How to send an http RequestHeader using Selenium 2?

Question

I needed to send an Http request with a few modified headers. After several hours trying to find an equivalent method to that of Selenium RC Selenium.addCustomRequestHeader for Selenium 2, I gave up and used JavaScript for my purposes. I have expected this to be a lot easier!

Does someone know a better method?

This is what I have done:

javascript.js

var test = {
    "sendHttpHeaders": function(dst, header1Name, header1Val, header2Name, header2Val) {
        var http = new XMLHttpRequest();

        http.open("GET", dst, "false");
        http.setRequestHeader(header1Name,header1Val);
        http.setRequestHeader(header2Name,header2Val);
        http.send(null);
    }
}

MyTest.java

// ...

@Test
public void testFirstLogin() throws Exception {
    WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

    String url = System.getProperty(Constants.URL_PROPERTY_NAME);
    driver.get(url);

    // Using javascript to send http headers
    String scriptResource = this.getClass().getPackage().getName()
        .replace(".", "/") + "/javascript.js";

    String script = getFromResource(scriptResource)
            + "test.sendHttpHeaders(\"" + url + "\", \"" + h1Name
            + "\", \"" + h1Val + "\", \"" + h2Name + "\", \"" + h2Val + "\");";
    LOG.debug("script: " + script);

    ((JavascriptExecutor)driver).executeScript(loginScript);

    // ...
}

// I don't like mixing js with my code. I've written this utility method to get
// the js from the classpath
/**
 * @param src name of a resource that must be available from the classpath
 * @return new string with the contents of the resource
 * @throws IOException if resource not found
 */
public static String getFromResource(String src) throws IOException {
    InputStream is = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().
            getResourceAsStream(src);
    if (null == is) {
        throw new IOException("Resource " + src + " not found.");
    }
    InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(is);
    BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
    StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
    PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(sw);

    String line = null;
    int nLines = 0;
    while (null != (line = br.readLine())) {
        pw.println(line);
        nLines ++;
    }
    LOG.info("Resource " + src + " successfully copied into String (" + nLines + " lines copied).");
    return sw.toString();
}

// ...

Notice: To simplify this post, I have edited my original code. I hope I haven't introduced any errors!

Answer 1

Unfortunately you can not change headers with Selenium 2. This has been a conscious decision on the teams part as we are trying to create a browser automation framework that emulates what a user can do.

Answer 2

As per Alberto's answer you can add modify headers to the Firefox profile if you are using it:

FirefoxDriver createFirefoxDriver() throws URISyntaxException, IOException {
    FirefoxProfile profile = new FirefoxProfile();
    URL url = this.getClass().getResource("/modify_headers-0.7.1.1-fx.xpi");
    File modifyHeaders = modifyHeaders = new File(url.toURI());

    profile.setEnableNativeEvents(false);
    profile.addExtension(modifyHeaders);

    profile.setPreference("modifyheaders.headers.count", 1);
    profile.setPreference("modifyheaders.headers.action0", "Add");
    profile.setPreference("modifyheaders.headers.name0", SOME_HEADER);
    profile.setPreference("modifyheaders.headers.value0", "true");
    profile.setPreference("modifyheaders.headers.enabled0", true);
    profile.setPreference("modifyheaders.config.active", true);
    profile.setPreference("modifyheaders.config.alwaysOn", true);

    DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
    capabilities.setBrowserName("firefox");
    capabilities.setPlatform(org.openqa.selenium.Platform.ANY);
    capabilities.setCapability(FirefoxDriver.PROFILE, profile);
    return new FirefoxDriver(capabilities);
}