diff --git a/docs/README.md b/docs/README.md index 9d2b36eb6c18..19ec51343d4e 100644 --- a/docs/README.md +++ b/docs/README.md @@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ an issue: * [DevTools Extension](tutorial/devtools-extension.md) * [Using Pepper Flash Plugin](tutorial/using-pepper-flash-plugin.md) * [Using Widevine CDM Plugin](tutorial/using-widevine-cdm-plugin.md) +* [Testing on Headless CI Systems (Travis, Jenkins)](tutorial/testing-on-headless-ci.md) ## Tutorials diff --git a/docs/tutorial/testing-on-headless-ci.md b/docs/tutorial/testing-on-headless-ci.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..6b0dacf788f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/tutorial/testing-on-headless-ci.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +# Testing Electron with headless CI Systems (Travis CI, Jenkins) + +Being based on Chromium, Electron requires a display driver to function. If Chromium can't find a display driver, Electron will simply fail to launch - and therefore not executing any of your tests, regardless of how you are running them. Testing Electron-based apps on Travis, Circle, Jenkins or similar systems requires therefore a little bit of configuration. In essence, we need to use a virtual display driver. + +## Configuring the Virtual Display Server +First, install [Xvfb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xvfb). It's a virtual framebuffer, implementing the X11 display server protocol - it performs all graphical operations in memory without showing any screen output, which is exactly what we need. + +Then, create a virtual xvfb screen and export an environment variable called DISPLAY that points to it. Chromium in Electron will automatically look for `$DISPLAY`, so no further configuration of your app is required. This step can be automated with Paul Betts's [xfvb-maybe](https://github.com/paulcbetts/xvfb-maybe): Prepend your test commands with `xfvb-maybe` and the little tool will automatically configure xfvb, if required by the current system. On Windows or Mac OS X, it will simply do nothing. + +``` +## On Windows or OS X, this just invokes electron-mocha +## On Linux, if we are in a headless environment, this will be equivalent +## to xvfb-run electron-mocha ./test/*.js +xvfb-maybe electron-mocha ./test/*.js +``` + +### Travis CI +On Travis, your `.travis.yml` should look roughly like this: + +``` +addons: + apt: + packages: + - xvfb + +install: + - export DISPLAY=':99.0' + - Xvfb :99 -screen 0 1024x768x24 > /dev/null 2>&1 & +``` + +### Jenkins +For Jenkins, a [Xfvb plugin is available](https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Xvfb+Plugin). + +### Circle CI +Circle CI is awesome and has xvfb and `$DISPLAY` [already setup, so no further configuration is required](https://circleci.com/docs/environment#browsers). + +### AppVeyor +AppVeyor runs on Windows, supporting Selenium, Chromium, Electron and similar tools out of the box - no configuration is required.