View source for Running IDE scripts with Selenium RC

Selenium IDE scripts may be run in Selenium RC by running them directly on the server with a -htmlSuite parameter. The Selenium RC doc is [http://seleniumhq.org/docs/05_selenium_rc.html#run-selenese-directly-within-the-server-using-htmlsuite here].<br> 

These notes are based on Selenium RC 1.0.1.<br> 

==== Create a test suite file  ====

RC operates on SIDE&nbsp;test suite files, rather than test case files.&nbsp; The test suite contains the file names of the test case(s) to run.&nbsp; A test suite file exists in the same directory as the test case file(s). 

#Create an empty test suite file as follows: In SIDE select File &gt; New Test Suite. Select Save Test Suite As and save the file with an html extension in the same directory as the test case(s). <br> 
#In a text editor open the test suite file and find the line &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;a href="../../.."&gt;Untitled&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;. &nbsp;Copy the line for each test case the suite will run.<br> 
#Replace ../.. in the href with the test case file name.&nbsp; The directory name can be omitted or be ./ (dot slash) since the test case and suite are in the same directory. <br> 
#Change the text from "Untitled" to the test case title. <br> 
#Above the test cases find the lines &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;b&gt;Test Suite&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt; and &lt;title&gt;Test Suite&lt;/title&gt;.&nbsp; Replace "Test Suite" with an appropriate test suite title. 
#Confirm the test suite file works by running it in SIDE: File &gt; Open Test Suite.&nbsp; Run the entire test suite using the run icon with '''three dark green bars'''.

( If there's a an easier way to create the full test suite from IDE let's include it. ) 

<br>

==== Set Up Selenium RC  ====

#Download the Selenium RC zip from the Selenium HQ [http://seleniumhq.org/download/ downloads] page.&nbsp; Unzip to a convenient location. 
#In the Selenium Remote Control folder open the selenium-server-* subfolder and check that it contains selenium-server.jar. 
#Create a file that contains all user extensions required by the tests.&nbsp; Name the file user-extensions.js and save in the directory containing selenium-server.jar.&nbsp; If the tests require only one user extension the user extension file may be copied and renamed.&nbsp;&nbsp;If multiple user extensions are needed copy/append them into one file.&nbsp; If the sequence in which they are listed is significant in the Selenium Core Extensions option in IDE, they must appear the same sequence in the user-extensions.js file.<br>
<pre>IMPORTANT: The user extension goto_sel_ide that defines the While and Goto commands does not 
work with Selenium RC.  Include the user extension goto_sel08.js instead.
(let's include a link here to the flow control user extensions when someone finds it)
</pre> 
<br> 

==== Running an IDE&nbsp;Test Suite<br>  ====

#Open a Windows command line window and set the current directory to the location of selenium-server.jar. 
#Enter the command ''java -jar selenium-server.jar'' with the necessary options on one line.&nbsp; Below, the options are displayed on multiple lines for readability.

      java 
         -jar selenium-server.jar 
         -userExtensions user-extensions.js
         -htmlSuite 
            "*chrome" 
            "&lt;base URL&gt;" 
            "&lt;Selenium test suite file&gt;" 
            "&lt;results log file&gt;"  
        -timeout nnnn

{| cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" border="1" width="651" style=""
|+ Selenium Server Options 
|-
| -user Extensions<br> 
| &nbsp;user-extensions.js is the only option<br>
|-
| -htmlSuite<br> 
| displays help text if no parameters are provided<br>
|-
| <br> 
| 1st parameter is the browser to run the script in. In RC&nbsp;1.0.1 *chrome = Firefox, *iehta = Internet Explorer.&nbsp; (options in RC 1.0.2 are expected to be *firefox and *iexplore, respectively)<br>
|-
| <br> 
| 2nd parameter is base URL, same as in IDE.&nbsp; Required but may be a dummy URL if not relevant to the script.<br>
|-
| <br> 
| 3rd parameter is absolute path of the Selenium test suite file.<br>
|-
| <br> 
| 4th parameter is absolute path of the results log.&nbsp; see below for more information<br>
|-
| -timeout<br> 
| time limit in seconds for the script to run.&nbsp; Default is 1800 seconds (~30 minutes).&nbsp; If the timeout is reached selenium-server terminates with the error HTML suite exception seen: org.openqa.selenium.server.SeleniumCommandTimedOutException<br>
|}

<br> 

==== Results Log File<br>  ====

*File is created in XML format and name should use .html file extension. <br> 
*The upper section lists the script commands and outputs from some executions of echo commands.<br> 
*The lower section is the command execution runtime log. 
*After the script finishes RC immediately creates the first part of the log file. There may be a long delay while the remainder of the log is created.<br>

===== Echo Command &nbsp;Output  =====

Output from an echo command is not displayed as a separate line as in IDE.&nbsp; Instead it appears as the command's 2nd parameter which is otherwise unused for echo.&nbsp; One of two scenarios result: 

An echo command is executed only once: 

*The output appears with the echo command in the command listing (upper section). 
*In the execution log (lower section) the echo's 2nd parameter is empty.

An echo command is executed multiple times, such as in a while-loop. 

*In the execution log an echo's first execution does not show output.&nbsp; Each following execution of the same echo command displays the output from the previous execution. 
*The output from the echo's last execution appears in the command listing.

The overall pattern is consistent across the two scenarios:&nbsp;Attempt to store an echo's output in the command listing, unless a previous output exists.&nbsp; If there is a previous output, copy it to the current line in the execution log before saving the current output in the command listing. 

For a sequence of commands in a script that are executed in order, the echo outputs in either the command listing or execution log are in the same order that the outputs were generated.&nbsp; When flow control (nested while-loops, goto-If ) affects execution order, the echo outputs may not be the order that they were generated.<br>