web » switchBrowser(profile,config)

Description

This command instructs Nexial to suspend the automation on the current browser (if any) and switch the automation to another browser instance.

At times, it is critical to automate with multiple independent browsers to sufficiently validate the intended functionality of the target application. In the context of automation, “independent browsers” means browsers that are sequestered from each other in terms of processes and session management. As such, one can toggle automation between multiple personae and their respective browsing experience. It is then possible to observe and validate the intended consequences of these personae independently interacting with the application. For example, we can use this command to simulate 2 users bidding (online) on the same product, or to simulate 2 (or more) users chatting online via the same channel.

This command takes 2 parameters: profile is a user-defined identifier to reference a specific browser instance. One can toggle between multiple browser instances using the profile parameter. The config parameter is a set of name-value configurations to determine the construct of a browser instance. Each name-value pair would take up a line. For example,

This means to switch the automation to another browser, referenced as adminBrowser, which :

1. shall be a Chrome browser (whatever version currently installed on the automation host),
2. shall be resized to a 1280 by 940 window size,
3. shall have element highlighting turned on so that the web elements will be “highlighted” as they are referenced by the automation script,
4. shall use “light red” background color as the highlight

Just about any System variables that is prefixed by nexial.browser or nexial.web can be included in the config parameter. If no special configuration is needed, simply use (empty) or (blank) instead.

After this command is executed, any subsequent [web] commands will take effect on the newly switched-to browser. To switch to another browser instance, simply issue this command again with another profile name. To switch to the initial/default browser, the profile parameter should be (empty).

Parameters

• profile - a new or existing browser, referenced by this profile parameter. Use (empty) for the default browser.
• config - a set of name-value configuration to determine the behavior of the browser referenced via profile.

Example

Script: switch to another Safari browser

Script: switch back to the default browser (denote as (empty)), and then switch again to the adminBrowser browser instance.

Note that the config parameter for adminBrowser is (empty) the second time. When config parameter is missing, previous configuration (i.e. nexial.browser=safari) will be used instead.

See Also