How to hide Firefox window (Selenium WebDriver)?

Question

When I execute multiple test simultaneously, i don't want to keep Firefox browser window visible.. I can minimize it using selenium.minimizeWindow() but I don't want to do it.

Is there any way to hide Firefox window? I am using FireFox WebDriver.

Solution 1

Finally I found the solution for those who are using windows Machine for running the Tests using any method. Well, implementation is not in Java, but you can do it very easily.

Use AutoIt tool. It has all the capability to handle windows. It is a free tool.

1. Install AutoIt: http://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/downloads/

2. Open the Editor and write below code for Hiding any window.

   AutoItSetOption("WinTitleMatchMode", 2)
   WinSetState("Title Of Your Window", "", @SW_HIDE) 
   

3. To Unhide it, you can use below line of code.

   AutoItSetOption("WinTitleMatchMode", 2)
   WinSetState("Title Of Your Window", "", @SW_SHOW)
   

   WinTitleMatchMode has different options which can be used to match Windows title.

   1 = Match the title from the start (default)`
   2 = Match any substring in the title
   3 = Exact title match
   4 = Advanced mode, see Window Titles & Text (Advanced)
   

So, what I've done is: I have created an .exe file of a small program and passed a parameter as a command line argument as below.

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("C:/Diiinnovation/HideNSeek.exe 0 \"" + "Mozilla Firefox" + "\"");

in HideNSeek.exe - I have below AutoIt Code:

AutoItSetOption("WinTitleMatchMode", 1) 

if $CmdLine[0] > 0 Then
    if $CmdLine[1] == 0 Then
        WinSetState($CmdLine[2], "", @SW_HIDE)    
    ElseIf $CmdLine[1] == 1 Then
        WinSetState($CmdLine[2], "", @SW_SHOW)          
    Else    
    EndIf   
EndIf

$CmdLine[] is an array, which will have all command line parameters...

$CmdLine[0] = number of Parameter
$CmdLine[1] = 1st Parameter after Exe Name 
...

If there is any space in the Window Title, then you have to use double quotes to pass it as a command line parameter like above.

Below Line of code will execute AutoIt exe and if I pass '0' in 1st parameter then it will hide the window and if I will pass '1' then it will unhide windows matching the title.

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("C:/Diiinnovation/HideNSeek.exe 0 \"" + "Mozilla Firefox" + "\"");

I hope this will help you. Thanks!

Solution 2

Python

The easiest way to hide the browser is to install PhantomJS. Then, change this line:

driver = webdriver.Firefox()

to:

driver = webdriver.PhantomJS()

The rest of your code won't need to be changed and no browser will open. For debugging purposes, use driver.save_screenshot('screen.png') at different steps of your code or just switch to the Firefox webdriver again.

On Windows, you will have to specify the path to phantomjs.exe:

driver = webdriver.PhantomJS('C:\phantomjs-1.9.7-windows\phantomjs.exe')

---

Java

Have a look at Ghost Driver: How to run ghostdriver with Selenium using java

---

C#

How to hide FirefoxDriver (using Selenium) without findElement function error in PhantomDriver(headless browser)?

Solution 3

Just add the following code.

import os
os.environ['MOZ_HEADLESS'] = '1'
driver = webdriver.Firefox()

Solution 4

Just do (Python):

opts = webdriver.FirefoxOptions()
opts.headless = True
firefox = webdriver.Firefox(options=opts)

Solution 5

I used xvfb to solve the problem like this.

First, install Xvfb:

# apt-get install xvfb

on Debian/Ubuntu; or

# yum install xorg-x11-Xvfb

on Fedora/RedHat. Then, choose a display number that is unlikely to ever clash (even if you add a real display later) – something high like 99 should do. Run Xvfb on this display, with access control off:

# Xvfb :99 -ac

Now you need to ensure that your display is set to 99 before running the Selenium server (which itself launches the browser). The easiest way to do this is to export DISPLAY=:99 into the environment for Selenium. First, make sure things are working from the command line like so:

$ export DISPLAY=:99
$ firefox

or just

$ DISPLAY=:99 firefox

Below there is a link that helped me
http://www.alittlemadness.com/2008/03/05/running-selenium-headless/

View more solutions

Comments

[Paresh]

I am not using remote web driver; and my client requirement is to have everything on one machine so they want want to hide browser. There is no way to hide Browser?

[Paresh]

So there is really now other solution to hide Firefox? :(.. HtmlUnitDriver can help but i don't want to use it.

[Darren Ringer]

'rest of your code won't need to be changed' - unless, of course, it relies specifically on the Firefox browser and its configuration options.

[David Röthlisberger]

With xvfb-run (part of the xvfb package, on Ubuntu at least) it's even easier: xvfb-run firefox.

[110SidedHexagon]

One problem with this method though is that the hidden window still takes away focus from whatever you are doing. It doesn't mess up the execution any more, but it makes trying to type very hard.

[Paresh]

I don't know what you are trying to say! didn't get you, Sorry!

[110SidedHexagon]

I used this method to hide a Chrome browser to run a program that downloads files off of a website and compiles the data into an excel form. While the program runs, clicking buttons and filling text boxes in the hidden browser, I noticed it will steal focus from whatever window I am on when it does actions with the web driver. As an example, if the program is running, and I want to type an email, I can start typing but at some point the window will lose focus and I will no longer be typing in the email window, but the hidden browser window instead.

[Tejesh Raut]

My code is not showing the desired result it used to show while using firefox. Also screen.png shows a blank png image just after using driver.get("URL") Do you have any idea ?

[Stéphane Bruckert]

@TejeshRaut I couldn't tell. It seems like you have a particular issue. I would try to reduce the amount of code needed to reproduce the problem and post a new question.

[Anko]

-1 The question is specifically about using WebDriver for Firefox. PhantomJS is a completely different browser, currently with no support for newer web features like CSS flexbox or WebGL.

[ivan_pozdeev]

PhantomJS has been abandoned in favor of Headless Chrome(ium).

[Lal]

Update: UserWarning: Selenium support for PhantomJS has been deprecated, please use headless versions of Chrome or Firefox instead

[dequis]

As another answer points out, this is a new feature since firefox 56

[Felipe Valdes]

I came here to say the same as @LalZada, this (even though it works) is no longer the recommended path.