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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.

Is there a non-remote way to specify geckodriver location when you cannot specify it by System property or Path?

In my application I cannot set geckodriver executable location using System.setProperty and I cannot set it in the path.
Why? Because my app is multi-tenant... and each tenant has their own directory where Firefox and Geckodriver is copied and ran. This is due to bugs in the Firefox + Geckodriver, where infinite javascript loops and several other situations cause Firefox to hang until manual kill. Sometimes quit fails to kill things completely as well. So we need to supply a custom geckodriver location within the JVM per-tenant. Thus the problem.
So I am instead using:
driverService = new GeckoDriverService.Builder()
.usingDriverExecutable(new File(geckoDriverBinaryPath))
.build();
driverService.start();
RemoteWebDriver driver = new RemoteWebDriver(driverServiceUrl, capabilities);
But that is making me use a RemoteWebDriver when I am not remote.
Is there a better way to do this?

Rather than calling start() on the FirefoxDriverService object, why not simply use the FirefoxDriver constructor that takes the service?
driverService = new GeckoDriverService.Builder()
.usingDriverExecutable(new File(geckoDriverBinaryPath))
.build();
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(driverService);

As the questions stands it is still too broad. There are some unknowns: How are you running this? JUnit?, Maven?, Jenkins? And I am still not clear where this per-tenat geckoDriverBinaryPath comes from and how it is passed around.
What is wrong with just using:
System.setProperty("webdriver.gecko.driver", geckoDriverBinaryPath);
You could set an environment variable in your OS. Something like export geckoDriverBinary=/some/path and then in your code read it back using:
String geckoDriverBinaryPath = System.getenv("geckoDriverBinary");
System.setProperty("webdriver.gecko.driver", geckoDriverBinaryPath);
...
If you are running it from command line, either straight up or using Maven, you could pass the variable in like -DgeckoDriverBinaryPath=/some/path and then in your code read it back using:
String geckoDriverBinaryPath = System.getProperty("geckoDriverBinary");
System.setProperty("webdriver.gecko.driver", geckoDriverBinaryPath);
...
If the different tenants have the path fixed, you could write a utility function that would detect which tenant it is being run on, and set the property accordingly.
This answer is probably going to get closed as not-answer, but more of a discussion. :(

Selenium WebDriver - changing browser's language on linux

Opening a browser (google chrome) in a different language through selenium WebDriver works fine when running on PC, as described here. But when trying it on linux based systems, or mac-os, it simply doesn't work, and the browser opens on it's default language. I tried using different language code, such as "es_ES" or "es-ES" instead of "es", but nothing helped. Is it a different language code for linux, or is it a different way to manipulate the web driver and not use the "--lang" command?
Thanks.

I haven't try it but I think you can change the setting from chrome itself as :-
settings -> Lamguages -> Add languages.
Add your language there and give a try. remove other language if required.
For IE refer below link :-
http://www.reliply.org/info/internet/http-accept-lang.html
I have also found a code on same link you shared. Have you tried it?
DesiredCapabilities jsCapabilities = DesiredCapabilities.chrome();
ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
Map<String, Object> prefs = new HashMap<>();
prefs.put("intl.accept_languages", language);
options.setExperimentalOption("prefs", prefs);
jsCapabilities.setCapability(ChromeOptions.CAPABILITY, options);
Source :-
Set Chrome's language using Selenium ChromeDriver

Maybe you also need to set prefs > intl > accept_language: en-GB
"desiredCapabilities": {
"browserName": "chrome",
"chromeOptions": {
"args": ["--lang=en-GB"],
"prefs": {
"intl": {
"accept_languages": "en-GB"
}
}
}
}

As you can read at developer.chrome.com, there is a system-dependand way to set language for Chrome. On Linux, a environment variable is required.
I created a Bash script like this:
#!/bin/sh
LANGUAGE="en" "/home/plap/projects/pdf-exporter/chromedriver" $*
Then I use the path of the script in the place of the path of the real chromedriver executable.
Moreover, since I need to swich language programmatically, I made code to save scripts like that programmatically at each new language required. Indeed the code calls:
System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", executableFile.getAbsolutePath());
in a synchronized block together with new ChromeDriver(options)... Yes, it's horrible!

Call a java method from javascript in ie8 and chrome

I have been wondering if there is a way to make the following javascript functions work in IE8 and Chrome:
var funct = function()
{
var ppt = new java.awt.Point(200,100);
alert(ppt.x);
}
This thing works only in Firefox. Is there a way to enable global Java packages in IE 8 and Chrome?

Not quite answering your question - but you might find GWT (http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/) helpful.
It lets you write web applications in Java, which gets 'compiled' into javascript to be run inside any modern browser. It only supports a subset of the standard Java libraries - in particular it doesn't support java.awt.

