Webdriver Laravel Package

Getting Started

Start by installing via Composer: composer require php-webdriver/webdriver. Ensure you have a WebDriver server running — for local dev, download and run chromedriver or geckodriver on port 4444, or use Selenium Standalone Server (v4+ uses / endpoint, v3 uses /wd/hub). Then, create a session: RemoteWebDriver::create('http://localhost:4444', DesiredCapabilities::chrome()). Your first task is likely loading a page and interacting with elements: $driver->get('https://example.com'); $driver->findElement(WebDriverBy::id('submit'))?->click();. Always call $driver->quit() to clean up.

Implementation Patterns

Use RemoteWebDriver::create() with DesiredCapabilities and browser-specific options (e.g., ChromeOptions, FirefoxOptions) to configure headless mode, arguments, extensions, and preferences. For tests, wrap interactions in PHPUnit using try/finally for cleanup, or leverage integrations like Laravel Dusk (high-level DSL), Symfony Panther (based on php-webdriver), Steward (parallelized PHPUnit), or Codeception (WebDriver module). Use WebDriverWait for reliable synchronization instead of sleep(): (new WebDriverWait($driver, 10))->until(ExpectedConditions::visibilityOfElementLocated(WebDriverBy::id('result'))). Organize page interactions into Page Object classes to improve maintainability and reusability.

Gotchas and Tips

• HTTPS/SSL: Set acceptSslCerts capability or use browser options to ignore cert errors — don’t rely on deprecated SSL flags.
• Session reuse: createBySessionID() requires capabilities to be explicitly passed now; isDisplayed() may fail if no capabilities are set — ensure compatibility when reusing sessions.
• Timeouts: In W3C mode, timeout values must be int|float|null; invalid types cause protocol errors. Always use null for implicit timeout if unset.
• Element location: findElement() throws NoSuchElementException; findElements() returns an empty array — handle both explicitly to avoid silent failures.
• File uploads: Use sendKeys(realpath($path)) on <input type="file">; the W3C-compliant upload endpoint was fixed in v1.16.0.
• Upgrade note: If migrating from facebook/php-webdriver, update composer.json to php-webdriver/webdriver and replace namespace Facebook\WebDriver → Facebook\WebDriver (namespace unchanged in 1.x, but package name is critical).
• Shadow DOM: Enable via --enable-automation or driver flags; Geckodriver requires explicit enabling (as of v1.15.2 test setup).
• PHP version: Requires PHP ≥7.3; 8.4 deprecation issues are addressed in ≥1.15.2.