WebDriver - Reattach to Chrome opened previously by WebDriver?

[Gladson]

Hello

So I have an automation program using Autoit/WebDriver in order to automate some actions using Chrome.

I know WebDriver can't attach to an existing Chrome instance that was opened by regular means, but can it reattach to a Chrome window that was previously created by WebDriver itself?

My program runs 24x7 but every now and then it closes and I have to restart it. In fact, I have a monitor that re-launches the program as soon as it detects it's down, but the bad news is that whenever it happens, a new Chrome instance is created and I have to go though the log-in process of the system, and that includes a 2 factor authentication. When it happens during the night, it remains off until next morning when an actual person validates the 2 factor authentication.

Once a new instance is created, is there any information I could store so I could check it and reattach later, if needed? Maybe the session_id returned by _WD_CreateSession() in a txt file that I could read later, or the handle of window, something like that. I would like to able to check, whenever the program is started, "is the previous session still active? if so, attach to it and resume, if not, create a new session from scratch".

 

Is that possible?

Edited April 17 by Gladson

[Nine]

You need to add this line to your initial instance of WebDriver :

_WD_CapabilitiesAdd('args', '--remote-debugging-port=9222')

 

[Gladson]

  On 4/17/2025 at 1:56 PM, Nine said:

You need to add this line to your initial instance of WebDriver :

_WD_CapabilitiesAdd('args', '--remote-debugging-port=9222')

 

Expand  

Hello!

Thanks for the quick reply!

I'm a bit new to this stuff so let me ask for further help. I have a SetupChrome function that is called whenever the program starts. That's where I need to add this new line I suppose, but how can I use this change later to attach to the same sessions instead of creating a new one?

 

Func SetupChrome()
    _WD_Option('Driver', 'chromedriver.exe')

    Local $iPort = _WD_GetFreePort(5555, 5600)
    _WD_Option('Port', $iPort)
    _WD_Option('DriverParams', '--port=' & $iPort & ' --verbose --log-path="' & @ScriptDir & '\chrome.log"')

    _WD_Startup()
    If @error Then
        ConsoleWrite("ERROR: _WD_Startup")
        Return False
    EndIf

    _WD_CapabilitiesStartup()
    _WD_CapabilitiesAdd('alwaysMatch', 'chrome')
    _WD_CapabilitiesAdd('w3c', True)
    _WD_CapabilitiesAdd('excludeSwitches', 'enable-automation')
    Local $sCapabilities = _WD_CapabilitiesGet()

    Local $WD_SESSION = _WD_CreateSession($sCapabilities)
    If @error Then
        ConsoleWrite("ERROR: _WD_CreateSession")
        Return False
    EndIf

    _WD_Window($WD_SESSION, 'maximize')

    Return $WD_SESSION
EndFunc

Global $sSession = SetupChrome()

; ...
; <do my stuff>
; ...

 

Edited April 17 by Gladson

[Nine]

I suppose you have 2 different scripts.  One that starts the initial session and a second to attach.  It could be the exact same script though.  But you need to inform the function SetupChrome which one of the two it should be doing (initializing or attaching).  Refer to this link to study the example.

Edited April 17 by Nine

[mLipok]

@Gladson did you solve your issue ?