How to take a screenshot in selenium

Introduction

To take a screenshot using Selenium in Java, you can use the TakesScreenshot interface.

TakesScreenshot interface in Selenium is used to capture screenshots of the current browser window. It provides the getScreenshotAs method, which allows you to obtain a screenshot and handle it as a file. 

Steps to Take a Screenshot:

Here’s a simplified way to take a screenshot using Selenium with Java:

1.Set Up WebDriver: Make sure you have the appropriate WebDriver (e.g., ChromeDriver for Chrome) and Selenium libraries set up in your project.

2.Initialize WebDriver: Instantiate the WebDriver for the browser you want to use and navigate to the webpage where you want to capture the screenshot.

// Use the driver for your chosen browser

WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(); 

// Navigate to the desired webpage

driver.get("https://example.com"); 

3.Cast WebDriver to TakesScreenshot: Selenium’s WebDriver interface does not include screenshot methods. You need to cast the WebDriver instance to the TakesScreenshot interface.

TakesScreenshot screenshot = (TakesScreenshot) driver;

4.Capture and Save Screenshot: Use the getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE) method to capture the screenshot, which returns a File object.

FileUtils.copyFile() from the Apache Commons IO library to copy the screenshot from the source file to the desired destination.

File screenshotFile = screenshot.getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE);

   File destinationFile = new File("screenshot.png");

   // Requires Apache Commons IO library

   FileUtils.copyFile(screenshotFile, destinationFile);

5.Handle Exceptions: Include error handling to manage any IOExceptions that might occur while saving the file.

   try {

       FileUtils.copyFile(screenshotFile, destinationFile);

   } catch (IOException e) {

       e.printStackTrace();

   }

6.Close the Browser: Always close the browser after the test to free up resources.

   driver.quit(); // Closes the browser

7.Take a Full Page Screenshot

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.OutputType;
import org.openqa.selenium.TakesScreenshot;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.io.FileHandler;

import java.io.File;
import java.time.Duration;

public class Screenshot {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Set the ChromeDriver executable path
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "path/to/chromedriver");

        // Initialize WebDriver
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

        try {
            // Maximize the browser window
            driver.manage().window().maximize();

            // Open the URL
            driver.get("https://example.com");

            // Wait for the page to load
            driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(Duration.ofSeconds(10));

            // Full-page screenshot
            takeFullPageScreenshot(driver, "screenshots/full_page_screenshot.png");

            // Screenshot of a specific element
            WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//E1")); // Replace with your element locator
            takeElementScreenshot(element, "screenshots/element_screenshot.png");

            // Save screenshot in Base64 format
            saveScreenshotAsBase64(driver);

        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());
        } finally {
            // Quit the browser
            driver.quit();
        }
    }

    // Method to take a full-page screenshot
    public static void takeFullPageScreenshot(WebDriver driver, String filePath) {
        try {
            // Convert WebDriver instance to TakesScreenshot
            TakesScreenshot screenshot = (TakesScreenshot) driver;

            // Take the screenshot and save it as a file
            File srcFile = screenshot.getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE);

            // Save the screenshot to the specified location
            FileHandler.copy(srcFile, new File(filePath));

            System.out.println("Full-page screenshot saved at: " + filePath);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Failed to take full-page screenshot: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    // Method to take a screenshot of a specific element
    public static void takeElementScreenshot(WebElement element, String filePath) {
        try {
            // Capture screenshot of the specific element
            File srcFile = element.getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE);

            // Save the screenshot to the specified location
            FileHandler.copy(srcFile, new File(filePath));

            System.out.println("Element screenshot saved at: " + filePath);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Failed to take element screenshot: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    // Method to save a screenshot in Base64 format
    public static void saveScreenshotAsBase64(WebDriver driver) {
        try {
            // Take the screenshot and save it as Base64
            String base64Screenshot = ((TakesScreenshot) driver).getScreenshotAs(OutputType.BASE64);

            System.out.println("Screenshot in Base64 format: " + base64Screenshot);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Failed to save screenshot as Base64: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}