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How to Prevent Selenium 3.0 (Geckodriver) from Creating Temporary Firefox Profiles?

I'm running the latest version of Selenium WebDriver with Geckodriver. I want to prevent Selenium from creating temporary Firefox Profiles in the temporary files directory when launching a new instance of WebDriver. Instead I want to use the original Firefox Profile directly. This has double benefit. First, it saves time (it takes significant amount of time for the profile to be copied to the temporary directory). Second, it ensures that cookies created during session are saved to the original profile. Before Selenium started relying on Geckodriver I was able to solve this problem by editing the class FirefoxProfile.class in SeleniumHQ as seen below:
public File layoutOnDisk() {
File profileDir;
if (this.disableTempProfileCreation) {
profileDir = this.model;
return profileDir;
} else {
try {
profileDir = TemporaryFilesystem.getDefaultTmpFS().createTempDir("ABC", "XYZ");
File userPrefs = new File(profileDir, "user.js");
this.copyModel(this.model, profileDir);
this.installExtensions(profileDir);
this.deleteLockFiles(profileDir);
this.deleteExtensionsCacheIfItExists(profileDir);
this.updateUserPrefs(userPrefs);
return profileDir;
} catch (IOException var3) {
throw new UnableToCreateProfileException(var3);
}
}
}
This would stop Selenium from creating a temporary Firefox Profile when the parameter disableTempProfileCreation was set to true.
However, now that Selenium is being controlled by Geckodriver this solution no longer works as the creation (and launch) of Firefox Profile is controlled by Geckodriver.exe (which is written in Rust language). How can I achieve the same objective with Geckodriver? I don't mind editing the source code. I'm using Java.
Thanks
Important Update:
I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to respond to this question. However, as stated in some of the comments, the first 3 answers do not address the question at all - for two reasons. First of all, using an existing Firefox Profile will not prevent Geckodriver from copying the original profile to a temporary directory (as indicated in the OP and clearly stated by one or more of the commentators below). Second, even if it did it is not compatible with Selenium 3.0.
I'm really not sure why 3 out of 4 answer repeat the exact same answer with the exact same mistake. Did they read the question? The only answer the even attempts to address the question at hand is the answer by #Life is complex however it is incomplete. Thanks.

