WebDriver development environment setup with IntelliJ, Gradle, Hamcrest, and ChromeDriver

This blog post should be titled, "How I Spent My Memorial Day Weekend".

We started writing at work a new way of configuring an automated test framework. The original idea I had was that I could just bang out a simple automated test framework as practice, refactoring what I already have written in the past. When I started researching the new toolset, and my research notes were piling up, I then had the brilliant idea that this topic would make a lovely blog post. Hey, presto! Ten hours of my weekend disappeared, with me locked away in my home office, missing out on the pleasant sunshine we had. At least my wife and I managed to join the epic Space Battle on the Boston Common: Two hundred nerds swinging around plastic light-up lightsabers at each other.

With this blog post, I will walk you through downloading IntelliJ, setting up your Java environment, configuring Gradle, installing ChromeDriver, and creating quick-and-dirty WebDriver JUnit Tests, making assertions in the tests using Hamcrest, and refactoring those tests when we come across duplicate code.

This is a different setup than programming projects I have done before. We are using:

• IntelliJ will be the Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
• Gradle to handle our dependencies, instead of Maven
• JUnit 4.11 as a test framework instead of TestNG.
• Hamcrest to handle the asserts, instead of the usual AssertTrue or AssertFalse found in JUnit or TestNG.

Our Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

Please Note: You don't need an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to code, just as you don't need Microsoft Word or any other word processing program in order to write a research paper. It is just easier to those who are more used to working with a Graphical User Interface.

If you want to be seen as a programming rock-star, learn to code in vim or emacs on a Unix command line. Me, I am more of a visual person and need the crutch of an IDE while coding.

From Our Readers: What about Eclipse?

@Youssef_kaib @tjmaher1 I checked, it should work well with Eclipse IDE. Just make sure that the BuildShip plugin for Gradle is installed

— Mickael Istria (@mickaelistria) June 1, 2016

"Buildship is a collection of Eclipse plug-ins that provide support for building software using Gradle. Buildship aims to provide a deep integration of Gradle into Eclipse. Buildship also aims to make the Eclipse IDE more powerful by allowing the user to do more from within the IDE. Buildship 1.0 is targeted towards Gradle users. Later versions will target Gradle build masters".
http://projects.eclipse.org/projects/tools.buildship

About Our Tools

IntelliJ:

• Home: https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/
• GitHub: https://github.com/JetBrains/intellij-community
• Video Tutorials: https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/documentation/
• Latest version: IntelliJ IDEA 2016.1

How we are using it:

• What we will be using to write, organize, and refactor our code.

JUnit 4:

• Home: http://junit.org/junit4/
• GitHub: https://github.com/junit-team/junit4
• Tutorials: https://github.com/junit-team/junit4/wiki/Getting-started
• Have Java 8? JUnit 5.0.0-ALPHA was released on February 1st, 2016 http://junit.org/junit5/

How we are using it:

• What we will be using to annotate our test methods, declaring if a certain method is a @Test itself, if the method should be run @Before or @After each and every individual test is run.

History:

• JUnit is the once and future test framework. First written by Kent Beck and Erich Gamma back in 2000, it received an major update, JUnit4, in 2005.  Because the next version, JUnit5, still in it’s Alpha release we haven’t adopted it yet at work.

Examples:

• @BeforeClass: Static methods run once before all the @Tests in TestClass.java is run
• @Before: Good for setUp() methods. Runs before each and every @Test.
• @Test: It's our @Test Method.
• @After: Good for tearDown() methods. Runs after each and every @Test.
• @AfterClass: Static methods run once after all the @Tests in TestClass.java is run

Hamcrest:

• Home: http://hamcrest.org/
• GitHub: https://github.com/hamcrest/JavaHamcrest
• Tutorial: https://code.google.com/archive/p/hamcrest/wikis/Tutorial.wiki

How we are using it:

• We are evaluating the actual conditions of what is happening in the test against the conditions of the test. For example, we "assertThat(actualString, is(equalTo(expectedString)))" or "assertThat(actualBooleanValue, is(true))” or "assertThat(1, greaterThan(3))".

