BrowserStack has added Nightwatch v2 to its family, delivering better cross-browser integration, more reliable document object model (DOM) element handling and faster tests.
According to Andrei Rusu, writing for BrowserStack, the foundational Nightwatch architecture has been completely redesigned with the second version, and now uses the official Selenium Webdriver bindings for Node.js.
“Nightwatch was published at the beginning of 2014 and was created as a complete and integrated framework that would enable engineers to write end-to-end tests quickly and require as little configuration and maintenance as possible,” Rusu says.
Nightwatch will continue development as an autonomous open-source project, with a view to improving the framework’s overall experience for developers and administrators, the vendor says.
Key features and improvements aim to make Nightwatch more powerful, including the ability to automate complex gestures reliably with the new user actions API command, and more retries of failed element commands.
Additionally, the new Selenium 4 relative locators are available by default in Nightwatch. It also improves upon the existing locators via the Selenium By() API, according to the vendor, and has built-in support for working with file uploads.
“Uploading files with Nightwatch could be cumbersome previously, but v2 has a built-in command which works with the FileDetector API,” explains Rusu.
The litany of enhancements continues with support for extended Capabilities objects, setting network conditions in Chrome, support for working with Devtools Protocol, as well as various new command APIs and test runner improvements.
Nightwatch v2 is also ready for the new BiDirectional WebDriver Protocol, a recent development in the Selenium project allowing users to get console or Javascript error messages from the browser.
( Image by Jan VaĊĦek from Pixabay )
