Browser drivers
JOSF is able to start and steer browses and it does this by using different drivers.
Keeping drivers up-to-date
By default, JOSF downloads the correct driver for every major browser type that corresponds to the machine it is running on (e.g. your computer). It checks for updates each time a browser needs to start, so when the drivers are out-dated, it downloads the update immediately. JOSF stores the web drivers here: C:\Users\{UserName}\.cache\selenium
Download locations
JOSF connects to these URLs to download the corresponding drivers when automatic updates is enabled (default setting). This means that the network needs to allow (whitelist) the following URLs to be able to use this feature.
| Browser | URL |
|---|---|
| Chrome drivers | https://edgedl.me.gvt1.com/ |
| Chrome (prior to v115) | http://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/ |
| Edge | http://msedgedriver.azureedge.net/ |
| Firefox | http://api.github.com/repos/mozilla/geckodriver/releases |
| Internet explorer | http://selenium-release.storage.googleapis.com/ |
Download drivers manually
Usage in JOSF 3.1 and higher
While JOSF downloads the latest drivers automatically upon start-up of any browser, it is also possible to upload any driver via the Preferences > Browser settings manually. This is because within some organisations downloading is blocked. Sometimes because the URL is not whitelisted and sometimes because you can’t download .exe files.
Go to Preferences -> Browsers. Turn off “Automatically download drivers”, download the correct web driver for your browser and upload it into JOSF.
Importance notice; JOSF 2.16.3
Since the latest version of JOSF (2.16.3), downloading drivers is not supported anymore. JOSF will remain to download your drivers automatically, but forcing this has become unsupported, as it is not necessary from that version onwards.
In future releases of JOSF, these buttons will be removed from the Browser preferences interface.
Usage in JOSF 2.16.2 and below
While JOSF downloads the latest drivers automatically upon start-up of any browser, it is also possible to forcible redownload any driver via the Preferences > Browser settings, by pressing the Download [browser type] drivers button.
Disable automatic driver updates
Project level
To disable the automatic downloads of drivers, simply toggle this feature off from the Browsers Preferences.
Note that this setting will be overridden, if the JOSF instance level configuration downloadDrivers is set to false (and only when set to false). Review the next section for more details.
JOSF instance level
To disable the automatic driver update feature entirely, the setting downloadDriversin the core configuration file needs to be set to false. This configuration file is located at JOSF/api/src/main/conf/config.json. For more information about core-configuration, check its documentation.
Note that when using browsers in your testing, you do need to manually place the driver files in the JOSF/api/web-drivers directory.
Note that this setting overrides the project level setting, if it has been set to false. If this setting is set to true, setting the project level configuration to false, will prevent the automatic driver update.