Nightwatch Setup

A simple step-by-step instructions in getting Nightwatch set up. Ensure you have Node.js installed as we will be using npm to install our modules and dependcies.

Nightwatch 1.0 and above no longer requires, nor is it recommended to use Selenium Standalone Server unless you are testing agaisnt legacy browsers, such as Internet Explorer.

Create a new directory called whatever you like(Do not call it the same as "Nightwatch" as you'll run into errors later on).

Step 1

Run npm init -y as this will create a basic package.json file. Under "scripts": { "test":
Add "Nightwatch" This will make it so nightwatch is ran using command: npm test

Step 2

Install Nightwatch as a global npm module. npm i nightwatch -g(This will make it so you can run Nightwatch in any directory).

Within your newly created directory install your WebDriver dependencies. Nightwatch.js has a great page showcasing all webdrivers and how to install them. For now, we'll just use npm to install Chrome's WebDriver:

ChromeDriver

ChromeDriver can be downloaded from the ChromeDriver Downloads page. Or you can use the chromedriver NPM package as a dependency in your project: npm i chromedriver

Step 3

Create a nightwatch.conf.js file and insert this block of code:

{
  "src_folders" : ["tests"],

  "webdriver" : {
    "start_process": true,
    "server_path": "node_modules/chromedriver/lib/chromedriver/chromedriver.exe",
    "port": 9515
  },

  "test_settings" : {
    "default" : {
      "desiredCapabilities": {
        "browserName": "chrome"
      }
    }
  }
}

• src_folders indicates where your tests are stored within your directory.
• server_path Is where you're storing ChromeDriver. Note If you run into an error An error occurred while trying to start ChromeDriver: cannot resolve path: "" Check in your node_modules folder to see where chromedriver.exe is located and update the server path.

Step 4

Using the preferred CSS selector model to locate elements on a page, Nightwach makes it very easy to write automated End-to-End tests.

Create a tests folder. Within tests create a .js file(This is to test to make sure everything is set up correctly and working. For now, name it googleTest.js). Insert block of code to googleTest.js:

module.exports = {
  'Demo test Google' : function (browser) {
    browser
      .url('https://www.google.com')
      .waitForElementVisible('body')
      .setValue('input[type=text]', 'nightwatch')
      .waitForElementVisible('input[name=btnK]')
      .click('input[name=btnK]')
      .pause(1000)
      .assert.containsText('#main', 'Night Watch')
      .end();
  }
};

Step 5

Now all thats left is to run tests by using command: npm test This will run all tests within the directory. You can specify to run only one test by using: npm test tests\googleTest.js

Remember always to call the .end() method when you want to close your test, in order for the browser session to be properly closed.

Thats it!