UPDATED POST 05-30-2021
This is the hardest question that I have every tried to answer on Stack Overflow. Because it involved the interactions of several code bases written in multiple languages (Java, Rust and C++). This complexity made the question potentially unsolvable.
My last crack at this likely unsolvable question:
Within the code in your question you are modifying the file user.js This file is still used by Selenium.
public FirefoxProfile() {
this(null);
}
/**
* Constructs a firefox profile from an existing profile directory.
* <p>
* Users who need this functionality should consider using a named profile.
*
* #param profileDir The profile directory to use as a model.
*/
public FirefoxProfile(File profileDir) {
this(null, profileDir);
}
#Beta
protected FirefoxProfile(Reader defaultsReader, File profileDir) {
if (defaultsReader == null) {
defaultsReader = onlyOverrideThisIfYouKnowWhatYouAreDoing();
}
additionalPrefs = new Preferences(defaultsReader);
model = profileDir;
verifyModel(model);
File prefsInModel = new File(model, "user.js");
if (prefsInModel.exists()) {
StringReader reader = new StringReader("{\"frozen\": {}, \"mutable\": {}}");
Preferences existingPrefs = new Preferences(reader, prefsInModel);
acceptUntrustedCerts = getBooleanPreference(existingPrefs, ACCEPT_UNTRUSTED_CERTS_PREF, true);
untrustedCertIssuer = getBooleanPreference(existingPrefs, ASSUME_UNTRUSTED_ISSUER_PREF, true);
existingPrefs.addTo(additionalPrefs);
} else {
acceptUntrustedCerts = true;
untrustedCertIssuer = true;
}
// This is not entirely correct but this is not stored in the profile
// so for now will always be set to false.
loadNoFocusLib = false;
try {
defaultsReader.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new WebDriverException(e);
}
}
So in theory you should be able to modify capabilities.rs in the geckodriver source code. That file contains the temp_dir.
As I stated this in only a theory, because when I looked at the Firefox source, which has temp_dir spread throughout the code base.
ORIGINAL POST 05-26-2021
I'm not sure that you can prevent Selenium from creating a temporary Firefox Profile.
From the gecko documents:
"Profiles are created in the systems temporary folder. This is also where the encoded profile is extracted when profile is provided. By default geckodriver will create a new profile in this location."
The only solution that I see at the moment would require you modify the Geckodriver source files to prevent the creation of temporary folders/profiles.
I'm currently looking at the source. These files might be the correct ones, but I need to look at the source more:
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/app/profile/firefox.js
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/testing/mozbase/mozprofile/mozprofile/profile.py
Here are some other files that need to be combed through:
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/search?q=tempfile&path=
This looks promising:
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/testing/geckodriver/doc/Profiles.md
"geckodriver uses [profiles] to instrument Firefox’ behaviour. The
user will usually rely on geckodriver to generate a temporary,
throwaway profile. These profiles are deleted when the WebDriver
session expires.
In cases where the user needs to use custom, prepared profiles,
geckodriver will make modifications to the profile that ensures
correct behaviour. See [Automation preferences] below on the
precedence of user-defined preferences in this case.
Custom profiles can be provided two different ways:
1. by appending --profile /some/location to the [args capability],
which will instruct geckodriver to use the profile in-place;
I found this question on trying to do this: how do I use an existing profile in-place with Selenium Webdriver?
Also here is an issue that was raised in selenium on Github concerning the temp directory. https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/issues/8645
Looking through the source of geckodriver v0.29.1 I found a file where the profile is loaded.
source: capabilities.rs
fn load_profile(options: &Capabilities) -> WebDriverResult<Option<Profile>> {
if let Some(profile_json) = options.get("profile") {
let profile_base64 = profile_json.as_str().ok_or_else(|| {
WebDriverError::new(ErrorStatus::InvalidArgument, "Profile is not a string")
})?;
let profile_zip = &*base64::decode(profile_base64)?;
// Create an emtpy profile directory
let profile = Profile::new()?;
unzip_buffer(
profile_zip,
profile
.temp_dir
.as_ref()
.expect("Profile doesn't have a path")
.path(),
)?;
Ok(Some(profile))
} else {
Ok(None)
}
}
source: marionette.rs
fn start_browser(&mut self, port: u16, options: FirefoxOptions) -> WebDriverResult<()> {
let binary = options.binary.ok_or_else(|| {
WebDriverError::new(
ErrorStatus::SessionNotCreated,
"Expected browser binary location, but unable to find \
binary in default location, no \
'moz:firefoxOptions.binary' capability provided, and \
no binary flag set on the command line",
)
})?;
let is_custom_profile = options.profile.is_some();
let mut profile = match options.profile {
Some(x) => x,
None => Profile::new()?,
};
self.set_prefs(port, &mut profile, is_custom_profile, options.prefs)
.map_err(|e| {
WebDriverError::new(
ErrorStatus::SessionNotCreated,
format!("Failed to set preferences: {}", e),
)
})?;
let mut runner = FirefoxRunner::new(&binary, profile);
runner.arg("--marionette");
if self.settings.jsdebugger {
runner.arg("--jsdebugger");
}
if let Some(args) = options.args.as_ref() {
runner.args(args);
}
// https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Environment_variables_affecting_crash_reporting
runner
.env("MOZ_CRASHREPORTER", "1")
.env("MOZ_CRASHREPORTER_NO_REPORT", "1")
.env("MOZ_CRASHREPORTER_SHUTDOWN", "1");
let browser_proc = runner.start().map_err(|e| {
WebDriverError::new(
ErrorStatus::SessionNotCreated,
format!("Failed to start browser {}: {}", binary.display(), e),
)
})?;
self.browser = Some(Browser::Host(browser_proc));
Ok(())
}
pub fn set_prefs(
&self,
port: u16,
profile: &mut Profile,
custom_profile: bool,
extra_prefs: Vec<(String, Pref)>,
) -> WebDriverResult<()> {
let prefs = profile.user_prefs().map_err(|_| {
WebDriverError::new(
ErrorStatus::UnknownError,
"Unable to read profile preferences file",
)
})?;
for &(ref name, ref value) in prefs::DEFAULT.iter() {
if !custom_profile || !prefs.contains_key(name) {
prefs.insert((*name).to_string(), (*value).clone());
}
}
prefs.insert_slice(&extra_prefs[..]);
if self.settings.jsdebugger {
prefs.insert("devtools.browsertoolbox.panel", Pref::new("jsdebugger"));
prefs.insert("devtools.debugger.remote-enabled", Pref::new(true));
prefs.insert("devtools.chrome.enabled", Pref::new(true));
prefs.insert("devtools.debugger.prompt-connection", Pref::new(false));
}
prefs.insert("marionette.log.level", logging::max_level().into());
prefs.insert("marionette.port", Pref::new(port));
prefs.write().map_err(|e| {
WebDriverError::new(
ErrorStatus::UnknownError,
format!("Unable to write Firefox profile: {}", e),
)
})
}
}
After looking through the gecko source it looks like mozprofile::profile::Profile is coming from FireFox and not geckodriver
It seems that you might have issues with profiles when you migrate to Selenium 4.
ref: https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/issues/9417
For Selenium 4 we have deprecated the use of profiles as there are other mechanisms that we can do to make the start up faster.
Please use the Options class to set preferences that you need and if you need to use an addon use the driver.install_addon("path/to/addon")
you can install selenium 4, which is in beta, via pip install selenium --pre
I noted in your code you were writing to user.js, which is a custom file for FireFox. Have you considered creating on these files manually outside of Gecko?
Also have you looked at mozprofile?

