change Watir browser headers - watir

Question

How is it possible to change browser header with Watir?
I'd like to change browser headers (in Firefox or Chrome) when using Watir.
I know about watir-user-agent gem, but I'm interested in changing browser version.
Is that possible?
Thanks

Answer 1

Yes this can be done.
Unfortunately Watir does not seem to provide any very easy way to do this
However, here are 2 simple options which work:
A. Use a proxy server.
This is a well understood way to modify headers generally. However I have not personally used it during automation.
Steps :
1. Setup proxy server before your test code is executed
2. Ensure the proxy server will add the required headers to every request
3. Then when your test browser requests any page ----> the proxy server will automatically add the required headers.
B. Use browser extensions
Since Watir cannot seem to to modify headers by itself ... then we just ask Watir to use a normal browser extension which can!
I have done this successfully using Chrome and firefox
Note: These steps work with ONLY the indicated extensions - but a similar approach should also work fine for many other extensions.
Firefox Steps:
1. Start firefox
2. Search for 'Modify Headers Firefox' using a very popular search engine .... the top result is https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/firefox/addon/modify-headers/
3. Download the .xpi file for this extension ... currently you can do this by right clicking on the button and clicking "save link as"
4. Install the extension as normal, change the headers as you wish, close firefox, then locate and save the "modifyheaders.conf" file ... this file should be somewhere in your user folder
5. Make the following class (which extends Profile)
class FirefoxProfileWithAddedFiles < Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox::Profile
# This method OVERRIDES the one in Profile
# This method creates the firefox profile folder
def layout_on_disk
#Call the superclass layout method
profile_directory = super
#Add custom file
if(!#file_to_add_to_profile.nil?)
FileUtils.cp(#file_to_add_to_profile, profile_directory)
end
profile_directory
end
def add_file_to_profile(filepath)
#file_to_add_to_profile = filepath
end
6. Set your test script up as follows
...
#Setup Firefox Profile
profile = Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox::Profile::FirefoxProfileWithAddedFiles.new
profile.add_extension("SOMEPATH/modifyheaders.xpi")
profile.add_file_to_profile("SOMEPATH/modifyheaders.conf")
profile["modifyheaders.config.active"] = true
#Start up Firefox
#browser = Watir::Browser.new :firefox, :profile => profile
...
Chrome Steps
1. Start chrome
2. Search for 'Modify Headers Firefox' using a very popular search engine .... the top result is https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/modify-headers-for-google/innpjfdalfhpcoinfnehdnbkglpmogdi
3. Install the extension as normal, change the headers as you wish, then close chrome
4. Locate the unpacked extension folder and copy it. On windows the folder will be something like...
C:\Users\MYNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\innpjfdalfhpcoinfnehdnbkglpmogdi\2.0.3_0
5. Locate the extension configuration file and copy it. On windows, the file will be something like...
C:\Users\MYNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Storage\chrome-extension_innpjfdalfhpcoinfnehdnbkglpmogdi_0.localstorage
6. Set your test script up as follows:
...
#Setup Chrome Profile Folder
profile_directory = Dir.mktmpdir("webdriver-chrome-profile")
extension_configuration_folder = FileUtils.mkdir_p "#{profile_directory}/Default/Local Storage"
FileUtils.cp("PATH_TO_MY_EXTENSION_CONFIGURATION_FILE", extension_configuration_folder[0])
#Start Webdriver
#browser = Watir::Browser.new :chrome, :switches => ["--user-data-dir=#{profile_directory}", "--load-extension=#{PATH_TO_MY_UNPACKED_EXTENSION_FOLDER"]
...

Answer 2

Watir automates the browser INSIDE the browser window, with very limited interaction up at the OS level (such as responding to alerts, etc), you would need to pre-configure the browser (presuming that was possible) to what you wanted, or use a tool such as Autoit to interact with the browser's OS level controls to do that.. (presuming the browser even has the feature to allow you to alter what it is reporting in terms of browser and version when it makes a request to a website)
If you are using Watir-Webdriver along with Firefox then you may be able to do this via a profile that sets those parameters. In that case you create the profile, then the browser object with that profile specified. it's pretty much a webdriver function, but easy enough to access when creating the browser object.
See this webdriver bug for the parameters to use (down in the comments) when creating the profile. Refer to webdriver docs for more info on how to setup and use profiles for firefox.
Another option that might be useful would be to fork your own version of the code for the user-agent gem and add browser_version as one of the things to be set. It's using profiles for FF, so doing that should be possible, at least for FF. for Chrome it is using the user-agent switch to override the useragent string, so it should be possible there also, although you would have to do a little work to modified the fixed strings the gem uses to replace the portion that has the version with the one you want.
Then if you get it working issue a pull request to add that enhancement to the gem..
or if you are not up to that sort of thing yourself, then beg, plead and offer to bribe the gem author with something appropriate if they would extend the gem for you to make version one of the things that could be set.