Skip to main content

Marionette Web driver and STF

If you were also stuck with Firefox 47 and Selenium 2.53 issue then this is right time to start experimenting with Marionette.  
But Before delving into Marionette, let’s see what a web browser engine is. Web browser engine is a program which renders markup content (i.e. html, xml, images etc) and the format information (i.e. css, xsl etc). It is also known as layout or rendering engine. In simple words, web browser engine is responsible for how you are able to see a web page in a browser, email client or e-book reader. Some of the most popular web browser engines are -
  • Webkit which is used in safari and chrome browsers
  • Gecko used in Firefox, Thunderbird email client
Marionette is WebDriver version for Mozilla’s Gecko engine. It can control both the browser (menu, function etc) also known as chrome (don’t confuse with google chrome browser ;-)) and the content within the browser (something which is of immense value for test automation).


Marionette also follows the client server architecture of other web drivers. Client sends commands to server and server executes them Gecko engine. Marionette ships with Firefox.


Using Marionette -


If you are not using STF then you should follow these steps -
  • Set the path
System.setProperty("webdriver.gecko.driver", "/path/to/geckodriver");
  • And start the Marionette driver
DesiredCapabilities capabilities = DesiredCapabilities.firefox();
capabilities.setCapability("marionette", true);
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(capabilities);
That’s all and now you are ready to drive firefox using Marionette driver
If you are using STF then you just have to specify browser as *marionette and that’s all. Beware the Marionette is yet new and you may encountered unexpected failures during test run.
Found a bug in Marionette? Check list of existing bugs before filing a new bug.
Found a bug in STF. Please report it on GitHub.
A note from automated tester about Marionette future versions -


Marionette will be turned on by default from Selenium 3, which is currently being worked on by the Selenium community. Ideally when Firefox 52 comes around you will just update to Selenium 3 and, fingers crossed, all works as planned.

Grab the latest version of STF and start experimenting with Marionette :)
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Verify email confirmation using Selenium WebDriver

Note: If you are new to java and selenium then start with selenium java training videos .   How to Verify Email Confirmation Using Selenium 4 and JavaMail (2026 Guide) Email confirmation is a critical part of most registration flows — account activation, password reset, multi-factor authentication, and onboarding. Every automation engineer eventually faces the same challenge: How do you verify an email confirmation link inside a Selenium test without making it slow and flaky? The wrong instinct is to automate Gmail's UI with Selenium. It's fragile, slow, and breaks constantly. The right approach: Use Selenium for browser automation Use JavaMail (IMAP) to read the email directly Extract the confirmation link Continue the test in Selenium Why Not Automate Gmail UI With Selenium? Automating the Gmail UI means logging in, searching, clicking a message, and parsing content from a third-party interface that changes frequently. This leads to: Flaky...
13 comments
Read more

Using xPath to reach parent of an element

Note: If you are new to java and selenium then start with selenium java training videos .   I generally prefer CSS selectors over XPath when writing Selenium locators. CSS selectors are concise, readable, and usually provide everything I need. However, there are situations where XPath is a better fit—particularly when I need to navigate through an element's hierarchy, such as moving from an element to its parent, grandparent, or sibling. This post shows one such real-world example. The Problem I came across a situation where I needed to click a link based on the value of an input field. The HTML structure contained multiple similar groups of elements. The input field and the link I wanted to click were not directly related, but they shared a common parent structure. In the following example above, the input element is highlighted, and I need to click the corresponding anchor ( <a> ) element . The challenge is that there may be multiple similar structures on the page. I th...
Read more

Real Time JMeter Result Using Backend Listener

Since JMeter 2.13 Backend Listener has been available to create real time graph of JMeter Test. Following tutorial explain the entire process in detail. At the end of this tutorial you would be able to create JMeter Live Test Result dashboard similar to following - This tutorial borrows information from many sources and my own experiments with JMeter live reporting dashboard. I have added source of information wherever applicable But before we can build such a snazzy JMeter Live Reporting dashboard we need to understand two more components - influxDB (a time series database) and Grafana Dashboard This is a big tutorial, so take deep breath :-) and follow on. Once you complete set up specified in this tutorial then you can watch JMeter Training Video Tutorial to watch this in action. What is Time Series Database? A time series is a sequence of data points , typically consisting of successive measurements made over a time interval . Examples of time ...
Read more