Selenium2.0 Ruby

#summary Ruby bindings

= Introduction =

The Ruby bindings for Selenium/!WebDriver are available as the [http://rubygems.org/gems/selenium-webdriver selenium-webdriver] gem. There are many other Selenium gems out there, but this is the only official, maintained gem. If you're looking for a slightly higher level API built on the same technology, you may want to check out [http://watirwebdriver.com/ watir-webdriver].

The bindings support Ruby 1.8.7 through 1.9.2, JRuby and Rubinius. 

  * [http://selenium.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/docs/api/rb/index.html API docs]
  * [http://selenium.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/rb/CHANGES Changelog]

The gem also includes the older selenium-client gem for use with Selenium RC. When reading the docs, keep in mind that these two namespaces refer to different APIs:

  * `Selenium::WebDriver` - the !WebDriver API
  * `Selenium::Client` - Selenium RC API (previously released as the selenium-client gem)

The WebDriver API is the successor to the RC API. For people who don't have a significant investment in the legacy API, we recommend starting directly with `Selenium::WebDriver`, and focusing on the two main classes, `Selenium::WebDriver::Driver` and `Selenium::WebDriver::Element`. This is the entry point to the whole !WebDriver API.
The rest of this document deals with `Selenium::WebDriver` exclusively.

= API Example =

The bindings provide a slightly rubified version of the !WebDriver API:

{{{
require "selenium-webdriver"

driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox
driver.navigate.to "http://google.com"

element = driver.find_element(:name, 'q')
element.send_keys "Hello WebDriver!"
element.submit

puts driver.title

driver.quit
}}}

Driver examples:

{{{
# execute arbitrary javascript
puts driver.execute_script("return window.location.pathname")

# pass elements between Ruby and JavaScript
element = driver.execute_script("return document.body")
driver.execute_script("return arguments[0].tagName", element) #=> "BODY"

# wait for a specific element to show up
wait = Selenium::WebDriver::Wait.new(:timeout => 10) # seconds
wait.until { driver.find_element(:id => "foo") }

# switch to a frame
driver.switch_to.frame "some-frame" # name or id
driver.switch_to.frame driver.find_element(:id, 'some-frame') # frame element

# switch back to the main document
driver.switch_to.default_content
}}}

Element examples:

{{{
# get an attribute
class_name = element.attribute("class")

# is the element visible on the page?
element.displayed?

# click the element
element.click

# get the element location
element.location

# scroll the element into view, then return its location
element.location_once_scrolled_into_view

# get the width and height of an element
element.size

# press space on an element - see Selenium::WebDriver::Keys for possible values
element.send_keys :space

# get the text of an element
element.text
}}}

Advanced user interactions (see [http://selenium.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/docs/api/rb/Selenium/WebDriver/ActionBuilder.html ActionBuilder]):

{{{
driver.action.key_down(:shift).
              click(element).
              double_click(second_element).
              key_up(:shift).
              drag_and_drop(element, third_element).
              perform
}}}


== IE ==

Make sure that _Internet Options_ 鈫� _Security_ has the same _Protected Mode_ setting (on or off, it doesn't matter as long as it is the same value) for all zones.

== Chrome ==

=== Command line switches ===

For a list of switches, see [http://codesearch.google.com/codesearch#OAMlx_jo-ck/src/chrome/common/chrome_switches.cc&exact_package=chromium chrome_switches.cc]:

{{{
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :chrome, :switches => %w[--ignore-certificate-errors --disable-popup-blocking --disable-translate]
}}}

=== Tweaking profile preferences ===

For a list of prefs, see [http://codesearch.google.com/codesearch#OAMlx_jo-ck/src/chrome/common/pref_names.cc&exact_package=chromium pref_names.cc].

{{{
profile = Selenium::WebDriver::Chrome::Profile.new
profile['download.prompt_for_download'] = false
profile['download.default_directory'] = "/path/to/dir"

driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :chrome, :profile => profile
}}}

See also ChromeDriver.

== Remote ==

The RemoteWebDriver makes it easy to control a browser running on another machine. Download the jar (from [http://code.google.com/p/selenium/downloads/list Downloads]) and launch the server:

{{{java -jar selenium-server-standalone.jar}}}

Then connect to it from Ruby

{{{
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:remote)
}}}

By default, this connects to the server running on localhost:4444 and opens Firefox. To connect to another machine, use the `:url` option:

{{{
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:remote, :url => "http://myserver:4444/wd/hub")
}}}

To launch another browser, use the :desired_capabilities option:

{{{
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:remote, :desired_capabilities => :chrome)
}}}

You can also pass an instance of `Selenium::WebDriver::Remote::Capabilities`, e.g.:

{{{
caps = Selenium::WebDriver::Remote::Capabilities.htmlunit(:javascript_enabled => true)
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:remote, :desired_capabilities => caps)
}}}

You may want to set the proxy settings of the remote browser (this currently only works for Firefox):

{{{
caps = Selenium::WebDriver::Remote::Capabilities.firefox(:proxy => WebDriver::Proxy.new(:http => "myproxyaddress:8080"))
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:remote, :desired_capabilities => caps)
}}}

Or if you have a proxy in front of the remote server:

{{{
client = Selenium::WebDriver::Remote::Http::Default.new
client.proxy = Selenium::Proxy.new(:http => "proxy.org:8080")

driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:remote, :http_client => client)
}}}

See [http://code.google.com/p/selenium/source/browse/trunk/rb/lib/selenium/webdriver/common/proxy.rb `Selenium::WebDriver::Proxy`] for more options.

For the remote Firefox driver you can configure the profile, see the section [#Tweaking_Firefox_preferences Tweaking Firefox preferences].

== Firefox ==

The FirefoxDriver lets you configure the profile used.

