Use Selenium WebDriver with Python without installation

Question

I want to integrate Selenium WebDriver into another automation tool I am using. The installation and the configuration of Selenium WebDriver is very straightforward and simple. However I'd like to avoid the installation process and be able to deploy the WebDriver just by copying the files.

So what I've tried is to copy just the webdriver directory itself(as shown below) and run a simple test from within this directory.

\selenium-2.41.0
..\py
  ..\selenium
    ..\common
    ..\webdriver
    ..\__init__.py
    ..\selenium.py
..\selenium.egg-info
..\setup.py

As a result, it looks like it's working correctly but slow(not sure why).

So I have 2 questions:

I am aware that this is probably not the best practice but are there any obvious issues and\or limitations that I might encounter when using it like that?
Could the sluggish behavior be cause by the fact WebDriver was not installed properly?

Mikko Ohtamaa · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-16 08:18:26Z

1

If you want to copyable "bunch-of-files" Python application deployment your best bet is relocatable virtualenv.

Python packages expect that their setup.py is run and they are not guaranteed not to work if you just copy files somewhere and set PYTHONPATH environment variable. Doing copy-files deployment is asking blood from you nose - instead for the pain-free future learn about some of the Python deployment methods. If you want some more information about these methods I recommend opening a StackOverflow question on this, with more details why and how you need to deploy your application (OS, permissions, such).

Sluggish behavior is most likely related to something else.

answered Jul 16, 2014 at 8:18

Mikko Ohtamaa

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1 Comment

Eugene S Over a year ago

Hi and thank you for your answer. I agree, opening a new question on that topic might be helpful.

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