Unable to declare and use user-defined/custom properties in wdio 8 project

[parida1611]

So below is my setup configuration:
node: v18.17.1
npm: 9.6.7
wdio : 8

My package.json file:
{
"name": "wdio8",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "",
"main": "index.js",
"scripts": {
"test": "echo "Error: no test specified" && exit 1",
"wdio": "wdio run ./wdio.conf.ts",
"PROD-chrome-sanity": "set ENV=PROD && npx wdio run wdio.conf.ts --spec test/specs/lpl/sanity.ts"
},
"author": "",
"license": "ISC",
"dependencies": {
"-": "^0.0.1",
"@wdio/cli": "^8.23.4",
"save-dev": "^0.0.1-security"
},
"devDependencies": {
"@wdio/local-runner": "^8.23.4",
"@wdio/mocha-framework": "^8.23.1",
"@wdio/spec-reporter": "^8.23.1",
"ts-node": "^10.9.1",
"typescript": "^5.3.2",
"wdio-intercept-service": "^4.4.0"
}
}

my wdio.conf.ts file: where "users" is a user defined property here.

const users = import (./configs/users/usersConfigPROD.json);
import type { Options } from '@wdio/types'

export const config: Options.Testrunner = {

users: users,
//
// ====================
// Runner Configuration
// ====================
// WebdriverIO supports running e2e tests as well as unit and component tests.
runner: 'local',
autoCompileOpts: {
    autoCompile: true,
    tsNodeOpts: {
        project: './tsconfig.json',
        transpileOnly: true
    }
},

//
// ==================
// Specify Test Files
// ==================
// Define which test specs should run. The pattern is relative to the directory
// of the configuration file being run.
//
// The specs are defined as an array of spec files (optionally using wildcards
// that will be expanded). The test for each spec file will be run in a separate
// worker process. In order to have a group of spec files run in the same worker
// process simply enclose them in an array within the specs array.
//
// If you are calling `wdio` from an NPM script (see https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/run-script),
// then the current working directory is where your `package.json` resides, so `wdio`
// will be called from there.
//
specs: [
    './test/specs/**/*.ts'
],
// Patterns to exclude.
exclude: [
    // 'path/to/excluded/files'
],
//
// ============
// Capabilities
// ============
// Define your capabilities here. WebdriverIO can run multiple capabilities at the same
// time. Depending on the number of capabilities, WebdriverIO launches several test
// sessions. Within your capabilities you can overwrite the spec and exclude options in
// order to group specific specs to a specific capability.
//
// First, you can define how many instances should be started at the same time. Let's
// say you have 3 different capabilities (Chrome, Firefox, and Safari) and you have
// set maxInstances to 1; wdio will spawn 3 processes. Therefore, if you have 10 spec
// files and you set maxInstances to 10, all spec files will get tested at the same time
// and 30 processes will get spawned. The property handles how many capabilities
// from the same test should run tests.
//
maxInstances: 10,
//
// If you have trouble getting all important capabilities together, check out the
// Sauce Labs platform configurator - a great tool to configure your capabilities:
// https://saucelabs.com/platform/platform-configurator
//
capabilities: [{
    browserName: 'chrome'
}],

//
// ===================
// Test Configurations
// ===================
// Define all options that are relevant for the WebdriverIO instance here
//
// Level of logging verbosity: trace | debug | info | warn | error | silent
logLevel: 'info',
//
// Set specific log levels per logger
// loggers:
// - webdriver, webdriverio
// - @wdio/browserstack-service, @wdio/devtools-service, @wdio/sauce-service
// - @wdio/mocha-framework, @wdio/jasmine-framework
// - @wdio/local-runner
// - @wdio/sumologic-reporter
// - @wdio/cli, @wdio/config, @wdio/utils
// Level of logging verbosity: trace | debug | info | warn | error | silent
// logLevels: {
//     webdriver: 'info',
//     '@wdio/appium-service': 'info'
// },
//
// If you only want to run your tests until a specific amount of tests have failed use
// bail (default is 0 - don't bail, run all tests).
bail: 0,
//
// Set a base URL in order to shorten url command calls. If your `url` parameter starts
// with `/`, the base url gets prepended, not including the path portion of your baseUrl.
// If your `url` parameter starts without a scheme or `/` (like `some/path`), the base url
// gets prepended directly.
baseUrl: 'http://localhost',
//
// Default timeout for all waitFor* commands.
waitforTimeout: 10000,
//
// Default timeout in milliseconds for request
// if browser driver or grid doesn't send response
connectionRetryTimeout: 120000,
//
// Default request retries count
connectionRetryCount: 3,
//
// Test runner services
// Services take over a specific job you don't want to take care of. They enhance
// your test setup with almost no effort. Unlike plugins, they don't add new
// commands. Instead, they hook themselves up into the test process.
services: ['intercept'],

