Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll
Preview
Start a free Courses trial
to watch this video
In this video we will cover the two part of installing Selenium WebDriver; Installing the WebDriver binding for your desired language and installing the browser driver for your operating system.
IMPORTANT UPDATE
The Node selenium-webdriver has gone to a new alpha version that changes the API.
To follow along with this course make sure you install selenium-webdriver like this:
npm install selenium-webdriver@3
Fixing Permissions Errors
If you get a permissions (EACCESS) error when running npm install, re-running the command with sudo will get it working. But you should only do this with trusted packages! If a package contains malicious code, running it with sudo could allow an attacker to take over your system.
Instead, consider installing Node using a version manager, which will allow you to install packages globally without using sudo. You can read more about this solution here.
Installation Instructions
Learn More
Related Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign upRelated Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign up
[MUSIC]
0:00
Okay, so let's get this party started.
0:04
Selenium-WebDriver has all sorts of client
level APIs that let you use just about any
0:06
programming language
that you can think of.
0:10
Now with that in mind, we decided to use
JavaScript since you're driving a web
0:13
browser and
JavaScript is the language of the web.
0:18
We figured, chances are you
probably have some level of
0:21
experience with JavaScript,
if you're here.
0:24
Now in order to get started,
0:26
we're going to need to make sure
that you have Node installed.
0:28
If you've never used Node before,
don't fear.
0:31
Node is a JavaScript run-time that allows
you to write JavaScript applications and
0:33
run them locally as well as on a server.
0:36
Let's make sure that we've
got everything installed.
0:38
All right, so I'm running on a Mac and
I've got my terminal open here.
0:42
So let's see if I have Node installed.
0:46
So I'm gonna type, which node,
and it turns out that I do.
0:48
On a PC you would type where node.
0:54
Now if you didn't find Node installed,
check the teachers notes for
0:56
installation instructions.
0:59
I'm just gonna verify what version of Node
I'm running, so I'm gonna have node- v,
1:01
and you'll see here that
I'm running version 6.9.4.
1:04
As long as we're on version 6, and
that's that first number here.
1:09
This is the major release, 6,
or greater we'll be good to go.
1:13
If you aren't there,
1:17
get a newer versioned installed using
the instructions in the teacher's notes.
1:18
Okay, so now I wanna make a directory or
1:21
folder to store the code that we'll
be working on in this course.
1:24
I'm gonna call it Selenium basics.
1:27
I'm gonna say, mkdir selenium-basics.
1:28
And I'm gonna change to that directory.
1:32
So change directory, selenium-basics.
1:36
Okay, and since we have Node installed,
we also have NPM.
1:39
NPM stands for
the Node Package Manager and
1:43
it allows you to install
Node based modules.
1:45
So, we want to install one of those open
source modules, the one for Selenium.
1:48
So we'll type npm install
selenium-webdriver.
1:52
It's gonna go and download that stuff and
it's gonna give us some warnings.
2:00
And basically, these warnings
are just because we haven't yet
2:04
made our folder a package.
2:06
But what it did do was install
a bunch of Node modules, and
2:09
we can see those if we do ls.
2:13
We can list those files in
the Node modules directory and
2:15
you'll see what was required to
get Selenium up and running.
2:18
So now that we have the package installed,
2:22
we actually need to install the web
driver, the browser specific web driver.
2:24
Let's start with the Chrome version.
2:28
So we'll install this globally, so you
don't need to do it over and over again.
2:29
So we'll say, npm install chromedriver -g.
2:33
And that's going to install it globally.
2:37
And you need to have
the right permissions.
2:40
I'm gonna show you what
happens if you don't, and
2:42
then I'll show you how to fix it.
2:43
So see it says I don't have it.
2:47
It says, please try running this
command as root administration.
2:48
So I'm just gonna do a sudo npm.
2:51
I'm gonna say,
sudo which is basically will log
2:53
you in as an administrator
to put that in there.
2:57
So, I will do that, put it as password.
3:01
There we go.
3:11
And so now that we've got it installed,
3:12
we can type chromedriver --version,
just to make sure it's working.
3:13
Awesome.
3:19
In the course,
3:20
DOM Scripting By Example, there is
an RSVP web application that's built.
3:21
Now, I've attached the workspace here.
3:26
Go ahead and launch that workspace.
3:28
So, this is what my workspace looks like.
3:30
I'm gonna go ahead and preview,
and then I'm gonna click this
3:34
eye here to open up the preview, so
it will launch the webpage for us.
3:37
And I'm gonna use this just a little bit
so you can kinda see how things work.
3:42
So I'm gonna type, Nathan.
3:44
I'm gonna submit.
3:46
I'm also gonna add Elizabeth here.
3:48
There we go.
3:50
So you see that they start adding up.
3:52
And you can confirm or not confirm,
or you can edit the person's name.
3:54
So add Nathan Menge.
3:57
So as you can see, there's a little bit of
interactivity that's going on here, and
3:59
we can automate it.
4:02
What do you say we give it a try?
4:03
So what I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna copy the URL.
4:05
Now, note here that this
URL is pretty intense,
4:07
so yours is gonna look
different than mine.
4:09
So I'm gonna copy that and
I'm gonna flip back over to my terminal.
4:12
Node offers what is known as a REPL,
or a read eval print loop.
4:16
It basically let's you build a program
up as you go, and it's wonderful for
4:19
this sort of exploratory coding.
4:23
To start it, you just type Node.
4:25
So, first, we need to grab
the module that we installed.
4:28
So this is just JavaScript here, right?
4:32
So I'm gonna do a const selenium,
so this is the name of the package.
4:34
And we'll say,
4:37
require selenium-webdriver.
4:40
Okay, and the package lets
you use the builder design
4:45
pattern to configure the driver
that you exactly want.
4:50
You called build on the builder and
it returns the right version.
4:53
Here, let's do it.
4:56
So I'll say const,
we'll call our variable driver.
4:57
And we'll make a new selenium,
lowercased, .Builder, okay?
5:00
This is the pattern here, so
you describe what it is that you want.
5:06
For right now, we just wanna have Chrome,
so we'll say, forBrowser, chrome.
5:10
And then after you've set up all of
your options, you call build on it and
5:15
that's how the pattern works.
5:18
So we'll do build, all right.
5:19
And now, I am going to set up a URL and
5:22
then I'm gonna paste, and that's the
Treehouse preview that was up from before.
5:26
Okay, so I'm gonna do driver.get, cuz
that's how you go get the webpage, url.
5:32
And it put back a whole
bunch of information, but
5:38
it should have also
opened up a new RSVP app.
5:44
And you'll see it says that
Chrome is being controlled by
5:49
automated test software.
5:52
And also, it's made a new Chrome instance.
5:53
So I have Chrome up and running, but
it's a new Chrome one over here.
5:56
And that's nice [LAUGH] because
as you start doing these,
5:58
they'll start opening more and more.
6:01
And you'll probably wanna know this
because eventually you'll wanna close it,
6:03
so you say driver.close.
6:06
And then you'll see that it's gone.
6:11
And to get out of the REPL,
you can press CTRL + D.
6:13
Now don't worry, the REPL does a great
job of ruining what you just typed in, so
6:20
you won't need to type all that again.
6:23
Okay, why don't you take a quick break and
come back here and
6:26
we'll get started learning the basics
of how to manipulate these elements.
6:29
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign upYou need to sign up for Treehouse in order to set up Workspace
Sign up