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Custom Commands

If you want to extend the browser instance with your own set of commands, the browser method addCommand is here for you. You can write your command in a asynchronous way, just as in your specs.

Parameters​

Command Name​

A name that defines the command and will be attached to the browser or element scope.

Type: String

Custom Function​

A function that is being executed when the command is called. The this scope is either WebdriverIO.Browser or WebdriverIO.Element depending whether the command gets attached to the browser or element scope.

Type: Function

Target Scope​

Flag to decide whether to attach the command to the browser or element scope. If set to true the command will be an element command.

Type: Boolean
Default: false

Examples​

This example shows how to add a new command that returns the current URL and title as one result. The scope (this) is a WebdriverIO.Browser object.

browser.addCommand('getUrlAndTitle', async function (customVar) {
    // `this` refers to the `browser` scope
    return {
        url: await this.getUrl(),
        title: await this.getTitle(),
        customVar: customVar
    }
})

Additionally, you can extend the element instance with your own set of commands, by passing true as the final argument. The scope (this) in this case is a WebdriverIO.Element object.

browser.addCommand("waitAndClick", async function () {
    // `this` is return value of $(selector)
    await this.waitForDisplayed()
    await this.click()
}, true)

Custom commands give you the opportunity to bundle a specific sequence of commands you use frequently as a single call. You can define custom commands at any point in your test suite; just make sure that the command is defined before its first use. (The before hook in your wdio.conf.js is one good place to create them.)

Once defined, you can use them as follows:

it('should use my custom command', async () => {
    await browser.url('http://www.github.com')
    const result = await browser.getUrlAndTitle('foobar')

    assert.strictEqual(result.url, 'https://github.com/')
    assert.strictEqual(result.title, 'GitHub · Where software is built')
    assert.strictEqual(result.customVar, 'foobar')
})

Note: If you register a custom command to the browser scope, the command won't be accessible for elements. Likewise, if you register a command to the element scope, it won't be accessible in the browser scope:

browser.addCommand("myCustomBrowserCommand", () => { return 1 })
const elem = await $('body')
console.log(typeof browser.myCustomBrowserCommand) // outputs "function"
console.log(typeof elem.myCustomBrowserCommand()) // outputs "undefined"

browser.addCommand("myCustomElementCommand", () => { return 1 }, true)
const elem2 = await $('body')
console.log(typeof browser.myCustomElementCommand) // outputs "undefined"
console.log(await elem2.myCustomElementCommand('foobar')) // outputs "1"

const elem3 = await $('body')
elem3.addCommand("myCustomElementCommand2", () => { return 2 })
console.log(typeof browser.myCustomElementCommand2) // outputs "undefined"
console.log(await elem3.myCustomElementCommand2('foobar')) // outputs "2"

Note: If you need to chain a custom command, the command should end with $,

browser.addCommand("user$", (locator) => { return ele })
browser.addCommand("user$", (locator) => { return ele }, true)
await browser.user$('foo').user$('bar').click()

Be careful to not overload the browser scope with too many custom commands.

We recommend defining custom logic in page objects, so they are bound to a specific page.

Extend Type Definitions​

With TypeScript, it's easy to extend WebdriverIO interfaces. Add types to your custom commands like this:

  1. Create a type definition file (e.g., ./src/types/wdio.d.ts)

  2. a. If using a module-style type definition file (using import/export and declare global WebdriverIO in the type definition file), make sure to include the file path in the tsconfig.json include property.

    b. If using ambient-style type definition files (no import/export in type definition files and declare namespace WebdriverIO for custom commands), make sure the tsconfig.json does not contain any include section, since this will cause all type definition files not listed in the include section to not be recognized by typescript.

tsconfig.json
{
    "compilerOptions": { ... },
    "include": [
        "./test/**/*.ts",
        "./src/types/**/*.ts"
    ]
}
  1. Add definitions for your commands according to your execution mode.
declare global {
    namespace WebdriverIO {
        interface Browser {
            browserCustomCommand: (arg: any) => Promise<void>
        }

        interface MultiRemoteBrowser {
            browserCustomCommand: (arg: any) => Promise<void>
        }

        interface Element {
            elementCustomCommand: (arg: any) => Promise<number>
        }
    }
}

Integrate 3rd Party Libraries​

If you use external libraries (e.g., to do database calls) that support promises, a nice approach to integrate them is to wrap certain API methods with a custom command.