Thanks to source code provided in answer of Life is complex in link!. I have the chance to look through geckodriver source.
EXPLANATION
I believe that the reason you could not find out any rust_tmp in source because it is generated randomly by Profile::new() function.
When I look deeper in code structure, I saw that browser.rs is the place where the browser is actually loaded which is called through marionette.rs. If you noticing carefully, LocalBrowser::new method will be called whenever a new session is initialized and the profile will be loaded in that state also. Then by checking browser.rs file, there will be a block code line 60 - 70 used to actually generate profile for new session instance. Now, what need to do is modifying this path to load your custom profile.
SHORT ANSWER
Downloading zip file of geckodriver-0.30.0, extracting it by your prefer zip program :P
Looking on src/browser.rs of geckodriver source, in line 60 - 70, hoping you will see something like this:
let is_custom_profile = options.profile.is_some();
let mut profile = match options.profile {
Some(x) => x,
None => Profile::new()?,
};
Change it to your prefer folder ( hoping you know some rust code ), example:
/*
let mut profile = match options.profile {
Some(x) => x,
None => Profile::new()?,
};
*/
let path = std::path::Path::new("path-to-profile");
let mut profile = Profile::new_from_path(path)?;
Re-compile with prefer rust compiler, example:
Cargo build
NOTE
Hoping this info will help you someway. This is not comprehensive but hoping it is good enough hint for you like it is possible to write some extra code to load profile from env or pass from argument, it is possible but I'm not rust developer so too lazy for providing one in here.
The above solution is work fine for me and I could load and use directly my profile from that. Btw, I work on Archlinux with rust info: cargo 1.57.0.
TBH, this is first time I push comment on stackoverflow, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong or produce unclear answer :P
Update
I worked in geckodriver 0.30.0 which will not be the same as geckodriver 0.29.1 mentioned by Life is complex. But the change between 2 versions just be split action, so the similar modify path in version 0.29.1 will be included in method MarionetteHandler::start_browser in file src/marionette.rs.
Since my starting point is Life is complex answer, please looking through it for more information.

