Selenium JS SDK
The Evinced Selenium JS SDK integrates with new or existing Selenium WebDriver tests to automatically detect accessibility issues. By adding a few lines of code to your Selenium WebDriver project, you can begin analyzing all the web pages and DOM changes to provide a dynamic view of how your site can become more accessible. As a result of the test, a rich and comprehensive report is generated to easily track issues to resolution.
Interested in seeing this in action? Contact us to get started!
Prerequisites
- Selenium version 4 or higher
- Mocha tests only supported
Get Started
Installation
The Selenium JS SDK is not publicly available. Contact us to get started!
With a local copy of the Selenium JS SDK gzipped tar package (.tgz extension), install it in your project directory using NPM or Node package manager of your choice:
1# Using NPM2npm install -D {path to Selenium JS SDK package}
Authentication
To launch Selenium JS SDK you need to have a Service ID and an API Key.
Where to find your Evinced SDK credentials
These credentials are available via the Evinced Product Hub in the
Automation for Web or Automation for Mobile product areas. Click the
Get SDK
button to see the Service Account ID and API Key at the bottom of the page.
Authenticate for Offline Testing
There are two methods to provide the token: offline mode and online mode. Online mode contacts the Evinced Licensing Server. Offline mode assumes that an Evinced employee already supplied you a JSON Web Token (JWT). If an offline token is required, please reach out to your account team or support@evinced.com.
We encourage setting credentials in environment variables and setting them in code by reference.
1# Online mode2export EVINCED_SERVICE_ID=<serviceId>3export EVINCED_API_KEY=<apiKey>45# Offline mode6# If provided a JWT by Evinced7export EVINCED_SERVICE_ID=<serviceId>8export EVINCED_AUTH_TOKEN=<token>
Example
1// Online credentials2const { setCredentials } = require('@evinced/js-selenium-sdk');34await setCredentials({5 serviceId: process.env.EVINCED_SERVICE_ID,6 secret: process.env.EVINCED_API_KEY7});89// OR1011// If provided a JWT by Evinced12// Offline credentials13const { setOfflineCredentials } = require('@evinced/js-selenium-sdk');1415setOfflineCredentials({16 serviceId: process.env.EVINCED_SERVICE_ID,17 token: process.env.EVINCED_AUTH_TOKEN,18});
Your First Test
SDK Initialization
To use Selenium JS SDK you need to authenticate. Please refer to Authentication section for details.
Add Evinced accessibility checks (Single Run Mode)
This is a simple example of how to add an Evinced accessibility scan to a test. Please note the inline comments that give detail on each test step.
1const { Builder } = require('selenium-webdriver');2const { EvincedSDK } = require('@evinced/js-selenium-sdk');34describe('Demo page', async () => {5 let driver;67 it('Demo page. evAnalyze', async () => {8 const driver = await new Builder()9 .forBrowser('chrome')10 .build();11 const evincedService = new EvincedSDK(driver);12 await driver.get('https://demo.evinced.com/');13 const issues = await evincedService.evAnalyze();14 assert.equal(issues.length, 6);15 await driver.quit();16 });17});
Add Evinced accessibility checks (Continuous Mode)
This is an example of how to add a continuous Evinced accessibility scan to a test. Using the evStart()
and evStop()
methods, the Evinced engine will continually scan in the background capturing all DOM changes and page navigations as the test is executed. This will capture all accessibility issues as clicking on drop-downs or similar interactions reveals more of the page. The advantage of continuous mode is that no interaction with the actual test code is needed.
1const { Builder } = require('selenium-webdriver');2const { EvincedSDK } = require('@evinced/js-selenium-sdk');34describe('Demo page', async () => {5 let driver;67 it('Demo page. evStart/evStop', async () => {8 const driver = await new Builder()9 .forBrowser('chrome')10 .build();11 const evincedService = new EvincedSDK(driver);12 await evincedService.evStart();13 await driver.get('https://demo.evinced.com/');14 const issues = await evincedService.evStop();15 assert.equal(issues.length, 6);16 await driver.quit();17 });18});
API
global initialization
Initializes the Evinced object within the project.
