Enabling Mozilla Firefox for Web UI testing

Before you can record a Web UI test of a web application that is already running in the Firefox browser, you must first install the IBM® Rational® Functional Tester Web UI browser extension for Firefox.

About this task

If you are using Firefox v54 and later, you should install the new Firefox web extension. There are Web UI extensions for the different versions of Firefox: for Firefox until v53, and from Firefox v54.

To get the Web UI extension for Firefox, navigate to default shared directory IBMIMShared of IBM® Rational® Functional Tester.
  • Until Firefox v53: Two files are available webuirecorderextension-windows.xpi for Windows and webuirecorderextension-linux.xpi for Linux in the WebUIRecorderExtension folder.
    Note: For example:
    • On a Windows™ computer, the directory could be as follows:
      C:\Program Files\IBM\IBMIMShared\plugins\com.ibm.rational.test.rtw.webgui.browextension.firefox_version number\WebUIRecorderExtension/
    • On a Linux™ computer, the directory could be as follows: 
      /opt/IBM/IBMIMShared/plugins/com.ibm.rational.test.rtw.webgui.browextension.firefox_version number/WebUIRecorderExtension
  • From Firefox v54 and later, the webuirecorder_webext.xpi file is available in the WebUIRecorderWebExtension folder. You can use this extension file on Windows™, on Linux™ and on Mac OS.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the appropriate folder to select the Web UI browser extension for Firefox.
  2. In Firefox, click Tools > Add-ons > , and then click Extensions.
  3. Drag the appropriate extension file webuirecorderextension-windows.xpi , webuirecorderextension-linux.xpi or webuirecorder_webext.xpi to the list of extensions on the Firefox Extensions page.
  4. When prompted, select the extension, and click Install Now.

    Firefox displays a message indicating that the extension was installed successfully.

  5. Perform the following steps if you want to record tests in the private mode of a browser:
    Note: If you want to record any test in the private mode, you must configure the test by selecting the private mode option for the browser in the Rational® Functional Tester UI.
    1. Check and ensure that you have added the Rational® Functional Tester - Web UI extension to the default-release profile of the browser (C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles).
    2. Enable only the Rational® Functional Tester - Web UI extension and disable or remove the other Rational® Functional Tester extension, if installed.
    3. Go to Add ons and themes > Extensions > Manage Extension from the browser menu.
    4. Enable the following option that is listed for the Web UI extension:
      • Run in Private Windows
    5. Close all open browsers. You can also check and end any browser processes that might be running in the background.

What to do next

Record a test using an existing instance of the Firefox browser. See Recording a Web UI test by using a running browser instance for details.

To record a test on Mozilla® Firefox® browser 54 or later, you need to select a user profile that is associated to the extension plug-in. For details, see Recording a Web UI test.