I've come up with a solution that 1) works with Selenium 4.7.0--however, I don't see why it wouldn't work with 3.x as well, 2) allows the user to pass in an existing Firefox profile dynamically via an environment variable--and if this environment variable doesn't exist, simply acts "normally", and 3) if you do not want a temporary copy of the profile directory, simply do not pass the source profile directory to Selenium.
I downloaded Geckodriver 0.32.0 and made it so that you simply need to provide the Firefox profile directory via the environment variable FIREFOX_PROFILE_DIR. For example, in C#, before you create the FirefoxDriver, call:
Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("FIREFOX_PROFILE_DIR", myProfileDir);
The change to Rust is in browser.rs, line 88, replacing:
let mut profile = match options.profile {
ProfileType::Named => None,
ProfileType::Path(x) => Some(x),
ProfileType::Temporary => Some(Profile::new(profile_root)?),
};
with:
let mut profile = if let Ok(profile_dir) = std::env::var("FIREFOX_PROFILE_DIR") {
Some(Profile::new_from_path(Path::new(&profile_dir))?)
} else {
match options.profile {
ProfileType::Named => None,
ProfileType::Path(x) => Some(x),
ProfileType::Temporary => Some(Profile::new(profile_root)?),
}
};
You may refer to my Git commit to see the diff against the original Geckodriver code.

The new driver by default creates a new profile if no options are set. To use a existing profile, one way to do this is to set the system property webdriver.firefox.profile before creating the firefox driver. A small code snippet that can create a firefox driver (given you have locations for geckodriver, and the firefox profile):
System.setProperty("webdriver.gecko.driver","path_to_gecko_driver");
System.setProperty("webdriver.firefox.profile", "path_to_firefox_profile");
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
You could even set these system properties using the env. variables and skip defining them everywhere.
Another way to do this is to use the FirefoxOptions class which allows you to configure a lot of options. To start with, take a look at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver and org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxOptions. A small example:
FirefoxOptions options = new FirefoxOptions();
options.setProfile(new FirefoxProfile(new File("path_to_your_profile")));
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(options);
Hope this is helpful.

You can create firefox profile which will be clean and name it as SELENIUM
So When initializing the Webdriver get the profile which you have already created through the code, so that it wont create any new temp profiles all the time.
ProfilesIni allProfiles = new ProfilesIni();
FirefoxProfile desiredProfile = allProfiles.getProfile("SELENIUM");
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(desiredProfile);
That way, you assure that this profile will be used anytime you do the tests.
-Arjun

You can handle this by using --
FirefoxProfile profile = new FirefoxProfile(new File("D:\\Selenium Profile..."));
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(profile);
There is one more option but it inherits all the cookies, cache contents, etc. of the previous uses of the profile let’s see how it will be --
System.setProperty("webdriver.firefox.profile", "MySeleniumProfile");
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(...);
Hope this answers your question in short.

Debugging in Java - Eclipse [duplicate]

I want to change the logging level depending if I'm debbugging or not, but I can't find a code snippet to check if the application is running in debug mode.
I'm using eclipse to debug the application, so if the solution only works within Eclipse it will be fine.

Found the answer on how-to-find-out-if-debug-mode-is-enabled
boolean isDebug = java.lang.management.ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().
getInputArguments().toString().contains("-agentlib:jdwp");
This will check if the Java Debug Wire Protocol agent is used.

You could modify the Debug Configuration. For example add a special VM argument only in the Debug Configuration. You can use System.getProperties() to read the supplied arguments.
Even better, modify the configurations (Run and Debug) to load a different logging configuration file. It isn't good if you need to write code to determine the logging level. This should only be a matter of configuration.

There is not an officially sanctioned way to reliably determine if any given JVM is in debug mode from inside the JVM itself, and relying on artifacts will just break your code some time in the future.
You will therefore need to introduce a methology yourself. Suggestions:
A system property.
An environment variable (shell variable like $HOME or %HOME%)
Ask the JVM about the physical location of a given resource - http://www.exampledepot.com/egs/java.lang/ClassOrigin.html - and based on it, make your decision (does the path contain the word "debug"? is it inside a jar or an unpacked class file? etc).
JNDI
The existance or content of a particular resource.

Have you tried add a vm argument in the eclipse run config?
Pass this as a VM Argument
-Ddebug=true
then you can do Boolean.getBoolean("debug") to check this.

