Ghostdriver with PHPUnit

I'm attempting to use PhantomJS as a browser for PHPUnit Selenium tests.

I've set Selenium running in grid mode, and started phantomjs with webdriver, and registered it to the grid, as in the GhostDriver Readme.

When I run a selenium test, it fails with an unknown command error - GhostDriver just doesn't understand what PHPUnit is saying.

[ERROR - 2013-05-12T16:23:06.326Z] RouterReqHand - _handle - Thrown => {
  "message": "Request => {\"headers\":{\"Accept\":\"*/*\",\"Connection\":\"Keep-Alive\",\"Content-Length\":\"85\",\"Content-Type\":\"application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8\",\"Host\":\"127.0.0.1:4444\"},\"httpVersion\":\"1.1\",\"method\":\"POST\",\"post\":\"cmd=getNewBrowserSession&1=phantomjs&2=https%3A%2F%2Ftest.testurl.com%2F&\",\"url\":\"/\",\"urlParsed\":{\"anchor\":\"\",\"query\":\"\",\"file\":\"\",\"directory\":\"/\",\"path\":\"/\",\"relative\":\"/\",\"port\":\"\",\"host\":\"\",\"password\":\"\",\"user\":\"\",\"userInfo\":\"\",\"authority\":\"\",\"protocol\":\"\",\"source\":\"/\",\"queryKey\":{},\"chunks\":[\"\"]}}",
  "name": "Unknown Command",
  "line": 87,
  "sourceId": 139810136032448,
  "sourceURL": ":/ghostdriver/request_handlers/router_request_handler.js",
  "stack": "Unknown Command: Request => {\"headers\":{\"Accept\":\"*/*\",\"Connection\":\"Keep-Alive\",\"Content-Length\":\"85\",\"Content-Type\":\"application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8\",\"Host\":\"127.0.0.1:4444\"},\"httpVersion\":\"1.1\",\"method\":\"POST\",\"post\":\"cmd=getNewBrowserSession&1=phantomjs&2=https%3A%2F%2FFtest.testurl.com%2F&\",\"url\":\"/\",\"urlParsed\":{\"anchor\":\"\",\"query\":\"\",\"file\":\"\",\"directory\":\"/\",\"path\":\"/\",\"relative\":\"/\",\"port\":\"\",\"host\":\"\",\"password\":\"\",\"user\":\"\",\"userInfo\":\"\",\"authority\":\"\",\"protocol\":\"\",\"source\":\"/\",\"queryKey\":{},\"chunks\":[\"\"]}}\n    at :/ghostdriver/request_handlers/router_request_handler.js:87",
  "stackArray": [
    {
      "sourceURL": ":/ghostdriver/request_handlers/router_request_handler.js",
      "line": 87
    }
  ]
}

This same question was asked and closed unanswered on the GhostDriver site with the suggestion that it's PHPUnit to blame. That may be the case, but I'm still no nearer to making this work. Does anyone have any idea how to fix it?

Solution

It looks like you are using a test class extending PHPUnit_Extensions_SeleniumTestCase. Use PHPUnit_Extensions_Selenium2TestCase instead.

Unfortunately, that's not the end of the story. The syntax of the Selenium-related methods changes when you swap out the base class.

The dated PHPUnit_Extensions_SeleniumTestCase class

uses the Selenium RC API
does not support Phantom.js as a browser
requires the "traditional" syntax as documented here
works fine with code which is generated in Selenium IDE and exported with the help of the "Selenium IDE: PHP Formatters" plugin.

By contrast, PHPUnit_Extensions_Selenium2TestCase

uses the WebDriver API
supports Phantom.js
requires a different set of commands which is not well documented - this test case demonstrates it by example, and that's about it
does not work with code exported from Selenium IDE without an extensive rewrite.

So it is possible to run PHPUnit-driven Selenium tests faster with PhantomJS, but it does come at a cost.