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Nightwatch with Selenium: Tutorial to Run Your First Test on LambdaTest

In this topic, you will learn how to configure and run your JavaScript automation testing scripts on LambdaTest Selenium cloud platform using JavaScript framework Nightwatch.

Objective​

By the end of this topic, you will be able to:

  1. Set up an environment for testing your hosted web pages using Nightwatch framework with Selenium.
  2. Understand and configure the core capabilities required for your Selenium test suite.
  3. Run test cases in parallel using Nightwatch with Selenium to reduce build times.
  4. Test your locally hosted pages on LambdaTest platform.
  5. Explore advanced features of LambdaTest.

Note: All the code samples in this documentation can be found in the LambdaTest's Repository on GitHub. You can either download or clone the repository to quickly run your tests.

Prerequisites To Run Automation Tests With Selenium & Nightwatch Framework​

Before getting started with Automated Scripts using Selenium with Nightwatch framework on LambdaTest Automation, you need to:

  • Download and install NodeJS. You should be having NodeJS v6 or newer. Click here to download.
  • Make sure you are using the latest version of JavaScript.
  • Install npm from the official website by clicking here.
  • Download Selenium JavaScript bindings from the official website. Latest versions of Selenium Client and WebDriver are ideal for running your JavaScript automation testing script on LambdaTest’s Selenium Grid.

Installing Selenium Dependencies and tutorial repo​

Step 1: Clone the LambdaTest’s nightwatch-selenium-sample repository and navigate to the code directory as shown below:

git clone https://github.com/LambdaTest/nightwatch-selenium-sample
cd nightwatch-selenium-sample

Step 2: Install the required project dependencies using the command below:

npm i

Setting up Your Authentication​

Make sure you have your LambdaTest credentials with you to run test automation scripts on LambdaTest Selenium Grid. You can obtain these credentials from the LambdaTest Automation Dashboard or through LambdaTest Profile.

Step 3: Set LambdaTest Username and Access Key in environment variables.

  • For Linux/macOS:
    export LT_USERNAME="YOUR_USERNAME" export LT_ACCESS_KEY="YOUR ACCESS KEY"
  • For Windows:
    set LT_USERNAME="YOUR_USERNAME" set LT_ACCESS_KEY="YOUR ACCESS KEY"

Run Your First Test​

Sample Test with NightwatchJS​

Let’s check out a sample Nightwatch framework code running on LambdaTest Selenium Grid. This is a simple Nightwatch automation script that tests a sample to-do list app. The code marks two list items as done, adds a list item and then finally gives the total number of pending items as output.

//googleTest.js

var https = require("https");
var lambdaRestClient = require("@lambdatest/node-rest-client");
var lambdaCredentials = {
  username: process.env.LT_USERNAME,
  accessKey: process.env.LT_ACCESS_KEY
};
var lambdaAutomationClient = lambdaRestClient.AutomationClient(
  lambdaCredentials
);
module.exports = {
  "@tags": ["test"],
  TodoTest: function(client) {    
    client
      .url("https://lambdatest.github.io/sample-todo-app/")
      .waitForElementPresent("body", 1000)
      .setValue("input[id=sampletodotext]", "Complete LambdaTest tutorial.")
      .click("input[id=addbutton]")
      .pause(1000)
      .end();  
 
  },
  after: function(browser) {
    console.log("Closing down...");
  },
  afterEach: function(client, done) {
    if (
      process.env.LT_USERNAME &&
      process.env.LT_ACCESS_KEY &&
      client.capabilities &&
      client.capabilities["webdriver.remote.sessionid"]
    ) {
      
      lambdaAutomationClient.updateSessionById(
        client.capabilities["webdriver.remote.sessionid"],
        { status_ind: client.currentTest.results.failed ? "failed" : "passed" },
        function(error, session) {
          console.log(error)
          if (!error) {
            client.pause(1000)
            done();
          }
        }
      );
    } else {
      console.log("Test Run Successfully!");
      client.pause(1000)
      done();
    }
  }
};

Configuration of Your Test Capabilities​

Step 4: Below is the nightwatch.conf.js file where we will be declaring the desired capabilities. Since we are using remote webdriver, we have to define which browser environment we want to run the test. We do that by passing browser environment details to LambdaTest Selenium Grid via desired capabilities class.

//nightwatch.conf.js

module.exports = (function(settings) {
  console.log(settings["test_settings"]["default"]["username"])
  if (process.env.LT_USERNAME) {
    settings["test_settings"]["default"]["username"] = process.env.LT_USERNAME;
  }
  if (process.env.LT_ACCESS_KEY) {
    settings["test_settings"]["default"]["access_key"] = process.env.LT_ACCESS_KEY;
  }
  if (process.env.SELENIUM_HOST) {
    settings.selenium.host = process.env.SELENIUM_HOST;
  }
  if (process.env.SELENIUM_PORT) {
    settings.selenium.host = process.env.SELENIUM_PORT;
  }
  return settings;
})(require('./nightwatch.json'));

You can generate capabilities for your test requirements with the help of our inbuilt Capabilities Generator tool.

Executing the Test​

Step 5: The tests can be executed in the terminal using the following command

npm run single

Your test results would be displayed on the test console (or command-line interface if you are using terminal/cmd) and on LambdaTest automation dashboard. LambdaTest Automation Dashboard will help you view all your text logs, screenshots and video recording for your entire automation tests.

Running Your Parallel Tests Using Nightwatch Framework​

Executing Parallel Tests with Nightwatch​

To run parallel tests using Nightwatch, we would have to execute the below command in the terminal:

npm run parallel

Your test results would be displayed on the test console (or command-line interface if you are using terminal/cmd) and on LambdaTest automation dashboard.

Testing Locally Hosted or Privately Hosted Projects​

You can test your locally hosted or privately hosted projects with LambdaTest Selenium grid cloud using LambdaTest Tunnel app. All you would have to do is set up an SSH tunnel using LambdaTest Tunnel app and pass toggle tunnel = True via desired capabilities. LambdaTest Tunnel establishes a secure SSH protocol based tunnel that allows you in testing your locally hosted or privately hosted pages, even before they are made live.

Refer our LambdaTest Tunnel documentation for more information.

Here’s how you can establish LambdaTest Tunnel.

Download the binary file of:

Open command prompt and navigate to the binary folder.

Run the following command:

LT -user {user’s login email} -key {user’s access key}

So if your user name is lambdatest@example.com and key is 123456, the command would be:

LT -user lambdatest@example.com -key 123456

Once you are able to connect LambdaTest Tunnel successfully, you would just have to pass on tunnel capabilities in the code shown below :

Tunnel Capability

const capabilities = {
        tunnel: true,
}
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