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AWS Community ASEAN profile image Jaira Encio
Jaira Encio for AWS Community ASEAN

Posted on • Edited on

Creating an API that runs Selenium via AWS Lambda

#serverless #lambda #selenium

Being an automation tester, my job is to automate everything. As I was running my test script via terminal I realised that I’m the only who can execute the scripts I made. What if someone wants to run it? like the Devs, Project Manager, etc. It would be a tedious task to clone my repo, install libraries, and run the script. So I decided that maybe I can store my test script inside a serverless machine and make it accessible via API request.

I experimented with various AWS resources such as creating my own lambda function, checking features of API gateway, Codepipeline, etc. After several attempts, I was finally able to run my script inside. And then I just researched how to access my lambda via API.

This will result in higher production and time savings. Engineers may focus on vital work because automated testing does not require human interaction. This is like a portable testing device that anyone could execute. With fast test execution, developers get testing reports in an instant, so whenever a failure occurs, they will react to it quickly. Test automation will make it easier to update programs quickly. As a result, automated testing leads to increased team responsiveness, improved user experience, and increased customer satisfaction.

Overview

  1. Create 2 Lambda layers that has selenium and chromedriver libraries
  2. Include created lambda layers in serverless.yml of lambda then deploy

Creating Selenium Lambda Layer

Place libraries in python/lib/python3.6/site-packages/ to include them in a layer.

Download Selenium to layer directory



$ pip3.6 install -t selenium/python/lib/python3.6/site-packages selenium==3.8.0
$ cd selenium
$ zip -r python.zip python/
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Once finished, Create lambda layer then upload zip file

1. Go to AWS Console Lambda/Layers
2. Click Create Layer
3. Input the following in the layer configuration



Name: selenium
Description: Selenium layer
Upload zip file created: python.zip
Compatible runtimes: Python 3.6
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selenium-layer

4. Click Create

Note: You can user whatever version you prefer, you just need to select compatible runtime when uploading your package

 Creating Chromedriver Lambda layer

Download chrome driver



$ mkdir -p chromedriver
$ cd chromedriver
$ curl -SL https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/2.37/chromedriver_linux64.zip > chromedriver.zip
$ unzip chromedriver.zip
$ rm chromedriver.zip
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Download chrome binary



$ curl -SL https://github.com/adieuadieu/serverless-chrome/releases/download/v1.0.0-41/stable-headless-chromium-amazonlinux-2017-03.zip > headless-chromium.zip
$ unzip headless-chromium.zip
$ rm headless-chromium.zip
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Compress driver and binary



$ ls
chromedriver headless-chromium
$ zip -r chromedriver.zip chromedriver headless-chromium
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Once finished, Create lambda layer then upload zip file

1. Go to AWS Console Lambda/Layers
2. Click Create Layer
3. Input the following in the layer configuration



Name: chromedriver
Description: chrome driver and binary layer
Upload zip file created: chromedriver.zip
Compatible runtimes: Python 3.6
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chrome-layer

4. Click Create

 Creating Lambda Function

To ensure that your function code has access to libraries included in layers, Lambda runtimes include paths in the '/opt' directory.

 File Structure 


 shell
── /lambda/            # lambda function
  ├── /handler.py      # source code of lambda function 
  └── /serverless.yaml # serverless config
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 Code

Copy the code below to /lambda/handler.py



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

def main(event, context):
    options = Options()
    options.binary_location = '/opt/headless-chromium'
    options.add_argument('--headless')
    options.add_argument('--no-sandbox')
    options.add_argument('--single-process')
    options.add_argument('--disable-dev-shm-usage')

    driver = webdriver.Chrome('/opt/chromedriver',chrome_options=options)
    driver.get('https://www.google.com/')

    driver.close();
    driver.quit();

    response = {
        "statusCode": 200,
        "body": "Selenium Headless Chrome Initialized"
    }

    return response
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Copy the code below to /lambda/serverless.yaml.



