Integrate Your Test Suite with BrowserStack

This section will help you migrate your existing test suite to run on BrowserStack Automate. It also covers key features and best practice recommendations for smooth integration.

Setup authentication

Set environment variables for BrowserStack credentials

      
            macOS or Linux
          
            Windows
          
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# Set these values in your ~/.zprofile (zsh) or ~/.profile (bash)
export BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME="YOUR_USERNAME"
export BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"
# setx.exe does not set the environment variable in the current command prompt, but it will be available in subsequent command prompts
setx BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME "YOUR_USERNAME"
setx BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY "YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"

# Verify whether the variables have been set
echo BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME
echo BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY

In the previous section, we set up BrowserStack credentials directly in the test script. That method works for a sample build, but for a production-grade integration we recommend you store your credentials as environment variables and use those environment variables in your code.

Use BrowserStack credentials in your test cases

Update your test cases to read BrowserStack credentials from environment variables and point the Selenium hub to the BrowserStack remote hub URL.

Connect your website under test

BrowserStack can integrate with test suites pointing to your localhost URL, staging environment and even websites behind one or more proxies/firewalls.

Composer - Language Bindings
CLI Interface - Binary

Install the package

Add browserstack/local to your PHP project using Composer.

Set the access key and use available methods in your test script

Set the bs_local_args variable to your BrowserStack Access key and and use the following methods provided by the local library to manage your local connection:

Method	Description
`bs_local->start()`	Expects bs_local object. Returns a callback when the tunnel has started successfully. Your test script should start executing after this callback has been invoked.
`bs_local->stop()`	Call this method after your test suite is complete.
`bs_local->isRunning()`	Check if the BrowserStack local instance is running.

Add desired capabilities to enable browserstack.local

Copy and set the browserstack.local capability to true in your test script. You may face errors running your test script if any other capability is enabled before setting up browserstack.local.

If your staging environment is behind a proxy or firewall, additional arguments, such as proxy username, proxy password, etc, need to be set. Check out Local Binary parameters to learn about additional arguments.

Run a test using BrowserStack Local

Try running a localhost after completing the above steps. Check out our sample Git repository for more details.

Download BrowserStack Local

Unzip the binary

Unzip the downloaded file and move it to a folder/directory from which you have permission to start it using your command line or terminal.

      
            macOS or Linux
          
            Windows
          
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# Step 3 - Run this command in your terminal to start the BrowserStack Local binary. Your working directory should be where you have the downloaded binary.
./BrowserStackLocal --key YOUR_ACCESS_KEY
# Step 3 - Run this command in your command prompt. Your working directory should be where you have unzipped BrowserStackLocal.exe
BrowserStackLocal.exe --key YOUR_ACCESS_KEY

Run the binary using your command line or terminal

Run the adjacent command to initiate the BrowserStack Local connection

Set up config to enable browserstack.local

Copy the capabilities as shown into your config file.

Migrate your test cases

This section will help you with all the config changes, commonly used features, and best practices for a smooth migration of your test cases to BrowserStack.

Run test suite on a single browser

      
            Selenium 4 - W3C
          
            Selenium 3
          
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$caps = array(
  'bstack:options' => array(
    "os" => "Windows",
    "osVersion" => "10",
    "browserVersion" => "latest"
  ),
"browserName" => "Chrome"
)
$caps = array(
  "os" => "Windows",
  "os_version" => "10",
  "browser" => "Chrome",
  "browser_version" => "latest",
)

We recommend running your build using a single browser like Chrome or Firefox to begin with. This will isolate issues during the migration phase and help with faster debugging. Refer the capabilities as shown to use Chrome.

Once you’ve migrated your test cases or have achieved stability with Chrome or Firefox, you can set up cross-browser testing.

Organize tests

Naming your tests and builds properly is crucial for effective debugging, test reporting and analyzing your build execution time. Here are the capabilities you can use.

Capability	Description
`sessionName`	Name for your test case. Example, Homepage - Get started
`buildName`	CI/CD job or build name. Example, Website build #23, staging_1.3.27
`projectName`	Name of your project. Example, Marketing Website

Use a new build name every time you run your test cases. Not using a new build name upon every test run makes it difficult to find and debug tests on Automate dashboard. Using a static build name across tests will group those tests into a single build on the dashboard.

A build can only have a maximum of 1000 tests and post that a new build gets created with a ‘-1’ suffixed to the original build name.

Mark test as passed or failed

To mark whether your test has passed or failed on BrowserStack, use the adjacent Javascript executor in your test script. You can mark a test as passed or failed based on your test assertions.

The arguments passed in the Javascript method for setting the status and the corresponding reason of the test are status and reason

status accepts either passed or failed as the value
reason accepts a value in string datatype

Set up debugging capabilities

BrowserStack provides the following debugging capabilities for your tests:

Use visual logs capability to capture screenshots at every Selenium command automatically. Enable visual logs by using the browserstack.debug capability as shown on the right.
Console Logs with log level ‘errors’ are enabled by default. You can enable different log levels viz. warnings, info, verbose, errors and disable using the browserstack.console capability as shown on the right.
Network Logs capture the browser’s performance data such as network traffic, latency, HTTP requests, and responses in a HAR format. You can enable network logs using the browserstack.networkLogs capability as shown on the right.

Commonly used features and advanced-use cases

Here’s a list of features and capabilities you may find useful.

Accept insecure certificates

This 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

This capability changes the default desktop screen resolution for your tests on BrowserStack infra.

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, 7): `800x600`, `1024x768`, `1280x800`, `1280x1024`, `1366x768`, `1440x900`, `1680x1050`, `1600x1200`, `1920x1200`, `1920x1080`, and `2048x1536` Windows (8, 8.1, 10): `1024x768`, `1280x800`, `1280x1024`, `1366x768`, `1440x900`, `1680x1050`, `1600x1200`, `1920x1200`, `1920x1080`, and `2048x1536` 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`