While initiating the ChromeDriver getting an exception

Question

I'm very new to Selenium. Below given is my first test script.

Question: Does it require selenium server to test a local website (which is hosted in the same machine as the test scripts being run).

Also tried executing the same script from Internet Explorer also, still getting the same. It just opens the browser and closes(because of finally block) it.

import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
public class TestScript {
    /**
     * @param args
     * @throws InterruptedException 
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ChromeDriver driver = null;
        try 
        { 
            System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "C:\\Users\\user1\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\Application\\chrome.exe");
            driver = new ChromeDriver();
            System.out.println("Opening the Browser");
            driver.get("http://localhsot:5080/myWebSite/8450191#");
            System.out.println("Open the Browser");
            System.out.println("");
            System.out.println("Title" +driver.getTitle());

        }
        catch (Exception ie)
        {
            ie.printStackTrace();
        }
        finally
        {
            System.out.println("Quitting the Browser");
            driver.close();
            driver.quit();
        }
    }

}

Exception: Below is the exception I am getting while executing from the Eclipse:

[2820:6204:36503609:ERROR:gpu_info_collector_win.cc(93)] Can't retrieve a valid WinSAT assessment.
org.openqa.selenium.remote.UnreachableBrowserException: Could not start a new session. Possible causes are invalid address of the remote server or browser start-up failure.
Build info: version: '2.39.0', revision: 'ff23eac', time: '2013-12-16 16:12:12'
System info: host: '01hw535163', ip: '10.72.15.53', os.name: 'Windows 7', os.arch: 'x86', os.version: '6.1', java.version: '1.6.0_17'
Driver info: driver.version: ChromeDriver
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:548)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.startSession(RemoteWebDriver.java:216)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.<init>(RemoteWebDriver.java:112)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.<init>(RemoteWebDriver.java:116)
    at org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver.<init>(ChromeDriver.java:162)
    at org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver.<init>(ChromeDriver.java:108)
    at com.seic.scripts.TestScript.main(TestScript.java:16)
Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: Timed out waiting for driver server to start.
Build info: version: '2.39.0', revision: 'ff23eac', time: '2013-12-16 16:12:12'
System info: host: '01hw535163', ip: '10.72.15.53', os.name: 'Windows 7', os.arch: 'x86', os.version: '6.1', java.version: '1.6.0_17'
Driver info: driver.version: ChromeDriver
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.service.DriverService.start(DriverService.java:165)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.service.DriverCommandExecutor.execute(DriverCommandExecutor.java:62)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:527)
    ... 6 more
Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.net.UrlChecker$TimeoutException: Timed out waiting for [http://localhost:37571/status] to be available after 20009 ms
    at org.openqa.selenium.net.UrlChecker.waitUntilAvailable(UrlChecker.java:104)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.service.DriverService.start(DriverService.java:163)
    ... 8 more
Caused by: com.google.common.util.concurrent.UncheckedTimeoutException: java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException
    at com.google.common.util.concurrent.SimpleTimeLimiter.callWithTimeout(SimpleTimeLimiter.java:143)
    at org.openqa.selenium.net.UrlChecker.waitUntilAvailable(UrlChecker.java:79)
    ... 9 more
Caused by: java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerGet(FutureTask.java:228)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:91)
    at com.google.common.util.concurrent.SimpleTimeLimiter.callWithTimeout(SimpleTimeLimiter.java:130)
    ... 10 more
Quitting the Browser
Exception in thread "Main Thread" java.lang.NullPointerException
    at com.scripts.TestScript.main(TestScript.java:31)

Chrome Version: 21.0.1171.0

OS: Windows 7 64 bit.

Selenium Web Driver version:2.39.0

Answer 1

You are getting a little confused about what you need to point Selenium to.

Here:

System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "C:\\Users\\user1\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\Application\\chrome.exe");

This setting, webdriver.chrome.driver is a setting that Selenium will read to find out where the ChromeDriver is located, not the actual Chrome installation.

https://code.google.com/p/selenium/wiki/ChromeDriver

You must download the ChromeDriver and where it is located should be what you pass in for the webdriver.chrome.driver property.

I imagine it's the same reason when you try with IE, it also requires a driver which I guess you don't have:

https://code.google.com/p/selenium/wiki/InternetExplorerDriver

In terms of whether you need a "server" -> for your tests, no, you are not running them remotely. Once you decide to run them remotely (i.e use the RemoteWebDriver instead of ChromeDriver) then you will need the Selenium server.