--skiptags parameter hides global browser object

[chris-jackson-actionqa]

Description of the bug/issue

When I used "--skiptags sometag" on a test file that uses the global browser object outside of a test, the test fails. The test works and the global browser object is available if I don't use the "--skiptags" option.

Steps to reproduce

1. run the sample test without skiptags: npx nightwatch -e chrome sampletest.js
2. It passes. Runs fine. Uses the global browser object.
3. run the sample test WITH skiptags: npx nightwatch -e chrome --skiptags sometag sampletest.js
4. Error

Sample test

describe('using global browser object', () => {
  const myGlobes = browser.globals;
  it('test foo', () => {
    browser.assert.ok(true);
  });
});

Command to run

nightwatch -e chrome --skiptags sometag tests/sampleTest.js

Verbose Output

❯ yarn nightwatch -e chrome --skiptags something --verbose tests/static.js
yarn run v1.22.17
$ /Users/cjackson/Documents/nwskiptags/node_modules/.bin/nightwatch -e chrome --skiptags something --verbose tests/static.js
  ✖ ReferenceError
   browser is not defined

    Error location:
    /Users/cjackson/Documents/nwskiptags/tests/static.js:
    ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
     1 | describe('using global browser object', () => {
     2 |   const myGlobes = browser.globals; 
     3 |   it('test foo', () => {
     4 |     browser.assert.ok(true);
    ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

    Stack Trace :
    at DescribeInstance.<anonymous> (/Users/cjackson/Documents/nwskiptags/tests/static.js:2:20)
    at Describe.createInstance (/Users/cjackson/Documents/nwskiptags/node_modules/nightwatch/lib/testsuite/interfaces/describe.js:177:16)
    at Describe.createTestsuite (/Users/cjackson/Documents/nwskiptags/node_modules/nightwatch/lib/testsuite/interfaces/describe.js:209:12)
    at context.describe.context.context (/Users/cjackson/Documents/nwskiptags/node_modules/nightwatch/lib/testsuite/interfaces/describe.js:221:14)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/cjackson/Documents/nwskiptags/tests/static.js:1:1)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1112:14)
    at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1166:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:988:32)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:834:12)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1012:19)

  Error
   No tests defined! using source folder: tests
    - using skiptags filter: something
  Error
    - using skiptags filter: something

error Command failed with exit code 10.
info Visit https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/run for documentation about this command.

Nightwatch Configuration

//
// Refer to the online docs for more details:
// https://nightwatchjs.org/guide/configuration/nightwatch-configuration-file.html
//
//  _   _  _         _      _                     _          _
// | \ | |(_)       | |    | |                   | |        | |
// |  \| | _   __ _ | |__  | |_ __      __  __ _ | |_   ___ | |__
// | . ` || | / _` || '_ \ | __|\ \ /\ / / / _` || __| / __|| '_ \
// | |\  || || (_| || | | || |_  \ V  V / | (_| || |_ | (__ | | | |
// \_| \_/|_| \__, ||_| |_| \__|  \_/\_/   \__,_| \__| \___||_| |_|
//             __/ |
//            |___/
//

module.exports = {
  // An array of folders (excluding subfolders) where your tests are located;
  // if this is not specified, the test source must be passed as the second argument to the test runner.
  src_folders: ['tests'],

  // See https://nightwatchjs.org/guide/concepts/page-object-model.html
  page_objects_path: ['node_modules/nightwatch/examples/pages/'],

  // See https://nightwatchjs.org/guide/extending-nightwatch/adding-custom-commands.html
  custom_commands_path: ['node_modules/nightwatch/examples/custom-commands/'],

  // See https://nightwatchjs.org/guide/extending-nightwatch/adding-custom-assertions.html
  custom_assertions_path: '',

  // See https://nightwatchjs.org/guide/extending-nightwatch/adding-plugins.html
  plugins: [],

  // See https://nightwatchjs.org/guide/concepts/test-globals.html#external-test-globals
  globals_path: '',

  webdriver: {},

  test_workers: {
    enabled: true,
    workers: 'auto',
  },

  test_settings: {
    default: {
      disable_error_log: false,
      launch_url: 'https://nightwatchjs.org',

      screenshots: {
        enabled: false,
        path: 'screens',
        on_failure: true,
      },

      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'firefox',
      },

      webdriver: {
        start_process: true,
        server_path: '',
      },
    },

    safari: {
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'safari',
        alwaysMatch: {
          acceptInsecureCerts: false,
        },
      },
      webdriver: {
        start_process: true,
        server_path: '',
      },
    },

    firefox: {
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'firefox',
        alwaysMatch: {
          acceptInsecureCerts: true,
          'moz:firefoxOptions': {
            args: [
              // '-headless',
              // '-verbose'
            ],
          },
        },
      },
      webdriver: {
        start_process: true,
        server_path: '',
        cli_args: [
          // very verbose geckodriver logs
          // '-vv'
        ],
      },
    },

    chrome: {
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'chrome',
        'goog:chromeOptions': {
          // More info on Chromedriver: https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/
          //
          // w3c:false tells Chromedriver to run using the legacy JSONWire protocol (not required in Chrome 78)
          w3c: true,
          args: [
            //'--no-sandbox',
            //'--ignore-certificate-errors',
            //'--allow-insecure-localhost',
            //'--headless'
          ],
        },
      },

      webdriver: {
        start_process: true,
        server_path: '',
        cli_args: [
          // --verbose
        ],
      },
    },

    edge: {
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'MicrosoftEdge',
        'ms:edgeOptions': {
          w3c: true,
          // More info on EdgeDriver: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webdriver-chromium/capabilities-edge-options
          args: [
            //'--headless'
          ],
        },
      },

      webdriver: {
        start_process: true,
        // Download msedgedriver from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webdriver-chromium/
        //  and set the location below:
        server_path: '',
        cli_args: [
          // --verbose
        ],
      },
    },

