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Introducing the Automate SDK! Get your entire test suite running on BrowserStack in minutes! Learn More.

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!

This guide will help you:

  1. Install the Node SDK
  2. Configure your browserstack.yml file
  3. Setup advanced features and use cases

Integration steps

Install BrowserStack Node SDK

Install the BrowserStack Node SDK using npm for your Mocha 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.

Parallel thread #1
Parallel thread #2
Parallel thread #3

Set number of parallels 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 (2 x 3) 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.

Configure BrowserStack Local

Test localhost / internal servers in your network

True
False
Test Localhost / Staging websites that are not publicly accessible

BrowserStack’s Local Testing feature connects with test suites pointing to your localhost URL

Learn more

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.

Organizing your test suite

Our projectName, buildName, and sessionName capabilities help with organizing your tests on BrowserStack’s Dashboard.

Build Name
Project Name

sessionName of your test sessions are be automatically picked from your test class/spec name. You do not need to set it manually when using the BrowserStack SDK.

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:

Test Observability

Enables Test Observability with advanced test reporting, debugging, analytics, and insights for your test suites with the help of automatic test data collection using the SDK

True
False
Network logs

Enables network capture for the session in HAR format. Reduces session performance slightly

True
False

Update BrowserStack Config file

Copy the desired config into your browserstack.yml file.

Copy icon Copy snippet

Run your test suite on BrowserStack

Your test suite is now ready to run on BrowserStack! Run using the added command(s) under the scripts property in your package.json file.

If you don’t see any new commands, make sure you ran npx setup correctly or contact support for assistance.

# Example runner command.
npm run browserstack-[your-test-script-name]
# Check your package.json file for actual command name.

Advanced features and use cases

Here’s a list of features and capabilities that you might find useful:

Accept insecure certificates

browserstack.yml

The acceptSslCerts capability suppresses browser warnings 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.

Change desktop resolution

browserstack.yml

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 (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

browserstack.yml

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:

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