Manual

Electron is a framework for executing cross-platform desktop applications using the web browser Chromium and the Node.js framework. HTML, CSS und JavaScript can be used for the development of the applications. Electron applications can access native functionality of the operating system such as menus, files or the task bar.

Since version 4.5 QF-Test can handle applications developed via the Electron framework. All features QF-Test supports for the web engine can also be used for Electron testing.

Connecting to an Electron application is quite similiar to connecting to a web application (connection mode 'WebDriver', see subsection 45.3.2)

The quickstart wizard (see chapter 3) helps you generate the correct 'Setup' sequence for an easy start of the application.

The Electron specific parameters for the quickstart wizard will be explained in this chapter. For the remaining optional parameters you will find an explanation within the quickstart wizard itself.

In the quickstart wizard select An Electron application in the section 'Type of the Application'.

Please enter the fully qualified executable for the application in the section 'Electron application'. You can make use of the file selection dialog by clicking the button to the right of the text field. If your application requires specific command line arguments, you can provide them here.

In the section 'ChromeDriver' you can either enter the respective Electron version directly or let QF-Test determine it via the button 'Detect Electron version'.

Electron is based on Node.js, which is executed in the JavaScript runtime environment 'V8'. This can be accessed via the ChromeDriver. Electron can be run on various Node versions, each of which requires a different ChromeDriver When the required ChromeDriver has already been installed QF-Test will indicate this in the bottom text field. In case it is empty, please download the ChromeDriver by clicking the button 'Download ChromeDriver'. It will be saved in the subdirectory chromedriver of the QF-Test installation directory.

For Electron testing you can use all the features QF-Test offers for web testing plus the following:

The 'Selection' node allows you to control native menus in Electron applications.

Please enter the 'QF-Test ID' of the node Website of the SUT in the attribute 'QF-Test component ID'.

The menu item to be selected goes in the 'Detail' attribute using the following syntax: clickmenu:/@<menu path>, where <menu path> is the menu name plus the menu item(s), separated by /. For example, if you want to select the menu item Save as in the menu File the correct entry would be clickmenu:@/File/Save as....

To support testing the Electron APIs, i.e. record and replay native menu interaction, QF-Test has to be able to access the core Electron APIs from the renderer processes of your application. In practice, this means that the nodeIntegration preference of the BrowserWindow should not be set to false. In addition, contextIsolation must be left deactivated and enableRemoteModule must remain true:

 mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
    webPreferences: {
        nodeIntegration: true,    // = current default value
        enableRemoteModule: true, // = current default value
        contextIsolation: false,  // = current default value
        ...
    },
    ...
  })

If you want to avoid to expose the complete node integration into the browser window web content, you can enable QF-Test to access the API integration using a preload script:

  mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
    webPreferences: {
        nodeIntegration: false,
        ...
        preload: `${__dirname}/preload.js` // absolute pathname required
    },
    ...
  })

  // Expose require API in test mode:
  if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test') {
    window.electronRequire = require;
  }

Since QF-Test always sets the NODE_ENV environment variable to test, you can use this to dynamically loosen the access security during test:

  const inTestMode = (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test');
  mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
    webPreferences: {
        nodeIntegration: ! inTestMode,
        enableRemoteModule: inTestMode,
        contextIsolation: ! inTestMode,
        ...
    },
    ...
  })

Last update: 03/01/2020 Copyright © 1999-2020 Quality First Software GmbH