Selenium: Add the option for Safari 12 Webdriver to use '--legacy' argument

[charlesmorelle84]

OS: OSX High Sierra
Selenium Version: 3.14.0
Browser: Safari 12

The implementation of the Safari 12 WebDriver now supports the W3C endpoints by default, which may be causing issues if you're using a Framework like Watir, which aren't compatible yet: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/macos_webdriver_commands_for_safari_12_and_later

Browser Version: Version 12.0 (13606.2.11)

Expected Behavior - Add the ability to pass "--legacy" flag, if user wants to stay with JSON Wire Protocol

Actual Behavior - no option currently available

[charlesmorelle84]

Usage: safaridriver [options]
--legacy: Use the legacy Selenium WebDriver protocol.

[gzfrancisco]

Just found this problem on my CI after upgrading the Safari version. Does anyone know how to hot-fixit it?

[charlesmorelle84]

I was able to temporarily fix it by updating this file /Users/[user_name]/.rvm/gems/ruby-X.X.X/gems/selenium-webdriver-X.X.X/lib/selenium/webdriver/safari/service.rb

And adding this line:

[lmtierney]

How is Watir not compatible? It should be, please raise an issue if it is not. Selenium should also be compatible, so are you having issues with it as well?

[lmtierney]

Closing this as you can already add the --legacy flag, see:

driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:safari, driver_opts: {args: '--legacy'})

Or Watir:

browser = Watir::Browser.new(:safari, driver_opts: {args: '--legacy'})

If you have other issues with Selenium and Safari 12, please open a new issue with the details.

[charlesmorelle84]

Thank you @lmtierney .

It's working by declaring it with the args value:
$driver = Watir::Browser.new(:safari, driver_opts: {args: '--legacy'})

[gzfrancisco]

I confirm, the solution works with the Selenium WebDriver. Thanks.

[mjdease]

@lmtierney how can this flag be set using the node selenium-webdriver package (v3.6)?

[lmtierney]

Using the service builder https://seleniumhq.github.io/selenium/docs/api/javascript/module/selenium-webdriver/safari_exports_ServiceBuilder.html and the addArguments method.

For further questions, please head over to the selenium user group.

[mjdease]

For reference here's how I got it working:

const webdriver = require('selenium-webdriver');
const safari = require('selenium-webdriver/safari');

new webdriver.Builder()
    .usingServer(await new safari.ServiceBuilder().addArguments('--legacy').build().start())
    .forBrowser('safari')
    .build();

The builder API doesn't seem to have a setSafariService method like there are for other browsers (eg setChromeService) so I needed to start the service directly and set it as the server to use.

[tonyaveniros]

Thank you @mjdease
new webdriver.Builder() .usingServer(await new safari.ServiceBuilder().addArguments('--legacy').build().start()) .forBrowser('safari') .build();
what is that await? Is that the npm package await.js?

[mjdease]

@tonyaveniros That's the new JS language feature async/await which is supported in recent versions of node (7.6+ according to MDN).
The DriverService start method returns a promise that resolves with the server url to use.

Using the promises directly, the code would be like:

new safari.ServiceBuilder().addArguments('--legacy').build().start().then((serverUrl) => {
    return new webdriver.Builder()
        .usingServer(serverUrl)
        .forBrowser('safari')
        .build();
});

[tonyaveniros]

Thanks for that. I'm still a bit turned around on this.

Upgraded to node v8.12.0 and now still getting the error message

.usingServer(await new safari.ServiceBuilder().addArguments('--legacy').build().start())
                 ^^^^^

SyntaxError: missing ) after argument list

Using Promises directly does not seem to work either as the next function returns

    driver.wait(function () {
               ^
TypeError: Cannot read property 'wait' of undefined

I'm wondering if your use case is testing remotely using selenium grid: mine is for testing locally...

[tonyaveniros]

Got it working with:

new webdriver.Builder()
    .usingServer( new safari.ServiceBuilder().addArguments('--legacy').build().start())
    .forBrowser('safari')
    .build();

using node v8.12.0

[Tenzian]

Is there a way to pass this argument to Selenium Standalone Server?

[AlexSdet]

Issue still happening for me when using '--legacy' flag

OS: OSX High Sierra
Safari: 12.0.3
Ruby: 2.3.3
Selenium: 3.4.0
Using 'Capybara' framework with selenium webdriver.

Add argument like suggested above:

But still seeing an issue:
Request body does not contain required parameter 'capabilities'.
/Users/username/.rbenv/versions/2.3.3/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/selenium-webdriver-3.4.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/response.rb:69

Any ideas what im doing wrong ?

Thanks

[cgoldberg]

already answered in #6026 ... see: https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/issues/6026#issuecomment-468070211

please don't post the same comment in multiple issues.

[TheSpyder]

It looks like Safari 12.1 (which just shipped with macOS 10.14.4) silently removed support for the --legacy argument. The nodejs selenium-webdriver package hasn't been updated since 3.6.0 in October 2017 (except for a 4.0-alpha release in Jan 2018) so I can no longer use selenium to test Safari.

[philipwalton]

@TheSpyder just noticed the same. I'm also now unable to get my tests running for Safari 12.1. I'd love to hear if you find a solution.

[TheSpyder]

@philipwalton until there are signs that selenium wants to update their nodejs bindings, we're working on a rewrite to https://webdriver.io

[shs96c]

The JS bindings marked as 4.0.0-alpha-1 are stable. The maintainer marked them this way as we've not yet shipped Selenium 4.0 itself. We'll correct this and ship the updated files to npm.