History:

"Hamcrest evolved out of the library JMock, being used to write specialized constraints on what you expected to happen to a Mock object when standing in for a real implementation. A more fluent assertion syntax arose from these constraints which allowed you to chain together main constraint calls under a single assertThat method. Later JMock's author, Joe Walnes, refactored the constraint API out into its own library that he called Hamcrest as people became interested in using it outside of a testing framework for all kinds of different things. He also started calling the constraints ‘matchers' though they can go by both names or, in some circles, ‘predicates.' Other testing frameworks and even JUnit, notorious for not requiring any dependencies and staying conceptually small, have picked it up”. - What is Hamcrest, from CaptechConsulting Blogs 

With most of our browser tests, we take a piece of text we find on a page such as a page title, a heading, or a price, place it in a String, and compare it with the String value we were expecting.

Examples: 

• assertThat(actualString, is(equalTo(expectedString)));
• assertThat(actualString, is(not(equalTo(expectedString))));
• assertThat(actualValue(), is(not(nullValue())));
• assertThat(actualString, containsString(expectedString));
• assertThat(1, greaterThan(3));
• assertThat(actualBooleanValue, is(true));
• assertThat(actualBooleanValue, is(false));

How To Setup Automation Environment

Step 1: Download IntelliJ

• Go to https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/ and download IntelliJ. It should direct you automatically to the Mac or a PC version.
• Need help? Go to https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/documentation/ to see Documentation. 

Step 2: Setup a New Java Gradle Project

1) Start up IntelliJ and wait until the Home Screen appears

The IntelliJ Home Screen

2) IntelliJ Home Screen

• Select Create New Project.

3) On the New Project screen:

• Highlight "Gradle"
• Project SDK: 1.8 (java version "1.80_40")
• Additional Libraries: Java
• Select NEXT.

4) On the GroupID screen

• GroupID: com.tmaher (or whatever groupid you want to use)
• ArtifactId: multiplebrowsers (or whatever you want to call the project)
• Select NEXT.

Why this format of GroupID and ArtifactID? Thank Maven!

"Maven, a Yiddish word meaning accumulator of knowledge [...] We wanted a standard way to build the projects, a clear definition of what the project consisted of, an easy way to publish project information and a way to share JARs across several projects". - What Is Maven, Maven.Apache.Org

See Apache Maven's guide to naming conventions for more information. 

5) On the next screen

• Check off "Use auto-import"
• Check off "Create directories for empty content roots automatically"
• Use default gradle wrappers
• Select NEXT.

6) On the next screen

What would you like to call your project, and where would you like to put it?

I am always juggling multiple projects, switching from Java (both with and without WebDriver) and Python.

I created in my Home Directory (C:\Users\tmaher in Windows) a folder called "code". In that folder are the subfolders "java" and "python". And under each of those are subfolders called "selenium", since I have been attempting to write testing frameworks with Selenium WebDriver bindings in both Java and Python.

So, for this project:

• Project name: multiplebrowsers
• Project location: C:\Users\tmaher\code\java\selenium\multiplebrowsers
• Select FINISH

7) View Automatically Created Folders

You will see that much has been created for you in the Maven style:

• src/main/java folder: The home for our main codebase.
• src/test/java folder: Historically, the home for our unit tests that check our main codebase.

Step 3: Review the Build.Gradle file

What is Gradle?

"Gradle is a general-purpose build tool. It can build pretty much anything you care to implement in your build script. Out-of-the-box, however, it doesn't build anything unless you add code to your build script to do so.

"Most Java projects are pretty similar as far as the basics go: you need to compile your Java source files, run some unit tests, and create a JAR file containing your classes. It would be nice if you didn't have to code all this up for every project. Luckily, you don't have to. Gradle solves this problem through the use of plugins. A plugin is an extension to Gradle which configures your project in some way, typically by adding some pre-configured tasks which together do something useful. Gradle ships with a number of plugins, and you can easily write your own and share them with others. One such plugin is the Java plugin. This plugin adds some tasks to your project which will compile and unit test your Java source code, and bundle it into a JAR file". - The Gradle.org UserGuide, Java Projects Tutorial, Chapter 44.