Example
The specific SDK initialization is not needed. You need just import EvincedSDK in your test files.
1const { EvincedSDK } = require('@evinced/js-selenium-sdk');
Please refer to configuration to see examples of using init with options.
evAnalyze(options)
Scans the current page and returns a list of accessibility issues.
Note: This method is not supported if evStart()
is already running.
Please refer to configuration to see examples of using init with options.
Example
1const evincedService = new EvincedSDK(driver);2await driver.get('https://demo.evinced.com/');3const issues = await evincedService.evAnalyze();
Return value
Promise<Issue[]>
A Report object is returned containing accessibility issues. This is the recommended method for static page analysis.
For more information regarding reports as well as the Report
object itself, please refer to our detailed Web Reports page.
evStart(options)
Continually watches for DOM mutations and page navigation and records all accessibility issues until the evStop()
method is called. This method is recommended for dynamic page flows.
Example
1const evincedService = new EvincedSDK(driver);2await evincedService.evStart();3await driver.get('https://demo.evinced.com/');4const issues = await evincedService.evStop();
Return value
Promise<void>
evStop(options)
Stops the process of issue gathering started by evStart()
command.
Example
1const evincedService = new EvincedSDK(driver);2await evincedService.evStart();3await driver.get('https://demo.evinced.com/');4const issues = await evincedService.evStop();
Return value
Promise<Issue[]>
Returns an object containing recorded accessibility issues from the point in time at which the evStart()
method
was instantiated. For more information regarding reports as well as the returned object itself, please refer to detailed
Web Reports page.
evSaveFile(destination, issues, format)
Saves list of the issues in a file, with the specified format and location. For example, format could be ‘json
',
'html
, 'sarif
' or 'csv
'. Please find detailed information on Web Reports page.
Example
1const evincedService = new EvincedSDK(driver);2await driver.get('https://demo.evinced.com/');3const issues = await evincedService.evAnalyze();4evincedService.evSaveFile(issues, 'html', 'test-results/evinced-report.html');5evincedService.evSaveFile(issues, 'csv', 'test-results/evinced-report.csv');6evincedService.evSaveFile(issues, 'json', 'test-results/evinced-report.json');7evincedService.evSaveFile(issues, 'sarif', 'test-results/evinced-report.sarif.json');
Return value
Promise<void>
Aggregated Report
The aggregated report feature allows you to have a general aggregated report for the
whole run (not only for one test or suite).
This report will contain all the issues found by the tests where evStart()
and evStop()
commands were called.
It is still possible to use the evSaveFile()
command in any place of your code along with this Aggregated Report feature.
Example
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
Configuration
The same configuration object can be used in global initialization, evStart()
and evAnalyze()
methods but
with a bit different consequences. By providing some options in global initialization method you define a global
configuration for all calls of evStart()
or evAnalyze()
methods. Please note that global configuration is not
intended to be altered from tests due to it will affect all the rest tests as well as tests running in parallel threads.
To alter configuration in specific tests you can provide config on the method's level, for instance with evStart()
it
defines local configuration for this particular session until evStop()
is called.
If provided in both levels, the command's level config will override the global one.
Engines configuration
Evinced uses two separate engines when scanning for accessibility issues, one is the aXe engine and the other is the Evinced engine. By default, Evinced disables the aXe Needs Review and Best Practices issues based on customer request and due to the fact they are mostly false positives. Please note this setting when comparing issue counts directly. See an example of how to enable Needs Review and Best practices issues in our toggles section.
Configuration object type
To define global configuration for Selenium JS SDK please use file `evConfig.json in a root directory of your project.
1export type EvInitOptions = {2 rootSelector?: string;3 enableScreenshots?: boolean;4 axeConfig?: axe.RunOptions;5 skipValidations?: SkipValidation[];6 logging?: {7 LOGGING_LEVEL: string;8 ADD_LOGGING_CONTEXT?: boolean;9 };10 toggles?: { [key: string]: boolean };11};
Root Selector
Sets a CSS selector to limit the Evinced Engine to scan only the selected element and its children. Must be a valid CSS selector. If not set, the Evinced Engine will scan the entire document.
null
by default.
