Intermittent failure to detect elements (or waiting for elements) after upgrading Chrome version

[tediroca]

Bug report

• Node Version: 7.4.0
• Protractor Version: 5.2.0
• Angular Version: 1.4.14
• Browser(s): Google Chrome Version 62.0.3202.75
• Operating System and Version CentOS 7
• Chromedriver version 2.33
• Your protractor configuration file

var HtmlScreenshotReporterModule = require('protractor-jasmine2-screenshot-reporter');
var xmlReporterModule = require('jasmine-reporters');
var ConsoleReporterModule = require('jasmine-spec-reporter').SpecReporter;
var VideoReporterModule = require('protractor-video-reporter');
var Path = require('path');

var consoleReporter = new ConsoleReporterModule({
    spec: {
        displayStacktrace: true
    }
});

var htmlReporter = new HtmlScreenshotReporterModule({
    dest: 'reports/html',
    filename: 'htmlReport.html',
    showSummary: true,
    showQuickLinks: true
});

exports.config = {
    allScriptsTimeout: 2000000,
    directConnect: false,
    suites: {
        someSuite: ['specs/someSuite/*.spec.js']
    },
    capabilities: {
        'browserName': 'chrome',
        'chromeOptions': {'args': ['lang=en-GB', 'enable-precise-memory-info', 'js-flags=--expose-gc', 'no-sandbox']}
        //shardTestFiles: true,
        //maxInstances: 3
    },
    baseUrl: 'https://someUrl',
    framework: 'jasmine2',
    restartBrowserBetweenTests: false,
    beforeLaunch: function () {
        return new Promise(function (resolve) {
            htmlReporter.beforeLaunch(resolve);
        });
    },
    onPrepare: function () {
        browser.manage().window().setSize(1920, 1080);
        jasmine.getEnv().addReporter(new xmlReporterModule.JUnitXmlReporter({
            consolidateAll: true,
            filePrefix: 'results',
            savePath: 'reports/xml'
        }));

        jasmine.getEnv().addReporter(htmlReporter);
        jasmine.getEnv().addReporter(consoleReporter);

        jasmine.getEnv().addReporter(new VideoReporterModule({
            baseDirectory: Path.join(__dirname, 'reports/videos/'),
            singleVideo: false,
            ffmpegArgs: [
                '-y',
                '-r', '30',
                '-f', 'x11grab',
                '-s', '1920x1080',
                '-i', process.env.DISPLAY,
                '-g', '300',
                '-vcodec', 'qtrle'
            ]
        }));

    },
    afterLaunch: function (exitCode) {
        return new Promise(function (resolve) {
            htmlReporter.afterLaunch(resolve.bind(this, exitCode));
        });
    },
    jasmineNodeOpts: {
        showColors: true,
        defaultTimeoutInterval: 2500000,
        isVerbose: true,
        includeStackTrace: true,
        realtimeFailure: true,
        print: function () {
        }
    }
};

• A relevant example test

        var EC = protractor.ExpectedConditions;
        browser.wait(EC.visibilityOf(element(by.id("loggedInUser"))), 50000);
        element(by.id("loggedInUser")).click().then(function () {
            element(by.id("logOutLink")).click().then(function () {
                expect(browser.getCurrentUrl()).toMatch("/login");
            });
        });

