Protractor/Jasmine2 - async callback not invoked within specified timeout

Question

I've struggled in problem with my e2e tests runs on selenium grid. Sometimes the tests are failed due to

Error: Timeout - Async callback was not invoked within timeout specified by jasmine.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL.

Tried to solve it somehow bo changing defaultTimeoutInterval to higher value in protracotr.conf.js but in result the wait is longer but error is the same.

exports.config = {
    chromeOnly: true,
    chromeDriver: '../node_modules/.bin/chromedriver',
    framework: 'jasmine2',
    capabilities: {
        'browserName': 'chrome',
        shardTestFiles: true,
        maxInstances: 3
    },
    specs: ['../e2e/protractor/spec/*.js'],
    jasmineNodeOpts: {
        showColors: true,
        defaultTimeoutInterval: 30000,
        isVerbose: true,
        includeStackTrace: true,
    },

My example spec with failed test:

var LoginPage = require('../pages/login_page.js');
var UsersPage = require('../pages/users_page.js');
var WelcomePage = require('../pages/welcome_page.js');

describe('Test -> my test', function () {
  var loginPage;
  var EC = protractor.ExpectedConditions;
  var waitTimeout = 30000;

  function logIn() {
    loginPage.setUser('user');
    loginPage.setPassword('password');
    loginPage.login();
  }

  var clickOn = function (element) {
    browser.wait(EC.visibilityOf(element), waitTimeout).then(function () {
      element.click();
    });
  };

  beforeEach(function () {
    browser.ignoreSynchronization = true;
    loginPage = new LoginPage();
    browser.wait(EC.presenceOf(loginPage.userLogin), waitTimeout);
    logIn();
    var welcomePage = new WelcomePage;
    clickOn(welcomePage.usersButton);
  });

  afterEach(function () {
    var welcomePage = new WelcomePage();
    welcomePage.loginButton.click();
    welcomePage.logoutButton.click();
  });

  it('verifies counter on active tab', function () {
    var usersPage = new UsersPage();
    browser.wait(EC.visibilityOf(usersPage.firstRow), waitTimeout);
    usersPage.rowsCount.count().then(function (count) {
      expect(usersPage.activeTab.getText()).toContain('Active' + ' (' + count + ')');
    });
  });

Could anyone please provide any reasonable solution how to handle/avoid it and explain me why it occurs ?

Answer 1

I'd suggest to have a callback function in it block which will ensure that all the async code gets executed before that.For example:

it('verifies counter on active tab', function (done) {
  var usersPage = new UsersPage();
  browser.wait(EC.visibilityOf(usersPage.firstRow), waitTimeout);

  usersPage.rowsCount.count()
    .then(function (count) {
        var text = usersPage.activeTab.getText();
        expect(text).toContain('Active' + ' (' + count + ')');
        done();
     });
});

Answer 2

Actually, this would work better if you returned the promise. As you are doing async work in your test, you are breaking away from the sequential expectations of the code. Basically, your block of code will get executed, and end the call of it, but there will be no references to the promise that is still being executed in the background. With that, protractor cannot wait for it to be completed (but it knows that it needs to wait) so the test fails. Instead of executing the done() by hand, just add

return usersPage.rowsCount.count().then(function (count) {
  expect(usersPage.activeTab.getText()).toContain('Active' + ' (' + count + ')');
});