how do I define global variable in conf.js and used in spec.js file in jasmine protractor?

Question

describe('Enter Base API URL', function() { 
 it('1st scenario', function() { 
 // Take any URL. 
 browser.get('xyz.com'); 
 browser.ignoreSynchronization=true; 
 var user= by.xpath('//input[@name="username"]'); 
 });
 it("2nd scenario", function() { 
 browser.driver.findElement(user).sendKeys('hi'); 
 }); 
browser.close();
});

How can I use this user variable in my second it block?

Answer 1

Ideally, this user field should be defined in a separate "page object".

As far as two tests under describe go, it is just about defining a variable in a "higher" scope:

describe('Enter Base API URL', function() { 
 var user;
 it('1st scenario', function() { 
 // Take any URL. 
 browser.get('xyz.com'); 
 browser.ignoreSynchronization=true; 
 user = by.xpath('//input[@name="username"]'); 
 });
 it("2nd scenario", function() { 
 browser.driver.findElement(user).sendKeys('hi'); 
 }); 
});

Note that user = by.xpath('//input[@name="username"]'); by itself would do nothing, protractor/selenium would not try to locate the element at this point. Only when you are actually using the element, it would locate it on a page.

Also, note that protractor introduces the concepts of an ElementFinder - meaning, you should probably be using element() as opposed to browser.driver.findElement().