Browser start and kill are really fragile

[Joonas Lehtinen]

Something should be done - current scripting solutions is fragile.

[Jani Laakso]

I got this working in a robust way using identical technigue couople months ago:

• Java Process class was used
• different to current implementation: I was using pstools's psexec to launch firefox
  • license for pstools is such that we cannot use it anymore, hence it was removed
• taskkill was used
• I could do regression testing in my vmware hosts for 12 hours straight without any issues

Experiment with following:

• launch firefox using CMD /C (trust me, it can be different than executing firefox without "shell")
• taskkill with /T (=kill child processes too, firefox has these)
• NOTE: java.Process is not same as COMMAND or CMD.EXE, it has it's own quirks..

Perhaps even firefox new version uses different threading and using taskkill is not viable option anymore.

[Jani Laakso]

If time, check embedded mozilla, and ticket #1356

[Jani Laakso]

Document this:

Create user.js to your default profile for every testing host: Profiles are located under directory

C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*

Create user.js to your profile directory, contents:

user_pref("dom.allow_scripts_to_close_windows", true);

user_pref("browser.tabs.warnOnClose", false);
user_pref("browser.tabs.warnOnCloseOther", false);
user_pref("browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser", false);
user_pref("startup.homepage_welcome_url", "");
user_pref("startup.homepage_override_url", "");
user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", 0);
user_pref("browser.xul.error_pages.enabled", false);
user_pref("security.checkloaduri", false);
user_pref("security.warn_entering_secure.show_once", false);
user_pref("security.warn_entering_secure", false);
user_pref("security.warn_entering_weak", false);
user_pref("security.warn_entering_weak.show_once", false);
user_pref("security.warn_leaving_secure", false);
user_pref("security.warn_leaving_secure.show_once", false);
user_pref("security.warn_submit_insecure", false);
user_pref("security.warn_submit_insecure.show_once", false);
user_pref("security.warn_viewing_mixed", false);
user_pref("security.warn_viewing_mixed.show_once", false);
user_pref("update_notifications.enabled", false);


user_pref("browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser", false);
//
// never restore previous sessions
//
user_pref("browser.startup.page", 0);
user_pref("browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash", false);

[Jani Laakso]

Note, I tested this by running 3000 testscripts under three VMWare testing hosts.. It wors robustly

[Jani Laakso]

Marko document this.

[Jani Laakso]

Fixed in TT documentation.