# Introduction

JavaScript bindings that conform to the [W3C WebDriver standard](https://www.w3.org/TR/webdriver) for controlling web browsers.

## Features

* Minimalistic promise based REST client.
* One-to-one mapping to WebDriver API endpoints
* Written in TypeScript for type safety, autocomplete and IntelliSense documentation
* Full feature coverage over 55 WebDriver endpoints
* 100% test coverage in real browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer)
* Tested on Ubuntu, Windows and MacOS

## Getting started

### 1. Install the package

```
npm install w3c-webdriver
```

### 2. Install a browser driver for WebDriver protocol

* Chrome - [chromedriver](https://www.npmjs.com/package/chromedriver)
* Firefox - [geckodriver](https://www.npmjs.com/package/geckodriver)
* Safari - [safaridriver](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/testing_with_webdriver_in_safari)
* Internet Explorer - [iedriver](https://www.npmjs.com/package/iedriver)

For example in case of Google Chrome or its headless version you can do.

```
npm install chromedriver
```

Also you can manage the drivers using [webdriver-manager](https://www.npmjs.com/package/webdriver-manager)

### 3. Start the driver as described in the docs

### 4. Control the browser through WebDriver protocol

```javascript
const { newSession } = require('w3c-webdriver');

let session;

(async () => {
  try {
    session = await newSession({
      url: 'http://localhost:4444',
      capabilities: {
        alwaysMatch: {
          browserName: 'chrome'
        }
      }
    });
    await session.navigateTo('http://localhost:8080');
    const input = await session.findElement(
      'css selector',
      '[name="first-name"]'
    );
    await input.sendKeys('Hello World');
  } catch (err) {
    console.log(err.stack);
  } finally {
    session.deleteSession();
  }
})();
```

## We are using

[![BrowserStack](https://1174735258-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-LwQSgfZ1Fe1E9iI5a8y%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-3d723a8e046e5d638d8f15f51078a3c8ff5c0534%2Fbrowserstack-logo.png?alt=media)](https://www.browserstack.com/)

We are using [BrowserStack](https://www.browserstack.com) for testing the Selenium support of current package. BrowserStack loves open source and has sponsored thousands of projects. They offered us a free account as we're an open source project. This makes testing very easy on different browsers and various platforms including real mobile devices.