Integrate Your Test Suite
Integrate BrowserStack into your test suite using the BrowserStack Node SDK — a plug-and-play solution that takes care of all the integration steps for you!
Prerequisites
- An existing automated test suite.
- Node v12+ installed on your machine.
Looking for a starter project? Get started with our CodeceptJS sample project.
Integration steps
Install BrowserStack Node SDK
Install the BrowserStack SDK using npm for your MochaJS based test suite for plug-and-play integration with BrowserStack.
The npx setup command generates a browserstack.yml file at the root location of your project with your access credentials already configured. It also adds new command(s) in your package.json file to run tests on BrowserStack.
You can also set your credentials using the environment variables BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME and BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY.
Configure your browserstack.yml file
The auto-generated browserstack.yml file situated in the root location of your project holds all the required settings to run tests on BrowserStack.
Set platforms to test on
Set the browsers and devices you want to test under the platforms object. Our config follows W3C formatted capabilities.
Do you want to dynamically configure platforms?
To dynamically configure platforms across different tests, you can comment out the platforms capability while still passing platform-specific capabilities.
Set number of parallel threads per platform
The parallelsPerPlatform property determines the number of parallel threads to be executed. BrowserStack’s SDK runner selects the best strategy based on the configured value.
Example 1: If you have configured 3 platforms and set parallelsPerPlatform as 2: a total of 6 (3 x 2) parallel threads are used on BrowserStack.
Example 2: If you have configured 1 platform and set parallelsPerPlatform as 15: a total of 15 (1 x 15) parallel threads are used on BrowserStack.
Do you want to perform cross-browser testing without test level parallelization?
Remove the parallelsPerPlatform capability from the configuration file.
Do you want to test parallelization without performing cross-browser testing?
Remove or comment out the platform capability while keeping the parallelsPerPlatform capability intact in the configuration file.
Do you want to skip cross-browser testing as well as parallelization?
Remove or comment out the platform and parallelsPerPlatform capabilities from the configuration file.
Configure BrowserStack Local
Test localhost / internal servers in your network
BrowserStack’s Local Testing feature connects with test suites pointing to your localhost URL
If your staging environment is behind a proxy or firewall, you need to set additional arguments, such as proxy username, proxy password, etc. Check out Local Binary parameters to learn about additional arguments or Contact Support for assistance.
BrowserStack Reporting
You can leverage BrowserStack’s extensive reporting features using the following capabilities:
Set a name to your build (usually the same as the build ID that’s on your CI/CD platform).
Accepted characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, ., :, -, [], /, @, &, ', _. All other characters are ignored.
Character limit: 255
| buildIdentifier | Description | Generated build name on BrowserStack dashboard |
|---|---|---|
| ${BUILD_NUMBER} (Default) | If build is triggered locally, an incremental counter is appended. If build is triggered with CI tools, CI generated build number is appended. |
bstack-demo 1 bstack-demo CI 1395 |
| ${DATE_TIME} | The timestamp of run time is appended to the build. | bstack-demo 29-Nov-20:44 |
Advanced use cases for Build name
Custom formatting of build name
Prefix buildIdentifier with desired characters, for example, # or :
buildName: bstack-demo
buildIdentifier: '#${BUILD_NUMBER}'
Re-run tests in a build
You can re-run selected tests from a build using any of the following options:
Option 1: Set the existing build name in the BROWSERSTACK_BUILD_NAME variable and prepend it to your test run command to re-run tests in the same build:
MacOS/Linux:
BROWSERSTACK_BUILD_NAME="bstack-demo 123" npm run sample-test
Windows Powershell:
$env:BROWSERSTACK_BUILD_NAME=“bstack-demo 123”; npm run sample-test
Windows cmd:
set BROWSERSTACK_BUILD_NAME=“bstack-demo 123” && npm run sample-test
Option 2: Set the build name as a combination of buildName and buildIdentifier, as seen on the dashboard, and set buildIdenitifier as null:
buildName: bstack-demo 123
buildIdentifier: null
Option 3: Set the buildIdentifier as the build number or time of the required build as seen on the dashboard:
buildName: bstack-demo
buildIdentifier: 123
Set a project name for your project.
Do you want to enable/disable auto-marking of test status and session?
The sessionName and sessionStatus are the names of your test sessions and status of your test sessions respectively. They are automatically picked from your test class/spec names and statuses. They do not need to be set manually when using the BrowserStack SDK. To override the sessionName and sessionStatus capabilities, use the following in your browserstack.yml file:
You can configure local testing to start without initializing the BrowserStack binary, or even with an existing binary using a local identifier
testContextOptions:
skipSessionName: true
skipSessionStatus: true
Use additional debugging features
By default, BrowserStack provides prettified session logs, screenshots on every failed selenium command, and a video of the entire test. Additionally, you can enable the following features:
Use Percy Visual Testing
Percy is an all-in-one visual testing and review platform enabling teams to automate visual tests, detect visual bugs, and provide valuable insights into UI changes.
percyCaptureMode takes effect only if you set percy to true. If you set the capture mode to manual, ensure you use the Percy Screenshot function in your test script.
Update BrowserStack Config file
Copy the given config into your browserstack.yml file.
Use our Capability Generator to select from a comprehensive set of options you can use to customize your tests.
Run your test suite on BrowserStack
Your test suite is now ready to run on BrowserStack! Run the commands added under the scripts property section in the package.json file. Here is an example command:
If you don’t see any new commands, make sure you ran npx setup correctly or contact support for assistance.
To find out the location of the BrowserStack SDK log files, refer to BrowserStack SDK Log Files. If you are looking for more information, see FAQ documentation.
After you run your test, visit the Automate dashboard to view your test results.
Advanced features and use cases
Here’s a list of features and capabilities that you might find useful:
Accept insecure certificates
The acceptInsecureCerts capability suppresses browser popups warning about self-signed certificates usually found in staging environments.
| Capability | Expected values |
|---|---|
acceptInsecureCerts |
A boolean. Default is False.True if you want to accept all SSL certificates. |
Change desktop resolution
The resolution capability changes the default desktop screen resolution for your tests on BrowserStack infrastructure.
| Capability | Description | Expected values |
|---|---|---|
resolution |
Set the resolution of your VM before beginning your test | A string. Default resolution is 1024x768 Supported resolutions: Windows (XP): 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1600x1200, 1920x1200, 1920x1080, 2048x1536, 2560x1600, and 2560x1920 Windows (7): 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1600x1200, 1920x1200, 1920x1080, 2048x1536, 2560x1600, 2560x1920, and 3840x2160 Windows (8, 8.1, 10, 11): 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1600x1200, 1920x1200, 1920x1080, 2048x1536, 2560x1600, 2560x1920, and 3840x2160 OS X (Sequoia, Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, and High Sierra): 1024x768, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1920x1080, 2560x1440, 2560x1600, and 3840x2160 OS X (All other versions): 1024x768, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, and 1920x1080
|
Adding root level or platform level capabilities
You can add any capability in the browserstack.yml file at the root level or platform level. Refer to the snippet for details.
Other use cases
Use the following additional links to documentation pages that might help with your test scenarios:
Next steps
After you have successfully run your first test on BrowserStack, you might want to do one of the following:
- Generate a list of capabilities that you want to use in tests
- Find information about your Projects, Builds and Sessions using our REST APIs
- Set up your CI/CD: Jenkins, Bamboo, TeamCity, Azure, CircleCI, BitBucket, TravisCI, GitHub Actions
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Contact our Support team for immediate help while we work on improving our docs.
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Thank you for your valuable feedback!