This topic provides an overview of testing applications based on Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF).

About Automated Testing of CEF-Based Applications

Specifics of Testing CEF-Based Applications

Note:

To learn how to test Electron-based applications, see About Testing Electron Applications.

About Automated Testing of CEF-Based Applications

With TestComplete, you can test web pages in applications that use the Chromium Embedded Framework. TestComplete supports CEF3 versions of the framework. You can test 32-bit and 64-bit applications created with the following programming languages and frameworks:

Language / Framework	CEF Project
C, C++	generic Chromium Embedded Framework
Delphi	DCEF3
.NET	CefSharp (including WPF projects of CEFSharp)
Java	JavaChromiumEmbedded JavaCEF

Currently, the supported versions of CEF3 builds are 75.0.3773 and earlier. If you use NuGet or some other package manager to add CEF libraries to your application, make sure that the version of the CEF build within the package conforms to the version of CEF builds supported by TestComplete.

Also, TestComplete supports some specific types of CEF-based applications:

CEF applications launched by using the ClickOnce technology (the required TestComplete licenses for such applications are the same as for usual CEF applications)
CEF applications that do not implement cef_loader_hander_t
CEF applications that do not implement cef_life_span_handler
CEF applications with browser configuration disabled (settings.command_line_args_disabled = 1)

Add your CEF-based application to the Tested Applications collection as a generic Windows application. See Adding Tested Applications. In this case, TestComplete will try to expose the application automatically (see below).

If your CEF application is launched by using the ClickOnce technology, add the application to the Tested Applications collection as a ClickOnce application and select the Allow TestComplete to interact with embedded Chromium content check box. See Preparing CEF-Based Applications for Testing.

Requirements

An active license for the TestComplete Web Module.

Testing of CEF applications embedded in WPF applications requires active licenses for both Desktop and Web modules.
The following plugins must be enabled in TestComplete:
- Web Testing
- Chromium Embedded Framework Support
Note: These plugins are installed and enabled automatically as part of the TestComplete Web module. You can check if these plugins are active in File | Install Extensions.

Exposing CEF-Based Applications

There are two ways to gain access to web pages and elements of CEF-based applications: automatic (recommended) and manual.

Automatic

In order to expose a CEF-based application, you need to add it to the Tested Applications collection and then launch it in Simple run mode, while one of the following conditions is met:

The application's executable imports the libcef.dll library.

-- or --

The libcef.dll library and the application's executable are located in the same folder.

-- or --

The application has the injectCefHook command-line argument (in any letter case and with any prefix).

Manual

If you start a CEF-based application in some other way, or launch it in another run mode (RunAs, Debug or Profile), then you need to prepare the application manually. See Preparing CEF-Based Applications for Testing for instructions on how to do this.

After the application is exposed (either automatically or manually), TestComplete will be able to access web pages and elements in the application’s embedded Chromium browser. You can test these web pages as you normally do this in a regular browser.

Specifics of Testing CEF-Based Applications

Web testing in embedded browsers, like CEF-based applications, differs from testing in regular web browsers. The main difference is that TestComplete identifies CEF-based applications as Process test objects rather than Browser test objects. Also, Page objects are nested under the browser hosted window, they are not direct child objects of the application’s process.

A CEF-based application in the Object Browser

To get a Page object for an embedded web page, you can use the following code:

JavaScript, JScript

function Test()
{
  // Search for the Page object
  var p = Sys.Process("cefclient1");
  var page = p.FindChild("ObjectType", "Page", 5);

  if (page.Exists)
  {
    // Work with the Page object
    page.ToUrl("www.example.com");
  }
  else
  {
    Log.Error("The Page object was not found.");
  }
}

Python

def Test():
  # Search for the Page object
  p = Sys.Process("cefclient1");
  page = p.FindChild("ObjectType", "Page", 5);

  if page.Exists:
    # Work with the Page object
    page.ToUrl("www.example.com");
  else:
    Log.Error("The Page object was not found.");

VBScript

Sub Test
  Dim p, page

  ' Search for the Page object
  Set p = Sys.Process("cefclient1")
  Set page = p.FindChild("ObjectType", "Page", 5)

  If page.Exists Then
    ' Work with the Page object
    page.ToUrl("www.example.com")
  Else
    Log.Error("The Page object was not found.")
  End If
End Sub

DelphiScript

procedure Test;
var p, page;
begin
  // Search for the Page object
  p := Sys.Process('cefclient1');
  page := p.FindChild('ObjectType', 'Page', 5);

  if page.Exists then
  begin
    // Work with the Page object
    page.ToUrl('www.example.com');
  end
  else
    Log.Error('The Page object was not found.');
end;

C++Script, C#Script

function Test()
{
  // Search for the Page object
  var p = Sys["Process"]("cefclient1");
  var page = p["FindChild"]("ObjectType", "Page", 5);

  if (page["Exists"])
  {
    // Work with the Page object
    page["ToUrl"]("www.example.com");
  }
  else
  {
    Log["Error"]("The Page object was not found.");
  }
}

For more differences between regular and embedded browsers, see the Specifics of Web Testing in Embedded Browsers section in the Considerations for Web Testing topic.

Known Issues and Limitations

.NET applications created with CefGlue are not supported.
Windowless (offscreen) rendering mode is supported only for WPF controls of CefSharp applications. Other applications that use offscreeen rendering are not supported.
If script injection is restricted by the Content Security Policy (CSP) in your tested CEF application, TestComplete will not be able to access internal objects of the application.

To be able to create tests for such applications, you need to disable the policy that restricts script injection. To do that, remove the Content-Security-Policy header from your application pages.

Create a separate test build of your application with the policy disabled, for testing purpose only. Do not deploy your application with the policy disabled, as it may impair your application security.

You can find more information about CSP and on how to work with it at:

developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CSP
TestComplete cannot perform ClickItem actions on ListBox controls in applications based on CEF3 builds 1650 and 1750. This behavior is caused by an issue in the Chromium engine and was fixed in CEF build 1916. As a workaround, you can select items of ListBox controls by calling the Keys action:

aListBox.Keys("[Down][Down]") // Select the second item in the list
aListBox.Keys("myItem") // Input the desired value
If you face issues when accessing GUI objects in your CEF application, make sure the LifespanHandler and LoadHandler interfaces are implemented in your application.

About Support for Chromium Embedded Framework

About Automated Testing of CEF-Based Applications

Requirements

Exposing CEF-Based Applications

Automatic

Manual

Specifics of Testing CEF-Based Applications

Known Issues and Limitations

See Also