Just a wild guess, but are you running on 64-bit Windows 7? What version of IEDriverServer.exe are you running, 32-bit or 64-bit?
IE, or any process, for that matter, can't load a cross-bitness .dll (an ActiveX control is a .dll with some specific API endpoints built into it). So if your ActiveX control is a 32-bit ActiveX control, you won't see it when you start 64-bit IE. For the same reason, the "bitness" version of IE that gets launched by IEDriverServer.exe (and therefore by watir-webdriver) is determined by the "bitness" of the executable. --Jim On Thursday, April 25, 2013 12:52:13 PM UTC-4, Alan May wrote: > > Hi, > > I understand that Watir doesn't support ActiveX controls.(I have read the > FAQ entry and several posts on this matter). > > I think Watir is an incredibly useful tool for web application testing and > I've had good results with using it on various projects. Please bear with > me for a brief thought exercise: > > I've been just experimenting with using watir to lead me through a web > flow until the point that I come to an Internet Explorer specific control > (spawns a separate window) (I am thinking this is probably based in ActiveX > technology... I had to install an .exe file on my client to access the > functionality and the functionality is only visible in Internet Explorer.) > My tenative plan is to use Ruby to interact with the ffi gem or, somewhat > more crudely, invoke a java class that leverages the java.awt.Robot.class > to finish the necessary flow. > > Working in Windows 7, I have noticed something I didn't anticipate.... > > when I invoke: > > c:\"Program Files"\"Internet Explorer"\iexplore.exe // the > control doesn't seem to be recognized as installed (the app is checking for > the installed software at the beginning of its flow) > > However, > > If I invoke: > start iexplore.exe > // the control appears to be loaded and works as anticipated. > > > When I load the IE browser(version 9.0.8) through webdriver, I get the > behavior I see when I invoke iexplore.exe without the "start" directive. > > > > I was going to also try the original Watir IE driver and attempt the same > thing with Selenium (and potentially try other frameworks if I exhaust > those options), but just wanted to check with this group beforehand in case > anyone had any suggestions. > I don't have direct access to the source code, so white box approaches > won't work in this situation. > > I looked at the command line switches for Internet Explorer 9, and there > is a switch for disabling loading add-ons, but I didn't see anything else > that might appear useful. > > > Anyway, I was just curious if anyone had had success with using a similar > approach/technique or could give me any guidance. I'm a bit stuck if the > control isn't accessible at all (for instance if I have watir bring up the > browser, and I step through the flow manually from that point). I wasn't > sure if the issue with being able to have IE load applets, activeX controls > --- and --- once you have them loaded, not having a mechanism to recognize > and click widgets (since they aren't native web form controls, links, etc.) > --- OR if it was just the latter issue. > > Is anyone aware of a potential workaround for the loading issue? > > Thanks for your time! > Alan > > > > > > > > > > -- -- Before posting, please read http://watir.com/support. In short: search before you ask, be nice. [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/watir-general [email protected] --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Watir General" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
