Technical Blog Post
Abstract
IBM APM 8.1 Synthetic agent (SN): How to handle Selenium Scripts?
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Question 1 : What are currently the supported version of Firefox and selenium IDE with synthetic transaction agent?
Answer 1 : As documented here in 8.1.4.0-IBM-APM-SYNTHETIC-PLAY
(IF11 is currently the latest IF available for the SN Synthetic agent, check if that is still the case using IBM Fix Central web site)
"On each server where Synthetic Playback Agent is already installed, use the command `firefox -version` to check the version. If the version is not 68.5.0 ESR, update Firefox to version 68.5.0 ESR. Versions other than 68.5.0 ESR are not supported."
Selenium IDE is not used for playback on the SN Synthetic agent, it's only used on the 'recorder' system. On the recorder system, download and install Selenium IDE add-on for Firefox, that is matching your current version of Firefox browser, see this url from the recorder system:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/selenium-ide/versions/
to see which version of Selenium IDE add-on is compatible or latest available with your current Mozilla Firefox browser; then download and install it.
You need to use at least Selenium IDE add-on version 2.9.1 or higher version. see below IBM SCPR report. So you may need first to upgrade your current Firefox on your recorder machine to a more recent version.
NEW UPDATE (March 2020) - SN agent has new features supported with IF11:
- SN agent can support latest IDE version, but several Selenium IDE commands will not work when used in playbacks on a Synthetic Agent.
- Firefox version 68.5.0 ESR supported for script playbacks.
For reference about recording a synthetic script by using the firefox web browser and the selenium IDE add-on, see:
Question 2: Is it possible to upload selenium script generated by other means (not via selenium add-on)?
Answer 2: Selenium scripts are generated and saved on a "recorder" machine where Firefox and Selenium IDE addon are installed. So the <script_name>.zip or .side file saved from Selenium IDE GUI can be saved locally, or on shared drive, or similar; or you can transfer later the generated selenium <script_name>.zip file on 'another system' if you need so.
Then on this 'another system', or from the same "recorder" machine , you can launch from a web browser the APM server Admin console GUI; and from APM UI, under 'Synthetic Script Manager', you can select your repository/ local directory where the Selenium scripts have been saved.
for reference : https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSHLNR_8.1.4/com.ibm.pm.doc/install/admin_syn_createtrans.htm
For the step of upload of the selenium script to the APM server, there is no need of Selenium IDE add-on. Just need a web browser and network access from this browser machine to the repository/ directory location where Selenium scripts have been saved/stored.
UID
ibm11083165