Let's take a look at what was added automatically to the build.gradle file:

 group 'com.tmaher'  
 version '1.0-SNAPSHOT'  
   
 apply plugin: 'java'  
   
 sourceCompatibility = 1.5  
   
 repositories {  
   mavenCentral()  
 }  
   
 dependencies {  
   testCompile group: 'junit', name: 'junit', version: '4.11'  
}

According to Gradle's Java Projects Tutorial:

Apply Plugin: 'Java':

"This is all you need to define a Java project. This will apply the Java plugin to your project, which adds a number of tasks to your project.

"Gradle expects to find your production source code under src/main/java and your test source code under src/test/java. In addition, any files under src/main/resources will be included in the JAR file as resources, and any files under src/test/resources will be included in the classpath used to run the tests. All output files are created under the build directory, with the JAR file ending up in the build/libs directory".

Repositories: Maven Central:

"Usually, a Java project will have some dependencies on external JAR files. To reference these JAR files in the project, you need to tell Gradle where to find them. In Gradle, artifacts such as JAR files, are located in a repository. A repository can be used for fetching the dependencies of a project, or for publishing the artifacts of a project, or both. For this example, we will use the public Maven repository".

The Maven Central Repository is at http://search.maven.org/. You can also search a much more user friendly site, http://mvnrepository.com/.

Step 4: Add Dependencies to Gradle

We are going to add to the dependencies: The Selenium-Java bindings for WebDriver, and Hamcrest

 dependencies {  
   testCompile group: 'junit', name: 'junit', version: '4.11'  
   compile group: 'org.seleniumhq.selenium', name: 'selenium-java', version: '2.53.0'  
   compile group: 'org.hamcrest', name: 'java-hamcrest', version: '2.0.0.0'  
 }  

How did we know what to put in the dependencies? Take a look at MVNRepository. It shows what to use as dependencies in Maven, Gradle, or other systems.

MVNRepository.com

• Go to http://mvnrepository.com/
• Search for "selenium-java".
• You can see at http://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.seleniumhq.selenium/selenium-java that the latest version is 2.53.0. Select that links. 
• When you are at http://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.seleniumhq.selenium/selenium-java/2.53.0 select the "Gradle" tab. 

Right after the text is added, you can see the Gradle taskbar showing the new dependencies are added one by one.

If you drill down in "External Dependencies" in IntelliJ, you can see that Hamcrest, Selenium, and many other dependencies have been automatically downloaded, ready to be imported into your Java project.

Want more training in Gradle? Go to https://gradle.org/udacity-gradle-for-android-and-java-training/ ... Although the course is for Java AND Android development, the first part is a good introduction to the tool.

Step 5: Using Firefox Driver

Firefox is built into WebDriver. No need to download anything else. No need to set up System Properties to tell us where the Windows executable (*.exe) file is located. All you need to do is write the test.

• In the Project pane of IntelliJ, go to src/test/java.
• Highlight the "java" folder and right click on it.
• Go to New -> Java class 
• Create a new class, call it TestClass, and select OK.

Copy and paste the following class. 

TestClass.java

 import org.junit.Test;  
 import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;  
 import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;  
   
 import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.is;  
 import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.assertThat;  
 import static org.hamcrest.core.IsEqual.equalTo;  
   
 public class TestClass {  
   @Test  
   public void testFirefoxDriver() {  
   
     WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();  
     driver.get("http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login");  
     assertThat(driver.getTitle(), is(equalTo("The Internet")));  
     driver.quit();  
   }   
 }  

There are two ways (or more) ways to execute this test:

• Run all tests in TestClass.java by selecting outside the testFirefoxDriver test block, right click, and select "Run 'TestClass.java' ". 
• Selecting inside the testFirefoxDriver() test block, right click, and select "Run 'testFirefoxDriver()'".

This test when run will then:

• Open a new Firefox browser.
• Go to Dave Haefner's test site, The-Internet, in his test login page at http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login.
• Using the Hamcrest matching library, it will a) Get the Title displayed in the Firefox WebDriver b) Check that it is equal to "The Internet". If it is okay, it will pass, showing Green. If it fails, it will give an error message.
• The browser will then quit. 

Step 6: Test Using Chromedriver

If we want to test how a page looks in Chrome, we are going to have to download and install Chromedriver. https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/.

But if you install Chromedriver, where would you like to put it?

