Set Chrome Browser Binary Through Chromedriver in Python

Set chrome browser binary through chromedriver in Python

You can set Chrome Browser Binary location through ChromeDriver using Python ing the following different ways:

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Using Options

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
options = Options()
options.binary_location = "C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe"
driver = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=options, executable_path="C:/Utility/BrowserDrivers/chromedriver.exe", )
driver.get('http://google.com/')

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Using DesiredCapabilities

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.desired_capabilities import DesiredCapabilities
cap = DesiredCapabilities.CHROME
cap = {'binary_location': "C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe"}
driver = webdriver.Chrome(desired_capabilities=cap, executable_path="C:\\Utility\\BrowserDrivers\\chromedriver.exe")
driver.get('http://google.com/')

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Using Chrome as a Service

from selenium import webdriver
import selenium.webdriver.chrome.service as service
service = service.Service('C:\\Utility\\BrowserDrivers\\chromedriver.exe')
service.start()
capabilities = {'chrome.binary': "C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe"}
driver = webdriver.Remote(service.service_url, capabilities)
driver.get('http://www.google.com')

No chrome Binary at the given path - MacOS - Selenium - Python

This resolved the issue

chrome_options.binary_location = "/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome"

Python Selenium Beta Chrome driver uses wrong binary path

In that case, you should specify where selenium has to look to find your chrome executer with binary_location inside the Options class.

Try this one out:

Assuming your chromedriver.exe and python file are on the same folder, otherwise you'll have to specify the path of the chromedriver.exe as well.

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service

options = Options()
options.binary_location = r'C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome Beta\Application\chrome.exe'
browser = webdriver.Chrome(options = options, service = Service("chromedriver.exe"))

browser.get(your_url)

What is the difference in chromedriver_binary and chomedriver.exe in selenium python

chromedriver-binary

chromedriver-binary downloads and installs the chromedriver binary version 97.0.4692.36 for automated testing of webapps. The installer supports Linux, MacOS and Windows operating systems.

• To install:

  pip install chromedriver-binary
  

• Usage: To use chromedriver you need the following import:

  import chromedriver_binary
  

  This will add the executable to your PATH so it will be found. You can also get the absolute filename of the binary using:

  chromedriver_binary.chromedriver_filename
  

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However with Selenium v3.x you can download the ChromeDriver and use the key executable_path to pass the absolute path of the ChromeDriver.

browser = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=r"C:\path\to\chromedriver.exe")

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Conclusion

There is no best practices defined neither any efficiency matrix comparing the two approaches. It's the user perspective of comfortness. The only bonus point using executable_path is, you don't require to install any additional package.

How to configure ChromeDriver to initiate Chrome browser in Headless mode through Selenium?

So after correcting my code to:

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_experimental_option("excludeSwitches",["ignore-certificate-errors"])
options.add_argument('--disable-gpu')
options.add_argument('--headless')
chrome_driver_path = "C:\Python27\Scripts\chromedriver.exe"

The .exe file still came up when running the script. Although this did get rid of some extra output telling me "Failed to launch GPU process".

What ended up working is running my Python script using a .bat file

So basically,

1. Save python script if a folder

2. Open text editor, and dump the following code (edit to your script of course)

   c:\python27\python.exe c:\SampleFolder\ThisIsMyScript.py %*

3. Save the .txt file and change the extension to .bat

4. Double click this to run the file

So this just opened the script in Command Prompt and ChromeDriver seems to be operating within this window without popping out to the front of my screen and thus solving the problem.

Python Selenium Chrome Webdriver

You need to specify the path where your chromedriver is located.

1. Download chromedriver for your desired platform from here.

2. Place chromedriver on your system path, or where your code is.

3. If not using a system path, link your chromedriver.exe (For non-Windows users, it's just called chromedriver):

   browser = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=r"C:\path\to\chromedriver.exe")
   

   (Set executable_path to the location where your chromedriver is located.)

   If you've placed chromedriver on your System Path, you can shortcut by just doing the following:

   browser = webdriver.Chrome()

4. If you're running on a Unix-based operating system, you may need to update the permissions of chromedriver after downloading it in order to make it executable:

   chmod +x chromedriver

5. That's all. If you're still experiencing issues, more info can be found on this other StackOverflow article: Can't use chrome driver for Selenium

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