Thanks so much for your suggestion Jim. I'm trying some different experiments based on your feedback.
Have a great weekend and thank you for your assistance. Best Regards, Alan On Thursday, April 25, 2013 12:01:08 PM UTC-5, Jim Evans wrote: > > 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.