When returning the promise, WebdriverIO ensures that it doesn't continue with the next command until the promise is resolved. If the promise gets rejected, the command will throw an error.

import got from 'got'

browser.addCommand('makeRequest', async (url) => {
    return got(url).json()
})

Then, just use it in your WDIO test specs:

it('execute external library in a sync way', async () => {
    await browser.url('...')
    const body = await browser.makeRequest('http://...')
    console.log(body) // returns response body
})

Note: The result of your custom command is the result of the promise you return.

Overwriting Commands​

You can also overwrite native commands with overwriteCommand.

It is not recommended to do this, because it may lead to unpredictable behavior of the framework!

The overall approach is similar to addCommand, the only difference is that the first argument in the command function is the original function that you are about to overwrite. Please see some examples below.

Overwriting Browser Commands​

/**
 * print milliseconds before pause and return its value.
 */
// 'pause'            - name of command to be overwritten
// origPauseFunction  - original pause function
browser.overwriteCommand('pause', async (origPauseFunction, ms) => {
    console.log(`sleeping for ${ms}`)
    await origPauseFunction(ms)
    return ms
})

// then use it as before
console.log(`was sleeping for ${await browser.pause(1000)}`)

Overwriting Element Commands​

Overwriting commands on element level is almost the same. Simply pass true as the third argument to overwriteCommand:

/**
 * Attempt to scroll to element if it is not clickable.
 * Pass { force: true } to click with JS even if element is not visible or clickable.
 */
// 'click'            - name of command to be overwritten
// origClickFunction  - original click function
browser.overwriteCommand('click', async function (origClickFunction, { force = false } = {}) {
    if (!force) {
        try {
            // attempt to click
            await origClickFunction()
            return null
        } catch (err) {
            if (err.message.includes('not clickable at point')) {
                console.warn('WARN: Element', this.selector, 'is not clickable.',
                    'Scrolling to it before clicking again.')

                // scroll to element and click again
                await this.scrollIntoView()
                return origClickFunction()
            }
            throw err
        }
    }

    // clicking with js
    console.warn('WARN: Using force click for', this.selector)
    await browser.execute((el) => {
        el.click()
    }, this)
}, true) // don't forget to pass `true` as 3rd argument

// then use it as before
const elem = await $('body')
await elem.click()

// or pass params
await elem.click({ force: true })

Add More WebDriver Commands​

If you are using the WebDriver protocol and run tests on a platform that supports additional commands not defined by any of the protocol definitions in @wdio/protocols you can manually add them through the addCommand interface. The webdriver package offers a command wrapper that allows to register these new endpoints in the same way as other commands, providing the same parameter checks and error handling. To register this new endpoint import the command wrapper and register a new command with it as follows:

import { command } from 'webdriver'

browser.addCommand('myNewCommand', command('POST', '/session/:sessionId/foobar/:someId', {
    command: 'myNewCommand',
    description: 'a new WebDriver command',
    ref: 'https://vendor.com/commands/#myNewCommand',
    variables: [{
        name: 'someId',
        description: 'some id to something'
    }],
    parameters: [{
        name: 'foo',
        type: 'string',
        description: 'a valid parameter',
        required: true
    }]
}))

Calling this command with invalid parameters results in the same error handling as predefined protocol commands, e.g.:

// call command without required url parameter and payload
await browser.myNewCommand()

/**
 * results in the following error:
 * Error: Wrong parameters applied for myNewCommand
 * Usage: myNewCommand(someId, foo)
 *
 * Property Description:
 *   "someId" (string): some id to something
 *   "foo" (string): a valid parameter
 *
 * For more info see https://my-api.com
 *    at Browser.protocolCommand (...)
 *    ...
 */

Calling the command correctly, e.g. browser.myNewCommand('foo', 'bar'), correctly makes a WebDriver request to e.g. http://localhost:4444/session/7bae3c4c55c3bf82f54894ddc83c5f31/foobar/foo with a payload like { foo: 'bar' }.

note

The :sessionId url parameter will be automatically substituted with the session id of the WebDriver session. Other url parameter can be applied but need to be defined within variables.

See examples of how protocol commands can be defined in the @wdio/protocols package.

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