Our Robotframework test suites run every night against our websites. For the last few weeks there have been very random failures at the start of some tests with the following error just as the headless chrome browser goes to open:
(chrome not reachable)
(The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/chromium-browser is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
It is never the same test and seems to happen randomly. In each set of tests, the browser will open, do some tests, then close. This will happen multiple times in a test file. The test suites could sometimes go for days without any issue and then suddenly it will start happening again. I have tired adding some chrome options as suggested from other posts, but the issue still remains. I have also checked and confirmed the server is never under any pressure.
The browser opens will the following code.
${options}= Evaluate sys.modules['selenium.webdriver'].ChromeOptions() sys, selenium.webdriver
${user_agent} set variable --user-agent=Test User
${sandbox} set variable --no-sandbox
${shm-usage} set variable --disable-dev-shm-usage
Call Method ${options} add_argument ${user_agent}
Call Method ${options} add_argument ${sandbox}
Call Method ${options} add_argument ${shm-usage}
open browser about:blank headlesschrome options=${options}
Set Window Size 1440 1080
It is on the second last line where it goes to open browser where it sometimes randomly fails with the error.
I suggest you to change schedule time 2-3 hours forward or backward and then monitor if job fails or not. I assume you are getting this error because Jenkins is starting other jobs at the same time and there are no enough resources to run Chrome.
I want to use Chrome browser in headless mode to produce images (PNG, JPEG) out of SVG graphic. Code works in normal interactive mode, but I have problems to use it in headless mode.
My main problem is that headless Chrome exits before drawing of HTML page is completed. As I understand, if I start Chrome with following arguments:
chromium --headless http://myserver.org
It exits together with document.onload event. But at this moment not all data fetched from the server (I using XMLHttpRequest) and therefore drawing is not complete.
I found workaround if I start chrome with debugging port enabled like:
chromium --headless --remote-debugging-port=7777 http://myserver.org
But this is not that I want, especially when I do not have privileges to open http ports on the node. Is there possibility to let Chrome running longer with other flags? I check a lot of them, but did not found appropriate one. Or is there any other methods to postpone exit of the headless Chrome?
You could try this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/46424041/4830701
Copy pasted here for reference
Use the binary /opt/google/chrome/chrome directly not google-chrome which points to bash script /usr/bin/google-chrome.
Taken from comments in
https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-chrome#screenshots
Yesterday everything was working fine for me. It broke just by itself. When I try to run an automated test with protractor, it runs Google Chrome, but over it appear a blank console. and nothing behind it loads. The URL behind it stays "data;". If I close that blank console, it opens by itself again. If I set the browser at the config file to be Firefox, it runs without any problem.
This bug appeared after the chrome update for many people, the solution that worked for me and other people in SO is reinstall protractor.
Did you try running webdriver-manager update to update the selenium and chrome drivers?
To clarify, I know there are other file watchers e.g. grunt - which could watch for file changes, then launch Karma from the command line.
What I would like know is how to fire Phpstorm's "run configuration" for Karma on file changes, as it launches in its own tray, has a gui allowing you to click on a test and be taken to the test code etc.
Please try enabling 'Toggle Auto-test' button in testing results window toolbar.
I carefully revised the list of switches at http://peter.sh/experiments/chromium-command-line-switches/#chrome-frame and I couldn't find anything that would launch Chrome in a hidden background process.
The closest I was able to is --keep-alive-for-test + custom packaged app, but the app fails to execute any passed code because (the way it reports) "no window - ChromeHidden".
TL;DR
google-chrome --headless --remote-debugging-port=9222 http://example.com
You'd also need --disable-gpu temporarily.
Tutorial:
https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-chrome
There's a work in progress: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=546953
The main deliverables are:
A library which headless applications can link to to.
A sample application which demonstrates the use of headless APIs.
So it would be possible to create a simple application that runs in console without connecting to display.
Update Apr 18 '16: The work is mainly done. There's a public forum now:
https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!forum/headless-dev
Documentation is being in progress:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/headless/README.md
Update Sep 20 '16: It looks like chrome will eventually get the "--headless" parameter:
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=612904
There was a presentation on BlinkOn 6 (June 16/17, 2016)
Update Nov 29 '16: Design doc for --headless flag: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aIJUzQr3eougZQp90bp4mqGr5gY6hdUice8UPa-Ys90/edit#heading=h.qxqfzv2lj12s
Update Dec 13 '16: --headless flag is expected to be available in Canary builds soon
Update Mar 12 '17: Chrome 57 has a --headless flag working. Waiting for Selenium and other tools to catch up. User guide: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/headless/README.md
This guy managed to run Chrome headlessly by using Xvfb (X virtual frame buffer) to trick Chrome into thinking it was displaying a window:
http://e-method.blogspot.fr/2010/11/google-chrome-with-xvfb-headless-server.html
If you're on Linux you could try that.
