How to use getLoad method of org.openqa.selenium.grid.data.NodeStatus class

First of all, don't use

capabilities.setCapability(InternetExplorerDriver.INTRODUCE_FLAKINESS_BY_IGNORING_SECURITY_DOMAINS,true);

as you have already set Protected mode settings. For the issue you are seeing, it should be because of the missing registry settings that is added as a prerequisite for running tests in IE11:

https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/wiki/InternetExplorerDriver#required-configuration

There are 2 things you need to do:

1. Change the security setting in IE browser:

   Open IE browser, click on "Internet Options" => "Security" => tick "Enable Protected Mode" for "Internet", "Local intranet", "Trusted sites" and "Restricted sites".

   This gives IE driver the capability to get control of the new window handle, so that when you call driver.getWindowHandles(); or driver.getWindowHandles().size(); you will get all the handles including the original window and the new windows. To be more accurate, you just need to set the security setting for all 4 domains to be the same which means you can uncheck "Enable Protected Mode" for all 4 domains but it is discouraged obviously.

2. After you call driver.switchTo().window(windowName);, you need to add ((JavascriptExecutor) driver).executeScript("window.focus();"); before the IE driver can perform any actions on the window.

   This is because IE driver needs the window that it is working on to be at the foreground, this line helps the driver get the focus of the window so that it can perform any actions on window that you want.

The following is a complete sample:

    String baseWin = driver.getWindowHandle();
    //Some methods to open new window, e.g.
    driver.findElementBy("home-button").click();

    //loop through all open windows to find out the new window
    for(String winHandle : driver.getWindowHandles()){
        if(!winHandle.equals(baseWin)){
            driver.switchTo().window(winHandle);
            //your actions with the new window, e.g.
            String newURL = driver.getCurrentUrl();
        }
    }

    //switch back to the main window after your actions with the new window
    driver.close();
    driver.switchTo().window(baseWin);

    //let the driver focus on the base window again to continue your testing
    ((JavascriptExecutor) driver).executeScript("window.focus();");

To me, the most simple and efficient solution was to do this

var options = new FirefoxOptions()
{
    AcceptInsecureCertificates = true
};

using (var driver = new FirefoxDriver(Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location), options))
{
    // Your code
}

I tried using Sanjay Bhimani's example but it didn't work so looked into the available constructors and ended up with the above code.

The basic authentication via url is blocked only for sub resources. So you could still use it on the domain:

driver.get("http://admin:admin@localhost:8080");
driver.get("http://localhost:8080/project");

You could also create a small extension to automatically set the credentials when they are requested:

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_extension(r'C:\dev\credentials.zip')

https://gist.github.com/florentbr/25246cd9337cebc07e2bbb0b9bf0de46

The submit() function is there to make life easier. You can use it on any element inside of form tags to submit that form.

You can also search for the submit button and use click().

So the only difference is click() has to be done on the submit button and submit() can be done on any form element.

It's up to you.

http://docs.seleniumhq.org/docs/03_webdriver.jsp#user-input-filling-in-forms

Go for xpath text based search. It allows you to find an element based on the text

// with * we are doing tag indepenedent search. If you know the tag, say it's a `div`, then //div[contains(text(),'Text To find')] can be done
By byXpath = By.xpath("//*[contains(text(),'Text To find')]"); 
WebElement myDynamicElement = (new WebDriverWait(driver, 10))
  .until(ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated(byXpath));

I think ngWebDriver is capable of handling the issues you are facing. The biggest problem of WebDriver2.0 is that it could not handle the asynchronous element calls and that's where the ngWebDriver comes into the picture and code new NgWebDriver(driver).waitForAngularRequestsToFinish(); will be there to fulfill your need.

Whereas, If you feel comfortable with the automation scripting on java script then the Protractor will be the only best choice. But, also you shall consider the other points like the IDE for java scripting Notepad or NP++ will not be the good option as it will not support the key senses and some best IDEs are paid too (like webstorm) whereas you can do some simple hacks and use eclipse as the Editor but before that you should also consider the scope of protractor as you can see that the rapid growth in java script frameworks. the client side JS frameworks are growing faster than ever. you'll have to consider your career perspective too as now days the ReactJS is growing faster than the angular JS and then again you'll have to switch on webdriver (while it depends on the project and it's requirement) in near future.

AngularJS - Launched in (2010) - Git-Hub stars 48874 && ReactJS - launched in (2013) but got 41283 Git Hub stars

conclusion: better would be to go with ngWebDriver, give it a chance and see if it fullfils your requirement then stick with it as you have already designed the framework or else there is no other option than protractor.

Protractor beginners tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV1J3oylMjU&list=PLhjFPlDbRmbtSGNlNGGgF1ZjFjWPK6AaO

Using an explicit wait worked for me (tried both chrome and firefox):

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 10);
WebElement element = wait.until(
    ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.id("ctl62_txtSearchLastName"))
);

element.sendKeys("test");

Resulted into:

You can easily accomplish this task with CSS.

The formula is:

element[attribute='attribute-value']

So if you have,

<a href="mysite.com"></a>

You can find it using:

By.cssSelector("a[href='mysite.com']");

this works using any attribute possible.

This page here gives good information on how to formulate effective css selectors, and matching their attributes: http://ddavison.io/css/2014/02/18/effective-css-selectors.html