How to debug Protractor e2e tests with ndb?

Question

I have recently discovered the magic of debugging Node applications with ndb. (You should really check it out, if you've never seen it.) For our non-e2e integration tests (which use jasmine) I was easily able to debug the test code simply by substituting ndb for node.

ndb node_modules/jasmine/bin/jasmine.js --config=jasmine.json

When I do the same for protractor, the debugger comes up, but the tests don't begin. For example, the following fails:

ndb node_modules/protractor/bin/protractor protractor.conf.ts --suite smoke

Any clues? (I have a suspicion that it has to do with the Typescript transpilation that happens, but I have no evidence hard evidence.)

Answer 1

I solved my own problem by more trial-and-error. I do not understand why this makes a difference, but the following variation on the ndb command worked:

ndb node node_modules/protractor/bin/protractor protractor.conf.ts --suite smoke

According to ndb --help, ndb provides several variations on how to kick off debug sessions. Like I said, I'm not sure why the ndb node flavor worked while straight ndb failed.