'typings' missing from Protractor 3.3.0 package.json on NPM

[jan-molak]

Assume a test utilising several browsers, for example one verifying interaction between chat clients.

The docs say that in order to get hold of the element function, one can use the element property of the browser object:

var browser2 = browser.forkNewDriverInstance();
var element2 = browser2.element;

To my current understanding, the difference between the global element helper and browser.element is that the former is an instance of protractor.Element while the latter is a protractor.ElementFinder.

I'm not sure if this differentiation is intentional or if it's a bug?

The effect of it is that in a Typescript test, one can't simply refer to the .all helper using:

browser.element.all(...)

but instead has to do this to make the transpiler happy:

(<any> browser.element).all(...)

Shouldn't the element field of the browser object be of type protractor.Element instead of protractor.ElementFinder?

Thanks,
Jan

[cnishina]

I took a look at this and after some quick checking, it is not a bug. Hopefully this will help clarify the types for the items in question:

• the property element in the global namespace is of type ElementHelper
• browser.element is of type ElementHelper
• element(...) returns a type of ElementFinder
• browser.element.all(...) returns a type of ElementArrayFinder

when forking a new driver instance:

let browser2 = browser.forkNewDriverInstance();   // this is of type Browser
let element2 = browser2.element;                  // this is an ElementHelper
let foo = element2(by.css('foo'))                 // by.css(...) returns a Locator, element2(...) returns an ElementFinder

Also, there is no type Element. Are you getting the typings off of master? How are you getting your global imports? Have you tried the example for typescript?

[jan-molak]

Hey Craig and thanks for the quick response!

I think I see what's happening:

• I'm using Protractor 3.3.0 from npm (according to NPM it's been published 3 months ago)
  
• since Protractor 3.3.0's package.json does not specify the typings key, TypeScript can't find them (I see that this has been fixed since then and the typings key is present as of 20 days ago)
• because TypeScript couldn't find the typings, I installed them using the Typings npm module, and those appear to be older and incompatible with the current master of Protractor 3.3.0.

Given the above, could you please advise when is the package.json fix going to make it to the npm?

Many thanks,
Jan

[cnishina]

It will happen soon! Possibly today.

[jan-molak]

Sweet! Much appreciated 👍

[jan-molak]

Thanks for the 4.0.0, Craig! It's a huge improvement. The only thing that's now gone missing from the built/index.d.ts typings is the ProtractorPlugin class definition. I'll raise a separate ticket for that.

Update: raised tickets #3365 and #3367. #3366 seems related too.

[cnishina]

ProtractorPlugins are now part of typings. This will be addressed in the next hot fix.

[jan-molak]

Great stuff, looking forward to the release!