• Output from running the test

 �[31m✗ Change expired password feature�[39m
      �[31m- �[39m�[31mFailed: Wait timed out after 50014ms�[39m
          at /usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/promise.js:2201:17
          at ManagedPromise.invokeCallback_ (/usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/promise.js:1376:14)
          at TaskQueue.execute_ (/usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/promise.js:3084:14)
          at TaskQueue.executeNext_ (/usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/promise.js:3067:27)
          at asyncRun (/usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/promise.js:2927:27)
          at /usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/promise.js:668:7
          at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:109:7)
      From: Task: <anonymous wait>
          at scheduleWait (/usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/promise.js:2188:20)
          at ControlFlow.wait (/usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/promise.js:2517:12)
          at thenableWebDriverProxy.wait (/usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/webdriver.js:934:29)
          at run (/usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/built/browser.js:59:33)
          at ProtractorBrowser.to.(anonymous function) [as wait] (/usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/built/browser.js:67:16)
          at Object.logOut (/var/lib/jenkins/workspace/QA-develop-UI-E2E-Tests-General/lyncs/e2e-tests/helpers/navigation.js:67:17)
          at UserContext.<anonymous> (/var/lib/jenkins/workspace/QA-develop-UI-E2E-Tests-General/lyncs/e2e-tests/specs/general/changeExpiredPassword.spec.js:271:41)
          at /usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/jasminewd2/index.js:112:25
          at new ManagedPromise (/usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/promise.js:1077:7)
          at ControlFlow.promise (/usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/promise.js:2505:12)
      From: Task: Run afterAll in control flow
          at UserContext.<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/jasminewd2/index.js:94:19)
          at runCallback (timers.js:672:20)
          at tryOnImmediate (timers.js:645:5)
      From asynchronous test: 
      Error
          at Suite.<anonymous> (/var/lib/jenkins/workspace/QA-develop-UI-E2E-Tests-General/lyncs/e2e-tests/specs/general/changeExpiredPassword.spec.js:270:9)
          at Object.<anonymous> (/var/lib/jenkins/workspace/QA-develop-UI-E2E-Tests-General/lyncs/e2e-tests/specs/general/changeExpiredPassword.spec.js:24:1)
          at Module._compile (module.js:571:32)
          at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)
          at Module.load (module.js:488:32)
          at tryModuleLoad (module.js:447:12)

The error refers to the line:

browser.wait(EC.visibilityOf(element(by.id("loggedInUser"))), 50000);

• Steps to reproduce the bug
• The URL you are running your tests against (if relevant)
  The URL is not publicly available but I've listed below the relevant code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
	<title></title>
</head>
<body>
	<ul class="nav navbar-nav navbar-right">
		<li class="dropdown open">
			<a aria-expanded="true" class="dropdown-toggle ng-binding" data-toggle="dropdown" id="loggedInUser"><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-user text-info"></i> someUser<b class="caret"></b></a>
			<ul class="dropdown-menu">
				<li class="">
					<a href="#/user/changePassword" id="changePasswordLink">Change Password</a>
				</li>
				<li class="divider"></li>
				<li class="">
					<a id="logOutLink">Sign out</a>
				</li>
			</ul>
		</li>
	</ul>
</body>
</html>

The scenario above is just one example of multiple tests what were successfully executed daily in CI environment. Not sure what started to cause the problem but to me it feels like sometimes Protractor is not waiting for a previous step to complete (or a previous promise to be resolved) before trying to locate the element that cause the problem.

It also seems to be noticeable on parts of the UI that change. E.g. step 1 in Protractor clicks a checkbox that enables an additional section in the UI and step 2 interacts with this new section. At this stage Protractor fails waiting or locating the new section since it tries to interact with it just straight after clicking on the checkbox.

Other relevant info is that most of the tests fail when run headless on the CI server (Linux) but all the specs pass successfully if I ran them in my laptop with exactly the same Chromdriver, Protractor and Chrome versions, but using Windows 10 instead of Linux.

[wswebcreation]

I know there is also an issue listed with problems on Linux and latest Chrome, and no problems with older versions / other OS / Browser combinations.

Have you also checked ChromDriver? I think it's more a bug there then in Protractor

[tediroca]

Have you also checked ChromDriver? I think it's more a bug there then in Protractor

I went through the open tickets in the Chromedriver tracker but I couldn't find anything that relates to this problem.

[wswebcreation]

Maybe you can file one with a testcase for it

[tediroca]

I had already raised a ticket for the Chromedriver. For the time being I have downgraded Chrome to the previous version (61) and all specs are working fine.

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromedriver/issues/detail?id=2105

[wswebcreation]

@tediroca

Tnx, will you also give feedback in this issue when you have more info on the filled bug?

[tediroca]

Sure. I'll update this ticket as soon as we get more info.

[tediroca]

This issue does no longer happen with Protractor 5.3.0, Chromedriver 2.35 and Chrome 64.

Not sure if this is fully fixed since the ticket that I had raised in the Chromedriver tracker has been closed as Won't fix.

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromedriver/issues/detail?id=2105#c13