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If captureScreenshotOnFailure does nothing, first check which Selenium test class your test extends. The setting belongs to the legacy PHPUnit Selenium RC flow, PHPUnit_Extensions_SeleniumTestCase; a historical Selenium2 report says it is not available on PHPUnit_Extensions_Selenium2TestCase. If you are using the legacy class, check the exact property names and whether the failure is an assertion failure. In the original PHPUnit 3.4.12 report, a misspelled $screenshotUrl and a call to Selenium’s fail() were relevant to the missing capture; a failed assertion did trigger one. These are findings from a particular historical setup, not guarantees for every version.
First identify which Selenium test class you are using
Do not start by changing the screenshot directory or copying a configuration snippet from an old manual. Establish the class and package versions first: the automatic-capture setting in question belongs to a different test flow from the one described in the Selenium2 troubleshooting report.
| What to check | Legacy Selenium RC | Selenium2 |
|---|---|---|
| Test base class named in the evidence | PHPUnit_Extensions_SeleniumTestCase |
PHPUnit_Extensions_Selenium2TestCase |
captureScreenshotOnFailure |
The legacy manual documents it alongside screenshot path and URL properties. | A community report says this property does not exist on this base class. |
| What to investigate | Property spelling and values, writable path, URL mapping, and what kind of failure occurred. | The screenshot API or failure hook supported by the installed extension. |
| Historical version context | The original report used PHPUnit 3.4.12. | A separate report named PHPUnit 4.6 and phpunit-selenium 1.4.2. |
Those version references describe historical reports, not a current compatibility matrix. Read the test class declaration and the project’s lockfile or installed package information. A setting being present in an old manual does not establish that it is supported by the class or extension version your project actually uses.
If the test uses the legacy Selenium RC class
Verify all three property names
The legacy manual lists three related properties: $captureScreenshotOnFailure, $screenshotPath, and $screenshotUrl. They serve different purposes: enable automatic capture, identify where the screenshot is saved, and provide the URL associated with that saved image. Check the spelling exactly. In the original report, the author had written screnshotUrl rather than screenshotUrl.
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Use the manual for the exact syntax and defaults applicable to the project’s version. As a diagnostic checklist, verify that capture is enabled, the configured path is the intended local directory, and that directory exists and is writable by the process running the tests. Then check that the URL value corresponds to how that directory is exposed. A local filesystem path and a browser-accessible or report-accessible URL are not interchangeable.
The names below show the legacy property spellings only; they are not a complete configuration recipe for every PHPUnit Selenium release:
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$this->captureScreenshotOnFailure = true;
$this->screenshotPath = '/path/to/writable/screenshots';
$this->screenshotUrl = 'https://example.test/screenshots';Do not copy those example values literally: choose a real writable location and the URL mapping your environment uses. If your class is Selenium2, these RC properties are not a fix merely because the names look plausible.
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“The test failed” does not necessarily identify the same code path as “an assertion failed.” In the PHPUnit 3.4.12 report, the author found that a Selenium fail() call produced a failure without automatic capture, while a failed assertion did trigger capture. For that specific legacy setup, use a genuine failed assertion as a controlled diagnostic check. Do not leave a deliberately failing assertion in the test suite; use it temporarily, confirm whether a file appears, and remove it afterward.
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If an assertion failure captures but an explicit fail() does not, the setting and destination may be working while the trigger path differs. Treat that as a clue about the historical setup, not proof that every version handles these cases identically. Check the extension’s behavior for the installed version before restructuring production tests around it.
If the test uses Selenium2
Do not expect the legacy automatic property to work on PHPUnit_Extensions_Selenium2TestCase. The Selenium2 report explicitly says captureScreenshotOnFailure is not a property of that base class. Instead, find the screenshot facility and failure handling supported by the particular phpunit-selenium version in the project.
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A community answer to that report describes taking a screenshot in a catch block and points to a ScreenshotListener example. That is a direction to investigate, not a version-independent snippet: confirm the method name, return format, and listener or hook interface against the installed extension. In particular, a screenshot API may return image data that your code must save to a file; the existence of a screenshot method does not imply automatic saving or attachment to a PHPUnit report.
Place failure capture where the browser session is still available, and preserve the original test failure if capture itself fails. Otherwise, a secondary error while writing an image can obscure the assertion or exception that caused the test to fail. Verify the actual extension callback lifecycle rather than assuming a hook from a different PHPUnit generation will run.
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Check teardown and failure handling
If the class, property names, destination, and failure trigger are all consistent with the legacy setup, inspect custom tearDown and error-handling code. The original reporter said their teardown function was not compatible with PHPUnit 3.4 and removed it while investigating. That observation applies to that report; it does not mean every custom teardown is incompatible.
Look for code that closes or replaces the Selenium session before capture can happen, throws a new exception while handling the first failure, or prevents PHPUnit from completing its normal failure reporting. Temporarily simplify the custom teardown in a controlled diagnostic run, then restore compatible cleanup that does not mask the original failure. Keep the test result and any capture error distinguishable in logs or output.
A practical diagnostic sequence
- Read the test declaration. Identify whether it extends
PHPUnit_Extensions_SeleniumTestCaseorPHPUnit_Extensions_Selenium2TestCase. - Confirm installed versions. Check the project’s dependency lockfile and installed packages; do not infer compatibility from a copied example.
- Choose the matching branch. For the legacy RC class, check the three property names and their values. For Selenium2, locate the supported screenshot API or failure hook for that installed extension.
- Test the trigger separately. In the legacy setup, compare a temporary assertion failure with the failure mechanism that originally did not capture. Remove the diagnostic failure afterward.
- Check the destination. Confirm that the output directory exists and is writable, and that the configured URL corresponds to how the saved file is exposed.
- Review lifecycle code. Simplify custom teardown or failure handling temporarily if needed, while ensuring the original failure is not hidden.
- Verify the artifact. Confirm that a screenshot file was actually created and can be opened. A test marked failed is not by itself evidence that an image was saved or attached.
Common symptoms and what they point to
| Symptom | Likely diagnostic direction |
|---|---|
| No screenshot on a Selenium2 test class | Check whether legacy RC properties have been applied to a class that does not expose that property; use the installed Selenium2 extension’s supported capture mechanism. |
| No screenshot on the legacy class, but configuration looks right | Check spelling, especially screenshotUrl, then verify the path is writable and the URL matches the directory’s exposure. |
Assertion failure captures, explicit Selenium fail() does not |
This matches the behavior reported for PHPUnit 3.4.12. Validate against the exact legacy extension version in use. |
| A failure occurs but no image is saved | Check whether the failure route invokes automatic capture, whether the browser is still available at that point, and whether custom teardown or error handling interrupts it. |
| Capture code reports another error | Separate the original test failure from the capture/write error so that image handling does not replace the useful failure diagnosis. |
Or skip the browser setup
If you need a screenshot of a URL without wiring screenshot capture into a PHPUnit Selenium failure hook, ScreenshotNeo provides a separate screenshot API. It is not a drop-in replacement for capturing the exact browser session or test state created by Selenium; it captures a URL independently.
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What the historical reports establish—and what they do not
The legacy manual documents the three automatic-capture properties, and the original Stack Overflow report describes a spelling error, the difference between an explicit fail() and an assertion failure, and a teardown compatibility issue in its PHPUnit 3.4.12 setup. A separate Selenium2 discussion reports that the property is absent from its base class and describes manual capture or a listener as alternatives. Together, these sources support a useful diagnosis by class and failure path; they do not establish how every current PHPUnit or phpunit-selenium release behaves. Check the installed code and version-specific documentation before adopting an implementation.
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