Where do I put driver configuration for hound in a (non Phoenix) Elixir project for web scraping?

It should just work…

Make sure its not runtime: false and not only: :test in your deps.

Yes, the runtime: false and only: :test isn’t there.

Following is my code:

defmodule Scrap do
  use Hound.Helpers


  def start do
    IO.puts "starting"
    Hound.start_session()
    navigate_to("https://somewebsite.com/sign-in")
    find_element(:name, "email") |> fill_field("someone@something.com")
    find_element(:name, "password") |> fill_field("somepassword")
    find_element(:type, "submit") |> click()
    IO.puts "Logged in!"
  end
end

And this is the error

iex(1)> Scrap.start
starting

14:21:57.299 [error] GenServer Hound.SessionServer terminating
** (RuntimeError) could not create a new session: econnrefused, check webdriver is running
    (hound) lib/hound/session_server.ex:101: Hound.SessionServer.create_session/2
    (hound) lib/hound/session_server.ex:78: Hound.SessionServer.handle_call/3
    (stdlib) gen_server.erl:661: :gen_server.try_handle_call/4
    (stdlib) gen_server.erl:690: :gen_server.handle_msg/6
    (stdlib) proc_lib.erl:249: :proc_lib.init_p_do_apply/3
Last message (from #PID<0.208.0>): {:change_session, #PID<0.208.0>, :default, []}
State: %{}
Client #PID<0.208.0> is alive

    (stdlib) gen.erl:167: :gen.do_call/4
    (elixir) lib/gen_server.ex:1006: GenServer.call/3
    (scrap) lib/scrap.ex:7: Scrap.start/0
    (stdlib) erl_eval.erl:680: :erl_eval.do_apply/6
    (elixir) src/elixir.erl:275: :elixir.eval_forms/4
    (iex) lib/iex/evaluator.ex:257: IEx.Evaluator.handle_eval/5
    (iex) lib/iex/evaluator.ex:237: IEx.Evaluator.do_eval/3
    (iex) lib/iex/evaluator.ex:215: IEx.Evaluator.eval/3
** (exit) exited in: GenServer.call(Hound.SessionServer, {:change_session, #PID<0.208.0>, :default, []}, 60000)
    ** (EXIT) an exception was raised:
        ** (RuntimeError) could not create a new session: econnrefused, check webdriver is running
            (hound) lib/hound/session_server.ex:101: Hound.SessionServer.create_session/2
            (hound) lib/hound/session_server.ex:78: Hound.SessionServer.handle_call/3
            (stdlib) gen_server.erl:661: :gen_server.try_handle_call/4
            (stdlib) gen_server.erl:690: :gen_server.handle_msg/6
            (stdlib) proc_lib.erl:249: :proc_lib.init_p_do_apply/3
    (elixir) lib/gen_server.ex:1009: GenServer.call/3
    (scrap) lib/scrap.ex:7: Scrap.start/0
iex(1)>

Looks like :hound hasn’t been started.

How do you start iex and how does your application/1 in mix.exs look like?

You don’t have a webdriver running for example phantomjs --wd

This error here is what i posted above in case you want a ref

** (RuntimeError) could not create a new session: econnrefused, check webdriver is running

I was under the assumption that hound would handle the lifecycle

No it doesn’t on it’s own it needs a web driver selenium or phantomjs like help

From the docs 
When you run `mix test` , Hound is automatically started. **You'll need a webdriver server** 
running, like Selenium Server or Chrome Driver. If you aren't sure what it is, then 
[read this](https://github.com/HashNuke/hound/wiki/Starting-a-webdriver-server).

I’m running the webdriver, but may be it’s not finding it, or may be I need to tell it explicitly like we do in the Phoenix apps.

➜  bin ./phantomjs --wd
[INFO  - 2020-01-11T12:41:45.744Z] GhostDriver - Main - running on port 8910

I have only used it for testing. Someone else tried using it for receiving content from a page but worked to a certain point you can see our discussion here:

Again, please tell us how you start the iex session from where you try to play with hound.

Also from that same iex session, please do Application.get_env(:hound, :driver).

If it is returning something else than "phantomjs", your configuration is not set up properly.

It says nil

iex(1)> Application.get_env(:hound, :driver)
nil

Looks like I need to add the config somewhere.