browser.switchTo().alert() no longer works as expected on dialogs

[facultymatt]

Overview

I have a set of tests which rely on browser.switchTo().alert() to accept and dismiss both alerts and dialogs. The tests no longer work on the dialogs. The dialogs remain open, the test is not able to accept or dismiss the dialog, and the test control flow hangs.

// PASSES
it('should handle alerts', function() {
  // trigger $location.url('/page2');
  element(by.id('navigateAway')).click();
  var alertDialog = browser.switchTo().alert();
  expect(alertDialog.accept).toBeDefined();
  alertDialog.accept();
});

// FAILS
it('should handle dialogs', function() {
  // trigger window.onbeforeunload = function() { return 'are you sure?'; }
  browser.navigate().refresh();
  var alertDialog = browser.switchTo().alert();
  expect(alertDialog.accept).toBeDefined(); // fails
  alertDialog.accept(); // alertDialog and accept are not defined 
});

The full test suite is here

Investigation

There is discussion on the interwebs about similar problems where dialogs are not accessible by using browser.switchTo(). There is an open bug on selenium chromedriver here

There are a few related issues on protractor, specifically #308 and #55

I've tried using getAllWindowHandles and this fails too:

browser.getAllWindowHandles().then(function (handles) {
  browser.switchTo().window(handles[0]);
});

I've also tried rolling back to previous versions of protractor.

• In protractor 1.0.0 the tests still fail, however the open dialog box is somehow ignored and doesn't block the control flow - all tests run and fail.
• In 0.9.0 the tests fail AND block the control flow - the first failing test stops the remaining tests from running.

[vikasgahlaut]

I am still unable to use browser.switchTo().alert();

Tried everything and it is not related to chrome driver issue as same is working fine with webdriver-java native APIs. This is blocking usage of protractor and I am afraid I need to revert to webdriver - java API. Please update any luck on this??

[jhorrell]

Have gone around in circles for a few days on this one, trying the various solutions and workarounds, but no luck. Was trying to put in a test for an unauthorised login. The (angular/Ionic) app pops up an access denied alert as expected and have been attempting to get protractor to deal with it using variants of browser.switchTo().alert() . One way out is to redesign the app to not use any alerting functionality for errors and confirmations (currently provided through $ionicPopup), but protractor really should be able to deal with alerts (and it sounds like it could in the past so something must have changed).

Fails for me in similar way with both Firefox and Chrome. The alert pops up in the browser, but is not found by protractor so it get's stuck.

Agree that this is blocking usage of protractor (which otherwise looks very handy).

Here are some of the attempts (inspired by various people's postings):

// A) the code below should deal with the ionic.Popup alert
// but fails to find it currently, so this is a bit broken
// for some reason (google "protractor NoSuchAlertError: no alert open")
// Seems to be a bug in protractor: https://github.com/angular/protractor/issues/1486

var alertDialog = browser.switchTo().alert();
expect(alertDialog.getText()).toEqual("unauthorized access");

// B) here is another attempt which did not quite work out either.
// 27 maps to bot.ErrorCode.NO_MODAL_DIALOG_OPEN: http://selenium.googlecode.com/git/docs/api/javascript/source/lib/atoms/error.js.src.html#l31
var alertDialog = browser.switchTo().alert().thenCatch(function (e) {
    if (e.code !== 27) { throw e; }
})
.then(function (alert) {
    if (alert) {
        expect(alertDialog.getText()).toEqual("unauthorized access");
        return alert.dismiss();
    }
});

// C) another attempt to solve the alert problem. No luck in finding the alert despite
// it being clearly present. Times out after 30 secs
// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24037460/make-protractor-wait-for-an-alert-box
browser.wait(function() {
    return browser.switchTo().alert().then(
        function(alert) {
            expect(alert.getText()).toEqual("unauthorized access");
            alert.accept();
            return true;
            },
        function() { return false; }
    );
});

Using the javascript console in Chrome, I can directly find what I need from my app as per below, but not through protractor:

// from chrome javascript console, what we want is:
   document.getElementsByClassName("popup-body")[0].childNodes[0]
// which gives:
//   "<span>unauthorized access</span>"
// and the buttons are available from:
   document.getElementsByClassName("popup-buttons")

[vikasgahlaut]

Reason may be: You are working on angular app and navigating to non angular app, so if are stuck in alert after browser.get('someURL'), try using browser.driver.get('someURL'). This worked for me.

[jhorrell]

In my case, everything happens within the angular app (the alert is raised by the sign-in page) so I don't think that will help.

[skidvd]

Having the same issue here.

Hacky workaround:

browser.executeScript("window.onbeforeunload = function(){};");

Above will close the onbeforenload created dialog, but obviously precludes the ability to test any associated logic and/or behavior related to it. Are there any updates on this issue or if/when it will be resolved?

[denislins]

I have a similar issue. But the strange part is that only one test fails, the rest run and pass with no problems. The message I get is slightly different though: "Failed: no alert open".

[yonirab]

Are there any updates on this issue? Facing the exact same problem here...

[petebacondarwin]

I found that this can be caused by two dialogs being opened in quick succession - the second one not being found by webdriver in time. A workaround was to put a short sleep in before trying to access the alert box...

browser.navigate().refresh();
browser.sleep(100);
var alertDialog = browser.switchTo().alert();