If you are setting the debug level from your own program, may be a line like:
public static final boolean DEBUG_MODE = System.getProperty("java.vm.info", "").contains("sharing");
would do the trick.
Just tested it in eclipse3.5:
package test;
public class Test
{
/**
* #param args
*/
public static void main(String[] args)
{
System.out.println(System.getProperty("java.vm.info", ""));
}
}
will display:
mixed mode, sharing
if launched without debug
mixed mode
if executed with debug launcher
Joachim Sauer comments:
This is highly system depending.
I assume the "sharing" indicates that cross-VM class-sharing is active.
This is a very new feature and is only available on some platforms.
Furthermore there can be many possible reasons to en- or disable it, so I wouldn't use this for debug-mode detection.
(Note: I tested it with the latest jdk1.6b14. I leave this as a CW answer.)

Have a look here:
http://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ_How_do_I_use_the_platform_debug_tracing_facility%3F
Moreover, I think you can't know if your app is run in debug mode. The only thing you can do is to pass an argument to your JVM when you debug.
Manu

If using socket (e.g. 9999) you can call netstat to check if connection was established:
Process p = new ProcessBuilder("netstat", "-n").start();
String stdout = IOUtils.toString(p.getInputStream(), Charset.defaultCharset());
Then scan in stdout for 127.0.0.1:9999.*ESTABLISHED

Unable to launch IE browser - IllegalStateException while working with Internet Explorer browser in selenium

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalStateException :The path to the driver executable must be set by the webdriver.ie.driver system property; for more information, see https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/wiki/InternetExplorerDriver. The latest version can be downloaded from http://selenium-release.storage.googleapis.com/index.html
at com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkState(Preconditions.java:199)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.service.DriverService.findExecutable(DriverService.java:109)
at org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriverService.access$0(InternetExplorerDriverService.java:1)
at org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriverService$Builder.findDefaultExecutable(InternetExplorerDriverService.java:167)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.service.DriverService$Builder.build(DriverService.java:296)
at org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriver.setupService(InternetExplorerDriver.java:251)
at org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriver.<init>(InternetExplorerDriver.java:172)
at org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriver.<init>(InternetExplorerDriver.java:146)
at SamplePackage.SampleClass.main(SampleClass.java:16)
Here is my code :
File file = new File("C://Users//ctsuser//Downloads//selenium//IEDriverServer//IEDriverServer.exe");
System.setProperty("Webdriver.ie.driver", file.getAbsolutePath() );
WebDriver driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();

As per provided code, you used Capital 'W' in setProperty. In thrown exception it saying use
'webdriver.ie.driver'
please change it. it will solve the issue.
Thank You,
Murali

Yes this is common issue when you use IE. As mention above it should be 'webdriver.ie.driver', but onlt this change won't work.
Open regedit.exe
Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
Settings\Zones
So Zones will contain 0,1,2,3,4 and on right hand side three columns will be visible as soon as you click on 0 i.e. Name Type Data
Now in Name column look for 2500
Double click it.
Put Value data as 3 and Base as Hexadecimal
You did this for 0.
Now repeat the same steps for 1,2,3,4..
Do this for all i.e. 0,1,2,3,4,5
=> Change all 2500's value data to 3.
Do reply whether the problem was solved or not..
I'll help you ..
Happy Learning.. enjoy :-)

how to implement clean screen and config keybind with jLine

I want to develop a java cli with jline..I get different Jline version from Internet, but I don't know the difference between them..
My OS is WINDOWS XP SP2.
In Jline09.9 and Jline1.0, it also don't support clean screen. How to config keybind to support clean screen??
The source code WindowsTerminal.java
/**
* Windows doesn't support ANSI codes by default; disable them.
*/
public boolean isANSISupported() {
return false;
}
In jLine0.9.9 and Jline1.0 , clean screen don't work..
http://i.stack.imgur.com/2m71z.jpg
In Jline2.x, it support clean screen, but console appear gibberish when I use array key UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT , INSERT, DELETE, END..
Bad code and strange Character in Jline 2.6 and Jline2.9 When type array key or DELETE,HOME,INSERT key
http://i.stack.imgur.com/5A8d2.jpg
I don't know how to config keybind in Jline1.x and Jline2.x through keybinds.properties.
And How to config the keybinds.properties ? How to use it??
Could you give some advice or example?

