Non Static driver and screenshot listener in TestNG

Question

I have a testcase that will invoke the driver as a non static variable. I also have added screenshot listener in my test case. When the test case fails The control is automatically sent to the screenshot listener... however since my driver is a NON-STATIC variable it could not be accessed in the screenshot listener. So I get nullpointer exception.

Is there a way to globally access the non-static driver in the screenshot listener?

My test case :

@Test
public void testCase() {
     //non-static driver is initialized
}

My screenshot listener :

public class ScreenshotListener extends TestListenerAdapter
{
    @Override
    public void onTestFailure(ITestResult testResult) {
        //driver needs to be accessed here
    }
}

Answer 1

I was going to go for the solution provided by Robbie but wanted to avoid tying up my base class. As i was using to Guice to inject my WebDriver provider i opted to pass the instance through a TestNG attribute by hooking it up once in a setup test class like so:

public class Setup {
    @Inject WebDriver driver;

    @BeforeSuite
    public void onStart(ITestContext testContext) {
        testContext.setAttribute("WebDriver", this.driver);
    }
}

Then in my listener i simply pull it out:

@Override
public void onTestFailure(ITestResult result) {

    Object webDriverAttribute = 
        result.getTestContext().getAttribute("WebDriver");
    // test, cast, and use...

Was hoping for a better way that did not require casting but yet to find one.

Answer 2

YOu do not have to pass the driver around or call on testfailure within the test (infact this defeats the point of test listeners);

The following will achieve screenshots in listeners without passing the driver around;

1. All test classes must extend a simple base test class;

   public asbtract baseTestCase() {
   
       private WebDriver driver;
   
       public WebDriver getDriver() {
               return driver;
   }
   
       @BeforeMethod
       public void createDriver() {
               Webdriver driver=XXXXDriver();
       }
   
       @AfterMethod
           public void tearDownDriver() {
           if (driver != null)
           {
                   try
                   {
                       driver.quit();
                   }
                   catch (WebDriverException e) {
                       System.out.println("***** CAUGHT EXCEPTION IN DRIVER TEARDOWN *****");
                       System.out.println(e);
                   }
   
           }
       }
   

2. In your listener, you need to access the base class;

public class ScreenshotListener extends TestListenerAdapter {

@Override
public void onTestFailure(ITestResult result)
{
        Object currentClass = result.getInstance();
        WebDriver webDriver = ((BaseTest) currentClass).getDriver();

        if (webDriver != null)
        {

           File f = ((TakesScreenshot) webDriver).getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE);

           //etc.
        }
}

Your test is now unaware that a screenshgot is even being captured and can be controlled by the adding of the listener.