    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    // Configuration for when using cucumber-js (https://cucumber.io)                |
    //                                                                               |
    // It uses the bundled examples inside the nightwatch examples folder; feel free |
    // to adapt this to your own project needs                                       |
    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    'cucumber-js': {
      src_folders: ['examples/cucumber-js/features/step_definitions'],

      test_runner: {
        // set cucumber as the runner
        type: 'cucumber',

        // define cucumber specific options
        options: {
          //set the feature path
          feature_path:
            'node_modules/nightwatch/examples/cucumber-js/*/*.feature',

          // start the webdriver session automatically (enabled by default)
          // auto_start_session: true

          // use parallel execution in Cucumber
          // workers: 2 // set number of workers to use (can also be defined in the cli as --workers=2
        },
      },
    },

    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    // Configuration for when using the browserstack.com cloud service               |
    //                                                                               |
    // Please set the username and access key by setting the environment variables:  |
    // - BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME                                                       |
    // - BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY                                                     |
    // .env files are supported                                                      |
    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    browserstack: {
      selenium: {
        host: 'hub.browserstack.com',
        port: 443,
      },
      // More info on configuring capabilities can be found on:
      // https://www.browserstack.com/automate/capabilities?tag=selenium-4
      desiredCapabilities: {
        'bstack:options': {
          userName: '${BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME}',
          accessKey: '${BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY}',
        },
      },

      disable_error_log: true,
      webdriver: {
        timeout_options: {
          timeout: 15000,
          retry_attempts: 3,
        },
        keep_alive: true,
        start_process: false,
      },
    },

    'browserstack.local': {
      extends: 'browserstack',
      desiredCapabilities: {
        'browserstack.local': true,
      },
    },

    'browserstack.chrome': {
      extends: 'browserstack',
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'chrome',
        chromeOptions: {
          w3c: true,
        },
      },
    },

    'browserstack.firefox': {
      extends: 'browserstack',
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'firefox',
      },
    },

    'browserstack.ie': {
      extends: 'browserstack',
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'internet explorer',
        browserVersion: '11.0',
      },
    },

    'browserstack.safari': {
      extends: 'browserstack',
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'safari',
      },
    },

    'browserstack.local_chrome': {
      extends: 'browserstack.local',
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'chrome',
      },
    },

    'browserstack.local_firefox': {
      extends: 'browserstack.local',
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'firefox',
      },
    },
    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    // Configuration for when using the SauceLabs cloud service                      |
    //                                                                               |
    // Please set the username and access key by setting the environment variables:  |
    // - SAUCE_USERNAME                                                              |
    // - SAUCE_ACCESS_KEY                                                            |
    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    saucelabs: {
      selenium: {
        host: 'ondemand.saucelabs.com',
        port: 443,
      },
      // More info on configuring capabilities can be found on:
      // https://docs.saucelabs.com/dev/test-configuration-options/
      desiredCapabilities: {
        'sauce:options': {
          username: '${SAUCE_USERNAME}',
          accessKey: '${SAUCE_ACCESS_KEY}',
          screenResolution: '1280x1024',
          // https://docs.saucelabs.com/dev/cli/sauce-connect-proxy/#--region
          // region: 'us-west-1'
          // https://docs.saucelabs.com/dev/test-configuration-options/#tunnelidentifier
          // parentTunnel: '',
          // tunnelIdentifier: '',
        },
      },
      disable_error_log: false,
      webdriver: {
        start_process: false,
      },
    },
    'saucelabs.chrome': {
      extends: 'saucelabs',
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'chrome',
        browserVersion: 'latest',
        javascriptEnabled: true,
        acceptSslCerts: true,
        timeZone: 'London',
        chromeOptions: {
          w3c: true,
        },
      },
    },
    'saucelabs.firefox': {
      extends: 'saucelabs',
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'firefox',
        browserVersion: 'latest',
        javascriptEnabled: true,
        acceptSslCerts: true,
        timeZone: 'London',
      },
    },
    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    // Configuration for when using the Selenium service, either locally or remote,  |
    //  like Selenium Grid                                                           |
    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    selenium_server: {
      // Selenium Server is running locally and is managed by Nightwatch
      // Install the NPM package @nightwatch/selenium-server or download the selenium server jar file from https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/releases/, e.g.: selenium-server-4.1.1.jar
      selenium: {
        start_process: true,
        port: 4444,
        server_path: '', // Leave empty if @nightwatch/selenium-server is installed
        command: 'standalone', // Selenium 4 only
        cli_args: {
          //'webdriver.gecko.driver': '',
          //'webdriver.chrome.driver': ''
        },
      },
      webdriver: {
        start_process: false,
        default_path_prefix: '/wd/hub',
      },
    },

    'selenium.chrome': {
      extends: 'selenium_server',
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'chrome',
        chromeOptions: {
          w3c: true,
        },
      },
    },

    'selenium.firefox': {
      extends: 'selenium_server',
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'firefox',
        'moz:firefoxOptions': {
          args: [
            // '-headless',
            // '-verbose'
          ],
        },
      },
    },
  },
};

Nightwatch.js Version

2.4.2

Node Version

v18.4.0

Browser

Chrome 107.0.3

Operating System

MacOS

Additional Information

No response