Protractor: Protractor E2E test times out when app polls an API at regular intervals

[stickel]

Our app has a poller which makes calls to an API every 3 seconds. When I load a page with has an active instance of the poller Protractor will always time out.

The poller is started when the page loads and uses the Angular $timeout function.

Is there a way to get Protractor to ignore the poller or send a signal to the app to pause the poller momentarily so the E2E test can finish running?

[juliemr]

Not yet - Protractor attempts to avoid syncing problems by waiting for any $timeout calls to finish, so if you have constant calls it will time out. This is probably an issue that others will run into, so I'll call it a bug.

[stickel]

Thanks @juliemr. If you more details on what the app is doing (to reproduce or test a fix) let me know.

[blandinw]

Would love to see it fixed :)
It's been a recurring problem with Angular E2E testing, even with Testacular.

[juliemr]

Will be exploring this issue in the poll branch

The issue is basically - how do I tell if the site is just being slow, or if there's some intentional polling going on and it's OK to resume the E2E test?

First step - give better error messages when timeouts occur.

[juliemr]

For the record, here's a link to the Angular Scenario Runner Issue of this same thing.

[juliemr]

Added a kind of lame temporary fix with 73821fb6b6d252a93cc15ce990b4ec4738b87b95

You can turn off synchronization using protractor.ignoreSynchronization

But of course, this means that Protractor will NEVER wait for $timeout or $http to finish before fulfilling, which can make tests flaky. Leaving this bug open as I discuss better solutions.

EDIT: See my note below about ignoreSynchronization being an instance variable, not a static / class variable.

[juliemr]

Important comment!

ignoreSynchronization is an instance variable, NOT a static variable of the protractor namespace! I apologize for making this unclear above. So if you have

var ptor = protractor.getInstance()

You will want to set ptor.ignoreSynchronization, NOT protractor.ignoreSynchronization

Sorry for the confusion!

[apankov1]

@juliemr, I'm stuck. I don't know is it ignoreSynchronization not working or my code is wrong:

var util = require('util');

var loginAsExistingUser;
var firstName = 'Andrew';
var lastName = 'Auto1'

loginAsExistingUser = function (ptor) {
    ptor.findElement(protractor.By.css('input[name=email]')).sendKeys("email");
    ptor.findElement(protractor.By.css('input[name=password]')).sendKeys("123");
    ptor.findElement(protractor.By.css('button.green.large')).click();
};

describe('Portal SignIn Page', function() {
    var ptor;


    beforeEach(function() {
        ptor = protractor.getInstance();
        ptor.ignoreSynchronization = true;
        console.log("What's up with ignoreSynchronization?" + ptor.ignoreSynchronization);
        //ptor.driver.manage().timeouts().setScriptTimeout(500);
    }, 20000);


    it ('Check URL after Sign In', function(){
        ptor.get('#/login/');
        ptor.waitForAngular();
        var expectedURL = ptor.baseUrl + 'home';
        loginAsExistingUser(ptor);
        ptor.sleep(5000);
        expect(ptor.getCurrentUrl()).toBe(expectedURL);

    }, 20000);

    it ('Checking username', function(){
       var name = (firstName + lastName);
       ptor.findElement(protractor.By.css('.login-menu-button')).getText().
           then(function(username) {
               expect(username).toEqual(name);
           });
    }, 30000);

});

It looks like ignoreSynchronization gets set correct but test still times out:

Failures:

  1) Portal SignIn Page Checking username
   Message:
     timeout: timed out after 30000 msec waiting for spec to complete
   Stacktrace:
     undefined

Finished in 54.854 seconds
3 tests, 3 assertions, 1 failure

[juliemr]

Hey everyone,

With Angular 1.2rc3, you can now use the $interval service to do your polling! Protractor will _not_ wait for anything registered with $interval! Check out https://github.com/angular/angular.js/commit/2b5ce84fca7b41fca24707e163ec6af84bc12e83 for more details.

[fedenunez]

In our case, we have our own service that keep synchronized a local model with the server database using long polling.

As a workaround to this issue, we replaced clientSideScripts.waitForAngular with a function that wait for angular $$phase and wait for our own service to be ready. This solve all our issues.

@juliemr: Will be really handy if it is possible to overwrite the waitForAngular function from test configuration!

[elgalu]

@fedenunez Could you share more details about this $$phase patch?

I'm currently facing the same issue and don't have control over the source base to change $timeout usage to $interval as @juliemr mentions

Using browser.ignoreSynchronization = true; breaks the tests event with manuals browser.sleep(...)

[fedenunez]

@elgalu under protractor/lib/clientsidescripts.js you will find the implementation of waitForAngular function. That function is executed by protractor to synchronize the Control Flow with angular state.

