directConnect not working with FF 52+ and Protractor 5.1.1 (unable to parse new session response)

Protractor 5.1.1 is using version 3.0.1 of the Selenium JS bindings. When using directConnect: true Protractor will control geckodriver directly. Unfortunately, this version of the JS bindings is no longer compatible with the latest geckodriver (See https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver/issues/555 https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver/issues/529 and https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/issues/3607).

The solution is to use selenium standalone when testing with Firefox. The latest version of the selenium standalone server is compatible with Protractor’s selenium JS bindings and with geckodriver. You can update and launch the standalone server with

webdriver-manager update
webdriver-manager start

and set seleniumAddress: http://localhost:4444. For an example using selenium standalone, see protractor cookbook. Note Protractor 5.1.1 requires Selenium 3 or greater and Firefox 52 or greater.

In the meantime, directConnect: true will not work with Firefox until the external issues are fixed and Protractor’s selenium-webdriver version is updated.

[krisztiankocsis]

I have the same issue, with the same version as in the last comment. Do anybody know where is the problem?

[warnero]

Been beating my head against this for the past day and a half. Hopefully this gets fixed soon.