Parameterized JUnit tests with HtmlUnitDriver leading to test termination

Question

I came across an unusual issue with my automation tests while using the HtmlUnitDriver. I have been using the junit parameterized class to iterate over a list of urls to run some of my tests. The test runs just fine with other WebDriver implementations - InternetExplorerDriver, FirefoxDriver and ChromeDriver without any issues. However, with HtmlUnitDriver the test just terminates without any error message. While Debugging, I tried to print my data source (list of urls ) all I got was an empty array in case of HtmlUnitDriver but I get the urls in other WebDriver implementations. So, I am kind of confused how and why is this happenning.

My CoursePage pageobject method returns the urls in an ArrayList.

public  ArrayList<String[]> getPageURLs() throws IOException {

    ArrayList<String[]> forumURLs= new ArrayList<String[]>();
    //forums is a List<WebElement> field on my PageObject that returns a list of elements    
    for(WebElement forum : forums)
    {
        String pageURLs = forum.getAttribute("href");
        //I filter out some urls with if else statements and add only those that are required
        forumURLs.add(new String[]{pageURLs});
    }

    return forumURLs;
}

This is the JUnit method that gets the data:

@Parameters
public static ArrayList<String[]> getURLs() throws IOException{
    startBrowser(Browser.HTMLUNIT);
    LoginPage loginPage =goToLoginPage();
    HomePage homepage =loginPage.loginAs(username, password);
    CoursePage coursepage = homepage.goToCourse();
    return coursepage.getPageURLs();
}

Answer 1

First, you did not mention why you are using HtmlUnitDriver, but I have never had a lot of luck using it. It does not seem to behave enough like any of the supported browsers, so it I could not use my HtmlUnitDriver results to infer anything about whether a test would actually pass or fail on on real browser.

Second, does your webapp use Javascript to add elements to the page? It is possible that the Javascript does not behave as expected on HtmlUnitDriver, and consequently your course page does not contain what you think it contains.