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.

Select your integration method

  • BrowserStack SDK (Recommended)
    Plug-n-play solution that takes care of all the integration steps for you
  • Legacy integration
    Perform the integration steps yourself. Useful for custom frameworks and advanced use-cases

Using the BrowserStack SDK is the recommended integration method for CodeceptJS. The SDK handles your integration steps automatically. Use the Manual integration only when you are using custom frameworks or want to handle advanced parallelization use-cases.

Setup authentication

Set environment variables for BrowserStack credentials

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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 BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME "YOUR_USERNAME"
setx BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY "YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"
set BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME=YOUR_USERNAME
set BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY

It is recommended to store your credentials as environment variables and use those environment variables in your test script.

Use BrowserStack credentials in your test cases

test-script.js
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Update your test cases to read BrowserStack credentials from environment variables and update the Selenium hub URL to the BrowserStack remote hub URL.

Connect your website under test

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

Install the package

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Add browserstack-local to your package.json file using the npm command.

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

codecept.conf.js
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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 within the onComplete hook in your test suite.
bs_local.isRunning() Check if the BrowserStack local instance is running.

Add capabilities to enable BrowserStack local

  • Selenium 4 W3C
  • Selenium Legacy JSON
local.conf.json
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Set the local capability to true.

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.

local.conf.json
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Set the browserstack.local capability to true.

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.

Download BrowserStack Local

Show download options

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.

Run the binary using your command line or terminal

Copy the adjacent command to initiate the BrowserStack Local connection

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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

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.

  • Selenium 4 W3C
  • Selenium Legacy JSON

Set up config to enable browserstack local

Copy the capabilities as shown into your config file.

test-script.js
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Set up config to enable browserstack.local

Copy the capabilities as shown into your config file.

test-script.js
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Migrate your test cases

After you setup authentication in your test scripts, you can now add configurations, such as adding browser-os combination, test suite organization details, test status that you want to track, and then run your tests.

Set OS-browser combination to run test

test-script.js
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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

test-script.js
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Use the following capabilities for naming your tests and builds. This ensures effective debugging, test reporting, and build execution time analysis.

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

Use a new buildName name every time you run your test cases. This ensures that sessions are logically grouped under a unique build name and helps you monitor the health of your test suite effectively.

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

test-script.js
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To mark whether your test has passed or failed on BrowserStack, use the 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 string value

Set up debugging capabilities

test-script.js
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Use the following common debugging capabilities for your tests:

  1. Set the the debug capability to enable visual logs and capture screenshots at every Selenium command automatically.
  2. Console Logs with log level ‘errors’ are enabled by default. Set the consoleLogs capability to enable different log levels, such as warnings, info, verbose, errors, and disable.
  3. Set the networkLogs capability to capture the browser’s performance data such as network traffic, latency, HTTP requests, and responses in a HAR format.

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.
test-script.js
Copy icon Copy

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 remote machine 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 (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
test-script.js
Copy icon Copy

Others

Some of the additional capabilities that you might find usefule are:

Set OS-browser combination to run test

test-script.js
Copy icon Copy

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

test-script.js
Copy icon Copy

Use the following capabilities for naming your tests and builds. This ensures effective debugging, test reporting, and build execution time analysis.

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

Use a new build name every time you run your test cases. This ensures that sessions are logically grouped under a unique build name and helps you monitor the health of your test suite effectively.

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

test-script.js
Copy icon Copy

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

test-script.js
Copy icon Copy

Use the following common debugging capabilities for your tests:

  1. Set the the browserstack.debug capability to enable visual logs and capture screenshots at every Selenium command automatically.
  2. Console Logs with log level ‘errors’ are enabled by default. Set the browserstack.console capability to enable different log levels, such as warnings, info, verbose, errors, and disable.
  3. Set the browserstack.networkLogs capability to capture the browser’s performance data such as network traffic, latency, HTTP requests, and responses in a HAR format.

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
acceptSslCerts A boolean. Default is False.
True if you want to accept all SSL certificates.
test-script.js
Copy icon Copy

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 remote machine 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 (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
test-script.js
Copy icon Copy

Others

Some of the additional capabilities that you might find usefule are:

Next steps

Once you have successfully integrated your test suite with BrowserStack, you might want to check the following:

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