@wdio/visual-service@8.0.0

Major Changes

• bfe6aca: 💥 BREAKING CHANGES

  🧪 Web Screenshot Strategy Now Uses BiDi by Default

  What was the problem?

  Screenshots taken via WebDriver's traditional protocol often lacked precision:

  • Emulated devices didn't reflect true resolutions
  • Device Pixel Ratio (DPR) was often lost
  • Images were cropped or downscaled

  What changed?

  All screenshot-related methods now use the WebDriver BiDi protocol by default (if supported by the browser), enabling:

  ✅ Native support for emulated and high-DPR devices
  ✅ Better fidelity in screenshot size and clarity
  ✅ Faster, browser-native screenshots via browsingContext.captureScreenshot

  The following methods now use BiDi:

  • saveScreen / checkScreen
  • saveElement / checkElement
  • saveFullPageScreen / checkFullPageScreen

  What’s the impact?

  ⚠️ Existing baselines may no longer match.
  Because BiDi screenshots are sharper and match device settings more accurately, even a small difference in resolution or DPR can cause mismatches.

  If you rely on existing baseline images, you'll need to regenerate them to avoid false positives.

  Want to keep using the legacy method?

  You can disable BiDi screenshots globally or per test using the enableLegacyScreenshotMethod flag:

  Globally in wdio.conf.ts:

  import { join } from "node:path";
  
  export const config = {
    services: [
      [
        "visual",
        {
          baselineFolder: join(process.cwd(), "./localBaseline/"),
          debug: true,
          formatImageName: "{tag}-{logName}-{width}x{height}",
          screenshotPath: join(process.cwd(), ".tmp/"),
          enableLegacyScreenshotMethod: true, // 👈 fallback to W3C-based screenshots
        },
      ],
    ],
  };

  Or per test:

  it("should compare an element successfully using legacy screenshots", async function () {
    await expect($(".hero__title-logo")).toMatchElementSnapshot(
      "legacyScreenshotLogo",
      { enableLegacyScreenshotMethod: true } // 👈 fallback to W3C-based screenshots
    );
  });

  🐛 Bug Fixes

  • ✅ #916: Visual Testing Screenshot Behavior Changed in Emulated Devices

  Committers: 1

  • Wim Selles (@wswebcreation)

Patch Changes

• Updated dependencies [bfe6aca]
  • webdriver-image-comparison@9.0.0