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The main idea is to simplify management of binary drivers for different browsers.

For now support:

• ChromeDriver

• GeckoDriver

• IEDriver

• OperaDriver

• EdgeChromiumDriver

Before: You should download binary chromedriver, unzip it somewhere in you PC and set path to this driver like this:

from selenium import webdriver
driver = webdriver.Chrome('/home/user/drivers/chromedriver')

It’s boring!!! Moreover every time the new version of driver released, you should go and repeat all steps again and again.

With webdriver manager, you just need to do two simple steps:

Install manager:

pip install webdriver-manager

Use with Chrome:

from selenium import webdriver
from webdriver_manager.chrome import ChromeDriverManager

driver = webdriver.Chrome(ChromeDriverManager().install())

Use with Chromium:

from selenium import webdriver
from webdriver_manager.chrome import ChromeDriverManager
from webdriver_manager.utils import ChromeType

driver = webdriver.Chrome(ChromeDriverManager(chrome_type=ChromeType.CHROMIUM).install())

Use with FireFox:

from selenium import webdriver
from webdriver_manager.firefox import GeckoDriverManager

driver = webdriver.Firefox(executable_path=GeckoDriverManager().install())

Use with IE

from selenium import webdriver
from webdriver_manager.microsoft import IEDriverManager

driver = webdriver.Ie(IEDriverManager().install())

Use with Edge

from selenium import webdriver
from webdriver_manager.microsoft import EdgeChromiumDriverManager

driver = webdriver.Edge(EdgeChromiumDriverManager().install())

Use with Opera

from selenium import webdriver
from webdriver_manager.opera import OperaDriverManager

driver = webdriver.Opera(executable_path=OperaDriverManager().install())

If the Opera browser is installed in a location other than C:/Program Files or C:/Program Files (x86) on windows and /usr/bin/opera for all unix variants and mac, then use the below code,

from selenium import webdriver
from webdriver_manager.opera import OperaDriverManager

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument('allow-elevated-browser')
options.binary_location = "C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\FOLDERLOCATION\\Opera\\VERSION\\opera.exe"
driver = webdriver.Opera(executable_path=OperaDriverManager().install(), options=options)

webdriver_manager has several configuration variables you can be interested in.

webdriver_manager downloading some webdrivers from their official GitHub repositories but GitHub has limitations like 60 requests per hour for unauthenticated users. In case not to face an error related to github credentials, you need to create github token and place it into your environment: (*)

Example:

# bash
export GH_TOKEN = "asdasdasdasd"

(*) access_token required to work with GitHub API more info.

There is also possibility to set same variable via ENV VARIABLES, example:

# python
import os
os.environ['GH_TOKEN'] = "asdasdasdasd"

To silent webdriver_manager logs and remove them from console, initialize env variable WDM_LOG_LEVEL with '0' value before your selenium tests:

import os

os.environ['WDM_LOG_LEVEL'] = '0'

or via constructor:

ChromeDriverManager("2.26", log_level=0).install()

By default webdriver manager prints a blank space before its log output if logging is enabled. If you want to disable this, initialize WDM_PRINT_FIRST_LINE with 'False' before your tests:

import os

os.environ['WDM_PRINT_FIRST_LINE'] = 'False'

or via constructor:

ChromeDriverManager("2.26", print_first_line=False).install()

By default all driver binaries are saved to user.home/.wdm folder. You can override this setting and save binaries to project.root/.wdm.

import os

os.environ['WDM_LOCAL'] = '1'

Driver cache by default is valid for 1 day. You are able to change this value using constructor parameter:

ChromeDriverManager("2.26", cache_valid_range=1).install()

This will make your test automation more elegant and robust!

Cheers