Did you install AnsiConsole? This is needed to render the "gibberish" escape codes.
AnsiConsole.systemInstall();
should do it for you.

Automating HP Quality Center with Python or Java

We have a project that uses HP Quality Center and one of the regular issues we face is people not updating comments on the defect.
So I was thinkingif we could come up with a small script or tool that could be used to periodically throw up a reminder and force the user to update the comments.
I came across the Open Test Architecture API and was wondering if there are any good Python or java examples for the same that I could see.
Thanks
Hari

Example of using Python (win32com) to connect to HP Quality Center via OTA
HP Quality Center exposes a com based API called OTA.
Documentation on this is downloadable from an QC server
(OTA_API_Reference.chm) (Weirdly it is very hard to find online)
The documentation uses VBScript (The officially supported internal language for QC)
and you will need to mentally translate to Python. THis is usually very simple, but
a couple of gotchas exist.
You will need to install on your machine the Quality Center local code, this is on your windows PC
if you have been able to get to QC through the web interface.
You will also need to know the URL of the server and you username and password and the domain
of the QC project you are working on.
from win32com.client import Dispatch
conn = get_QCConnection()
for bug in get_bugs(qcConn):
print bug.Title
put_QCConnection(conn)
#below code needs to be in seperate module or at least above the fold but here
# for clarity
def get_QCConnection():
'''Get the hardcoded connection to the server and domain.
Can be made a "real" engine if you try hard.
Use makepy utility to determine if the version number has changed (TDApiOle80)
but this works to current version'''
QCConnection = Dispatch("TDApiOle80.TDConnection")
url = "http://qc.example.com/qcbin"
QCConnection.InitConnectionEx(url)
QCConnection.login("USER", "PASS")
QCConnection.Connect("google_projects", "Google_Chrome")
return QCConnection
def put_QCConnection(qcConn):
#If one person logged in to QC changes *anything* on a bug,
# they hold a global lock on writing to that bug till
# thier session times out, so really really remember to logout
# its painful to wait for your own session to time out
qcConn.Logout()
def get_bugs(qcConn):
'''just following boiler plate from vbscript
PS the SetFilter is not in QTA API, it uses Filter.
But due to the workarounds in
the very brilliant pythoncom code it supplies a virtual wrapper class
called SetFilter - this is one of those gotchas '''
BugFactory = qcConn.BugFactory
BugFilter = BugFactory.Filter
BugFilter.SetFilter(u"Status", "New")
#NB - a lot of fields in QC are malleable - and vary from site to site.
#COntact your admins for a real list of fields you can adjust
buglist = BugFilter.NewList()
return buglist
This is not a bad basis for going forward, however I create a dummy class for defects and run something like:
dfcts = [defect(b) for b in buglist]
Then I can put worker code into defect class and keep things neater.
One thing you want to do is keep access to the raw qc bug internal to the python wrapper class.

