wdio-roku-service

This service overrides many parts of WebdriverIO to allow them to be used with Roku apps and provides access to the Roku ECP to control the Roku during testing.

Requirements

Roku

A test channel/channel.zip and a Roku device (with Developer Mode enabled) on the same network as your mac.

WebdriverIO

This is not a standalone product -- it is used as a WebdriverIO test framework plugin (or Service, in their vernacular). Before using this, you should go through the setup for WDIO by running npm init wdio@latest.

When going through the setup steps, so you don't have to navigate all the questions/options, you can just choose the following selections during the init phase:

• E2E Testing
• On my local machine
• Web
• Chrome
• Mocha
• Typescript [modules works for TS and JS, so choose whichever]
• autogenerate some test files (Y) -- default location
• page objects (Y) -- default location
• spec reporter
• additional plugins (N)
• Visual Testing (N)
• services (none; in the future, this project be in the list)
• npm install (Y)

Add this package to the project:

npm i wdio-roku-service --save-dev

WDIO Config

Currently, testing is only supported for a single Roku device. The following config updates are required:

• maxInstances and maxInstancesPerCapability should be 1. Testing on multiple devices automatically isn't supported and will result in duplicated commands getting sent to the Roku. There should only be a single capability.

//wdio.conf.js
export const config: WebdriverIO.Config = {

maxInstances: 1,

    capabilities: [{
        browserName: 'chrome'
        // or if you want headless mode:
        browserName: 'chrome',
        'goog:chromeOptions': { 
            args: ['--headless', '--disable-gpu']
        }
    }],
    //...
}

• Import the RokuWorkerService and include it in the services of your config. No parameters are required.

//wdio.conf.js
import RokuWorkerService from 'wdio-roku-service'

export const config: WebdriverIO.Config = {
    services: [[RokuWorkerService]],
    //...
}

• It's recommended to increase the waitforInterval and waitforTimeout, as each interval involves downloading the xml from the Roku. To get more out of the browser.debug() feature, you may also opt to extend your mocha testrunner timeout to 5+ minutes for development room.

//wdio.conf.js
export const config: WebdriverIO.Config = {
    waitforTimeout: 30000,
    
    //optional:
    mochaOpts: {
        ui: 'bdd',
        timeout: 600000
    },
    //...
}

You're ready to write your first test!

import { installFromZip } from 'wdio-roku-service/src/install'
import { exitChannel } from 'wdio-roku-service/channel'
import { Buttons, keyPress, keySequence } from 'wdio-roku-service/src/controller'

describe('first test', () => {
    before('On the landing screen of the test channel', async () => {
        await installFromZip(process.env.ROKU_APP_PATH)
    })

    it('should launch to the homescreen without login', async () => {
        await $("//LoadingIndicator").waitForDisplayed({ reverse: true })
        await expect($("//ShubiCarousel")).toBeDisplayed()
    })

    after('should return to home', async () => {
        await exitChannel()
    })
})

It's also encouraged that you make use of the browser.debug() feature in wdio to halt your test for debugging and test authoring:

// ...
    it('should launch to the homescreen without login', async () => {
        await $("//LoadingIndicator").waitForDisplayed({ reverse: true })
        await expect($("//ShubiCarousel")).toBeDisplayed()
        await browser.debug()
        // the test halts, a REPL becomes available for commands

If chrome is not headless, you can see the last time that openRokuXML() was called (likely through a waitForX or expect). using the REPL in your terminal, you can make use of any valid $ commands, and a couple key custom ones added (browser.openRokuXML() and browser.saveScreenshot('path/to/ss.jpg')) -- the controller class is not attached to the browser object, so you can't currently use those. Luckily, you're probably sitting next to the Roku and have a remote you can use to navigate and occasionally call browser.openRokuXML() to see what happened to the page state! And remember that XML works natively with xpathing in the chrome browser itself, so you can evaluate/develop your selectors directly in the chrome console during debug.

.env

See the .env.example file. Copy it and rename it to .env within your WebdriverIO project that uses this service. You will probably want to put it in your .gitignore as well.

• ROKU_IP should be the IP of your Roku. The commands will use this IP to communicate with it. This is required.
• ROKU_USER and ROKU_PW: Login credentials are needed to install an archive, as well as for taking screenshots.
• DEBUG=wdio-roku-service will enable debug messages. Remove the '#' at the start of the line if you want those.

Changed Functions

Browser

• waitUntil will fetch the xml from the Roku at each iteration to check for changes.
• saveScreenshot will download a screenshot of the current screen from the Roku. Notably, these screenshots are in .jpg format, rather than the .png that WebdriverIO usually uses.
• openRokuXML will fetch the xml from the Roku if you need to do it manually rather than with waits.

Elements

• All waits are supported in the same way as Browser. waitForClickable is mapped to waitForDisplayed, and waitForStable is mapped to waitForExist.
• click, doubleClick, and moveTo aren't supported. You have to manually navigate the app.
• isFocused will check for an attribute focused on the element being true.
• isDisplayed will check for an attribute bounds on the element, and that visible is not set to false. If withinViewport is set, the bounds will be compared against the Roku's screen size.
• getSize and getLocation take the values from the bounds attribute, returning 0 for size and -Infinity for position if it isn't present.

