

  

Option 2: Cloning a Boilerplate Project

• Cloning a boilerplate from GitHub (e.g., Jasmine TypeScript Boilerplate) allows you to skip some manual setup and get started faster with a pre-built structure.

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Essential Configuration Steps:

• Page Object Model (POM): A best practice is to set up the Page Object Model, which organizes locators and actions for each page, making the test code more modular and maintainable.

• Reporters: You can use multiple reporters for your test results. For this example, Spec and Allure reporters are configured to generate readable output and detailed reports.

• Base URL: Configure a base URL to avoid redundant code for navigation in your tests.

• Yarn for package management: The book recommends using Yarn over npm due to its faster package installation. If you are cloning a project, it’s important to run yarn install to bring in all dependencies.

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Test Files and Directory Structure:

• Test files follow this structure: ./test/specs/**/*.ts (organized in folders for better scalability).

• Page objects should be stored in ./test/pageobjects/**/*.ts.

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Running the Tests:

After configuration, you can run your tests using:

• yarn wdio for executing all tests.

• npx wdio run test/wdio.conf.ts for more direct execution.

The command wdio run will launch the test suite and display results in the terminal using the chosen reporters.

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Managing Dependencies and Commits:

• Use yarn outdated to check for outdated dependencies.

• Use yarn upgrade-interactive to update individual packages.

• Add a .gitignore file to avoid committing unnecessary files (e.g., node_modules, test results) to your repository.

Version control tip: Create branches for new features to work on without affecting the main branch. When finished, create a pull request (PR) to merge the changes back into the main branch.

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Deeper Concept: Page Object Model (POM)

The Page Object Model separates test logic from the details of the web UI. Each page of the web app is represented by a class. This class contains:

• Locators: Find elements on the page.

• Actions: Perform tasks like clicking buttons or entering text.

For example, a LoginPage object might look like this:

class LoginPage {
  get usernameInput() { return $('#username'); }
  get passwordInput() { return $('#password'); }
  get loginButton() { return $('#login-button'); }

  async login(username: string, password: string) {
    await this.usernameInput.setValue(username);
    await this.passwordInput.setValue(password);
    await this.loginButton.click();
  }
}

export default new LoginPage();

Why is POM important?

• Modularity: When the UI changes, you only need to update the page object instead of multiple tests.

• Reusability: Actions can be reused across different test cases, reducing code duplication.

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Yarn vs. npm

• Yarn installs packages in parallel, speeding up the process compared to npm’s sequential installations.

• It generates a yarn.lock file to ensure consistent dependencies across environments, much like package-lock.json in npm, but with better performance management.

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Example: First WebdriverIO Test

A simple test setup created by the configuration wizard could look like this:

import { browser, $ } from '@wdio/globals';

describe('Sample Test', () => {
  it('should load a website and check the title', async () => {
    await browser.url('https://duckduckgo.com/');
    await $('#search_form_input_homepage').setValue('WebdriverIO');
    await $('#search_button_homepage').click();
    const title = await browser.getTitle();
    expect(title).toContain('WebdriverIO');
  });
});

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Next Steps:

1. Install WebdriverIO: Follow the configuration steps in the book to set up the project, using Yarn to manage dependencies.

2. Run basic tests: Start with simple E2E tests like the one shown above to familiarize yourself with WebdriverIO.

3. Explore configurations: Modify reporters, services, or browser setups as per your project needs.

4. Use POM: Structure your tests with Page Object Models to ensure scalability and maintainability.

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