Example
1const evincedService = new EvincedSDK(driver);2await evincedService.evStart({3 initOptions: {4 rootSelector: '.some-selector'5 }6});7await driver.get('https://demo.evinced.com/');8const issues = await evincedService.evStop();
AXE Configuration
Evinced leverages Axe open-source accessibility toolkit as part of its own accessibility detection engine. The Evinced engine is able to pinpoint far more issues than Axe alone.
For the full Axe config options, see Axe Core API.
Example
1const evincedService = new EvincedSDK(driver);2await driver.get('https://demo.evinced.com/');3const axeConfig = {4 rules: {5 "link-name": { enabled: false },6 },7};8const issues = await evincedService.evAnalyze({9 initOptions: {10 axeConfig11 }12});
Errors Strict Mode
When set to true
it switches SDK in mode when Evinced SDK errors are thrown as runtime errors and stops current test
execution. Otherwise errors are printed into console except critical ones.
false
by default.
Example
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
Engine Logging
Switches logging on for engine. Log messages from the engine will be printed to console.
Levels are: debug
, info
, warn
, error
null
by default.
error
is a default level on engine side.
1const evincedService = new EvincedSDK(driver);2await driver.get('https://demo.evinced.com/');3const issues = await evincedService.evAnalyze({4 initOptions: {5 logging: {6 LOGGING_LEVEL: 'debug',7 ADD_LOGGING_CONTEXT: true,8 },9 }10});
Reports Screenshots
The Screenshots feature allows to include screenshots to the Evinced reports. When the feature is enabled, Evinced will take screenshots of the page, highlight an element with a specific accessibility issue, and include them to the report.
false
by default.
Note: The Screenshots feature may affect the test run performance.
Enabling the Screenshots feature
1const issues = await evincedService.evAnalyze({2 initOptions: {3 enableScreenshots: true,4 }5});
Toggles
Toggles are feature flags which controls SDK and Engine behavior. With toggles we introduce experimental features or manage the way how accessibility issues are gathered. The list of toggles is not specified so we suggest not to rely on specific toggle name or value and use them in investigation purposes only.
Example enabling aXe Best Practices and Needs Review Issues
1const issues = await evincedService.evAnalyze({2 initOptions: {3 toggles: {4 USE_AXE_NEEDS_REVIEW: true,5 USE_AXE_BEST_PRACTICES: true6 }7 }8});
Skip Validations
Skips specific validations for the given URL pattern and the selector.
SkipValidation[]
by default.
Example
1const skipSelector = {2 selector: 'testValue.slds-checkbox',3 urlRegex: '.*',4 validationTypes: ["WRONG_SEMANTIC_ROLE", "NOT_FOCUSABLE", "NO_DESCRIPTIVE_TEXT"],5};6await evincedService.evStart({ initOptions: { skipValidations: [skipSelector] }});
How to identify ID for the specific issue type is described in web reports section.
Knowledge Base Link overrides
This custom parameter helps to customize knowledge base links in the reports. Those links are displayed in the reports as follows:
The knowledge base link can be overridden for every issue type ID.
Example
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
Shadow DOM support
Example
1// Via evAnalyze method2const issues = await evincedService.evAnalyze({3 initOptions: {4 toggles: {5 SUPPORT_SHADOW_DOM: true6 }7 }8});910// Via evStart method11await evincedService.evStart({12 initOptions: {13 toggles: {14 SUPPORT_SHADOW_DOM: true15 }16 }17});1819// As a part of Global Configuration via evConfig.json20{21 "toggles": {22 "SUPPORT_SHADOW_DOM": true23 }24}
IFrames support
When set to true
, the accessibility tests run analysis on iframes that exist inside the page. Default is false
.
