c# - chromedriver - ignore-certificate-errors

Question

I'm trying to use ChromeDriver 2.4.226107 with Selenium 2.45, Google Chrome 42.0.2311.135, Visual Studio 2012, and .NET 4.5. My little test app compiles and runs, but when it launches a new Chrome window, I get this error:

"You are using an unsupported command-line flag: --ignore-certifiate-errors. Stability and security will suffer."

I carefully read this post and tried many of the suggested fixes, but nothing worked. A proposed workaround/solution I saw again and again was to do this:

options.AddArgument("test-type");

This just doesn't do anything with Chrome 42.0. Here is my C# code (console app):

using(var driver = new ChromeDriver()) {
    driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("http://localhost/test.aspx");
}

The Chrome window with error inside yellow bar looks like this:

1. Is there a solution?
2. Is there a better/simpler way to run automated tests in Chrome webapps than Selenium?

Answer 1

I don't know WTH happened, but suddenly this morning this is working perfectly. Last night this same code didn't work. Anyway, in case it helps anyone, here is the FULLY working C# code for chromedriver 2.5, .NET 4.5, and Selenium 2.45 binaries for .NET:

static void Main(string[] args) {
    ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
    options.AddArgument("test-type");

    // Initialize the Chrome Driver
    using(var driver = new ChromeDriver(options)) {
        driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("http://localhost/test.aspx");

        // Get User Name field, Password field and Login Button
        var userNameField = driver.FindElementById("txtUsername");
        var userPasswordField = driver.FindElementById("txtPassword");
        var loginButton = driver.FindElementById("btnLogin");

        // Type user name and password
        userNameField.SendKeys("MyUSN");
        userPasswordField.SendKeys("MyPWD");

        // and click the login button
        loginButton.Click();

        // Take a screenshot and save it into screen.png
        driver.GetScreenshot().SaveAsFile(@"F:\temp\screen.png", ImageFormat.Png);

        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

Note: To reuse the same Chrome browser window for all your tests, make a static class variable thusly:

private static ChromeDriver driver;

(In fact you may want to make all your class-level variables static.)

And then do something like the following so that your handle to ChromeDriver can be reused across all your tests:

[ClassInitialize] // this only executes ONCE per test-run (not once per test!)
public static void OneTimeSetup(TestContext ctxt) {
    ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
    options.AddArgument("test-type");
    options.AddArgument("start-maximized");
    options.LeaveBrowserRunning = true;
    driver = new ChromeDriver(@"C:\MyStuff", options);
    driver.Manage().Timeouts().ImplicitlyWait(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(4));
}