Clearing cache, cookies, and history of browsers

To optimize the performance of web browsers that are used to play back Web UI tests, you can clear cache, cookies, and history of browsers.

Before you begin

  • You must have closed all the instances of the web browser for which you want to clear cache, cookies, and history.
  • For Mac operating system, you must have provided full disk access to the applications that are used by Rational® Functional Tester by performing the following steps:
    1. Click System Preferences > Security and Privacy.
    2. Click Privacy tab and then select Full Disk Access.
    3. Add the following applications for full disk access:
      • Eclipse: /Applications/IBM/SDP/Eclipse
      • Java: /Applications/IBM/SDP/jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java and /Applications/IBM/SDP/jdk/Contents/Home/jre/bin/java

About this task

When you want to clear the browser data of any browser, you must use a different browser to generate reports.
Restriction:
  • You cannot clear the browser data of the Internet Explorer browser.
  • You cannot clear the browser data in the following scenarios:
    • When you run Web UI tests in Rational® Test Automation Server
    • When you play back Web UI tests on multiple devices in parallel
    • When you play back AFT tests

Procedure

  1. Go to Preferences > Test Execution > UI Test Playback.
  2. Click the Desktop tab.
  3. Select the Clear Cache and Clear history checkboxes in the Clear browser data section.

    Alternatively, you can also select the checkboxes from the Run Configuration dialog box by clicking the Configure UI Test Playback Preference link.

    You can clear the browser data of the browsers that are installed in the following operating systems:
    Operating System Supported browsers
    Windows Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Microsoft Edge
    Linux Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome
    Mac Safari , Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Microsoft Edge
  4. Set the user profile based on browsers.
    Note: If you do not set any profile, then the temporary profile of the browser is used.
    You must perform the following steps to set the user profile for the Google Chrome, Firefox, and Opera browsers:
    1. Do the following tasks in the browser:
      1. Open the browser and enter the following text in the browser URL to find the profile path for each of the browsers:
        • For Google Chrome, enter Chrome://version.
        • For Firefox, enter about:support.
        • For Opera, enter about:/.
      The browser details are displayed.
    2. Copy the complete profile path from the Profile Path field.
      1. Do the following tasks in Rational Functional Tester:
        1. Click Windows > Preferences > UI Test Playback > Browser tab.
        2. Select the checkbox of the browser for which you want to clear the cache, history and cookies, and then enter the profile value in the User Profile field.
  5. Click Apply and Close.

Results

The browser cache, cookies, and history are cleared soon after you start the play back of Web UI tests.