Information for others who may view this thread.
To start all this You will need install pywin32, like from here http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/files/pywin32/Build216/
First of all You will need to import pywin32
'''#author: www.qcintegration.com #mailto:contact#qcintegration.com'''
import pywintypes
import win32com.client as w32c
from win32com.client import gencache, DispatchWithEvents, constants
Then as second operation I include here action on login to server
def connect_server(qc, server):
'''Connect to QC server
input = str(http adress)
output = bool(connected) TRUE/FALSE '''
try:
qc.InitConnectionEx(server);
except:
text = "Unable connect to Quality Center database: '%s'"%(server);
return qc.Connected;
def connect_login(qc, username, password):
'''Login to QC server
input = str(UserName), str(Password)
output = bool(Logged) TRUE/FALSE '''
try:
qc.Login(username, password);
except pywintypes.com_error, err:
text = unicode(err[2][2]);
return qc.LoggedIn;
def connect_project(qc, domainname, projectname):
'''Connect to Project in QC server
input = str(DomainName), str(ProjectName)
output = bool(ProjectConnected) TRUE/FALSE '''
try:
qc.Connect(domainname, projectname)
except pywintypes.com_error, err:
text = "Repository of project '%s' in domain '%s' doesn't exist or is not accessible. Please contact your Site Administrator"%(projectname, domainname);
return qc.ProjectConnected;
Second of all method which will include OTAapi dll file
def qc_instance():
'''Create QualityServer instance under variable qc
input = None
output = bool(True/False)'''
qc= None;
try:
qc = w32c.Dispatch("TDApiole80.TDConnection");
text = "DLL QualityCenter file correctly Dispatched"
return True, qc;
except:
return False, qc;
Then main method to connect to QCserver
def qcConnect(server, username, password, domainname, projectname):
print("Getting QC running files");
status, qc = qc_instance();
if status:
print("Connecting to QC server");
if connect_server(qc, server):
##connected to server
print("Checking username and password");
if connect_login(qc, username, password):
print("Connecting to QC domain and project");
if connect_project(qc, domainname, projectname):
text = "Connected"
connected = True;
return connected, text;
else:
text = "Not connected to Project in QC server.\nPlease, correct DomainName and/or ProjectName";
connected = False;
return connected, text;
else:
text = "Not logged to QC server.\nPlease, correct UserName and/or Password";
connected = False;
return connected, text;
else:
text = "Not connected to QC server.\nPlease, correct server http address";
connected = False;
return connected, text;
else:
connected = False;
text = "Unable to find QualityCenter installation files.\nPlease connect first to QualityCenter by web page to install needed files"
return connected, text;
And at the end how to execute all of those methods in one place with example of use
if __name__ == "__main__":
server= r"http://qualitycenterServer:8080/qcbin"
username= "alex_qc"
password= ""
domainname= "DEFAULT"
projectname= "QualityCenter_Demo"
connection_status, text = qcConnect(server, username, password, domainname, projectname);
print "connection_status:", connection_status
In case of any more question mailto: contact#qcintegration.com
or directly to web side: http://www.qcintegration.com

I'm not sure there are any good samples for Java, because OTA can't be consumed by Java directly, it needs a Java to COM bridnge like JIntegra.
About Python, well you can use Python COM api's. And then any OTA example will do. You got plenty in QC documentation of OTA.
But I think the real question here is, why would you want to do it in Python or Java. Why not write what you need directly in QC using it's Workflow feature. Which will allow you to write your logic in VBScript, and have it invoked inside QC UI on user actions. For instance you can bind to the Post event of a Defect / Bug and check if there is a comment and if there is not prompt the user directly with a message.

There is a REST API to HPQC (ALM11 and newer) if you want to access it from Linux without running a Windows COM component.
Here is an example that pulls in a "requirement" record (# 1202) after authenticating.
import requests
session = requests.session()
user='hpqc'
password='xxxxx'
r = session.get("http://hpqc-server:8080/qcbin/authentication-point/authenticate",auth=(user,password))
r = session.get("http://hpqc-server:8080/qcbin/rest/domains/Foo/projects/Bar/requirements/1202")
print(r.text)
The parsing of r.text from XML is left as an exercise.

Though you have asked for a Python or Java based solution, sharing the following VBA code that you can use insde HPQC/ALM's script editor (Defects module script) to accomplish the goal.
Function Bug_FieldCanChange(FieldName, NewValue)
On Error Resume Next
if not changed then
strCommentBeforeUpdate = Bug_Fields("BG_DEV_COMMENTS").Value
end if
If FieldName = "BG_DEV_COMMENTS" and blnAddCommentClicked = False Then
Msgbox "Cannot update the comments." & Chr(13)& "Changes made will not be saved."&Chr(13)& "Please use 'Add comment' button to insert new comment." &Chr(13)& " Or click Cancel without saving."
blnUpdateCommentError = true
blnAddCommentClicked = False
changed = true
End If
Bug_FieldCanChange = DefaultRes
End Function

You can use a new Test and select type (VPXP_API) which allow script to run. The good thing there is that you'd have the function definition ready to be dragged from within QC instead of having to heavily rely on doc.
I've done an implementation in Python running some script from within QC still using its API but via a QC test which is handy to retrieve directly the result (Output) etc.. going through some shell command which can then call any script on any server etc...