What is this all about the new InternetExplorerDriver?
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Tester
Feb 13, 2012, 9:05:53 AM2/13/12
to webdriver
Hi,
since the release of 2.19.0 there is a version of an
InternetExplorerDriver to download from this site:
http://code.google.com/p/selenium/downloads/list
I am asking myself, what purpose is this for? I didn't download it and
my InternetExplorer is still working via RemoteWebDriver. Can anyone
give me some help or explain the meaning of the new
InternetExplorerDriver to me?
Thanks a lot!
since the release of 2.19.0 there is a version of an
InternetExplorerDriver to download from this site:
http://code.google.com/p/selenium/downloads/list
I am asking myself, what purpose is this for? I didn't download it and
my InternetExplorer is still working via RemoteWebDriver. Can anyone
give me some help or explain the meaning of the new
InternetExplorerDriver to me?
Thanks a lot!
Jim Evans
Feb 13, 2012, 10:25:09 AM2/13/12
to webdriver
The standalone IE driver server is an experimental feature, and its
use is only supported by the .NET bindings as of 2.19. For now, your
existing code will continue to work without downloading the standalone
server executable, but you should expect that to change as other
language bindings are updated to take advantage of the standalone
server. The idea is to remove the native (C++) code from the
individual language bindings to normalize their use of the IE driver
native components. This is the same pattern used by the Chrome driver
as provided by the Chromium project team.
Each language has its own unique method of loading and calling code in
native dlls (Ctypes, JNA, P/Invoke, etc.), and not all of these native-
code integration methods support the same feature set. By breaking the
native code component into a separate executable, the language
bindings now can use the operating system's process management to
handle loading and unloading of the native code, which is a much more
consistent story. A nice side effect of this is that it should allow
users of all language bindings to run multiple instances of IE on the
same machine, subject to certain limitations. It also provides slight
advantages for testing 32-bit IE on a 64-bit system. Finally, it makes
it much easier to debug the internals of the IE driver, and that's the
case for people on the dev team as well as those who aren't.
tl;dr: The standalone IE driver server is an experimental feature, and
its use is only supported by the .NET bindings as of 2.19. There is no
need to download the separate executable unless you're interested in
playing with the new architecture under the .NET bindings.
--Jim
use is only supported by the .NET bindings as of 2.19. For now, your
existing code will continue to work without downloading the standalone
server executable, but you should expect that to change as other
language bindings are updated to take advantage of the standalone
server. The idea is to remove the native (C++) code from the
individual language bindings to normalize their use of the IE driver
native components. This is the same pattern used by the Chrome driver
as provided by the Chromium project team.
Each language has its own unique method of loading and calling code in
native dlls (Ctypes, JNA, P/Invoke, etc.), and not all of these native-
code integration methods support the same feature set. By breaking the
native code component into a separate executable, the language
bindings now can use the operating system's process management to
handle loading and unloading of the native code, which is a much more
consistent story. A nice side effect of this is that it should allow
users of all language bindings to run multiple instances of IE on the
same machine, subject to certain limitations. It also provides slight
advantages for testing 32-bit IE on a 64-bit system. Finally, it makes
it much easier to debug the internals of the IE driver, and that's the
case for people on the dev team as well as those who aren't.
tl;dr: The standalone IE driver server is an experimental feature, and
its use is only supported by the .NET bindings as of 2.19. There is no
need to download the separate executable unless you're interested in
playing with the new architecture under the .NET bindings.
--Jim
Tester
Feb 13, 2012, 10:38:59 AM2/13/12
to webdriver
Thank you for the nice explanation.
Maybe I can ask you a further question to IE, you seem like to know a
lot of this issue. You wrote about running multiple instances at the
same time. Is it also possible to have several versions of IE on the
same machine and selecting the different versions to run tests on
them? Like having IE 8 and 9 on the same Win7 machine.
Maybe I can ask you a further question to IE, you seem like to know a
lot of this issue. You wrote about running multiple instances at the
same time. Is it also possible to have several versions of IE on the
same machine and selecting the different versions to run tests on
them? Like having IE 8 and 9 on the same Win7 machine.
Jakub Siberski
Feb 13, 2012, 10:47:18 AM2/13/12
to webd...@googlegroups.com
I believe it was about few instances of installed IE (eg. IE8) not providing way of installing IE8 and IE9 and IE10. That is more issue with IE architecture itself than IEdriver.
--
Pozdrawiam
Jakub Siberski
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Pozdrawiam
Jakub Siberski
Tester
Feb 14, 2012, 2:40:20 AM2/14/12
to webdriver
i know, i just was wondering if it is possible. maybe someone knows...
Jim Evans
Feb 14, 2012, 8:51:45 AM2/14/12
to webdriver
No, Microsoft has made it nearly impossible to run multiple versions
of IE reliably in the same installation of Windows. It is explicitly
unsupported by them and by WebDriver. If you want to run multiple
versions of IE, you need separate installations of Windows, which is
most often accomplished via virtual machines. In fact, Microsoft
supplies virtual machine images with legacy versions of IE for testing
purposes. Search in your favorite search engine for "Internet Explorer
Application Compatibility vhd".
--Jim
of IE reliably in the same installation of Windows. It is explicitly
unsupported by them and by WebDriver. If you want to run multiple
versions of IE, you need separate installations of Windows, which is
most often accomplished via virtual machines. In fact, Microsoft
supplies virtual machine images with legacy versions of IE for testing
purposes. Search in your favorite search engine for "Internet Explorer
Application Compatibility vhd".
--Jim
David
Feb 15, 2012, 1:20:59 PM2/15/12
to webdriver
Just thought I'd share the following...
while there is no official support for multiple versions of IE, there
is some unofficial third party tools that can allow this on same
machine, though with some limitations, and far from perfect.
http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage
I haven't really used it myself yet, and currently it likely won't
work (or work well) with WebDriver unless someone makes a custom
driver for it.
while there is no official support for multiple versions of IE, there
is some unofficial third party tools that can allow this on same
machine, though with some limitations, and far from perfect.
http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage
I haven't really used it myself yet, and currently it likely won't
work (or work well) with WebDriver unless someone makes a custom
driver for it.
David
Feb 15, 2012, 1:33:16 PM2/15/12
to webdriver
FYI, I posted a suggestion to have/make a WebDriver for IETester, at
the tool's site. Not sure if anything will come of it though.
the tool's site. Not sure if anything will come of it though.
Jim Evans
Feb 15, 2012, 3:13:59 PM2/15/12
to webdriver
I applaud your initiative and understand the desire to test multiple
versions of IE in a single OS installation. Knowing what I know about
IE's architecture, however, I would actively discourage use of this or
a similar tool as a legitimate substitute for testing against an
actual installation of the version of IE in question. This is
especially true considering the shared components that get changed
with an IE release. These types of tools are frowned upon by
Microsoft, for exactly those reasons. Some may see it as a legitimate
option; I do not.
--Jim
versions of IE in a single OS installation. Knowing what I know about
IE's architecture, however, I would actively discourage use of this or
a similar tool as a legitimate substitute for testing against an
actual installation of the version of IE in question. This is
especially true considering the shared components that get changed
with an IE release. These types of tools are frowned upon by
Microsoft, for exactly those reasons. Some may see it as a legitimate
option; I do not.
--Jim
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