selenide-cpp

Selenide-style C++17 UI testing in one header over W3C WebDriver: lazy CSS locators, retrying actions/assertions and managed local ChromeDriver. Inspired by Selenide.

Requirements

CMake 3.20+, a C++17 compiler, libcurl headers/library and Chrome. For local runs, install a matching ChromeDriver in PATH or set Configuration::driverExecutable to its path. Drivers are not downloaded. CMake finds nlohmann/json or fetches v3.11.3.

Use in a project

include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(selenide
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/qa-guru/selenide-cpp.git
    GIT_TAG v0.1.5)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(selenide)

target_link_libraries(my_tests PRIVATE selenide::selenide)

#include "selenide.hpp"
using namespace selenide;

int main() {
    open("https://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login");
    $("#username").setValue("tomsmith");
    $("#password").setValue("SuperSecretPassword!");
    $("button[type=submit]").click();
    $(".flash.success")
        .shouldBe(be::visible)
        .shouldHave(have::text("You logged into a secure area"));
}

API

Indices are zero-based. Locators do not start a browser. With an empty Configuration::webdriverUrl, the first browser command starts ChromeDriver on a free local port and creates a session. closeWebDriver() closes the session and stops that owned process; the next command starts a new one. Cleanup also runs on normal process exit and when session creation fails.

Set webdriverUrl before the first browser command to use an existing driver, Grid or Selenoid. Only the session is closed; the external server is never stopped.

open(url);
closeWebDriver();
execute(script, args);       // /execute/sync — returns nlohmann::json, args defaults to []
executeAsync(script, args);  // /execute/async — script must call its last arg (callback)
screenshot(path);            // viewport PNG

$(css); $(css, i); $$(css);   // first match, indexed match, collection
el.click(); el.setValue(v);  // clear + type
el.text(); el.displayed(); el.selected();
el.shouldBe(condition); el.shouldHave(condition);
els.size(); els.shouldHave(have::size(n));

be::visible; be::checked;
have::text(t); have::exactText(t); have::size(n);

Element IDs are re-resolved per command. Element actions and assertions retry until Configuration::timeout, then throw std::runtime_error. Defaults:

Configuration::webdriverUrl = "";  // managed local ChromeDriver
Configuration::driverExecutable = "chromedriver";  // PATH name or executable path
Configuration::driverLogFile = "";                 // discard output; path = keep it
Configuration::browser = "chrome";
Configuration::headless = true;
Configuration::incognito = true;  // prevent autofill UI from intercepting input
Configuration::timeout = std::chrono::milliseconds{4000};
Configuration::pollingInterval = std::chrono::milliseconds{200};

Run the example

First setup (from this repository):

cmake -B build             # configure/generate build/, not compile

Build and run after setup or after ordinary C++ edits:

cmake --build build && ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

In --build build, --build is the action; build is the directory name.

The example covers login, logout, checkboxes and screenshots on the-internet.herokuapp.com. Google Test consumer tests run against autotests.ai.

Install instead of FetchContent

From this repository. JSON_Install=ON also installs nlohmann_json if fetched:

cmake -B build -DJSON_Install=ON
cmake --install build --prefix "$HOME/.local"

find_package(selenide REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(my_tests PRIVATE selenide::selenide)

Configure the consumer with -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$HOME/.local".

CSS selectors only; no iframe/window switching, download or CDP helpers.

MIT, see LICENSE.