Yes you can. (Thanks @rjferguson21 for the update on By
being global).
Your main difficulty lies in the fact that by
(lower-case "B") is a reserved word in CoffeeScript. But By
(upper-case "B") is a global and is not reserved.
describe 'such and such', ->
describe 'with protractor', ->
testElement = element By.model('testElement')
testElement.clear()
testElement.sendKeys('123')
expect(testelement.getAttribute('value')).toEqual '123'
All the protractor tutorials refer to by
so be mindful to change them to By
in your CoffeeScript files.