Differences between built in webdriver and the external downloadable ones?

[TF]

Just curious if there are any differences between the built in webdriver vs the ones available for download (e.g x64 chrome for linux, etc).

For example, is:

Webdriver driver = new Chromedriver();

the same as the x64 chromedriver or x32 chromedriver?

[darrell]

I'm a little confused by your question. It seems like you think instantiating a ChromeDriver() class is the same as using a chromedriver executable in Linux. If this is the case you are comparing two completely different things.

The example you have given is instantiating a class. That class is a client binding. It will find the executable chromedriver (32 or 64 bit version) and execute it. Now the client binding will talk to chromedriver and chromedriver will launch the actual Chrome browser. So you need all three: ChromeDriver class, chromedriver executable and Chrome the browser. If you have the 64 bit version of Chrome browser then you want the 64 bit version of chromedriver. When you instantiate a ChromeDriver instance it will find and use the 64 bit version of chromedriver which will launch the 64 bit version of Chrome browser.

[Sanna R]

Hi,

webdriver is API using webdriver you can access the classes like firefoxdriver, chromedriver..etc

for firefox driver no need to download anything. Webdriver have firefoxdriver by default.

for other browsers you need to download the third party browser plugins