Running windows ruby, and watir under wine on linux?

Ruby
1

Friends-

I have seen a few blog posts where folks mention that they have

gotten the ruby one click installer and watir/IE running under wine
on linux. Has anyone out there done this successfully? My company
would be willing to pay someone to help us get this up and running.
Anyone have any tips or any more information about making this kind
of thing happen?

We are using watir as a web scraper tool of sorts for scraping

crusty sites that use multiple framesets and java applets and all
kinds of other horrible stuff that defies any type of regular screen
scraping short of using watir to actually navigate the sites and
enter data into forms to get results we need from these companies
sites. And we need multiple instances of watir driving the same
companies site at once which is problematic because internet explorer
overwrites its cookies when more then one of these scrapes is run
against the same website at once. So we are trying to experiment with
running watir under wine so each scaper runs in its own env and
doesn’t step on each others cookies.

Any win32 gurus have any ideas as to how we might be able to

dynamically from our ruby/watir scripts, manage the cookies written
by IE so we could control where they get written and be able to run
two or more concurrent scrapes of the same website via watir without
IE overwriting the cookie it uses? My company is willing to pay
someone to help solve this problem. Thoughts or ideas are very
welcome at this point. I have asked this same thing eslewhere but I
know there are many smart folks on this list and I hope someone might
have an idea to help us out. More info available if you need it.

Thanks-
-Ezra

2

On 7/11/06, Ezra Z. [email protected] wrote:

crusty sites that use multiple framesets and java applets and all
Any win32 gurus have any ideas as to how we might be able to
Thanks-
-Ezra

You could try runas
(http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/runas.mspx)
to run multiple Watir (and hence automated IE) processes as different
users, which would put the cookies in separates profiles.

Wouldn’t work if you’re trying to run multiple IE processes via
separate Ruby threads though.

Regards,
Sean

3

On Jul 11, 2006, at 1:21 PM, Sean O’Halpin wrote:

running watir under wine so each scaper runs in its own env and
have an idea to help us out. More info available if you need it.
to run multiple Watir (and hence automated IE) processes as different
users, which would put the cookies in separates profiles.

Wouldn’t work if you’re trying to run multiple IE processes via
separate Ruby threads though.

Regards,
Sean

Thanks Sean. We are already using runas I should have mentioned. THe
reason this is failing is because some of these sites have modal
dialogs and the only way to deal with these in watir is via
click_no_wait. What click no wait does is uses system to start
another process so the modal dialog doesn’t block the entire ruby
process. THen when the separate process tries to re-attach to the
window there is a security error that won’t let a different process
then the one that started ie bind to the window. This all goes away
if we can get a way to dynamically manage the cookies somehow. Or
under wine each instance if wine will have its own environment that
skirts the issue as well. We have been up and down the wall with this
issue for the past week and have come up with no answers yet. I do
appreciate the suggestion though.

Thanks
-Ezra

4

I’ve never used watir, but the best way I’ve found to isolate
environments is using virtualization software such as VMWare, Virtual
PC or the like. It sounds like it might be overkill for you
(especially if you want to run more than, say, 4 instances) but I
thought I’d throw it out there.

5

Hi-

On Jul 11, 2006, at 5:43 PM, Daniel B. wrote:

wine
scraping short of using watir to actually navigate the sites and
Any win32 gurus have any ideas as to how we might be
have an idea to help us out. More info available if you need it.
to run multiple Watir (and hence automated IE) processes as
Thanks Sean. We are already using runas I should have mentioned.
down the wall with this issue for the past week and have come up
the win32-process package. I’m guessing somewhat here, but give
)
end

You can futz around with the various creation flags and see if any
of them help you out.

HTH,

Dan

Hey Dan-

Thanks a lot. That points us in the right direction. I really

appreciate it.

Thanks
-Ezra

6

Ezra Z. wrote:

Anyone have any tips or any more information about making this kind
against the same website at once. So we are trying to experiment with
know there are many smart folks on this list and I hope someone might

Thanks Sean. We are already using runas I should have mentioned. THe
past week and have come up with no answers yet. I do appreciate the
suggestion though.

Thanks
-Ezra

Rather than using system() you could try using Process.create in the
win32-process package. I’m guessing somewhat here, but give this a
shot:

require ‘win32/process’
include Win32

def click_no_wait
Process.create(
:app_name => “c:\ruby\bin\ruby …”,
:creation_flags => Process::CREATE_PRESERVE_CODE_AUTHZ_LEVEL
:inherited => true
)
end

You can futz around with the various creation flags and see if any of
them help you out.

HTH,

Dan