Category Archives: WATIR

Exception class/object expected (TypeError) on starting FireWatir

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Nat

If you get the following… /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/firewatir-1.6.2/lib/firewatir/firefox.rb:1078:in `raise’: exception class/object expected (TypeError) from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/firewatir-1.6.2/lib/firewatir/firefox.rb:1078:in `js_eval’ from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/firewatir-1.6.2/lib/firewatir/firefox.rb:195:in `get_window_number’ from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/firewatir-1.6.2/lib/firewatir/firefox.rb:162:in `initialize’ from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/firewatir-1.6.2/lib/firewatir/firefox.rb:177:in `new’ from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/firewatir-1.6.2/lib/firewatir/firefox.rb:177:in `start’ …the problem is that firefox is already running, probably with a dialog box open. … Continue reading →

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Finding a form by xpath in Firewatir causes ‘Stack Level Too Deep’

Posted on September 4, 2009 by Nat

If in a firewatir script you look for a form using xpath, you’ll get the following output: SystemStackError: stack level too deep from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/firewatir-1.6.2/lib/firewatir/htmlelements.rb:72:in `locate’ from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/firewatir-1.6.2/lib/firewatir/MozillaBaseElement.rb:1012:in `exists?’ from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/firewatir-1.6.2/lib/firewatir/MozillaBaseElement.rb:965:in `assert_exists’ from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/firewatir-1.6.2/lib/firewatir/MozillaBaseElement.rb:1403:in `method_missing’ from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/firewatir-1.6.2/lib/firewatir/htmlelements.rb:75:in `locate’ from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/firewatir-1.6.2/lib/firewatir/MozillaBaseElement.rb:1012:in `exists?’ … Continue reading →

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How to quit Firefox using FireWatir on a Mac

Posted on August 29, 2009 by Nat

There seems to be a bug in the way that FireWatir on the mac quits firefox… it doesn’t! When you try, you end up with a dialog box saying: Close Firefox A copy of Firefox is already open. Only one … Continue reading →

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How to know if you have a secure session in Watir

Posted on August 28, 2009 by Nat

Sometimes you’re on a secure page, sometimes you’re not. How to know? There’s a very simple method you can write to find out, based on the browser’s current url. Here’s the method: def is_session_secure? @browser.url =~ /^https/ ? true : … Continue reading →

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How to get only direct child objects in Watir

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Nat

When you come across methods in watir that return child objects for the first time (eg: the ‘lis‘ in @browser.ul(:id,’main’).lis ) you’d think they’d return only the direct child objects. Frustratingly, they don’t. They’ll also return nested objects of the … Continue reading →

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How to check for errors on every page using Watir

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Nat

Testing a web app in an unstable environment is a pain. Many tests will fail for environmental reasons and filtering out those results can take a while. To make this sort of thing less painful, Watir and its derivatives (eg: … Continue reading →

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Fix for Firewatir visible? method

Posted on August 10, 2009 by Nat

The visible? method in the ruby Firewatir 1.6.2 gem isn’t great. After some hunting around, I ended up here and found a working monkeypatch. Here’s the code: class Element def visible? assert_exists jssh_command = "var val = ‘true’; var str … Continue reading →

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