PhantomJS: Reset localStorage after test run

By default PhantomJS keeps localStorage settings across sessions. While this is equivalent to a real browser, it can be problematic in a test setup. If a test leaves traces in the localStorage (say, a user is logged in) seemingly random failures can happen (false negatives and positives).

From my observations I guess Chrome and other real browsers are reset across test runs (i.e. they get a new preference directory). I suggest to treat Phantom similarly.

On Mac OS, Phantom writes its localStorage settings by default to /Users/<User>/Library/Application Support/Ofi Labs/PhantomJS. This can be changed with the --local-storage-path flag.

[guioconnor]

@trkoch Wouldn’t it be advisable to call localStorage.clear() in beforeEach instead? It makes sense for a test not to assume anything about the previous session.

[ciekawy]

as for localStorage.clear() in beforeEach what to do in case of karma/node crash on CI environment?