Testing AngularJS apps with Protractor

Are you working on AngularJS applications? Are you searching for a test framework to do End-to-End testing in Angular applications more effectively?

Most of us are familiar with Selenium WebDriver which we use to automate the browsers. But being frustrated with all the waits needed for the WebDriver to sync with the app, causing flakes and prolonged test times? then Protractor is a right framework for you.

Protractor is a framework for automation of functional tests, so its intention isn’t to be the only way to test an AngularJS application, but to cover the acceptance criteria required by the user. Even if there are tests that run in the UI level with Protractor, unit and integration tests are still needed. It runs on top of the Selenium, and thus provides all the benefits and advantages from Selenium. In addition. It is possible to use some drivers which implement WebDriver’s wire protocol like ChromeDriver and GhostDriver, as Protractor runs on top of the Selenium. In the case of ChromeDriver it is possible to run tests without the Selenium Server. However to run tests using GhostDriver you need to use PhantomJS which uses GhostDriver to run tests in Headless mode.

Why Protractor AngularJS?

• It’s a wrapper around Selenium WebDriverJS and Selenium Server.
• Having new locator strategies and functions specifically for Angular apps.
• Can take the advantage of the Selenium grid to run multiple browsers at once.
• Protractor also speeds up your testing as it avoids the need for a lot of “sleeps” and “waits” in your tests, as it optimizes sleep and wait times.
• As it is based on AngularJS concepts, that makes it easy to learn Protractor if you already know about AngularJS and vice versa.
• Protractor allows tests to be organized based on Jasmine, thus allowing you to write both unit and functional tests on Jasmine.
• It runs on real browsers and headless browsers.

How does Protractor work?

• Jasmine helps to create the test.
• Protractor helps to run the test.
• Selenium Server helps to manage browsers.
• Selenium WebDriver helps to invoke browsers APIs.

Advantages of Protractor:

• Easy installation and setup.
• Easily readable jasmine framework.
• Support Data-Driven test.
• Include all advantages of Selenium WebDriver.
• Auto-Synchronization.
• Support parallel testing through multiple browsers.
• Excellent speed.

Limitations of Protractor:

• Basically, a UI driven testing tool, provide only front-end testing.
• No detailed test report, other than test log.
• Even though easily understandable framework, need more time to script.

For more information visit protractor website or you can view on GitHub.

Good Luck !