karma-virtualboxany-launcher

Launcher for using any browser in a Virtualbox VM.

This is a simple implementation for working primarily with multiple browser types in Windows VMs.

There are definitely bugs with this so please remember to report anything you find in the issues.

Installation

Install Virtualbox 5.X+ here virtualbox.org.

For this example I will be using the launcher to test with IE10 from a free VM provided by Microsoft. Download and import the OVA file into Virtualbox.

Install the package as a development dependency.

npm install karma-virtualboxany-launcher --save-dev

Configure your karma.conf.js

...
customLaunchers: {
    'virtualIE10': {
        base: 'VirtualBoxAny',
        config: {
            vm_name: 'IE10 - Win7', // required - name of the VM to target
            use_gui: false, // optional - allows VM to start headless
            cmd: 'C:\\Program Files\\Internet Explorer\\iexplore.exe' // required - can be a path to any browser,
            shutdown: false, // Whether or not to shut down the VM when complete
            user: 'IEUser', // optional - defaults to those provided with Modern.IE vm's
            password: 'Passw0rd!' // optional - defaults to those provided with Modern.IE vm's
        }
    },
    // This isn't limited to IE only. Manually open a VM and install any browser you would like to test.
    'virtualFirefox': {
        base: 'VirtualBoxAny',
        config: {
            vm_name: 'IE10 - Win7', // required - name of the VM to target
            cmd: 'C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe' // required - can be a path to any browser
        }
    },
},

// start these browsers
// available browser launchers: https://npmjs.org/browse/keyword/karma-launcher
browsers: ['virtualIE10', 'virtualFirefox'],
...

Limitations / Known Issues

• This may not work with VM's that are not Windows based
• After Karma is stopped the VM's are left open unless the shutdown option is set to true in the configuration. This is on purpose to allow tests to be re-ran quickly.