Test on Internal Networks

Local Testing is a BrowserStack feature that allows you to run automated tests on internal development environments (localhost) or behind a corporate firewall.

Local Testing establishes a secure connection between your machine and the BrowserStack cloud. Once you set up Local Testing, all URLs work out of the box, including HTTPS URLs and those behind a proxy or firewall.

In this guide, you will learn how to :

1. Add BrowserStack Local to the project
2. Set up BrowserStack credentials
3. Understand the code
4. Run the Project

Prerequisites

• BrowserStack Access key and Username. If you haven’t created an account yet, sign up for a free trial or purchase a paid plan. After signup, you can obtain your access credentials from account settings.
• Node.js installed on your machine

Add BrowserStack Local to the project

To add BrowserStack Local to the project:

1. Navigate to your Nightwatch.js project in your command-line.
2. Install BrowserStack Local Testing bindings using the npm command.

   npm install browserstack-local
   

3. In your IDE, navigate to the package.json file.
4. Verify that nightwatch is added in dependencies.`

   "dependencies": {
        "browserstack-local": "^1.4.8",
        "nightwatch": "^1.7.3"
      },
   

Set up BrowserStack credentials

To set your BrowserStack access key and username in the project, run the following command in the root directory of the Nightwatch.js project:

export BROWSERSTACK_USER=<YOUR_USERNAME> && export BROWSERSTACK_KEY=<YOUR_ACCESS_KEY> 

Understand the code

Nightwatch.js project consists of the following folder structure:

• tests/local directory: It contains the test script file for a locally-hosted website.
• scripts directory: It contains the runner file required to set up and manage a local connection using methods, such as bs_local.start(), bs_local.stop(),and bs_local.isRunning(), which are provided by BrowserStack.

Run the Project

To run the project:

1. In your terminal, navigate to the root of the project.
2. Run the local test script using the following command:
   npm run local

desiredCapabilities: {
        'browserstack.local': true
      }