I just replaced that code with my own implementation that looks something like this:

clientSideScripts.waitForAngular = function() {
  var selector = arguments[0];
  var callback = arguments[1];
  var TIMEOUT_MS        = 18000;   // ms
  var INTERVAL_MS       = 5; //ms
  var elapsed        = 0;
  var el = document.querySelector(selector);

  // "inject" $rootScope service
  var $rootScope = angular.element(el).injector().get('$rootScope');

  // "inject" our own longpolling service 
  var modelService = angular.element(el).injector().get('model');

  var checkLoop = function() {
    if (elapsed <= TIMEOUT_MS ) {

      // check angular digest state and check our longpoll service state (modelService state)
      if (!$rootScope.$$phase && ( !modelService.isProcessing() )) {

       // everything is synchronized!
       callback(); 

      } else { 

        // somebody is still processing, wait a little bit more.
        elapsed = elapsed +  INTERVAL_MS;
        setTimeout( checkLoop, INTERVAL_MS );

      }
    }  else {
      callback( "Timedout while waiting for angular!" );
    }
  }

  //initialize checking loop
  setTimeout( checkLoop, 0 );
};

I hope this help!

[panuhorsmalahti]

Any update on this? I still need to set ptor.ignoreSynchronization = true; in beforeEach() and ptor.ignoreSynchronization = false; in afterEach().

[wjagodfrey]

I have a situation where we're loading an index page, which can take quite a long time - about ten seconds.
Protractor then goes and finds a few items on the index page, clicks a button to open a modal (Another HTTP request), fills out a form and clicks a button (Another HTTP request), then repeats.
It does this for almost 100 items, or it would if it could get through three of them before getting -

timeout: timed out after 30000 msec waiting for spec to complete

This is a huge pain in the ass. Any ideas on how to fix this, or just indefinitely extend the the 30000ms limit?

[elgalu]

I use 7mins spec timeouts, also have long running e2e tests:

    allScriptsTimeout: 7*60*1000,

[wjagodfrey]

Should add that we're already using

allScriptsTimeout: 120000

And still getting the 3000 msec error

[elgalu]

You're getting the 30secs timeout on Firefox or Chrome or Both?

[wjagodfrey]

Chrome 33.0.1750.152 Angular 1.2.8 Protractor 0.20.1
We're only testing in Chrome - thankfully we have very specific requirements from the client

[juliemr]

@wilfredjamesgodfrey it sounds like your tests actually take more than 30 seconds. Increasing the timeout in this case seems reasonable.

[wjagodfrey]

thanks @juliemr, I would do that with allScriptsTimeout, right? It just doesn't seem to be working. Re: https://github.com/angular/protractor/issues/49#issuecomment-38747093

[juliemr]

You want to change this one: https://github.com/angular/protractor/blob/master/referenceConf.js#L138

[wjagodfrey]

Ah, that's amazing @juliemr. Thanks!

[AlexCppns]

I have a permanent $interval in my app and I can't stop it via a click event since it waits to synchronize before running the test. Is there a workaround to this?

[nvsoares]

Given that Angular 2, as of yet, at least to my knowledge, does not provide an interval service for polling. Would you propose people using protractor to test angular 2 apps workaround this issue? In cases where dropping synchronization is not possible.
In our use case we have a timeout of 20 minutes, set up as a sort of ticker, to revalidate a JWT token. When our protractor tests hit the homepage, they sit there waiting for a 20min timeout.

Cheers,
Nuno

[tobiaseisenschenk]

@nvsoares That is exactly what I wanted to write as well! Is there any solution or workaround for this yet?

Edit:
I found this issue, which I guess should be linked here.

[heathkit]

Please see our updated documentation (https://github.com/angular/protractor/blob/master/docs/timeouts.md#angular) on this issue and let us know if we need to make it more clear. Thanks!

[MuraliMolluru]

@juliemr
using $interval service is not working for long running api calls when running protractor e2e tests.. I am still getting timeout for pending http tasks. What could be the fix for this issue? please respond asap i am struggling with this issue since couple of weeks.
Thanks
Murali

[wswebcreation]

@MuraliMolluru ,

Addressing protractor members won't help directly. If you still experience problems please create a new issue and use the issue template in which you provide all needed info. Otherwise you can ask a question on Stackoverflow with the 'protractor' tag or post in the Gitter Channel to get help.

[MuraliMolluru]

@wswebcreation
I had already created an issue but it was closed without answer and told me that i have to ask in stackoverflow. I even asked in stakoverflow but have not get any answer.

[wswebcreation]

@MuraliMolluru , can you give me the link on SO, then I can check if I can help you there

[MuraliMolluru]

@wswebcreation Thank you for the response.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44813083/protractor-timeout-with-long-running-http-asynchronous-tasks

[MuraliMolluru]

@wswebcreation Did u get a chance to look at the issue?