Open Browser Windows, tabs, frames

Open Browser Version 28 (Java)

Action group: Browsers

Description

This action is intended to open the selected browser. A context is created when the browser is opened.

Action icon

Action parameters

Input parameters

Browser                                     The browser to be opened

Properties                                  A list of browser properties and their values that will be set when the browser is launched

Explicitly wait                             The time to wait for the properties of individual elements to change

Background mode                     Opens in invisible mode. Internet Explorer does not support this setting

URL                                             The URL that should be navigated to when the browser is opened

Save in                                         The path to the folder where files should be saved when downloaded

Output parameters

Context The context of the open browser session that will be accessed by further actions

Settings

Property	Description	Type	Filling example	Mandatory field
Parameters
Browser	Browser selection Default is Chrome Dropdown list: Chrome Yandex Firefox Internet Explorer Edge (chromium)	Robin.String	Chrome	No
Properties	List of browser properties and their values ​​that will be set when the browser starts In JSON format, describing a list of browser properties and their values to be set at launch If the parameter is populated, its values take precedence over the values of the other fields You can connect extensions and set the profile through this parameter	Robin.String	JSON по шаблону	No
Explicitly wait	Time to wait for changes in the properties of individual elements Specifies a waiting time limit value to be used by default in group actions, determining the time to access items Measured in milliseconds	Robin.Numeric	10000	No
Background mode	Background mode Internet Explorer does not support this setting	Robin.Boolean	true	No
URL	URL to be navigated after opening the browser	Robin.String	https://google.com/	No
Save in	Path to folder to save files	Robin.FolderPath	C:\doc\img	No
Results
Context	The browser instance that Selenium will work with Browser instance with which Selenium will work	Robin.Selenium	Browser context

Special conditions of use 

Example 1. Example of filling in the "Properties" field (filled in automatically by recording actions in Recorder). 

{"acceptInsecureCerts":true,
"browserName":"chrome",
"goog: loggingPrefs":{"browser":"ALL"},
"timeouts":{"implicit":0,"pageLoad":300003,"script":30003},
"unhandledPromptBehavior":"dismiss",
"goog:chromeOptions":{"args":["disable-popup-blocking","disable-notifications","no-sandbox"],"extensions":[]}}

The browser properties look something like the following:

{"acceptInsecureCerts":true,
"browserName":"chrome",
"goog: loggingPrefs":{"browser":"ALL"},
"timeouts":{"implicit":0,"pageLoad":300003,"script":30003},
"unhandledPromptBehavior":"dismiss",
"goog:chromeOptions":{"args":["disable-popup-blocking","disable-notifications","no-sandbox","--disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled"],"extensions":[]}}

Most of the features are available through the ChromeOptions object (highlighted in bold in the properties). It is used to control various properties of the browser driver. Therefore, we are more interested in this object.

Denoted as follows:

"goog:chromeOptions":{"Option 1": Value 1, "Option 2": Value 2}.

Option values can be of the following types:

• String - "text"
• List of strings - ["text1", "text2"]
• Dictionary - {"key1": "value1", "key2": "value2"}
• Boolean type - false/true

In the example, at the very beginning of the text, the options "args" and "extensions" are used. The entire list of options of the ChromeOptions object is shown in the table. The most frequently used options are highlighted in green.

The Chrome/Yandex startup part of the properties looks like this:

{"goog:chromeOptions":{
   "args":[
    "-disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled",
    "disable-popup-blocking",
    "disable-notifications",
    "disable-infobars",
    "disable-gpu",
    "no-sandbox",
    "disable-extensions",
    "start maximized",
    "user-data-dir=C^//Users//robin_user//APPData//Local//Yandex//YandexBrowser//User Data",
    "profile-directory=Profile 1"
 ],
 "excludeSwitches":["enable-automation"],
 "extensions":[]
 }
}

It is possible that when a page is loaded, the page is visible to the user and can be interacted with, and the page continues to load. The robot stops and waits for the page to finish loading. In order for the robot to continue its work, it is necessary to forcibly cancel the loading.

To do this, you need to specify in the properties "pageLoadStrategy":

{"acceptInsecureCerts":true,"browserName":"chrome","goog: loggingPrefs":{"browser":"ALL"},"pageLoadStrategy": "eager",
"timeouts":{"implicit":0,"pageLoad":300003,"script":30003},
"unhandledPromptBehavior":"dismiss",
"goog:chromeOptions":{"args":["disable-popup-blocking","disable-notifications","no-sandbox"],"extensions":[]}}

Alternatively, you can specify "none" instead of "eager", but then there is a risk that the page will not load. The "eager" value only waits for the page DOM to load, without waiting for scripts, images and other resources to load, the "none" value does not wait at all.

Example 2. Driver absence message

When performing the “Open Browser” action, if you use an encoding other than UTF-8 in the env.cfg file - for example, with Cyrillic characters - you may get a situation where if the driver is present, a message about its absence appears:

Result

The action fails because the driver is not found.

The reason is a problem in the encoding of the env.cfg file. In our example, on a virtual host, the file was encoded in Windows-1251:

In order for the "Open Browser" action to work, you need to convert and resave the file in UTF-8 encoding:

The action will be started, and the robot will complete without an error. The browser will open.

Example of use

Task

Open the selected browser on the given page, get the action context for working with actions of the "Browsers" group.

Solution

Use the "Open Browser" action. 

Implementation

1. Open the "Browsers" action group
2. Open the "Windows, tabs, frames" subgroup 
3. Add the "Open Browser" action to the workspace.
   
4. Set the action parameters:
   1. "Browser" field. Select a browser from the drop-down list that you want to open. 
   2. "Properties" field. Specify a JSON-formatted file using a template that will set the prioritized properties to launch the browser. 
   3. "Explicitly wait" field. Set the timeout time to 1000ms.
   4. "Background mode" field. The value is "True" or "False". Leave "False" to open the browser in visible mode.  
   5. "URL" field. Specify the URL that will be used to open the browser - https://ya.ru
   6. The "Save in" field. Specify the address on the PC where the downloaded files will be saved if the download link is specified in the "Address" parameter.
      
5. Add the "Close browser" action to the workspace. Fill in the "Context" parameter.
   
6. Launch the robot using the "Start" button in the top panel.

Result

The Edge browser was opened in visible mode, and the page was navigated to https://ya.ru