Other functions have not been changed, but many still work as expected.

Matchers

Most matchers have been updated to fetch the xml while waiting. Some have slightly different functionality.

• toBeDisplayed, toBeDisplayedInViewport, toBeFocused, toBeExisting, toBePresent, toExist, toHaveSize, toHaveWidth, toHaveHeight, and toHaveAttribute all work as expected, with the changes to Element considered.
• toHaveElementProperty is mapped to toHaveAttribute.
• toHaveElementClass checks the name attribute of the element.
• toHaveId is mapped to toHaveElementClass.
• toHaveText checks the text attribute of the element.
• toHaveChildren checks the children attribute of the element.
• toHaveHTML will treat the xml as if it were HTML, though is likely not very useful.

The following are not currently supported:

• toBeSelected - Could be supported soon after determining what the xml for selected buttons look like, if there's a difference.
• toBeChecked - Could be supported soon after determining what the xml for checked checkboxes look like, if there's a difference.
• toHaveComputedLabel - If you have an equivalent of this on your Roku elements, check the attribute with toHaveAttribute.
• toHaveComputedRole - If you have an equivalent of this on your Roku elements, check the attribute with toHaveAttribute.
• toHaveHref - If you have URLs on your Roku elements, check the attribute with toHaveAttribute.
• toHaveStyle - The xml elements don't have styles.
• toHaveClipboardText - This isn't known.
• toHaveTitle - The title will be the randomly generated temporary filename of the xml.
• toHaveUrl - The URL will be the path to the xml file on your computer.

Usage

Channel Installation

This requires your channel to have an assigned ID.

import { installByID } from 'wdio-roku-service/install';

async before() {
    await installByID(process.env.ROKU_CHANNEL_ID);
}

Archive Installation

It's recommended to store the path in the .env, especially if you have multiple developers who might have different locations and/or file names.

import { installFromZip } from 'wdio-roku-service/install';

async before() {
    await installFromZip(process.env.ROKU_ARCHIVE_PATH);
}

Pre-Installed Channel

If you've already installed the channel yourself prior to testing, you can simply launch it.

import { launchChannel, exitChannel } from 'wdio-roku-service/channel';

async before() {
    // Close the channel if it's already open. If the channel supports instant resume, this will merely background it
    await exitChannel();
    // Using the channel ID of 'dev' will launch the sideloaded application.
    await launchChannel('dev');
}

Testing

wdio-roku-service/controller provides the ability to send button presses to the Roku. keySequence is the main one, sending several button presses in sequence.

import { Buttons, keySequence } from 'wdio-roku-service/controller';

// Navigate through the app
await keySequence(Buttons.LEFT, Buttons.LEFT, Buttons.SELECT, Buttons.DOWN, Buttons.SELECT);
// Fetch the current app UI from the Roku and load it into the browser
await browser.openRokuXML();
// Or, use waits, which will repeatedly load the XML until it times out or the condition passes
await browser.waitUntil(condition);
await element.waitForDisplayed();
// use WDIO matchers on the roku XML as if it was a webpage
await expect(element).toHaveAttr('focused');

wdio-roku-service/controller also has functions for holding or releasing buttons as well as typing text into a keyboard.

import { Buttons, keyboardInput, keyPress, keySequence } from 'wdio-roku-service/controller';

await keySequence(Buttons.DOWN, Buttons.DOWN, Buttons.SELECT);
await keyboardInput('example');
await keyPress(Buttons.ENTER);
await browser.openRokuXML();

Deeplinking

wdio-roku-service/channel provides channel-related functionality. inputChannel allows you to send arbitrary information to your app.

import { exitChannel, launchChannel, MediaType } from 'wdio-roku-service/channel';
await exitChannel();
await launchChannel(process.env.ROKU_CHANNEL_ID, myContent, MediaType.MOVIE, {myExtraParameter:true});
await expect(MyContent.header).toBeDisplayed();

Other Functions

wdio-roku-service/info provides miscellaneous functionality, such as getting the app icon or orphaned nodes.

import { getAppIcon } from 'wdio-roku-service/info';
const response = await getAppIcon(process.env.ROKU_CHANNEL_ID);
expect(response.headers.get('Content-Type')).toBe('image/jpg');

wdio-roku-service/ecp is the direct interface with the ECP if you need to do anything highly specific.

import { ECP } from 'wdio-roku-service/ecp';
await ECP('search/browse?keyword=voyage&type=movie&tmsid=MV000058030000', 'POST');

Common Gotchas

• Roku elements have their text in a 'text' attribute, not between their tags. When doing selectors, doing $('element=Text') won't work for almost every element. Instead, you'll have to do $('element[text=Text]').

Feature Roadmap

• There will be a PR submitted soon that allows for this service to be installed during the npm init wdio@latest questionnaire.
• Currently evaluating Socket communication with the Roku such that more features can be tooled, such as a means to wake a sleeping Roku.
• Network proxy feature(s) that allow for keying off of network activity.