// Framework you want to run your specs with.
// The following are supported: Mocha, Jasmine, and Cucumber
// see also: https://webdriver.io/docs/frameworks
//
// Make sure you have the wdio adapter package for the specific framework installed
// before running any tests.
framework: 'mocha',

//
// The number of times to retry the entire specfile when it fails as a whole
// specFileRetries: 1,
//
// Delay in seconds between the spec file retry attempts
// specFileRetriesDelay: 0,
//
// Whether or not retried spec files should be retried immediately or deferred to the end of the queue
// specFileRetriesDeferred: false,
//
// Test reporter for stdout.
// The only one supported by default is 'dot'
// see also: https://webdriver.io/docs/dot-reporter
reporters: ['spec'],

// Options to be passed to Mocha.
// See the full list at http://mochajs.org/
mochaOpts: {
    ui: 'bdd',
    timeout: 60000
},

//
// =====
// Hooks
// =====
// WebdriverIO provides several hooks you can use to interfere with the test process in order to enhance
// it and to build services around it. You can either apply a single function or an array of
// methods to it. If one of them returns with a promise, WebdriverIO will wait until that promise got
// resolved to continue.
/**
 * Gets executed once before all workers get launched.
 * @param {object} config wdio configuration object
 * @param {Array.<Object>} capabilities list of capabilities details
 */
// onPrepare: function (config, capabilities) {
// },
/**
 * Gets executed before a worker process is spawned and can be used to initialize specific service
 * for that worker as well as modify runtime environments in an async fashion.
 * @param  {string} cid      capability id (e.g 0-0)
 * @param  {object} caps     object containing capabilities for session that will be spawn in the worker
 * @param  {object} specs    specs to be run in the worker process
 * @param  {object} args     object that will be merged with the main configuration once worker is initialized
 * @param  {object} execArgv list of string arguments passed to the worker process
 */
// onWorkerStart: function (cid, caps, specs, args, execArgv) {
// },
/**
 * Gets executed just after a worker process has exited.
 * @param  {string} cid      capability id (e.g 0-0)
 * @param  {number} exitCode 0 - success, 1 - fail
 * @param  {object} specs    specs to be run in the worker process
 * @param  {number} retries  number of retries used
 */
// onWorkerEnd: function (cid, exitCode, specs, retries) {
// },
/**
 * Gets executed just before initialising the webdriver session and test framework. It allows you
 * to manipulate configurations depending on the capability or spec.
 * @param {object} config wdio configuration object
 * @param {Array.<Object>} capabilities list of capabilities details
 * @param {Array.<String>} specs List of spec file paths that are to be run
 * @param {string} cid worker id (e.g. 0-0)
 */
// beforeSession: function (config, capabilities, specs, cid) {
// },
/**
 * Gets executed before test execution begins. At this point you can access to all global
 * variables like `browser`. It is the perfect place to define custom commands.
 * @param {Array.<Object>} capabilities list of capabilities details
 * @param {Array.<String>} specs        List of spec file paths that are to be run
 * @param {object}         browser      instance of created browser/device session
 */
// before: function (capabilities, specs) {
//     Options.addCommand('getUsers', async  () => {
//         // `this` refers to the `browser` scope
//         return {
//             users: users,
//         }
//     })
// },
/**
 * Runs before a WebdriverIO command gets executed.
 * @param {string} commandName hook command name
 * @param {Array} args arguments that command would receive
 */
// beforeCommand: function (commandName, args) {
// },
/**
 * Hook that gets executed before the suite starts
 * @param {object} suite suite details
 */
// beforeSuite: function (suite) {
// },
/**
 * Function to be executed before a test (in Mocha/Jasmine) starts.
 */
// beforeTest: function (test, context) {
// },
/**
 * Hook that gets executed _before_ a hook within the suite starts (e.g. runs before calling
 * beforeEach in Mocha)
 */
// beforeHook: function (test, context, hookName) {
// },
/**
 * Hook that gets executed _after_ a hook within the suite starts (e.g. runs after calling
 * afterEach in Mocha)
 */
// afterHook: function (test, context, { error, result, duration, passed, retries }, hookName) {
// },
/**
 * Function to be executed after a test (in Mocha/Jasmine only)
 * @param {object}  test             test object
 * @param {object}  context          scope object the test was executed with
 * @param {Error}   result.error     error object in case the test fails, otherwise `undefined`
 * @param {*}       result.result    return object of test function
 * @param {number}  result.duration  duration of test
 * @param {boolean} result.passed    true if test has passed, otherwise false
 * @param {object}  result.retries   information about spec related retries, e.g. `{ attempts: 0, limit: 0 }`
 */
// afterTest: function(test, context, { error, result, duration, passed, retries }) {
// },