=== Adding an extension ===

It's often useful to have Firebug available in the Firefox instance launched by !WebDriver:

{{{
profile = Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox::Profile.new
profile.add_extension("/path/to/firebug.xpi")

driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox, :profile => profile
}}}

=== Using an existing profile ===

You can use an existing profile as a template for the WebDriver profile by passing the profile name (see `firefox -ProfileManager` to set up custom profiles.)

{{{
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:firefox, :profile => "my-existing-profile")
}}}

If you want to use your default profile, pass {{{:profile => "default"}}}

You can also get a Profile instance for an existing profile and tweak its preferences. This does not modify the existing profile, only the one used by !WebDriver.

{{{
default_profile = Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox::Profile.from_name "default"
default_profile.native_events = true

driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:firefox, :profile => default_profile)
}}}

=== Tweaking Firefox preferences ===

Use a proxy:

{{{
profile = Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox::Profile.new
proxy = Selenium::WebDriver::Proxy.new(:http => "proxy.org:8080")
profile.proxy = proxy

driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox, :profile => profile
}}}

Automatically download files to a given folder:

{{{
profile = Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox::Profile.new
profile['browser.download.dir'] = "/tmp/webdriver-downloads"
profile['browser.download.folderList'] = 2
profile['browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk'] = "application/pdf"

driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox, :profile => profile
}}}

If you are using the remote driver you can still configure the Firefox profile:

{{{
profile = Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox::Profile.new
profile['foo.bar'] = true
 
capabilities = Selenium::WebDriver::Remote::Capabilities.firefox(:firefox_profile => profile)
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :remote, :desired_capabilities => capabilities
}}}

For a list of possible preferences, see [http://preferential.mozdev.org/preferences.html this page].

=== Custom Firefox path ===

If your Firefox executable is in a non-standard location:

{{{
Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox.path = "/path/to/firefox"
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox
}}}

=== SSL Certificates ===

The Firefox driver ignores invalid SSL certificates by default. If this is not the behaviour you want, you can do:

{{{
profile = Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox::Profile.new
profile.secure_ssl = true

driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox, :profile => profile
}}}

There is an edge case where the default SSL certificate check will not work correctly. WebDriver assumes that the certificate is untrusted whenever there's a problem, which means a certificate from a trusted issuer but with a hostname mismatch (e.g. a production certificate in a test environment) will not be correctly ovverriden.  See UntrustedSSLCertificates for more on why this is. To work around it, tell the Firefox driver to not assume the issuer is untrusted:

{{{
profile = Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox::Profile.new
profile.assume_untrusted_certificate_issuer = false
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox, :profile => profile
}}}

Not that Profile#secure_ssl remains set to the default value of true in the above example.



=== Native events ===

Native events are enabled by default on Windows. To turn them off:

{{{
profile = Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox::Profile.new
profile.native_events = false

driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:firefox, :profile => profile)
}}}

Experimental support for native events is available on Linux. Set {{{profile.native_events = true}}} to turn this on.

== Opera ==

The OperaDriver is always run as a RemoteWebDriver server which the Ruby bindings connect to.

To get started, first [http://code.google.com/p/selenium/downloads/list download] the _selenium-server-standalone_ jar and set the `SELENIUM_SERVER_JAR` environmental variable to point to its location:

`export SELENIUM_SERVER_JAR=/path/to/server-standalone.jar`

Then you can simply create a new instance of `Selenium::WebDriver` with the `:opera` option:

{{{
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for pera
driver.navigate.to 'http://opera.com/'
}}}

== Timeouts ==

=== Implicit waits ===

!WebDriver lets you configure implicit waits, so that a call to `#find_element` will wait for a specified amount of time before raising a `NoSuchElementError`:

{{{
  driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox
  driver.manage.timeouts.implicit_wait = 3 # seconds
}}}

=== Explicit waits ===

Use the Wait class to explicitly wait for some condition:

{{{
  wait = Selenium::WebDriver::Wait.new(:timeout => 3)
  wait.until { driver.find_element(:id => "cheese").displayed? }
}}}

=== Internal timeouts ===

Internally, !WebDriver uses HTTP to communicate with a lot of the drivers (the JsonWireProtocol). By default, `Net::HTTP` from Ruby's standard library is used, which has a default timeout of 60 seconds. If you call `Driver#get` on a page that takes more than 60 seconds to load, you'll see a `TimeoutError` raised from `Net::HTTP`. You can configure this timeout (before launching a browser) by doing:

{{{
  client = Selenium::WebDriver::Remote::Http::Default.new
  client.timeout = 120 # seconds
  driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:remote, :http_client => client)
}}}


== !JavaScript dialogs  ==

You can use webdriver to handle Javascript `alert()`, `prompt()` and `confirm()` dialogs.
The API for all three is the same.

Note: At this time alert handling is only available in Firefox and IE (or in those browsers through the remote server), and only alerts that are generated post onload can be captured.

{{{
require "selenium-webdriver"

driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox
driver.navigate.to "http://mysite.com/page_with_alert.html"

driver.find_element(:name, 'element_with_alert_javascript').click
a = driver.switch_to.alert
if a.text == 'A value you are looking for'
  a.dismiss
else
  a.accept
end

}}}

== Using Curb or your own HTTP client ==

For internal HTTP communication, `Net::HTTP` is used by default. If you e.g. have the [https://rubygems.org/gems/curb Curb gem] installed, you can switch to it by doing:

{{{
require 'selenium/webdriver/remote/http/curb'

client = Selenium::WebDriver::Remote::Http::Curb.new
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for(:firefox, :http_client => client)
}}}

If you have the [https://github.com/drbrain/net-http-persistent net-http-persistent gem] installed, you can (as of 0.1.3) similarly use "selenium/webdriver/remote/http