Install Protractor + Jasmine + Typescript + VSCode + NodeJs [Free Tools]

Table of content

• Why Protractor?
• Protractor automation tool prerequisites
• Install Protractor Video
• Install NodeJs
• Install Protractor
• Install Jasmine
• Protractor Typescript / Install Typescript
• Install Jars and exe files
• Integrate Protractor with VSCode
• tsconfig.json
• SetUp Launch.json
• Don't repeat my mistakes

You do not need selenium knowledge to learn protractor and Jasmine

Protractor is a test framework for Angular JS applications that uses Selenium to automate the browser behavior (Protractor uses JS but still communicates with Selenium using WebDriverJS).

Indeed, you could still use Selenium Web Server API as an alternative to Protractor (with a language of your choice that’s supported) to talk to the Selenium Server, but you will have overheads to handle the asynchronous process

This might not be the best choice for non-angular applications because you may prefer more specific synchronization approaches, and the API might not be as flexible as you need.

Protractor allows tests to be organized based on the Jasmine Unit test framework, thus allowing you to write both unit and functional tests on Jasmine.

Protractor is an open-source framework specifically for the automation of AngularJS applications, although it can be used to automate non-angular web-based applications. So in case, your application is designed using AngularJS for the front end, so it would be recommended to use Protractor

Protractor Interview Questions

VS Code :

1. Install VSCode, VSCode is nothing but another version of Visual Studio but available for free.

2. Navigate to https://code.visualstudio.com/

3. Click download button

4. Download the VSCode software according to your operating system.


5. Install the VScode like any other exe file, go along with the recommended setting only.

6. Launch the VSCode, and UI will look like below.

Best IDE for Protractor

We would be using end language like Javascript, so we must install NodeJs for using supporting functions and supporting packages.

1. Navigate to : https://nodejs.org/en/download/

2. Download the package according to your operating system. 3. Install the downloaded NodeJs file.

4. Once the installation is complete, open cmd and type node, if cmd does not throw any error, then NodeJS got installed successfully.

Promise in Protractor

In Java selenium, we would be using Selenium standalone jar file for executing the selenium; sometimes, we may also use selenium-java jar file.

In the case of Protractor, we would be installing an npm package called protractor, and we would be using selenium standalone server jar as a server for executing the protractor.

1. You can install all the packages from the VS code itself.

2. Open VSCode and click View -> Integrated Terminal

3. Navigate to the folder in which you want to install the protractor if you are going to a local installation.

4. Install the Protractor using below command for global installation

npm install protractor -g
		OR
npm i protractor -g

5. For Local installation, you should use above command without -g

npm install protractor
		OR
npm i protractor

6. Global installation : Global installation is nothing but the package will be installed at the user level and available in all folder of your file system, you can find these packages at %appdata%/roaming/npm/node_modules

7. Local Installation : The package we install is available only to a particular folder.

8. I am installing Locally; I would recommend you to install locally

9. If everything installed successfully, then you should see the stupid yellow messages.
Protractor is installed in : C:UsersuserAppDataRoaming pm ode_modules

Pros and Cons of Protractor

Jasmine is an automated unit testing framework for JavaScript

few people may say : Jasmine follows the Behavior Driven Development (BDD) framework and which is nicely integrated with angular.js

Jasmine keeps you User stories and test cases as different entities so that you can keep a map of manual and automation test cases.

This is just an introduction page; we have a different chapter to discuss the Jasmine framework with the protractor.

install Jasmine using the below command.

# Global installation
npm install jasmine

We have to install the dependency file for jasmine; otherwise, you face import error for 'describe', 'it', 'expect' statements.

npm install --save-dev @types/jasmine

Jasmine Unit Testing Framework

TypeScript is a superset of the JavaScript language, typescript will provide more functionalities than javascript along with javascript functionalities

JavaScript is more or less the programming language of the web. It is one of the few languages you can use to create animations, dynamic content, games, and pretty much anything else you can imagine, and run it on a website.

You can use javascript to write the protractor code.

Microsoft has developed it as an extension to JavaScript, which means that all valid JavaScript code is also valid TypeScript code.

In addition, TypeScript provided certain features, such as classes, before they were formally added into JavaScript.

Typescript is scripting language with Object Oriented Programming structure

I recommend you to use TypeScript on top of JavaScript. It will save you a ton of time in the long run.

