How do I run Firefox browser headless with my Ruby script?

Question

I need to be able to run my Ruby scripts with my Hudson builds but don't want a browser window attempting to open. I tried:

batman:ETW cmiller$ ./createAccount.rb -b

but this did not work.

How can I run my Ruby scripts using FireWatir headless?

Running on Mac OSX

Answer 1

I'd suggest the usage of PhantomJS (http://phantomjs.org/download.html) Add binaries to your path and run:

    MEDBEDbs-iMac:~ medbedb$ irb
    1.9.3p392 :001 > require 'watir-webdriver'
     => true 
    1.9.3p392 :002 > b = Watir::Browser.new :phantomjs
     => #<Watir::Browser:0x..fe670a70a449fe1ca url="about:blank" title=""> 
    1.9.3p392 :003 > b.goto "www.google.com"
     => "http://www.google.md/" 
    1.9.3p392 :004 > b.url 
     => "http://www.google.md/" 
    1.9.3p392 :005 > b.title
     => "Google"
    1.9.3p392 :007 > b.text
 => "+Вы\nПоиск\nКартинки\nКарты\nPlay\nПочта\nДиск\nКалендарь\nЕщё\nВойти\n×\nОткрывай любимые сайты быстрее\nЗагрузить Google Chrome\n\nМолдoва\n\n \nРасширенный поиск\nЯзыковые инструменты\n\nGoogle.md предлагается на: Moldovenească\n\nРекламные программыВсё о GoogleGoogle.com\n© 2013 - Правила и принципы" 

Answer 2

I would look at using Watir-Webdriver instead of just plain Watir or Fire-watir. Especially since the only way to work with newer versions of firefox is going to be via Watir-Webdriver.

There's an earlier SO question where the answer covers just this sort of thing, so I'd suggest trying what is described there there first. Can I use Watir to scrape data from a website on a linux server without monitor?

Also since I now know you are using Mac OS, the advice in this thread from the webdriver google group might be more applicable to you