Running Selenium webdriver-manager from Gradle - selenium

Question

I am trying to start Selenium from Gradle in order to run Protractor tests.
Here is my Gradle script:
//main task to run protractor tests
task uiTests << {
println "Starting protractor tests"
}
//start Selenium server
task startSelenium << {
println "Starting Selenium..."
ant.exec(executable: '/bin/bash', spawn: true) {
arg(value:'webdriver-manager')
arg(value:'start')
}
}
//run protractor
task runProtractor(type: Exec) {
commandLine 'protractor', 'bignibou-client/protractor.conf.js'
}
//start selenium, then run protractor
uiTests.dependsOn([startSelenium, runProtractor])
However, the output seems to indicate that the Selenium process has not being started:
:runProtractor
Using the selenium server at http://localhost:4444/wd/hub
[launcher] Running 1 instances of WebDriver
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/http/index.js:172
callback(new Error(message));
^
Error: ECONNREFUSED connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:4444
at ClientRequest.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/http/index.js:172:16)
at emitOne (events.js:77:13)
at ClientRequest.emit (events.js:169:7)
at Socket.socketErrorListener (_http_client.js:259:9)
at emitOne (events.js:77:13)
at Socket.emit (events.js:169:7)
at emitErrorNT (net.js:1250:8)
at doNTCallback2 (node.js:429:9)
at process._tickCallback (node.js:343:17)
From: Task: WebDriver.createSession()
at Function.webdriver.WebDriver.acquireSession_ (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/webdriver/webdriver.js:157:22)
at Function.webdriver.WebDriver.createSession (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/lib/webdriver/webdriver.js:131:30)
at [object Object].Builder.build (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/builder.js:445:22)
at [object Object].DriverProvider.getNewDriver (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/protractor/lib/driverProviders/driverProvider.js:38:7)
at [object Object].Runner.createBrowser (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/protractor/lib/runner.js:182:37)
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/protractor/lib/runner.js:263:21
at _fulfilled (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/q/q.js:797:54)
at self.promiseDispatch.done (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/q/q.js:826:30)
at Promise.promise.promiseDispatch (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/q/q.js:759:13)
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/protractor/node_modules/q/q.js:525:49
[launcher] Process exited with error code 1
:runProtractor FAILED
FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.
* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':runProtractor'.
> Process 'command 'protractor'' finished with non-zero exit value 1
* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
BUILD FAILED
Can anyone please provide informed tips and guidance?

Answer 1

By referring the webdriver-manager script directly as shown below sorted the issue:
//main task to run protractor tests
task uiTests << {
println "Starting protractor tests"
}
//start Selenium server
task startSelenium << {
println "Starting Selenium..."
ant.exec(executable: 'webdriver-manager', spawn: true) {//CHANGED!!
arg(value: 'start')
}
}
//run protractor
task runProtractor(type: Exec) {
commandLine 'protractor', 'bignibou-client/protractor.conf.js'
}
//start selenium, then run protractor
uiTests.dependsOn([startSelenium, runProtractor])