Selenium WebDriver tests with JavaScript disabled

Question

One of our internal applications (written in angularjs) has a special error box appearing if javascript is disabled in the browser (using `noscript`), similar to the one on stackoverflow: I'm trying to write an automated test for it, but having difficulties. We are using `protractor`, but I'm pretty sure this is not about it. Here is the protractor configuration file: ``` 'use strict'; var helper = require('./helper.js'); exports.config = { seleniumAddress: 'http://localhost:4444/wd/hub', baseUrl: 'http://localhost:9001', capabilities: helper.getFirefoxProfile(), framework: 'jasmine', allScriptsTimeout: 20000, jasmineNodeOpts: { showColors: true, isVerbose: true, includeStackTrace: true } }; ``` where `helper.js` is: ``` var q = require('q'); var FirefoxProfile = require('firefox-profile'); exports.getFirefoxProfile = function() { var deferred = q.defer(); var firefoxProfile = new FirefoxProfile(); firefoxProfile.setPreference("javascript.enabled", false); firefoxProfile.encoded(funct…

Accepted Answer

Here is what actually happened.

As it turns out, after exploring the source code of `protractor` and selenium js webdriver, the key problem is not in the js webdriver or `protractor`, it was in the way my test was written.

There is a setting called `ignoreSynchronization` which by default is `false`:

```
  /**
   * If true, Protractor will not attempt to synchronize with the page before
   * performing actions. This can be harmful because Protractor will not wait
   * until $timeouts and $http calls have been processed, which can cause
   * tests to become flaky. This should be used only when necessary, such as
   * when a page continuously polls an API using $timeout.
   *
   * @type {boolean}
   */
  this.ignoreSynchronization = false;
```

And I was not setting it to `true` which made `protractor` to try synchronizing with the page and execute client side scripts, which `evaluate.js` is responsible for.

The solution was so simple I could not imagine - just setting `ignoreSynchronization` to `true` solved the problem:

```
'use strict';

require('jasmine-expect');

describe('Disabled Javascript', function () {
    beforeEach(function () {
        browser.ignoreSynchronization = true;
        browser.get('index.html');
    });

it('should show disabled js', function () {
        var element = browser.findElement(by.tagName('noscript'));
        expect(element.getText()).toEqual('Please enable Javascript and try again.');
    });
});
```

Hope this would help somebody in the future.

Selenium WebDriver tests with JavaScript disabled

Solution

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