Protractor moves on to next test without waiting

Question

I'm using protractor and when I run my tests on browserstack I receive the following error

StaleElementReferenceError: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document

or depending on what I do in the beforeAll

Error: Index out of bound. Trying to access element at index: 0, but there are only 0 elements that match locator By.cssSelector ...

Here is the code snippet causing the error:

describe('...', () => {
   it('...', () => {
       expect(element.all(by.css(...)).count()).toBe(9);
       expect(element.all(by.css('.items').get(0).isDisplayed()).toBeTruthy();
   });
}

describe('', () => {
    beforeAll((/* done */) => {
         element(by.css('.go-home').click(); // .then(done); 
         //browser.driver.get('/');//.then(done);
    });
    ...
});

For some reason the beforeAll continues and changes the url, while the previous it is still running (I guess based on the error).

Now, I managed to hack this such that is works. I've added the done to the it as follows

describe('...', () => {
   it('...', (done) => {
       expect(element.all(by.css(...).count()).toBe(9);

       element.all(by.css(...)).get(0).isDisplayed().then((state) => {
          expect(state).toBeTruthy();
          done();
    });
   });
}

describe('', () => {
    beforeAll(() => {
         element(by.css('.go-home').click(); // works 
         //browser.driver.get('/');          // still fails
    });
    ...
});

Now it works. However if I use browser.driver.get('/') it fails again.

Normally I don't have to add done to my its so my question is: What is going wrong here ? Any help would be appreciated

UPDATE: protractor.config.js:

exports.config = {
    chromeDriver: '../node_modules/protra...medriver_2.25',
    seleniumServerJar: '../node_...-server-standalone-2.53.1.jar',
    exclude: [],

    specs: [
        '../test/e2e/**/*.js'
    ],

    multiCapabilities: [
        {
            build: 'test',
            project: 'ABC',
            browserName: 'firefox',
            //browserName: 'chrome',
            os: 'Windows',
            os_version: '10',
            directConnect: true
        }],
    debug: true,
    maxSessions: 1,
    framework: 'jasmine2',

    onPrepare: function () {
        browser.driver.manage().window().setSize(1024, 768);

        // Register helpers
        require('../test/framework/jasmine2');

        var disableNgAnimate = function () {
            angular
                .module('disableNgAnimate', [])
                .run(['$animate', function ($animate) {
                    $animate.enabled(false);
                }]);
            };

        var disableCssAnimate = function () {
            angular
                .module('disableCssAnimate', [])
                .run(function () {
                    var style = document.createElement('style');
                    style.type = 'text/css';
                    style.innerHTML = '* {' +
                        '-webkit-transition: none !important;' +
                        '-moz-transition: none !important' +
                        '-o-transition: none !important' +
                        '-ms-transition: none !important' +
                        'transition: none !important' +
                        '}';
                    document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(style);
            });
        };

        browser.addMockModule('disableNgAnimate', disableNgAnimate);
        browser.addMockModule('disableCssAnimate', disableCssAnimate);
    }
};

Answer 1

The way I understand the then()-functionality, it starts an async task. Therefore any line of code outside the then()-function will be continued as soon as then() is entered. Read more about here, here and here.

Further exist several challenges around browser.get() and browser.driver.get() in terms of promise-resolving, as it's not clear, whether the page to load can be synchronized with the ControlFlow. Therefore a browser.driver.get() isn't always forcing Protractor to wait. Read more about here and here

Your test now combines these two issues in a way.

I suggest to try browser.waitForAngular(); in your solution to trigger protractor to actually wait until all promises are resolved:

describe('...', () => {
   it('...', () => {
       expect(element.all(by.css(...).count()).toBe(9);

       element.all(by.css(...)).get(0).isDisplayed().then((state) => {
          expect(state).toBeTruthy();
       });
       //instead of using done to explicitly announce the "function finished"
       //use browser.waitForAngular() to let Protractor wait for any promises to be resolved.
       browser.waitForAngular(); 
   });
}

describe('', () => {
    beforeAll(() => {
         // .click() returns a promise, so Protractor waits for it to be resolved
         //element(by.css('.go-home').click();  
         browser.driver.get('/');   // doesn't return a promise
         browser.waitForAngular();  // triggers Protractor to wait for $http and promises resolved.
    });
    ...
});