Please help me to get Ranorex Firefox extension working

[Aracknid]

I have 15 machines, and I had Ranorex 7.2 on them. I upgraded all of them to use the latest Firefox ESR version 52.7.3 and then I upgraded to Ranorex 8.1.

The Ranorex extension in FireFox still seems to be the old one (something like 1.0.33). I tried to use the Instrumentation wizard to install the latest extension, but the option was not enabled to select Firefox. When I got the popup error about Ranorex Technology limitation , I clicked it to install the extension, but it never seemed to work. So what I ended up doing was navigation in Explorer to the Ranorex Firefox Extension folder and dragging and dropping the file '[email protected]' into Firefox and this seemed to work. That is, it popped up a message that it was installing the extension, and when done and I go into the Extensions section, I can see that I now have a new version of the extension (version 1.1.0).

However, it still isn't working and I'm getting the Ranorex Technology limitation message when I spy on Firefox, and the DOM is not showing up.

I tried to follow the steps here: https://www.ranorex.com/help/latest/ins ... la-firefox

I managed to get one machine to work after spending way too much time trying things. But I was not abled to get the next machine to work.

Can someone please explain to me what are the correct steps to get this to work? It is really frustrating that this seems to happen every time I try upgrading to newer releases of Ranorex, and I'd like to avoid the huge amount of time wasting that seems to go with it.

Thanks,

Aracknid

[odklizec]

Hi,

I can confirm that there is definitely something wrong with FF plugin installation process (during Ranorex installation). Yesterday, I updated Ranorex on two Windows Server 2012 R2 VMs and on neither of them, Ranorex plugin in FF has been automatically updated. I had to open FF and drag&drop the xpi file from Ranorex installation folder to FF window (as you did it). So it seems Ranorex installation is not working as expected?

As for your second problem (missing/not recognized plugin), I would suggest to check these two posts and check the existence of Ranorex pipe...
https://www.ranorex.com/forum/firefox-p ... tml#p46896
https://www.ranorex.com/forum/run-wizar ... tml#p47667

[ahoisl]

Yesterday, I updated Ranorex on two Windows Server 2012 R2 VMs and on neither of them, Ranorex plugin in FF has been automatically updated.

The Ranorex setup does not install the Firefox extension, you need to run the Instrumentation Wizard to update the extension and set up the required registry keys.

Additionally, we have a known issue that Firefox ESR versions are not correctly instrumented using the instrumentation wizard. In order to use Firefox ESR, you need to follow these steps:

1. Install Firefox non-ESR in parallel to Firefox ESR
2. Instrument Firefox non-ESR using the Ranorex Instrumentation Wizard/tool
3. Drag the Ranorex Firefox extension from the Ranorex installation folder into Firefox ESR and accept installation in Firefox

After that you can de-install the non-ESR Firefox version again.

Regards,
Alex
Ranorex Team

[Aracknid]

Just wondering if instead having to install a non-ESR and go through the steps you've outlined, would it be possible to instead just import the registry keys from a working setup? If so, where are the registry keys located?

As I said, I did get it working in one of my environments, so I could export the required keys from here.

Thanks,

Aracknid.

[Aracknid]

OK, I don't need the registry info. I figured I don't have time to wait for it, so I did what support suggested. In my case I didn't need to follow the steps exactly, probably because I already had installed the extension via drag and drop to the ESR version (that didn't work at that time). Here's what I did:

1) Downloaded Firefox 59.0.2 (latest version at this posting)
2) Install FF 59 via custom install. Choose to install to folder "Mozilla FireFox 59" instead of default "Mozilla Firefox" to avoid potential issues with existing FF 52.7.3 ESR.
3) Once install was complete, did not launch FF and exited setup.
4) Launch Ranorex Instrumentation Wizard and now FireFox option is enabled. Installed extension.
5) Launch FF 59 and validated the extension is present.
6) Launch FF 52.7.3 ESR and it displays a message that it is updating/checking extensions (remember I already dragged and dropped the extension before starting these steps). Once complete and FF is up and running, Launched Ranorex SPY and could now see the DOM for FF 52.7.3 ESR.
7) Decided to leave FF 59 installed since it does no harm, and I can also run tests in this version if I choose.

Repeat 14 times on all my test machines....

I really think you need to update your documentation about issues with FF ESR versions. You don't mention this anywhere on the link I reffered to in my initial post.

Thanks,

Aracknid

[ahoisl]

I really think you need to update your documentation about issues with FF ESR versions. You don't mention this anywhere on the link I reffered to in my initial post.

You are absolutely right, our documentation for Firefox ESR is pretty poor. Frankly, the reason is that we did not know that instrumenting ESR is such a hassle with the need to install the non-ESR version in parallel. Our testing machines usually have Firefox installed by default, that's why all you had to do is drag & drop the extension into the ESR window.

We are currently investigating on how to fix the issue altogether by extending the instrumentation wizard to also instrument Firefox ESR.

Regards,
Alex
Ranorex Team

[StephanBast]

Maybe someone helps what i have expierienced.
Sometimes (depends on the user and his Userrights maybe) i have to give additional "Full Access Rights" on the Mozilla installation folder (i gave them to all available users). After that the FireFox Plugin worked. All the time i reinstall the plugin i must update the folder access rights. Don't know why but that helped me to get the firefox plugin running.

BTW no problems with the chrome plugin

[ahoisl]

We've just released Ranorex 8.1.1 that should fix the instrumentation of Firefox ESR. Please, give it a try

Regards,
Alex
Ranorex Team