service: selenium-lambda

provider:
  name: aws
  runtime: python3.6
  region: ap-southeast-2
  timeout: 900

functions:
  main:
    memorySize: 1000
    handler: handler.main
    events:
      - http:
          path: test
          method: get

    layers:
      - arn:aws:lambda:ap-southeast-2:{}:layer:chromedriver:2
      - arn:aws:lambda:ap-southeast-2:{}:layer:selenium:2

resources:
  Resources:
    ApiGatewayRestApi:
      Properties:
        BinaryMediaTypes:
          - "*/*"
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 Deploy Lambda Function

Go to /lambda directory



$ sls deploy
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 Output 



Serverless: Stack update finished...
Service Information
service: selenium-lambda
stage: dev
region: ap-southeast-2
stack: selenium-lambda-dev
api keys:
  None
endpoints:
  GET - https://{name}.execute-api.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/dev/test
functions:
  main: selenium-lambda-dev-main
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output

You should get same response as below when accessing API



{
"statusCode": 200,
"body": "Selenium Headless Chrome Initialized"
}
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This deployment automatically creates cloudformation stack and s3 bucket.

Cloudformation stack

S3

Deprecation note:

Since python3.6 has been deprecated, you can try using the ff packages compatible with 3.9. note that if this exceeds lambda function zip file, you can try using docker image or uploading to s3 instead.



$ python3.9 -m pip install -t python/lib/python3.9/site-packages selenium==4.5.0
$ cd selenium
$ zip -r python.zip python/
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Name: selenium
Description: Selenium layer
Upload zip file created: python.zip
Compatible runtimes: Python 3.9



$ mkdir -p chromedriver
$ cd chromedriver
$ curl -SL https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/107.0.5304.62/chromedriver_linux64.zip > chromedriver.zip
$ unzip chromedriver.zip
$ rm chromedriver.zip
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$ curl -SL https://github.com/adieuadieu/serverless-chrome/releases/download/v1.0.0-57/stable-headless-chromium-amazonlinux-2.zip > headless-chromium.zip
$ unzip headless-chromium.zip
$ rm headless-chromium.zip
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References for new releases:
chromedriver release
https://chromedriver.chromium.org/downloads

serverless-chrome release
https://github.com/adieuadieu/serverless-chrome/releases

Checkout Achim's comment on how he used 3.9 using dockerimage
https://dev.to/achimgrolimund/comment/22d99

Jaira Encio Linkedin

Oldest comments (48)

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quibski profile image
quibski AWS Community ASEAN •

Surely many Devs and QA will benefit from this. Hopefully a demo can be made/shown

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tchua profile image
tchua •

+1 to this, a demo would be great!

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jairaencio profile image
Jaira Encio AWS Community ASEAN •

uhm hahaha

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chrisjeriel profile image
chrisjeriel •

Great work! A well-thought-out article, straightforward and concise. Looking forward more advanced implementations.

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lunchcodes profile image
LunchCodes •

Exactly what I needed! Thank you!

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raphael_jambalos profile image
Raphael Jambalos AWS Community ASEAN •

The article is very helpful! It brings automation to the next level. By having running automated tests in a more automated way, developers will be empowered to make sure their code runs optimally.

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jlgarcia profile image
jltuts •

Good job jai! Very helpful!

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chiggy_wiggy profile image
Maynard Prepotente • • Edited

Great Job! Will definitely help a lot of Devs and QA! Adding screenshots of the output will make the job easier tho =)

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rolinj profile image
rolinj •

Kudos Jai! Great tutorial indeed!
For reference, may you add as well some screenshots of the created cloudformation stack and s3 bucket on the output section? Thanks :D

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jairaencio profile image
Jaira Encio AWS Community ASEAN •

Uploaded screenshots of cloudformation and s3 bucket. Thanks for the feedback :)

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ivy07 profile image
Ivy ☕ •

Great help! Will definitely need more articles like this un the future.

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ranzeyxc profile image
ranzey •

Huge help! :)

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silencer017 profile image
silencer017 •

Well done, this is very informative!

View full discussion (48 comments)