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
Proxy
If your organization is using proxy server for outbound communication, you should set up these proxy server settings to the SDK so it can work properly. Setting the proxy details is done as in the following example:
Example
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
Global Switch
Global Switch allows to disable or enable Evinced functionality. It could be needed, for example, while working on functional tests in your local environment or for running some CI jobs that are not intended to gather information regarding accessibility issues.
When switched off
evStart()
andevSaveFile()
will be bypassed.evStop()
andevAnalyze()
will return an empty report.evValid()
will never fail.
true
by default.
Important! Global Switch environment variable overrides the global configuration option.
Switch on/off Evinced functionality in config
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
1export EV_SWITCH_ON=false
Uploading reports to Evinced Platform
Introduction
Evinced Platform allows you to seamlessly collect, organize, visualize and monitor Evinced accessibility reports in one place.
In this section, we will guide you through the key functionalities of the upload methods of the accessibility reports from the Evinced SDK to the Evinced Platform,
which was introduced in version to be determined
. This upload method is fully compatible with the previous versions of the Evinced SDK API, and is disabled by default.
Enabling upload to Platform
To enable the uploading functionality of accessibility reports to
the Evinced Platform you will need to set the enableUploadToPlatform
method to "true":
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
Automatic Upload of Reports
Once the enableUploadToPlatform
method is set to "true", then by default all generated reports will be uploaded to the Platform upon calling the evStop()
command.
If you want to change this behavior, set the setUploadToPlatformDefault
feature flag to "false":
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
If the setUploadToPlatformDefault
is disabled, you can still upload selected reports to the platform.
For that, use the following parameter in the evStop()
command:
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
Test names
To facilitate report management and be able to distinguish between different reports on the Platform, use the setTestInfo
method to inform the test name and test class.
It's recommended to do that in the "beforeEach" hook.
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
Labels and Custom Fields
You can attach labels and custom fields to your report to enhance readability in the platform. The labels will be added to the uploaded reports. See the following code example of how to set that up:
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
Use of beforeEach and afterEach Hooks
We recommend using the beforeEach and afterEach hooks to control analysis sessions and upload reports to the platform. This way, each test will be uploaded separately with its own report.
In beforeEach hook use evStart()
to start Evinced analysis and set any labels you want for the report to contain when uploading to the platform.
In the afterEach hook call evStop()
to stop analysis and upload reports to the platform. See this code example:
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
Putting all of this together
Here is a complete code snippet of how to perform uploads to the platform on a per-test basis.
The feature **is not yet implemented** in this SDK. If you'd like to increase the priority of it, please contact support@evinced.com.
Tutorials
You can find fully functional example projects on our GitHub
Tutorial 1
Generating a comprehensive accessibility report for your application
In this tutorial, we will enhance our existing Selenium JS UI test with the Evinced JS Selenium SDK in order to check our application for accessibility issues. In order to get started you will need the following:
- All of the prerequisites for the Evinced JS Selenium SDK should be met
- Evinced JS Selenium SDK should be added to your project
Preface - existing UI test overview
Let’s consider the following basic UI test as our starting point.
1const { Builder } = require('selenium-webdriver');23describe('Evinced Demo site tests', async () => {4 let driver;5 before (async () => {6 let options;7 driver = await new Builder()8 .forBrowser('chrome')9 .setChromeOptions(options)10 .build();1112 await driver.manage().setTimeouts({ implicit: 1000 });13 });1415 after(async () => {16 await driver.quit();17 });1819 it('Demo page. Single page analyze', async () => {20 await driver.get('https://demo.evinced.com/');21 });22});
We wrote this test for a demo travel site called TRVL that has a few known accessibility issues.
The purpose of this test is to check the functionality of the main application screen and ensure a user can successfully select their desired trip. For now, this test is only concerned with the functional testing of the app. However, with the help of the Evinced JS Selenium SDK, we can also check it for accessibility issues along the way. Let’s go through this process with the following step-by-step instructions.
Step #1 - Importing the Evinced JS Selenium SDK
In your test file add the following lines to add the Evinced engine to your project.
