About Testing Electron Applications

Supported Electron Versions

Requirements

Exposing Electron Applications

Creating and Recording Tests for Applications Built with Electron

Addressing Objects in Electron Applications

How Do I Start Testing Electron Applications?

Known Issues and Limitations

TestComplete can test 32- and 64-bit applications created with Electron version 1.8.2, 2.0.2, 3.0.2, 4.0.2, 5.0.0, 6.0.0, 6.1, 7.0.0, 7.1, 8.0 - 8.5, 9.0 - 9.2, 10.0 - 10.1, 11.0.0.

Notes

• An active license for the TestComplete Web Module.

• The following plugins must be enabled in TestComplete:

  • Web Testing

  • Chromium Embedded Framework Support

  These plugins are installed and enabled automatically as part of the TestComplete Web module. You can check whether these plugins are active in the File > Install Extensions dialog (you can find them in the Web group).

• Your tested Electron application must be compiled as a binary executable file.

To simulate user actions against your Electron applications, you access web pages that the embedded Chromium web browser renders. To expose Chromium content in your Electron application:

1. In your TestComplete project, add your application’s binary executable to the Tested Applications collection as a Generic Windows application:

   

   Click the image to enlarge it.

   Specify the path to the binary executable of your Electron application.

   If your Electron application is distributed via installable binaries, several executables can be generated upon installation. For TestComplete to be able to access the application internals, use the application’s actual executable rather than the application launcher. Typically, the needed executable is located in the %APPDATA%\Local\<Your_App_Name>\app-N.N.N folder.

   To make sure that you add a proper executable to your project:

   • Launch your Electron application.

   • In TestComplete, switch to the Object Browser and locate your application in the object hierarchy tree.

   • Right-click the application’s Process node and then click Add Process to TestedApps. TestComplete will add the proper executable to your current project:

     

     Click the image to enlarge it.

2. Launch your application only in the Simple run mode. You can do it directly from the TestComplete IDE or from tests by using the TestedApp.Run method:

   

   Click the image to enlarge it.

3. TestComplete will recognize the contents that the Chromium web browser renders the same way it recognizes any other web application:

   

   Click the image to enlarge it.

   Page objects correspond to the rendered web pages. Child objects of the Page correspond to web elements on the page. Their hierarchy depends on the web object model enabled for your current project in TestComplete (Tree, by default).

   For web elements, TestComplete provides properties and methods that you can use to retrieve data of the elements and simulate user actions against them. In addition, TestComplete provides access to all native methods and properties of the web elements. You can use these native methods and properties to access data and simulate user actions that are not available through methods and properties that TestComplete provides.

   You test Electron applications by simulating user actions against these web elements. You do it the same way you do it in regular web browsers.

Specifics

With TestComplete, you can record and play back user actions in Electron applications, or you can create tests manually from scratch. Usually, it is easier to record the test first and then modify and enhance the recorded test.

When you record a test, you interact with the tested Electron application as an end-user would: navigate through the application’s screens, fill out forms and so on. TestComplete captures all actions you perform in the application and adds them to the test.

A test consists of a sequence of operations that define various interactions with objects in the tested application. For example, you can see in the sample test below that selecting an item from a combo box is represented by the ClickItem operation, text input into text boxes - by the SetText operation, and so on.

A sample keyword test recorded against an Electron application

The recorded tests can be modified and enhanced in a number of ways to create more flexible and efficient tests. For example, you can:

• Add new operations, reorder operations and modify their parameters.

• Delete or disable unneeded operations (for example, superfluous recorded operations).

• Insert checkpoints for verifying objects and values in the tested application.

• Create data-driven tests that run multiple test iterations using different sets of data.

Refer to the following topics to learn more about creating and enhancing tests:

There are several ways to refer to objects in Electron applications:

Using Name Mapping and Aliases

By default, when you record a test, TestComplete automatically adds recorded objects to the Name Mapping repository in your project and uses names it assigns to mapped objects (such names are called aliases) to refer them in tests. You can see mapped objects and their aliases in the Name Mapping editor:

Click the image to enlarge it.

Without Name Mapping

To work with objects not added to the Name Mapping repository, you can address them using syntax that directly includes identification properties. To learn what syntax is needed to refer to a specific object, view the object’s FullName property in the Object Browser:

Click the image to enlarge it.

• If script injection is restricted by the Content Security Policy (CSP) in your tested Electron 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

• If your application uses JavaScript libraries (for example, jQuery, RequireJS, Meteor, AngularJS, Highcharts, and so on), you may encounter an Uncaught ReferenceError when launching your Electron application from TestedApps. To avoid this error, launch your tested Electron application with the -tearOffNodeObjects command-line argument in the TestedApps editor.

• If you run your tested application created with Electron 9.2.0 x86, from TestComplete, on the Windows 7 operating system, and the sandbox renderer is enabled in the application, the application may fail to render its pages.

• Running cross-platform web tests for Electron applications in remote environments is not supported.