Well, here it is. IE 8 and Chrome do not allow for global java packages:
i.e you cant use java.lang.String, or java.atw.Point directly in your javascript. However, if you have an applet, you can easily expose such classes through your applet. For example, if you import java.awt.Point in your applet and have a method like this:
public Point createPoint(int x,int y);
You should be able now from your javascript to access the applet and just call its method like this:
(javascript code)
var applet = document.getElementById("applettie");
var Point = applet.createPoint(20,30);
//now you have the Point object
Cheers

How can I embed a Java applet dynamically with Javascript?

I want to be able to insert a Java applet into a web page dynamically using a Javascript function that is called when a button is pressed. (Loading the applet on page load slows things down too much, freezes the browser, etc...) I am using the following code, which works seamlessly in FF, but fails without error messages in IE8, Safari 4, and Chrome. Does anyone have any idea why this doesn't work as expected, and how to dynamically insert an applet in a way that works in all browsers? I've tried using document.write() as suggested elsewhere, but calling that after the page has loaded results in the page being erased, so that isn't an option for me.
function createPlayer(parentElem)
{
// The abc variable is declared and set here
player = document.createElement('object');
player.setAttribute("classid", "java:TunePlayer.class");
player.setAttribute("archive", "TunePlayer.class,PlayerListener.class,abc4j.jar");
player.setAttribute("codeType", "application/x-java-applet");
player.id = "tuneplayer";
player.setAttribute("width", 1);
player.setAttribute("height", 1);
param = document.createElement('param');
param.name = "abc";
param.value = abc;
player.appendChild(param);
param = document.createElement('param');
param.name = "mayscript";
param.value = true;
player.appendChild(param);
parentElem.appendChild(player);
}

document.write()
Will overwrite your entire document. If you want to keep the document, and just want an applet added, you'll need to append it.
var app = document.createElement('applet');
app.id= 'Java';
app.archive= 'Java.jar';
app.code= 'Java.class';
app.width = '400';
app.height = '10';
document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].appendChild(app);
This code will add the applet as the last element of the body tag. Make sure this is run after the DOM has processed or you will get an error. Body OnLoad, or jQuery ready recommended.

I would have suggested doing something like what you're doing; so I'm baffled as to why it's not working.
Here's a document that looks pretty authoritative, coming from the horse's mouth as it were. It mentions the idiosyncrasies of different browsers. You may end up needing to do different tag soups for different implementations.
But maybe there's something magic about applet/object tags that keeps them from being processed if inserted dynamically. Having no more qualified advice, I have a crazy workaround to offer you: Howzabout you present the applet on a different page, and dynamically create an IFRAME to show that page in the space your applet should occupy? IFRAMEs are a bit more consistent in syntax across browsers, and I'd be surprised if they were to fail the same way.
Maybe you should use your browser's debugging tools to look at the DOM after you swap in your applet node. Maybe it's not appearing where you think it is, or not with the structure you think you're creating. Your code looks OK to me but I'm not very experienced with dynamic applets.

There is a JavaScript library for this purpose:
http://www.java.com/js/deployJava.js
// launch the Java 2D applet on JRE version 1.6.0
// or higher with one parameter (fontSize)
<script src=
"http://www.java.com/js/deployJava.js"></script>
<script>
var attributes = {code:'java2d.Java2DemoApplet.class',
archive:'http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.5.0/demos/plugin/jfc/Java2D/Java2Demo.jar',
width:710, height:540} ;
var parameters = {fontSize:16} ;
var version = '1.6' ;
deployJava.runApplet(attributes, parameters, version);
</script>

I did something similar to what Beachhouse suggested. I modified the deployJava.js like this:
writeAppletTag: function(attributes, parameters) {
...
// don't write directly to document anymore
//document.write(startApplet + '\n' + params + '\n' + endApplet);
var appletString = startApplet + '\n' + params + '\n' + endApplet;
var divApplet = document.createElement('div');
divApplet.id = "divApplet";
divApplet.innerHTML = appletString;
divApplet.style = "visibility: hidden; display: none;";
document.body.appendChild(divApplet);
}
It worked ok on Chrome, Firefox and IE. No problems so far.
I tried at first to have a div already created on my html file and just set its innerHTML to the appletString, but only IE were able to detect the new applet dynamically. Insert the whole div direclty to the body works on all browsers.

Create a new applet element and append it to an existing element using appendChild.
var applet = document.createElement('applet');
applet.id = 'player';
...
var param = document.createElement('param');
...
applet.appendChild(param);
document.getElementById('existingElement').appendChild(applet);
Also, make sure the existing element is visible, meaning you haven't set css to hide it, otherwise the browser will not load the applet after using appendChild. I spent too many hours trying to figure that out.

This worked for me:
// my js code
var app = document.createElement('applet');
app.code= 'MyApplet2.class';
app.width = '400';
app.height = '10';
var p1 = document.createElement('param');
p1.name = 'sm_UnwindType';
p1.value='200';
var p2 = document.createElement('param');
p2.name = 'sm_Intraday';
p2.value='300';
app.appendChild(p1);
app.appendChild(p2);
var appDiv = document.getElementById('applet_div');
appDiv.appendChild(app);
-----html code:
<div id="applet_div"></div>