Personally, I like placing it in my Users directory, under my name. I use it across all WebDriver / Java projects I do, so I have it in:

 /Users/tmaher/code/java/selenium/drivers/chromedriver.exe  

Following Google's Chromedriver Getting Started section:

• Download Chromedriver.
• Open the ZIP file, extracting wherever you want to install it. 
• Install it wherever you want, such as in /Users/{YOUR_NAME}/code/java/selenium/drivers/

Now, we can write the ChromeDriver test!

   @Test  
   public void testChromeDriver() {  
     System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "/Users/tmaher/code/java/selenium/drivers/chromedriver.exe");  
     WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();  
     driver.get("http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login");  
     assertThat(driver.getTitle(), is(equalTo("The Internet")));  
     driver.quit();  
   }  

... Of course, make sure in that second parameter, replace the "tmaher" with wherever you installed ChromeDriver.

Hrm... I am not liking this... there is a lot of code that seems to be duplicated. This violates the biggest principle of software development: DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself).

... Let's remember to refactor after.

If you run TestClass.java, you first should see Firefox, then Chrome run the test.

Step 7: Test Using Microsoft Internet Explorer

With Internet Explorer, the test will look pretty much like the others:

   @Test  
   public void testIE11Driver() {  
   
     WebDriver driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();  
     driver.get("http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login");  
     assertThat(driver.getTitle(), is(equalTo("The Internet")));  
     driver.quit();  
   }  

... And there's too much code duplication. Although we have written unit tests, and they all pass, proving that our environment was set up correctly, let's refactor the code, making it a bit more clean.

Bonus Step: Refactoring the Unit Tests

1. Make sure everything passes: Run all Unit Tests

Let's run TestClass.java again, making sure we have a good baseline.

• In the top IntelliJ menu, select Run -> Run TestClass.
• After the browser unit tests pass, verify that they are all Green.

Yes, they all pass!

2. Create an @After method in JUnit, to be run after every single test.

Let's pull the driver.quit() out of each test method and in a JUnit @After tag. To do that, before the test methods, we need to instantiate a new WebDriver class. Let's call it "driver".

 private WebDriver driver;  
 . . .  
 . . .  
  @After  
   public void tearDown() throws Exception {  
     driver.quit();  
   }  

Here, again, are all the JUnit annotations we would use in a TestClass:

• @BeforeClass: Would run once before all the @Tests in TestClass.java is run
• @Before: Good for setUp() methods. Runs before each and every @Test.
• @Test: It's our @Test Method.
• @After: Good for tearDown() methods. Runs after each and every @Test.
• @AfterClass: Would run once after all the @Tests in TestClass.java is run

TestClass.java:

import org.junit.After;
import org.junit.AfterClass;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriver;

import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.is;
import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.assertThat;
import static org.hamcrest.core.IsEqual.equalTo;

/**
 * Created by tmaher on 5/30/2016.
 */
public class TestClass {

    private WebDriver driver;

    @Test
    public void testFirefoxDriver() {

        driver = new FirefoxDriver();
        driver.get("http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login");
        assertThat(driver.getTitle(), is(equalTo("The Internet")));
    }

    @Test
    public void testChromeDriver() {
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "/Users/tmaher/code/java/selenium/drivers/chromedriver.exe");
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login");
        assertThat(driver.getTitle(), is(equalTo("The Internet")));
    }

    @Test
    public void testIE11Driver() {

        driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();
        driver.get("http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login");
        assertThat(driver.getTitle(), is(equalTo("The Internet")));
    }

    @After
    public void closeBrowsers() throws Exception {
        driver.quit();
    }
}

Right now, we have just the basic installation. We still have a long way to go when it comes to setting up a full-blown automation test framework.

• We aren't yet using RemoteDriver.
• We need to set a browser's Capabilities.
• We aren't using PageObjects or any utility or helper methods. 

... But at least we have a pretty detailed walkthrough on installation.

We'll use this in the coming weeks, when we convert  June 2015's  project https://github.com/tjmaher/WebDriver_TheInternet_Advanced into this new style.

In the meantime... Feel free to look at the source code at https://github.com/tjmaher/InitialWebDriverSetup_GradleJunitChromeDriver

Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer,
Fitbit-Boston

// QA Engineer since Aug. 1996
// Automation developer for [ 1 ] year and still counting!
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