Add browser.profile setting and fix Firefox addArguments bug (#226)

This PR adds a new browser.profile JSON config setting which can be used like this:

{
  "benchmarks": [
    {
      "url": "mybench.html",
      "browser": {
        "name": "firefox",
        "profile": "/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile-name>"
      }
    }
  ]
}

It also fixes a bug where addArguments was not being applied to Firefox, even though it was documented that it was supported.

For Chrome, it was previously supported and documented to use "addArguments": ["user-data-dir=<path>"] to achieve this same effect, but I found that the equivalent for Firefox ("-profile=<path>") caused Selenium to timeout trying to connect to the process. I wasn't able to figure out exactly why this was happening, but I did notice a dedicated setProfile method just for Firefox, which does work. So by adding the browser.profile setting, we now have a way to call this special API, plus the user doesn't need to remember the user-data-dir flag in Chrome.

Fixes #222

Also threw in a fix to tests relating to chromedriver having updated to Chrome 94 while GitHub Actions is still on Chrome 93.

.github/workflows/tests.yaml

@@ -28,6 +28,10 @@ jobs:
           cache: npm
 
       - run: npm ci
+      # TODO(aomarks) The latest chromedriver has updated to 94, but GitHub
+      # Actions hasn't updated yet. Pin to the earlier verison of chromedriver
+      # until GitHub Actions updated.
+      - run: npm install chromedriver@^93.0.0
       - run: npm run build
 
       - run: npm test

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -19,6 +19,12 @@ project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 - Fix bug where log files would be created with '\' backslash names instead of
   nested directories.
 
+- Fix bug where `browser.addArguments` JSON config setting did not work for
+  Firefox.
+
+- Add `browser.profile` JSON config setting that sets the browser profile
+  directory. Currently supported in Chrome and Firefox.
+
 - Upgrade dependencies.
 
 ## [0.5.9] 2021-04-22

README.md

@@ -538,26 +538,65 @@ However, in some cases it may be useful to use an existing browser profile, for
 example if the webpage you are benchmarking requires being signed into an
 account.
 
-In Chrome, you can use the `user-data-dir` flag to launch the browser using an
-existing profile directory. You may also need to remove the `use-mock-keychain`
-default argument if you encounter authentication problems. You can find out the
-current binary path, profile location, and arguments of a running Chrome session
-by visiting the `chrome://version` URL.
+In Chrome and Firefox, use the `profile` JSON config option to specify an
+existing profile to use. Other browsers do not yet support this option.
 
-NOTE: If there is an existing Chrome process using the profile, you must
-first terminate it. You also need to close all open tabs, or disable the
-"Continue where you left off" startup setting, because tachometer does not
-expect to find any existing tabs.
+#### Chrome
+
+To find your current profile location in Chrome, visit `chrome://version` and
+look for "Profile Path".
+
+If there is an existing Chrome process using this profile, you must first
+terminate it. You also need to close all open tabs, or disable the "Continue
+where you left off" startup setting, because tachometer does not expect to find
+any existing tabs.
+
+You may also need to remove the `use-mock-keychain` default argument if you
+encounter authentication problems.
 
 For example, using the standard location of the default user profile on macOS:
 
 ```json
 {
-  "name": "chrome",
-  "addArguments": [
-    "user-data-dir=/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome"
-  ],
-  "removeArguments": ["use-mock-keychain"]
+  "benchmarks": [
+    {
+      "url": "mybench.html",
+      "browser": {
+        "name": "chrome",
+        "profile": "/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome",
+        "removeArguments": ["use-mock-keychain"]
+      }
+    }
+  ]
+}
+```
+
+#### Firefox
+
+To find your current profile location in Firefox, visit `about:support` and look
+for "Profile Folder" or "Profile Directory".
+
+Note when using the `profile` option in Firefox, the profile directory is copied
+to a temporary location.
+
+<!-- TODO(aomarks) Send a PR to selenium-webdriver to fix this stat error. -->
+
+You may encounter a `no such file or directory, stat '.../lock'` error, due to a
+bug in `selenium-webdriver`. Deleting this `lock` file should resolve the error.
+
+For example, using the standard location of user profiles on macOS:
+
+```json
+{
+  "benchmarks": [
+    {
+      "url": "mybench.html",
+      "browser": {
+        "name": "firefox",
+        "profile": "/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile-name>"
+      }
+    }
+  ]
 }
 ```
 

config.schema.json

@@ -50,6 +50,10 @@
                     ],
                     "type": "string"
                 },
+                "profile": {
+                    "description": "Path to a profile directory to use instead of the default temporary fresh\none.",
+                    "type": "string"
+                },
                 "remoteUrl": {
                     "description": "A remote WebDriver server HTTP address to launch the browser from.",
                     "type": "string"
@@ -291,6 +295,10 @@
                     "description": "Advanced preferences that are usually set from the about:config page\nin Firefox (see\nhttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox).",
                     "type": "object"
                 },
+                "profile": {
+                    "description": "Path to a profile directory to use instead of the default temporary fresh\none.",
+                    "type": "string"
+                },
                 "remoteUrl": {
                     "description": "A remote WebDriver server HTTP address to launch the browser from.",
                     "type": "string"

src/browser.ts

@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@ export interface BrowserConfig {
   preferences?: {[name: string]: string | number | boolean};
   /** Trace browser performance logs configuration */
   trace?: TraceConfig;
+  /** Path to profile directory to use instead of the default fresh one. */
+  profile?: string;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -105,6 +107,7 @@ export function browserSignature(config: BrowserConfig): string {
     config.removeArguments ?? [],
     config.cpuThrottlingRate ?? 1,
     config.preferences ?? {},
+    config.profile ?? '',
   ]);
 }
 
@@ -243,6 +246,9 @@ function chromeOpts(config: BrowserConfig): chrome.Options {
   }
   const {width, height} = config.windowSize;
   opts.addArguments(`--window-size=${width},${height}`);
+  if (config.profile) {
+    opts.addArguments(`user-data-dir=${config.profile}`);
+  }
   return opts;
 }
 
@@ -262,6 +268,16 @@ function firefoxOpts(config: BrowserConfig): firefox.Options {
   const {width, height} = config.windowSize;
   opts.addArguments(`-width=${width}`);
   opts.addArguments(`-height=${height}`);
+  if (config.addArguments) {
+    opts.addArguments(...config.addArguments);
+  }
+  if (config.profile) {
+    // Note there is also a `-profile` flag for Firefox that could be set with
+    // `addArguments`, but using that causes Selenium to timeout trying to
+    // connect to the browser process. This `setProfile` method creates a
+    // temporary copy of the profile.
+    opts.setProfile(config.profile);
+  }
   return opts;
 }
 

src/configfile.ts

@@ -241,6 +241,12 @@ interface ChromeConfig extends BrowserConfigBase {
    * Optional config to turn on performance tracing.
    */
   trace?: TraceConfig | true;
+
+  /**
+   * Path to a profile directory to use instead of the default temporary fresh
+   * one.
+   */
+  profile?: string;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -285,6 +291,12 @@ interface FirefoxConfig extends BrowserConfigBase {
    * https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox).
    */
   preferences?: {[name: string]: string | number | boolean};
+
+  /**
+   * Path to a profile directory to use instead of the default temporary fresh
+   * one.
+   */
+  profile?: string;
 }
 
 interface SafariConfig extends BrowserConfigBase {
@@ -526,6 +538,9 @@ function parseBrowserObject(config: BrowserConfigs): BrowserConfig {
       };
     }
   }
+  if ('profile' in config && config.profile !== undefined) {
+    parsed.profile = config.profile;
+  }
   return parsed;
 }