Run two different versions of chrome using selenium (Python)

Question

I have a scenario to run different versions of chrome in windows (for now let us consider only two). I have found the following way to run an instance of chrome:

chrome_options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
chrome_options.add_argument('--proxy-server=%s' % proxy)
driver = webdriver.Chrome(
    chrome_options=chrome_options
)

I have default chrome and another version (located in Downloads directory). How do I run any desired version?

EDIT:

I have some blogs written here and here. Hope this helps someone.

Answer 1

One way is to define the location in the capabilities with the Options class:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.binary_location = r'C:/chromium-48/chrome.exe'
driver = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=options)

or with DesiredCapabilities:

from selenium.webdriver.common.desired_capabilities import DesiredCapabilities

capa = DesiredCapabilities.CHROME;
capa['chromeOptions'] = {
  'binary': r'C:/chromium-48/chrome.exe',
  'args': []
}

driver = webdriver.Chrome(desired_capabilities=capa)

But if you are looking for a scalable solution, then you should setup a grid with the different versions:

• Start the hub:

java -jar selenium-server-standalone-2.53.1.jar -role hub -host 0.0.0.0 -port 4444

• Start a node for version 48:

java -jar selenium-server-standalone-2.53.1.jar 
 -role node 
 -hub http://localhost:4444/grid/register
 -browser platform=WINDOWS,browserName=chrome,version=48,chrome_binary="C:/chromium-48/chrome.exe"

• Start a node for version 54:

java -jar selenium-server-standalone-2.53.1.jar 
 -role node 
 -hub http://localhost:4444/grid/register
 -browser platform=WINDOWS,browserName=chrome,version=54,chrome_binary="C:/chromium-54/chrome.exe"

You can then choose the version directly in the capabilities:

from selenium import webdriver
capa = {'browserName': 'chrome', 'version': '48', 'platform': 'ANY'}
driver = webdriver.Remote(command_executor='http://localhost:4444/wd/hub', desired_capabilities=capa)