1const { EvincedSDK } = require('@evinced/js-selenium-sdk');
Step #2 - Start the Evinced engine
Now that we have everything we need to scan for accessibility issues, let’s start the Evinced engine and set credentials. Let's use the offline setting for this example. Since we are going to use it scan throughout our test, the best place for its initialization will be our before
method.
1const { Builder } = require('selenium-webdriver');2const { EvincedSDK } = require('@evinced/js-selenium-sdk');34describe('Evinced Demo site tests', async () => {5 let driver;6 let evincedService;7 before (async () => {8 setOfflineCredentials({9 serviceId: process.env.EVINCED_SERVICE_ID,10 token: process.env.EVINCED_AUTH_TOKEN11 });12 let options;13 driver = await new Builder()14 .forBrowser('chrome')15 .setChromeOptions(options)16 .build();1718 await driver.manage().setTimeouts({ implicit: 1000 });19 evincedService = new EvincedSDK(driver);20 await evincedService.evStart();21 });2223 after(async () => {24 await driver.quit();25 });2627 it('Demo page. Single page analyze', async () => {28 await driver.get('https://demo.evinced.com/');29 });30});
Step #3 - Stop the Evinced engine and create reports
As our test was executed we collected a lot of accessibility information. We can now perform accessibility assertions at the end of our test suite. Referring back again to our UI test the best place for this assertion will be the method that gets invoked last - after
. To stop the Evinced engine and generate the actual object representation of your accessibility report simply call the evStop()
method.
1const { Builder } = require('selenium-webdriver');2const { EvincedSDK } = require('@evinced/js-selenium-sdk');34describe('Evinced Demo site tests', async () => {5 let driver;6 let evincedService;7 before (async () => {8 setOfflineCredentials({9 serviceId: process.env.EVINCED_SERVICE_ID,10 token: process.env.EVINCED_AUTH_TOKEN11 });12 let options;13 driver = await new Builder()14 .forBrowser('chrome')15 .setChromeOptions(options)16 .build();1718 await driver.manage().setTimeouts({ implicit: 1000 });19 evincedService = new EvincedSDK(driver);20 await evincedService.evStart();21 });2223 after(async () => {24 const issues = await evincedService.evStop();25 await driver.quit();26 });2728 it('Demo page. Single page analyze', async () => {29 await driver.get('https://demo.evinced.com/');30 });31});
For the sake of simplicity of this tutorial let’s simply assume that our application is accessible as long as it has no accessibility issues found. Thus, if we have at least one accessibility issue detected - we want our tests to be failed. Let’s add the corresponding assertion to our after
method. For more information regarding reports as well as the Report
object itself, please see our detailed Web Reports page.
1after(async () => {2 const issues = await evincedService.evStop();3 assert.equal(issues.length, 0);4 await driver.quit();5});
You are now set to run the test and ensure the accessibility of your application! So, go ahead and run it via your IDE or any other tooling you use for JavaScript development.
Fail the test if critical issues are found
Here you can see a way of failing your test if critical accessibility issues are found using the Selenium JS SDK.
Using evAnalyze:
1const issues = await evincedService.evAnalyze();23const criticalIssues = issues.filter((issue) => issue.severity.name === 'Critical');4await assert(criticalIssues.length === 0, 'found critical issues');
Using evStart/evStop:
1await evincedService.evStart();2const issues = await evincedService.evStop();34const criticalIssues = issues.filter((issue) => issue.severity.name === 'Critical');5await assert(criticalIssues.length === 0, 'found critical issues');
The criticalIssues
array will contain all the critical issues found during the scan. If the array is not empty, the test will fail on the assertion.
Support
Please feel free to reach out to support@evinced.com with any questions.
FAQ
- Can I configure which validations to run?
Yes, see the configuration section for details on how to configure Axe validations to your needs.
- Can I run tests with Evinced using cloud-based services like Sauce Labs, Perfecto, or BrowserStack?
Yes, we have tested the Evinced SDK on many of these types of cloud-based services and expect no issues.