Selenium4 DevTools Python: Integrating DevTools Protocol with Selenium WebDriver

Selenium is a popular automation testing framework for web applications. With the release of Selenium 4, a new feature called DevTools Protocol has been introduced, which allows developers to interact with the browser's DevTools programmatically. In this article, we will explore how to use Selenium 4 DevTools Protocol with Python.

Setting up Selenium with DevTools Protocol

To get started, you will need to install the Selenium package using pip:

pip install selenium

You also need to download compatible browser drivers such as ChromeDriver or GeckoDriver. Make sure you have the latest version installed.

Next, we will instantiate a Selenium WebDriver object with DevTools Protocol enabled:

from selenium import webdriver

# Create a Chrome WebDriver with DevTools enabled
chrome_options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
chrome_options.add_experimental_option('w3c', False)
driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=chrome_options)

Interacting with DevTools using Python

Once you have set up the WebDriver with DevTools enabled, you can interact with the browser's DevTools using the execute_cdp_cmd method:

# Send a command to DevTools to get the network status
network_status = driver.execute_cdp_cmd('Network.enable', {})

# Get all the network requests made by the browser
network_requests = driver.execute_cdp_cmd('Network.getAllRequest', {})
print(network_requests)

Integrating Selenium with DevTools for Performance Testing

One of the common use cases of using DevTools in Selenium is for performance testing. You can measure the performance of your web application by capturing performance logs:

# Enable Performance Log
driver.execute_cdp_cmd('Performance.enable', {})

# Perform some actions on the web page
driver.get('

# Get the performance metrics
performance_metrics = driver.execute_cdp_cmd('Performance.getMetrics', {})
print(performance_metrics)

Class Diagram

classDiagram
    class WebDriver {
        execute_cdp_cmd(command, params)
    }
    class ChromeOptions {
        add_experimental_option(option, value)
    }
    WebDriver --> ChromeOptions

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned how to integrate Selenium 4 with the DevTools Protocol using Python. By leveraging this feature, you can perform advanced browser automation tasks and interact with the browser's DevTools programmatically. Experiment with different DevTools commands to explore the full potential of Selenium 4 DevTools Protocol in your automation testing projects. Happy coding!