Creating firefox profile for selenium tests

Sometimes it’s really useful to start Firefox browser with preconfigured properties in it's profile
It allows us to add some firefox addons like FireBug, and also using “setPreference()” method we can customize Firefox settings for out tests.

Let's look into a simple firefox profile for selenium tests example:



[code lang="java"]FirefoxDriver firefoxDriver = new FirefoxDriver(getFireFoxProfile());
firefoxDriver.navigate().to("http://www.skillim.com");[/code]

In method getFireFoxProfile() we will set up some specific Firefox settings:

[code lang="java"]
private FirefoxProfile getFireFoxProfile(){
FirefoxProfile firefoxProfile = new FirefoxProfile();
firefoxProfile.setPreference("network.proxy.type", 4);
firefoxProfile.setPreference("browser.startup.homepage", "about:blank");
firefoxProfile.setPreference("privacy.popups.showBrowserMessage", false);
firefoxProfile.setPreference("network.cookie.prefsMigrated", true);
firefoxProfile.setPreference("network.cookie.lifetimePolicy", 3);
firefoxProfile.setPreference("network.cookie.lifetime.days", 30);
firefoxProfile.setPreference("app.update.enabled", false);
firefoxProfile.setPreference("app.update.auto", false);
return firefoxProfile;
}[/code]

                                         Let's briefly describe all these properties.

[code lang="java" title="<strong>Configure desirable proxy settings</strong>" firstline="3"]
firefoxProfile.setPreference("network.proxy.type", 4);
[/code]

0 -  Direct connection, no proxy
1 -  Manual proxy configuration.
2 -  Proxy auto-configuration (PAC).
3 - The same like 0
4 - Auto-detect proxy settings
5-  Use system proxy settings

[code lang="java" title="<strong>Setting start page value - 'about:blank'</strong>" firstline="4"]
firefoxProfile.setPreference("browser.startup.homepage", "about:blank");
[/code]

[code lang="java" title="<strong>Switching off popups dialogs</strong>" firstline="5"]
firefoxProfile.setPreference("privacy.popups.showBrowserMessage", false);
[/code]

[code lang="java" title="<strong>Cookies migration preferences for other profiles</strong>" firstline="6"]
firefoxProfile.setPreference("network.cookie.prefsMigrated", true);
[/code]

[code lang="java" title="<strong>Setting coockies life time</strong>" firstline="7"]
firefoxProfile.setPreference("network.cookie.lifetimePolicy", 3);
[/code]

0 - Accept cookies normally
1 - Prompt for each cookie
2 - Accept for current session only
3 - Accept for N days

[code lang="java" title="<strong>Setting cookies lifetime limit(default value=90 days)</strong>" firstline="8"]
firefoxProfile.setPreference("network.cookie.lifetime.days", 30);
[/code]

This option could be used only if network.cookie.lifetimePolicy is set to 3

More information about cookies properties you can find here

[code lang="java" title="S<strong>witching off firefox automatic updates</strong>" firstline="9"]
firefoxProfile.setPreference("app.update.enabled", "false");
firefoxProfile.setPreference("app.update.auto", "false");
[/code]

All avaliable firefox properties you can  find in firefox browser

1. Start Browser

2. Open "about:config" page

3. Page with all available parametrs will be opened