If you are familiar with any OOP language, it will become easier for you to lean typescript

To install typescript, we have to enter the below command in the terminal.

npm install typescript

Pop Ups in Protractor

We can install all the required Jars and Exe files using the below command

webdriver-manager update

1. Click Explorer option in VSCode:
2. 1. Click the folder icon and create a folder called Specs, which will contain all our test cases. 3. Right-click on the specs folder and select New File
3. 4. Name the file as test.ts [ We are using Typescript language]
4. 5. Just simply create a sample print statement inside the test.ts file
5. 6. As I explained earlier, we have to convert the TS files into JS files.
   We can use the below command in the terminal to compile the existing files.

tsc test.ts		// earlier i wrote tsc -test.ts, it was a mistake from my side.

7. Now copy-paste below code into the test.ts file.

import { browser} from 'protractor'
describe('Protractor Typescript Demo', function() {
	it('title verifications', function() {
	  browser.get('https://angularjs.org/');
	  browser.getTitle().then(function(title){
		console.log("The title is  : "+title)
		browser.sleep(5000);
	  })
	});
});

8. Create a new file called conf.js outside the specs folder and enter below content

exports.config = {
  // launch locally when fields directConnect and seleniumAddress are not provided
  chromeDriver: 'D:/Eclipse progs/driverserver/chromedriver.exe',
  seleniumServerJar: 'D:/Eclipse progs/jars/selenium-server-standalone-3.11.0.jar',
  specs: ['D:ProtractorJSFilesLocation	est.js'],
  capabilities: {
	browserName: 'chrome'
  }
}

how to run automation protractor

You can the run protractor code from the cmd, by writing like below but after compiling the TS files:

protractor ConfFilePath/conf.js

Create Select class in Protractor

Few steps back, we have compiled the ts file using tsc command, do you prefer doing that for every change and for every file.

I do not know about you, but I do not prefer it. So with tsconfig.json help, we can minimize the amount of compilation effort.

tsconfig will have all the details like what to compile and what not to compile, if we compile when do we need to save the compiled files, to the standard we have to compile (es5, es6 like that).

In the below file, I am compiling all the TS files into Js files and placing them on the JSFilesLocation folder.

I am ignoring the files present in the node_modules folder; the compilation will create an exact folder structure in js files like TS files

{
	"compilerOptions": {
	  "target": "es6",
	  "module": "commonjs",
	  "moduleResolution": "node",
	  "inlineSourceMap": true,
	  "declaration": false,
	  "noImplicitAny": false,
	  "outDir": "JSFilesLocation"
	},
	"exclude": [
	  "node_modules"
	]
}

tsc -w

Handle Multiple Windows in Protractor

Unlike other Major editors, Vscode provides the launch configurations using json format file.

We have to provide details like where is our protractor location and the conf.js file location.

conf.js file is the trigger for the Protractor framework.

Create a folder called .vscode; all the launch configurations should be present in this folder. Yes, this is a hidden folder.

Inside .vscode folder create a file called Launch.json and paste the below content into it.

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
	{
	  "type": "node",
	  "request": "launch",
	  "name": "Launch Program",
	  "program": "C:/Users/user/AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/protractor/bin/protractor",
	  "args": ["${workspaceRoot}/JSFilesLocation/conf.js"]
	}
  ]
}

For running protractor/conf.js file, all you have to do is, press the run button under the debug tab on the VS code.

Package.json with Protractor

While I was writing this tutorial, I have made a few mistakes while setting up the above VScode protractor; below are the mistakes I have made.

• I have installed protractor Globally, but when we integrate the global protractor with IDE you may face import error, so install protractor on your folder level
• I have downloaded only the jasmine but forgot to add the dependencies because of which I was facing import errors for describe, it, and expect statement
• I was running the code without compilation
• I did not give a correct test and conf file path
• You will get the below error if your protractor is not installed globally, try to install protractor globally to run protractor conf.js otherwise, you might need to provide the correct path of local installation like node path_to_Protractor_bin_Protractor conf.js
  protractor : the term 'protractor' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

Protractor Interview Questions

Recommended Readings

• webdriver-manager update
• Browser Commands in Protractor | Navigation Commands
• Headless Browser in protractor
• Protractor Promise
• Protractor Architecture
• Protractor vs Selenium
• Chercher Tech Jasmine Reporter
• Protractor Interview Questions

I am Pavankumar, Having 8.5 years of experience currently working in Video/Live Analytics project.