/**
 * Hook that gets executed after the suite has ended
 * @param {object} suite suite details
 */
// afterSuite: function (suite) {
// },
/**
 * Runs after a WebdriverIO command gets executed
 * @param {string} commandName hook command name
 * @param {Array} args arguments that command would receive
 * @param {number} result 0 - command success, 1 - command error
 * @param {object} error error object if any
 */
// afterCommand: function (commandName, args, result, error) {
// },
/**
 * Gets executed after all tests are done. You still have access to all global variables from
 * the test.
 * @param {number} result 0 - test pass, 1 - test fail
 * @param {Array.<Object>} capabilities list of capabilities details
 * @param {Array.<String>} specs List of spec file paths that ran
 */
// after: function (result, capabilities, specs) {
// },
/**
 * Gets executed right after terminating the webdriver session.
 * @param {object} config wdio configuration object
 * @param {Array.<Object>} capabilities list of capabilities details
 * @param {Array.<String>} specs List of spec file paths that ran
 */
// afterSession: function (config, capabilities, specs) {
// },
/**
 * Gets executed after all workers got shut down and the process is about to exit. An error
 * thrown in the onComplete hook will result in the test run failing.
 * @param {object} exitCode 0 - success, 1 - fail
 * @param {object} config wdio configuration object
 * @param {Array.<Object>} capabilities list of capabilities details
 * @param {<Object>} results object containing test results
 */
// onComplete: function(exitCode, config, capabilities, results) {
// },
/**
* Gets executed when a refresh happens.
* @param {string} oldSessionId session ID of the old session
* @param {string} newSessionId session ID of the new session
*/
// onReload: function(oldSessionId, newSessionId) {
// }

}

I am trying to fetch the "users" property in my page object file as below:

//page.pageobject.ts
import { browser } from '@wdio/globals'
const usersList = browser.options.users; // getting an error "Property 'users' does not exist on type 'Testrunner | WebdriverIO'"

/**

• main page object containing all methods, selectors and functionality
• that is shared across all page objects
  /
  export default class Page {
  /*
  * Opens a sub page of the page
  * @param path path of the sub page (e.g. /path/to/page.html)
  */
  public open (path: string) {
  console.log(usersList);
  console.log(browser.options.baseUrl);
  return browser.url(https://the-internet.herokuapp.com/${path})
  }
  }

while trying to use property "users" getting an error "Property 'users' does not exist on type 'Testrunner | WebdriverIO'". If I still run the code, the value of "usersList" comes to be undefined. To solve this, I also created a custom type definition file
//custom.d.ts file
declare global {
export interface custom extends WebdriverIO {
users : any;
}
}
and added path in tsconfig.json file's "include" property as below:
//tsconfig.json
{
"compilerOptions": {
"moduleResolution": "node",
"module": "commonjs",
"target": "es2022",
"lib": [
"es2022",
"dom"
],
"types": [
"node",
"@wdio/globals/types",
"expect-webdriverio",
"@wdio/mocha-framework"
],
"skipLibCheck": true,
"noEmit": true,
"allowImportingTsExtensions": true,
"resolveJsonModule": true,
"isolatedModules": true,
"strict": true,
"noUnusedLocals": true,
"noUnusedParameters": true,
"noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": true
},
"include": [
"test",
"wdio.conf.ts",
"custom.d.ts"
]
}

but nothing seems to work.

At the end my goal is to declare and initialize the new property "users" in wdio.conf.ts file and to be able to use it at different location as browser.options property.

Earlier in wdio v7, I was able to do so via browser.config.users, but now after upgrade to wdio 8 this doesn't seems to work with browser.options.users. Please let me know what I should be doing here to achieve the goal or solve this issue. Also let me know If I have missed any required information here.

I am struggling with this since a week now. Any help is appreciated here.

[christian-bromann]

With removing the config property of the browser mentioned in the release blog post we don't allow custom properties to the config anymore as it confuses the setup for folks and make it more complex. You can store custom properties in your capabilities via e.g. "custom:props": { ... } and access it via browser.requestedCapabilities['custom:props'].... You can also use the Shared Store Service for storing data or put it in other config files.