Selenium-RC: Troubleshooting FAQ

When first starting the server, I get this error message: "(Unsupported major.minor version 49.0)"

java -version

You should see a brief message telling you what version of Java is installed, like this:

java version "1.5.0_07"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_07-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_07-b03, mixed mode)

During the tutorial, I get a 404 error when running the getNewBrowserSession command!

First, finish reading the tutorial. Make sure you read the section about the "Same Origin Policy" carefully.

If you're getting a 404 error while attempting to open a page on "http://www.google.com/selenium-server/", then it must be because the Selenium Server was not correctly configured as a proxy. Remember, that directory doesn't really exist on google.com; it only appears to exist when the proxy is properly configured.

Now the question to ask is: why isn't my proxy properly configured? There are a number of possible reasons, depending on which way you launched your browser: with *firefox, *iexplore, *opera, or *custom.

• *iexplore: If you launched your browser using *iexplore, there are a number of likely possibilities.

  Selenium Server attempts to configure the global proxy settings in your Internet Options control panel; we need to make sure that those are correctly configured when Selenium Server launches the browser. Try looking at your Internet Options control panel. Click on the "Connections" tab and click on "LAN Settings".

  • If you have checked "Automatically detect settings", (the top check box,) you'll need to uncheck it before using Selenium RC. This is filed as bug SRC-22.

    If you need to use a proxy to access the application you want to test, you'll need to start Selenium Server with "-Dhttp.proxyHost"; see the command line options for more details.

  • Also note, as this Control Panel states, that "these settings will not apply to dial-up or VPN connections". If you're on a dial-up or VPN connection, Selenium RC cannot automatically configure the IE proxy... in fact, as far as we know, there's no standard way to configure your proxy at all, even manually! (This is filed as bug SRC-21, but it may not be possible to fix it.) As a workaround, you may be able to use the experimental *iehta browser launcher instead.

  As a last resort, you may try configuring your proxy manually and then launching your browser with *custom, or with our experimental *iehta browser launcher.

• *custom: When using *custom, it's up to you to configure the proxy correctly (manually). If you forgot to do this, or if you configured the proxy incorrectly, you'll get a 404 error. Double-check that you've configured your proxy settings correctly. Note that in some browsers it's very easy to make a mistake and change the wrong settings, thinking that you've configured your proxy, when you've really had no effect at all.

  One way to tell whether you've configured your proxy correctly is to attempt to intentionally configure your browser incorrectly. Try configuring your browser to use the wrong proxy server hostname, or the wrong port. If you've successfully configured your browser's proxy settings incorrectly, your browser will be unable to connect to the Internet, which is one way to make sure you're adjusting the relevant settings.

  For example, you might try configuring your browser to use the proxy server "asdflkjdasf" on port "1234". Then try connecting to google.com in the ordinary way, and doing a search. If you connect successfully to google.com, then you must not have really changed your proxy settings at all! You might also try turning your Selenium Server off while using the correct settings (localhost on port 4444). You should not be able to connect to Google if your proxy is disabled. If it seems like you can, then you know you've almost certainly made a mistake.

  Note that this problem can be especially troublesome on Internet Explorer, which can sometimes ignore whatever proxy settings are configured, even manually! (This normally happens when you're using a dial-up Internet connection, or if you're using a VPN.) In that case, you may not be able to configure your proxy at all. As a workaround, you may be able to use the experimental *iehta browser launcher instead.

• SSL/HTTPS: If you attempt to start a browser session on an HTTPS URL, we will try to use our proxy to intercept these encrypted instructions. See the section on HTTPS in the tutorial. This may cause your browser to spawn a pop-up warning you that someone may be intercepting your secure transaction; in this case, that is actually happening. Our proxy is forging SSL credentials and trying to make your browser accept them. (We hope to one day to be able to automatically configure browsers not to present these warnings.) In the meantime, if our built-in SSL support doesn't work for you, you'll have to use one of our experimental browser launchers to test sites that require HTTPS support.
• others (*firefox, *opera): For the others, we automatically hard-code the proxy for you, and don't know of any known issues with this functionality. If you're encountering 404 errors in the tutorial while using these browser launchers, post them to our user forums... they might be bugs!

During the tutorial, I can't access Google when running the "open" command!

