protractor test continue to fail intermittently with "element is not attached to the page document"

[marcoslin]

protractor e2e test invoked by grunt test-e2e continues to fail intermittently. This is most like related to time needed to source external libraries such as Google Maps. The subsequent run often clear the error.

Failures:

  1) angularAMD map tab should be active
   Message:
     StaleElementReferenceError: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document
  (Session info: chrome=35.0.1916.153)
  (Driver info: chromedriver=2.9.248307,platform=Mac OS X 10.9.3 x86_64) (WARNING: The server did not provide any stacktrace information)
Command duration or timeout: 60 milliseconds
For documentation on this error, please visit: http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/stale_element_reference.html
Build info: version: '2.40.0', revision: 'fbe29a9', time: '2014-02-19 20:54:28'
System info: host: 'linmair.homenet.telecomitalia.it', ip: '192.168.1.97', os.name: 'Mac OS X', os.arch: 'x86_64', os.version: '10.9.3', java.version: '1.7.0_51'
Session ID: 3424103399ba9d7bc36ed15acb400c12
Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver
Capabilities [{platform=MAC, acceptSslCerts=true, javascriptEnabled=true, browserName=chrome, chrome={userDataDir=/var/folders/lb/rm3y2j6x1jbbdd6stcj3w6jm0000zc/T/.org.chromium.Chromium.8nzspL}, rotatable=false, locationContextEnabled=true, version=35.0.1916.153, takesHeapSnapshot=true, cssSelectorsEnabled=true, databaseEnabled=false, handlesAlerts=true, browserConnectionEnabled=false, nativeEvents=true, webStorageEnabled=true, applicationCacheEnabled=false, takesScreenshot=true}]
   Stacktrace:
     StaleElementReferenceError: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document
  (Session info: chrome=35.0.1916.153)
  (Driver info: chromedriver=2.9.248307,platform=Mac OS X 10.9.3 x86_64) (WARNING: The server did not provide any stacktrace information)
Command duration or timeout: 60 milliseconds
For documentation on this error, please visit: http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/stale_element_reference.html
Build info: version: '2.40.0', revision: 'fbe29a9', time: '2014-02-19 20:54:28'
System info: host: 'linmair.homenet.telecomitalia.it', ip: '192.168.1.97', os.name: 'Mac OS X', os.arch: 'x86_64', os.version: '10.9.3', java.version: '1.7.0_51'
Session ID: 3424103399ba9d7bc36ed15acb400c12
Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver
Capabilities [{platform=MAC, acceptSslCerts=true, javascriptEnabled=true, browserName=chrome, chrome={userDataDir=/var/folders/lb/rm3y2j6x1jbbdd6stcj3w6jm0000zc/T/.org.chromium.Chromium.8nzspL}, rotatable=false, locationContextEnabled=true, version=35.0.1916.153, takesHeapSnapshot=true, cssSelectorsEnabled=true, databaseEnabled=false, handlesAlerts=true, browserConnectionEnabled=false, nativeEvents=true, webStorageEnabled=true, applicationCacheEnabled=false, takesScreenshot=true}]
==== async task ====
WebElement.getAttribute(class)
==== async task ====
Taking too long for map tab to become active
    at null.<anonymous> (/Volumes/MacData/Users/linm/dev/marcoslin.github/angularAMD/master/test/e2e/www.spec.js:54:18)
==== async task ====
Asynchronous test function: it("tab should be active")
Error
    at /Volumes/MacData/Users/linm/dev/marcoslin.github/angularAMD/master/test/e2e/www.spec.js:55:32
Error
    at null.<anonymous> (/Volumes/MacData/Users/linm/dev/marcoslin.github/angularAMD/master/test/e2e/www.spec.js:51:9)
    at null.<anonymous> (/Volumes/MacData/Users/linm/dev/marcoslin.github/angularAMD/master/test/e2e/www.spec.js:49:5)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Volumes/MacData/Users/linm/dev/marcoslin.github/angularAMD/master/test/e2e/www.spec.js:3:1)