Chrome specific functionality

By default, Selenium 4 is compatible with Chrome v75 and greater. Note that the version of the Chrome browser and the version of chromedriver must match the major version.

Options

Capabilities common to all browsers are described on the Options page.

Capabilities unique to Chrome and Chromium are documented at Google’s page for Capabilities & ChromeOptions

Starting a Chrome session with basic defined options looks like this:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

def test_keep_browser_open():

      driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

  it 'basic options' do
    options = Selenium::WebDriver::Options.chrome

      const Options = new Chrome.Options();
      let driver = await env
        .builder()
        .setChromeOptions(Options)
        .build();

Arguments

The args parameter is for a list of command line switches to be used when starting the browser. There are two excellent resources for investigating these arguments:

• Chrome Flags for Tooling
• List of Chromium Command Line Switches

Commonly used args include --start-maximized, --headless=new and --user-data-dir=...

Add an argument to options:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

    driver.quit()

}

    options = Selenium::WebDriver::Options.chrome(args: ['--headless=new'])

      let driver = await env
        .builder()
        .setChromeOptions(options.addArguments('--headless=new'))
        .build();

Start browser in a specified location

The binary parameter takes the path of an alternate location of browser to use. With this parameter you can use chromedriver to drive various Chromium based browsers.

Add a browser location to options:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

      let driver = await env
        .builder()
        .setChromeOptions(options.setChromeBinaryPath(`Path to chrome binary`))
        .build();

Add extensions

The extensions parameter accepts crx files. As for unpacked directories, please use the load-extension argument instead, as mentioned in this post.

Add an extension to options:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

Keeping browser open

Setting the detach parameter to true will keep the browser open after the process has ended, so long as the quit command is not sent to the driver.

Add a binary to options:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

      let driver = await env
        .builder()
        .setChromeOptions(options.detachDriver(true))
        .build();

Excluding arguments

Chromedriver has several default arguments it uses to start the browser. If you do not want those arguments added, pass them into excludeSwitches. A common example is to turn the popup blocker back on. A full list of default arguments can be parsed from the Chromium Source Code

Set excluded arguments on options:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

            options.AddExcludedArgument("disable-popup-blocking");

    @driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :chrome, options: options

      let driver = await env
        .builder()
        .setChromeOptions(options.excludeSwitches('enable-automation'))
        .build();

Service

Examples for creating a default Service object, and for setting driver location and port can be found on the Driver Service page.

Log output

Getting driver logs can be helpful for debugging issues. The Service class lets you direct where the logs will go. Logging output is ignored unless the user directs it somewhere.

File output

To change the logging output to save to a specific file:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

        String fileContent = new String(Files.readAllBytes(getLogLocation().toPath()));

            service.LogPath = GetLogLocation();

      service.log = file_name

Console output

To change the logging output to display in the console as STDOUT:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

        String fileContent = new String(Files.readAllBytes(getLogLocation().toPath()));

      service.log = $stdout

Log level

There are 6 available log levels: ALL, DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, SEVERE, and OFF. Note that --verbose is equivalent to --log-level=ALL and --silent is equivalent to --log-level=OFF, so this example is just setting the log level generically:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

        String fileContent = new String(Files.readAllBytes(getLogLocation().toPath()));

      service.args << '--log-level=DEBUG'

Log file features

There are 2 features that are only available when logging to a file:

• append log
• readable timestamps

To use them, you need to also explicitly specify the log path and log level. The log output will be managed by the driver, not the process, so minor differences may be seen.

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

        String fileContent = new String(Files.readAllBytes(getLogLocation().toPath()));

      service.args << '--append-log'
      service.args << '--readable-timestamp'

Disabling build check

Chromedriver and Chrome browser versions should match, and if they don’t the driver will error. If you disable the build check, you can force the driver to be used with any version of Chrome. Note that this is an unsupported feature, and bugs will not be investigated.

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

        String fileContent = new String(Files.readAllBytes(getLogLocation().toPath()));

            service.DisableBuildCheck = true;

      service.args << '--disable-build-check'

Special Features

Some browsers have implemented additional features that are unique to them.

Casting

You can drive Chrome Cast devices, including sharing tabs

Network conditions

You can simulate various network conditions.

Logs

Permissions

DevTools

See the Chrome DevTools section for more information about using Chrome DevTools