First, finish reading the tutorial. Make sure you read the section about the "Same Origin Policy" carefully.

There's a couple of possible reasons this might be happening:

• This might be a simple issue where you've mistyped the commands. Make sure you type the commands exactly as they appear in the tutorial.
• Selenium RC automatically configures the browser to use the Selenium Server as a proxy. But if you need to use another proxy to access the Internet, then you may not be able to access Google while using the Selenium Server as a proxy. (The Selenium Server will not automatically use your proxy; it will attempt to contact Google directly.)

  If you need to use a proxy to access the application you want to test, you'll need to start Selenium Server with "-Dhttp.proxyHost"; see the command line options for more details.

  .

Why am I getting a Permission Denied error when using Selenium RC?

This usually happens because you have run afoul of the Same Origin Policy. If your browser session starts on one origin, but then you attempt to load up a page from another origin (with a different domain, protocol or port), you'll run into these Permission Denied errors.

In most cases, you can remedy this just by making sure that your browser session starts on the right origin. You can't test www.google.com from a browser session starting at google.com, so you'll just need to start your browser session differently.

If for some reason you absolutely need to be able to access websites on multiple domains, then right now the only way to do that is to use one of our experimental browser launchers.

Selenium Server launches the browser in just one particular configuration (pop-ups blocked, etc.). I need to test running the browser in a different configuration. How do I do that?

Normally Selenium RC automatically configures your browser, but if you launch your browser using "*custom" as your browser launcher, you can force Selenium RC to launch the browser as-is, without changing your configuration. (Note that this is also the way you launch other browsers that Selenium RC doesn't yet explicitly support.)

cmd=getNewBrowserSession&1=*custom c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe&2=http://www.google.com

Note that when we launch the browser in this way, you'll have to manually configure your browser to use the Selenium Server as a proxy. (Normally this just means opening your browser preferences and specifying "localhost:4444" as an HTTP proxy, but instructions for this can differ radically from browser to browser, so consult your browser's documentation for details.)

Beware that Mozilla browsers can be a little fidgety about how they start and stop. You may need to set the MOZ_NO_REMOTE environment variable to make Mozilla browsers behave a little more predictably. Unix users should avoid launching your browser using a shell script; always prefer to use the binary executable (e.g. firefox-bin) directly.

If you attempt to launch a *custom browser but don't configure the proxy correctly, you won't be able to get through even a simple Google test, because you'll get a 404 (File not found) error trying to access http://www.google.com/selenium-server/. Remember, that directory doesn't really exist on Google.com; it only appears to exist when the proxy is properly configured. If you get this error, double-check that you've configured your proxy settings correctly. Note that in some browsers it's very easy to make a mistake and change the wrong settings, thinking that you've configured your proxy, when you've really had no effect at all.

One way to tell whether you've configured your proxy correctly is to attempt to intentionally configure your browser incorrectly. Try configuring your browser to use the wrong proxy server hostname, or the wrong port. If you've successfully configured your browser's proxy settings incorrectly, your browser will be unable to connect to the Internet, which is one way to make sure you're adjusting the relevant settings.

For example, you might try configuring your browser to use the proxy server "asdflkjdasf" on port "1234". Then try connecting to google.com in the ordinary way, and doing a search. If you connect successfully to google.com, then you must not have really changed your proxy settings at all! You might also try turning your Selenium Server off while using the correct settings (localhost on port 4444). You should not be able to connect to Google if your proxy is disabled. If it seems like you can, then you know you've almost certainly made a mistake.

Note that this problem can be especially troublesome on Internet Explorer, which can sometimes ignore whatever proxy settings are configured, even manually! (This normally happens when you're using a dial-up Internet connection, or if you're using a VPN). In that case, you may not be able to configure your proxy at all. As a workaround, you may be able to use the experimental *iehta browser launcher instead.

On Linux, why isn't my Firefox browser session closing?

On Unix/Linux we need to invoke "firefox-bin" directly, so make sure that executable is on the path. If we're forced to execute Firefox through a shell script, when it comes time to kill the browser Selenium RC will kill the shell script, leaving the browser running.

If necessary, you can specify the path to firefox-bin directly, like this:

cmd=getNewBrowserSession&1=*firefox /usr/local/firefox/firefox-bin&2=http://www.google.com