FluentSharp, FluentNode or NWR needs your help

If you are into C# take on an issue from https://github.com/o2platform/FluentSharp/issues

If you are into NodeJS take on an issue from https://github.com/o2platform/FluentNode/issues

If you are into Chrome or Selenium take on an issue from https://github.com/O2Platform/nwr/issues

Thanks :)

Node + Chrome TDD test environment (finally got it to work)

In the past 3 months I've spent countless hours (and a good number of weekends) trying to figure out a way to better TDD node and JS, and finally I got it to work:

Node-Webkit REPL with support for Chrome's WebDriver

I needed to write some Selenium WebDriver scripts and since I couldn't find a good REPL for it, I wrote this one in the last coupe days:

I'm actually really happy with how it turned out:

See https://github.com/o2platform/webkit-repl  for the execution instructions, the code and more screenshots

This UI is based on https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit and the selenium/webdriver integration is provided by https://github.com/admc/wd

Chrome OS is now running under a 64 bit CPU

While following the Node and NPM on Chromebook (Chrome OS) blog on how to set up Node, I had the same problem as some of the users that posted a comment. I was getting an cannot execute binary file error when trying to run the downloaded binary files from Archlinux.

This can be confirmed by running uname -m (one of the ways to check if linux OS is 32 bit or 64 Bit) which should return x86_64.

This means that the links provided on that link should be changed from:

Running git, node, python,make and levelgraph on Chrome OS (inside a ChromeBook)

After creating the Chrome REPL extension, I was curious if it would run under Chrome OS and ChromeBook. To try it out, I was able to get my hands on a Dell ChromeBook 11, and It was nice to see that it worked perfectly.

While using the ChromeBook I was thinking that if I was able to run (tools like) git, node and LevelGraph (which is needed for my current dev focus at SI: TM_Graph_DB) I would have a really portable development environment (specially for running longish batches of Unit Tests).

After a bit of Linux fiddling, I was able to get it working and here is a screenshot of the final result:

Chrome REPL (first O2 Platform Chrome Extension)

I was doing some browser automation and it was driving crazy the fact that I was not able easily write code directly on Chrome. Basically what I needed was a Chrome REPL, and since after looking for one, I couldn't find one that suited my needs, I decided to write one :)

It was quite easy to write (about 1 day's work) since Chrome is quite an easy platform to develop for.

You can get this extension from the Chrome Web Store or from the Chrome-REPL Github repo (you can install from the code if you enable 'developer mode')

Here is how to install it from the Web Store and run a couple of the provided test scripts

Opening up a native Chrome Browser window inside Eclipse (raw version)

On the Win32 Window’s Hijack theme, here is a raw version of how to show an actual Chrome browser window inside an Eclipse view (ie. a window from a C++ process inside a JVM-based Process).

Using the Groovy execution capabilities described in the Programming Eclipse in Real-Time (using an 'Groovy based' Eclipse Plug-in) post, in Eclipse, I start by creating an instance of a SWT panel and get its handle:

Writing REPL scripts on side-by-side Chrome and IE

Following the Chrome-Hijacking posts, I’m starting to convert the WatiN Extension methods into ChromeDriver, and to do so needed to execute requests side-by-side (to test the APIs and to be able to write UnitTests for them).

To do that (side-by-side Chrome and IE execution) I wrote this script:

When the best way to automate Chrome is to use ... Chrome (with examples on Google search, direct AngularJS scope manipulation and ChromeDriver javascript access)

On the topic of Web Automation, I always wanted to have a REPL environment for Chrome like I have for IE (using Watin).

In the past I have explored multiple solutions, for example the use of CefSharp (see here and here). But that was never the real thing, and there was always a couple issues (caused by the fact that the ‘real’ chrome wasn't being used).

For a while, in the back on my mind the solution was simple and obvious: Use the real Chrome process in a way that it can be programmatically accessed from an O2’s C# repl environment!

Well, the good news is that is exactly what I have done :)

I just created the Gui you can see below, which uses the Window-Hikacking technique to inject an (Selenium's ChromeDriver started) Chrome process' window in a Panel, and pass its reference (as a variable) to an O2 REPL environment.

Running TeamMentor WebAutomation UnitTests locally (using Selenium and ChromeDriver)

If you want to run the TeamMentor's WebAutomation UnitTests (for example to see how we use Selenium and the multiple WebDrivers, like ChromeDriver), there are couple gotchas that you will need to take into account.

This post shows how I went from a git clone to a full execution of all unit tests.

Using Chrome inside a native VisualStudio pane (using Window Handle Hijacking)

To help me debug and visualize an AngularJS page I was developing, I used the O2’s Window Handle Hijack technique to insert an Chrome window inside VisualStudio 2010.

Here it is in action: