Improve WebDriver Management When Running from Executable

[izharus]

Improve WebDriver Management When Running from Executable

Issue Description

When SeleniumBase scripts are packaged into an executable file (using PyInstaller or similar tools), webdrivers are downloaded and stored in a temporary directory that is created and deleted on each execution of the executable file. This is inefficient and causes unnecessary downloads, on Windows systems.

Current Behavior

• When running from an executable (.exe), SeleniumBase downloads webdrivers to a temporary directory on each execution
• This temporary directory is typically removed after the program terminates
• The next execution requires downloading the drivers again

Proposed Solution

Modify SeleniumBase to detect if it's running from an executable file and adjust the DRIVER_DIR accordingly:

1. If running from a Python script (.py file): Keep the current behavior
2. If running from an executable (has sys.frozen attribute): Save drivers in a persistent "drivers" folder alongside the executable file

I can create a PR if your are insterested in.

[mdmintz]

Duplicate of #2046.

chromedriver is only downloaded if it doesn't already exist in the seleniumbase/drivers folder.
It looks like you've configured pyinstaller to generate a new folder every time it runs. (seleniumbase doesn't have control over that.) That means it'll keep downloading the driver unless you configure PyInstaller to reuse the folder.

If you can't change PyInstaller configuration, you can hide those install messages by adding this:

from seleniumbase.config import settings
settings.HIDE_DRIVER_DOWNLOADS = True

PyInstaller is an external project, so you'll have to figure out how to configure it properly.

[izharus]

The core issue is not about additional console messages appearing, but rather that in certain use cases, such as with PyInstaller, the library downloads the driver each time, which is problematic.

The default driver storage location in the source code may also seem like an unusual solution to some users. It would be great to have the ability to specify the driver directory path out of the box in SeleniumBase, as this would solve some deployment scenarios.

Nevertheless, I understand your position and thank you for your detailed response.

[SSujitX]

Nevertheless, I understand your position and thank you for your detailed response.

What about if you specify the driver version, and it downloads the driver and patches it? Then make exe with it.

Do we need to define the path of the driver?

[izharus]

What about if you specify the driver version, and it downloads the driver and patches it? Then make exe with it.

Do we need to define the path of the driver?

In the current implementation, the driver is still downloaded to .../site-packages/seleniumbase/drivers/, overwriting the existing file if it already exists. As far as I can see (and as I mentioned earlier), there is no built-in option to change the directory path where drivers are stored.

[izharus]

For example, move the definition of the DRIVER_DIR constant from browser_launcher.py and sb_install.py (perhaps it's defined somewhere else too?) to a single location - in settings.py