So basically you need to install X virtual frame buffer and Google Chrome via:
root#localhost: ~# apt-get install xvfb imagemagick
root#localhost: ~# apt-get install google-chrome
Then run the browser on the display:
root#localhost: ~# xvfb-run --server-args='-screen 0, 1024x768x24' \
google-chrome -start-maximized http://www.example.com \
> & /dev/null &
root#localhost: ~# DISPLAY=:99 import -window root myimage.png
Or you can look at PhantomJS project which is a headless WebKit implementation.
You could set up a linux VM and use xvfb in it.
Installation on debian / ubuntu:
sudo aptitude install xvfb
Start Chrome headless and visit http://example.com :
xvfb-run --server-args='-screen 0, 1024x768x16' google-chrome
-start-maximized http://example.com > /dev/null &
Turns out it starts in headless mode if you start it as a child subprocess. Besides that:
nircmd.exe can do win hide on chrome based on its PID
Autohotkey_L can also start Chrome hidden without a taskbar button
The Chromium Embedded Framework project seems like it might fit your usecase. I don't have personal experience with the project, but I've heard good things, and it has a solid API that you should be able to exploit for your purposes.
I don't have enough reputation to comment yet, but want to let you guys know that the chrome headless mode which Vanuan mentions actually works with Selenium webdriver.
In Java you can pass the flag to chrome through chromeDriver with the following code:
ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
options.addArguments("--headless");
ChromeDriver chromeDriver = new ChromeDriver(options);
I've recently found this article which mentions several commandline options that seem to do it. Using these keywords I googled out this piece of code which seem to confirm that these options exist.
// Does not automatically open a browser window on startup (used when
// launching Chrome for the purpose of hosting background apps).
const char kNoStartupWindow[] = "no-startup-window";
// Causes Chrome to launch without opening any windows by default. Useful if
// one wishes to use Chrome as an ash server.
const char kSilentLaunch[] = "silent-launch";
I managed to successfuly run Chrome with --no-startup-window and indeed it launched without any windows. It looked like it launched properly, it spawned all typical children, but the website I tried to make it load inside didn't seem to be actually visited. It maybe possible that this headless mode is only for running apps and not for visiting sites headless*), but it looks very promising as the normal worker tree is set up, just no windows.
The second option --silent-launch made chrome process very silent. I didn't notice any children spawned and the process exited promptly. I doubt it'll be usable for this case.
After I failed my attempts with these options, I focused on less sophisticated ways. On the bottom of the list there are two options:
// Specify the initial window position: --window-position=x,y
const char kWindowPosition[] = "window-position";
// Specify the initial window size: --window-size=w,h
const char kWindowSize[] = "window-size";
I ran Chrome with options to move it completely out of the working area:
--window-size=800,600 --window-position=-800,0
and as dirty as it feels, sure it's no true headless, but still the window is out of my sight, and everything done just with chrome's startup options, without external tools sending low-level window-hide messages.
*) yes, I know try to do weird things. Essentially I tried to get rid of Chrome window that's kept by Karma during tests. I know I can switch to PhantomJS, but I specifically needed to run them in Chrome, and the window popping out was.. eh.. disturbing in the long run.
It is currently under development, you can read more information about it from here:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/headless/README.md
Headless Chromium is a library for running Chromium in a
headless/server environment. Expected use cases include loading web
pages, extracting metadata (e.g., the DOM) and generating bitmaps from
page contents -- using all the modern web platform features provided
by Chromium and Blink.
It currently works on Linux, there is a nice presentation.
I was also able to make chrome headless work with NightwatchJS. Here is the config that let me use it:
"chromeHeadless": {
"desiredCapabilities": {
"browserName": "chrome",
"chromeOptions": {
"args": ["--headless"],
"binary": "/Applications/Google Chrome Canary.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome Canary"
}
}
}
Chrome 59 has the ability to create instance as headless.
Find the below tutorial
https://www.automation99.com/2017/07/how-to-use-chrome-headless-using.html?m=1