How to upload a file with watir and Internet Explorer? - ruby

Question

Over the last couple of days i have been put in charge of Automating certain aspects of my companies CMS systems. (We are using Drupal)
One of the issue i am having with my ruby script is getting IE to select a local file from my machine and adding it to my submit form.
Now i have been reading up about this and found a few simular posts, but the different with the form we are using is that the browse button is made out of flash and there is no input field for the file path. The options i have is to either type in the "File Name" and clicks the "Open" button or the second option is to double click a file.
So they way i have got round this so far is to tab down to the "browser button and then press the "Enter" key to open the browse menu. But i now need the ability to select a file name.
This is my Ruby File.
require 'watir'
include Watir
ie = Watir::IE.new
ie.goto ("file:///C:/Ruby193/bin/ruby-capybara/features/step_definitions/form.html")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-title").set("Title")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-firstname").set("First Name")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-lastname").set("Last Name")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-phonenumber").set("01234567891")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-location").set("London")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-email").set("test#test.com")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-email2").set("test#test.com")
ie.send_keys('{TAB}')
ie.send_keys('{ENTER}')
uploadfile = "V:\GIR-FP-WSD-QA\Test Media Files\Video1.mp4"
assert_equal uploadfile, ie.file_field(:name,"Video1.mp4").value
ie.button(:name, 'upload').click
#
Edited:
require 'watir'
require 'win32ole'
include Watir
ie = Watir::IE.new
ie.goto ("file:///C:/Ruby193/bin/ruby-capybara/features/step_definitions/form.html")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-title").set("Title")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-firstname").set("First Name")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-lastname").set("Last Name")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-phonenumber").set("01234567891")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-location").set("London")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-email").set("test#test.com")
ie.text_field(:id, "edit-submitted-ugc-video-email2").set("test#test.com")
ie.send_keys('{TAB}')
ie.send_keys('{ENTER}')
class FileField < InputElement
# set the file location in the Choose file dialog in a new process
# will raise a Watir Exception if AutoIt is not correctly installed
def set(setPath)
assert_exists
require 'watir/windowhelper'
WindowHelper.check_autoit_installed
begin
thrd = Thread.new do
system("rubyw -e \"require 'win32ole'; #autoit=WIN32OLE.new('AutoItX3.Control');
waitresult=#autoit.WinWait 'Bird annoys Cat.mp4', '', 15; sleep 1; if waitresult == 1\" -e
\"#autoit.ControlSetText 'Bird annoys Cat.mp4', '', 'Edit1', '#{setPath}';
#autoit.ControlSend 'Bird annoys Cat.mp4', '', 'Button2', '{ENTER}';\" -e \"end\"")
end
thrd.join(1)
rescue
raise Watir::Exception::WatirException, "Problem accessing Choose file dialog"
end
click
$end
ie.button(:name, 'upload').click

Answer 1

I'm afraid in this situation you have to use windows automation.
It may be either winapi or some sort of automation framework, for example autoit:
class FileField < InputElement
# set the file location in the Choose file dialog in a new process
# will raise a Watir Exception if AutoIt is not correctly installed
def set(setPath)
assert_exists
require 'watir/windowhelper'
WindowHelper.check_autoit_installed
begin
thrd = Thread.new do
system("rubyw -e \"require 'win32ole'; #autoit=WIN32OLE.new('AutoItX3.Control');
waitresult=#autoit.WinWait 'Choose file', '', 15; sleep 1; if waitresult == 1\" -e
\"#autoit.ControlSetText 'Choose file', '', 'Edit1', '#{setPath}';
#autoit.ControlSend 'Choose file', '', 'Button2', '{ENTER}';\" -e \"end\"")
end
thrd.join(1)
rescue
raise Watir::Exception::WatirException, "Problem accessing Choose file dialog"
end
click
end
end

Answer 2

Automating stuff done in flash is sometimes a pretty big pain due to how proprietary it is. You may want to look into using an image based automation method for this section of the test. See this blog posting for more info

Answer 3

Is the file selection dialog native Windows File Open Dialog or is that also proprietary flash solution?
If it is native dialog (e.g. same as in everywhere else) then you can use my library RAutomation or autoit as suggested above.
If that's the case, then you could take some hints how to do that from Watir's code.
Also, does that flash upload have some JavaScript API? If that's the case then you could use #execute_script to do all the things you need - e.g. set the file programmatically and move on. I'm doing something similar with flash video player.