When working with Protractor, a common need is to grab the current URL of a webpage to perform various operations based on this information. In this article, we will guide you through the process of obtaining the current URL using Protractor, a popular end-to-end testing framework for Angular and AngularJS applications.
To get the current URL in Protractor, we can leverage the capabilities provided by the browser object in Protractor. The browser object gives us access to the underlying Selenium WebDriver instance, allowing us to interact with the browser and retrieve valuable information such as the current URL.
it('should get the current URL', async () => {
await browser.get('https://www.example.com/');
const currentUrl = await browser.getCurrentUrl();
console.log('Current URL:', currentUrl);
});In the above code snippet, we first navigate to a website using `browser.get()`, which is a common action performed in Protractor tests to load a webpage. After that, we use `browser.getCurrentUrl()` to obtain the current URL of the webpage and store it in the `currentUrl` variable. Finally, we log the current URL to the console for verification purposes.
It is crucial to note that `browser.getCurrentUrl()` returns a promise, which is why we use the `await` keyword to handle it asynchronously. This ensures that our test waits for the URL retrieval operation to complete before proceeding with other actions.
By retrieving the current URL in your Protractor tests, you can perform validations, assertions, or additional test logic based on the URL of the webpage. This can be particularly useful when testing web applications with dynamic URLs or when you need to verify that a specific page has been successfully loaded.
In addition to getting the current URL, Protractor offers a wide range of capabilities for end-to-end testing, including interacting with web elements, handling alerts, and executing JavaScript code on the page. Familiarizing yourself with these features can enhance the quality and effectiveness of your automated tests.
Overall, obtaining the current URL using Protractor is straightforward and can provide valuable insights into the state of your web application during testing. Whether you are performing navigation checks, verifying redirects, or implementing conditional logic based on URLs, having this functionality at your disposal can streamline your testing process and improve the reliability of your tests.
In conclusion, mastering the ability to retrieve the current URL in Protractor opens up new possibilities for writing robust end-to-end tests for Angular and AngularJS applications. By leveraging the browser object and the `getCurrentUrl()` method, you can access this vital piece of information and use it to drive your testing efforts effectively.