BrowserStack Support

Enabling BrowserStack support

Testing with BrowserStack can be configured for a project in <test_package>/config/browserstack.py. To enable BrowserStack support, first set BrowserStackConfig.ENABLE to True:

config/browserstack.py
class BrowserStackConfig(browserstack.BrowserStackConfig):
    ENABLE = True
    USERNAME = os.getenv('BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME', '')
    ACCESS_KEY = os.getenv('BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY', '')

Next, you’ll need to set the following environment variables on your machine:

  • BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME: BrowserStack account username

  • BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY: The access key for the above account

Both of these values can be found on the BrowserStack Automate dashboard. You can add the following to your .bashrc file (replacing {USERNAME} and {ACCESS_KEY} with the actual values):

export BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME='{USERNAME}'
export BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY='{ACCESS_KEY}'

Note

If for whatever reason you don’t want to use environment variables for these values, you can just assign them directly:

config/browserstack.py
 class BrowserStackConfig(browserstack.BrowserStackConfig):
     ENABLE = True
     USERNAME = '{USERNAME}'
     ACCESS_KEY = '{ACCESS_KEY}'

However, it is not recommended to store credentials in a way that might be visible to users who should not have access, so using environment variables would be a more secure approach.

Running tests with BrowserStack

After enabling and configuring BrowserStack, use the --browserstack (or -B) command line argument to run tests on BrowserStack instead of running locally. Some examples:

<test_package> --browserstack

<test_package> --module <test_module> --browserstack

<test_package> --test <TestClass> --browserstack

<test_package> --browser <browser> --browserstack

Configuring Browsers

By default, BrowserStack tests are generated for Firefox and Chrome. Additional browsers can be enabled in <test_package>/config/browserstack.py. For example, to enable test cases for Internet Explorer, set Browsers.IE to True in BrowserStackConfig.ENABLED_BROWSERS:

config/browserstack.py
class BrowserStackConfig(browserstack.BrowserStackConfig):
    ...
    ENABLED_BROWSERS = {
        Browsers.FIREFOX: True,
        Browsers.CHROME: True,
        Browsers.SAFARI: False,
        Browsers.IE: True,
        Browsers.EDGE: False,
        Browsers.CHROME_MOBILE: False,
    }

Additional Configurations

BrowserStack tests support additional configurations using the BrowserStackConfig.BS_CAPABILITIES dictionary. For a list of BrowserStack’s configurable capabilities, see their capabilities documentation.

Rename the Project

By default, the project name is set to the test package name. This can be reconfigured by setting 'project' to the desired name in BrowserStackConfig.BS_CAPABILITIES:

config/browserstack.py
BS_CAPABILITIES = {
    ...
    'project': 'Custom Name',
    ...
}

Specifying the Build Name

BrowserStack supports grouping related project tests under a build name. To specify the build name for the group of tests being run:

<test_package> <args> --browserstack --build <name>

Note: Quotation marks must be used for build names containing spaces (e.g. --build 'Example Build').

Enabling Video

Video recording can be enabled for tests run on BrowserStack by setting 'browserstack.video' to True in BrowserStackConfig.BS_CAPABILITIES:

config/browserstack.py
BS_CAPABILITIES = {
    ...
    'browserstack.video': True,
    ...
}

This config option is set to False by default as it slows down test execution, but it can be useful to see what’s happening while testing.

To view the recorded videos, go to https://automate.browserstack.com and select the test on the left column.

Command Line Arguments

The video configuration can be overridden by using the --video or --no-video arguments.

To enable video recording:

<test_package> <args> --browserstack --video

To disable video recording:

<test_package> <args> --browserstack --no-video