IE Driver: any information on new Microsoft browser "Spartan" and web driver compatibility?

[Dominik Rauch]

I'm aware that my question is not directly related to Selenium, however, I expect the most profound answers here, as many IE web driver experts browse this forum.

It looks like Microsoft is going to release a new browser along Windows 10:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-is-building-a-new-browser-as-part-of-its-windows-10-push/

Although there is not much information to be found by now, it would be nice to collect anything related to "web driver compatibility" here, especially whether the new Spartan browser has the same web driver compatibility than IE12 is going to receive or whether we need another workaround-IE-driver...

Does anybody already know something?

Best regards,

D.R.

[Jim Evans]

So let me get this straight. You're asking about WebDriver information about a browser that not only doesn't exist publicly yet, it hasn't even been publicly *announced* yet. And the rumor you reference may not even turn out to be what happens by the time Windows 10 ships.

The answer is, "No, there is no information about WebDriver compatibility and unreleased versions of Internet Explorer at this time."

--Jim

[Dominik Rauch]

Certainly, the first to know are probably browsing & reading this mailing list :-) It may be too soon, however, hopefully somebody will remember this thread as soon as he encounters first bits of information.

Anyways, thanks for your, somewhat rude, answer.

All the best,

D. R.

[PeterJeffreyGale]

Dominik,

Jim is THE IE Web Driver expert, in case you didn't know, since here is responsible for the IE driver. If anyone will know be the first to know about future IE compatibility, it will be him.

I'm not sure what type of answer you expect, but Jim's answer seems somewhat restrained, bearing in mind that you are ask an impossible question.

Peter

[Bapanna Setti K]

Any update on the Driver as the browser is available, just curious.

[Jim Evans]

There is no work being done on an open-source driver for the browser, though Microsoft has publicly committed to providing a WebDriver implementation for Microsoft Edge. The caveat is that there is no public timetable for a release of said driver implementation, and work on that means that the Microsoft WebDriver implementation for Internet Explorer is largely abandoned for now.

[Tester McTesterson]

Vague answer from MS

http://dev.modern.ie/platform/faq/webdriver

Is WebDriver supported in Microsoft Edge?

WebDriver is enabled in the Windows Insider Preview in Internet Explorer. 

Support for WebDriver in Microsoft Edge is in development for later this year.

[yogeesh babu]

Hi Jim,

Do you have any updates on Selenium webdriver compatibility with Windows 10 Spartan[EDGE] browser. Is there any plan to release separate driver for Spartan, if yes, when can we expect.

Sorry I have not done much R&D on Windows 10 Spartan[EDGE] browser availability in market. I believe by this time it should be out for users.

Looking for some positive feedback.. :)

Thanks,

Yogeesh Babu B R

[Jim Evans]

I refer you to the answer I gave on 24 May in this very thread. Until Microsoft makes an announcement about the availability of their implementation, you should not expect any changes in the answer. I have no special insight into Microsoft's development practices or schedules. I do know that they're aware of the necessity of a driver for the success of the Edge browser, and are committed to producing one, but as for a time table, I know no more than anyone else, and I will not get that knowledge in advance of the rest of the community.

[Dominik Rauch]

I've been on //BUILD/ and talked to the IE team with the following results:

- IE11 WebDriver is considered "done"

- There will be no more IE11 development (except security issues), so do not expect anything, especially no "really finished" WebDriver for IE11

- WebDriver for EDGE is coming, they don't know when yet, however, they want it for internal reasons as well

- WebDriver for EDGE ist definitely not finished with the official release of Windows 10.

Hope that helped a little.

Best regards,

D.R.

[Jim Evans]

Just to follow up on this particular subject, the initial release of the Microsoft Edge driver has been announced[1]. Its current configuration has some limitations on functionality, some of which I've tried to outline in my blog post on the subject[2]. You can track exactly what's been implemented at Microsoft's status page on standards implementation[3]. The Selenium project's language bindings for Java and .NET have been updated to take advantage of this new driver[4]; Python and Ruby updates are forthcoming. Note these changes haven't been publicly released by the Selenium project yet, but will surface in the next release. A hearty, public congratulations to the Microsoft Edge team for shipping something amazingly helpful for our little community.

[1] http://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2015/07/23/bringing-automated-testing-to-microsoft-edge-through-webdriver/
[2] http://jimevansmusic.blogspot.com/2015/07/microsoft-releases-driver-for-microsoft.html
[3] http://dev.modern.ie/platform/status/webdriver/details/
[4] https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/commit/9ed9272445806a336adf7cd3679bd3e5db364ae4

[Dominik Rauch]

Nice news! Do not understand though why http://dev.modern.ie/platform/status/webdriver/details/ shows completed support for everything when in reality your blog post shows that that's not true :~/

Thanks for the update!

[Jim Evans]

I think you may be misinterpreting their status page, which only shows what they *have* implemented. Things like switching to frames (with an end point of /session/{sessionid}/frame), or finding elements from within an element (with an end point of /session/{sessionid}/element/{elementid}/element) are not mentioned on the status page at all. Thus, those end points aren't implemented yet. I expect the page to be updated as new features come online with new updates.

[Dominik Rauch]

Doh. Makes me look stupid now :-) Thanks for the hint!