My test setup is for a little wicket 1.5.x based web application with ui tests running during integration-test phase of maven 3.x. The problem here is that my ubuntu 12.01 server has only a console and no gnome or kde running like a desktop linux. Inside eclipse is a test, which starts a browser like firefox to run automated clicks, no problem. I decided to use the webdriver based selenium tests which can use several driver for the different browser. Each driver supports a different browser like chrome, internet explorer or firefox. My tests starts a firefox with explicit locale setting. The wicket application is i18n localized for english an german speaking customer. On the server is a jenkins ci installed with subversion polling to run automated tests during maven build. You can run the scenario with no problems as well under hudson as ci. The solution use xvfb a virtual xwindow system for firefox as desktop. It will automatically started and stopped by jenkins during a job build.

Software Installation on the server

Installation of xvfb

apt-get install xvfb gtk2-engines-pixbuf

Installation of fonts

apt-get install xfonts-base xfonts-75dpi xfonts-100dpi
apt-get install xfonts-scalable xfonts-cyrillic

Installation of tools for testing xvfb

apt-get install x11-apps imagemagick

Testing server installation

1. Console run server

Xvfb -ac :99 -screen 0 1280x1024x16

2. console start firefox

export DISPLAY=:99
firefox http://ralf.schaeftlein.com

3. console make a screenshot

xwd -root -display :99 | convert xwd:- capture.png

And see a result like this when you retrieve the file capture.png via ssh

Jenkins Configuration

Init.d Script for xvfb

Save content as file under /etc/inid.d/xvfb

XVFB=/usr/bin/Xvfb
XVFBARGS="$DISPLAY -ac -screen 0 1280x1024x16"
PIDFILE=/var/hudson/xvfb_${DISPLAY:1}.pid
case "$1" in
  start)
    echo -n "Starting virtual X frame buffer: Xvfb"
    /sbin/start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --make-pidfile --background --exec $XVFB -- $XVFBARGS
    echo "."
    ;;
  stop)
    echo -n "Stopping virtual X frame buffer: Xvfb"
    /sbin/start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE
    echo "."
    ;;
  restart)
    $0 stop
    $0 start
    ;;
  *)
  echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/xvfb {start|stop|restart}"
  exit 1
esac
exit 0

Set rights for jenkins running user on the script

chown jenkins:root /etc/init.d/xvfb
chmod ug+rwx /etc/init.d/xvfb

Add display environment variable to jenkins init.d script

export DISPLAY=:99

Create a new jenkins job

Create a new jenkins job for your web project stored in subversion

 Add to pre and post build step a shell script to start and stop xvfb

Configure maven pom of the web project

Define special tests in surefire to run as integration tests and jetty as integration application server

			
				org.apache.maven.plugins
				maven-surefire-plugin
				2.4.3
				
					true
				
				
					
						surefire-test
						test
						
							test
						
						
							false
							
								**/itest/**
							
						
					

					
						surefire-itest
						integration-test
						
							test
						
						
							false
							
								**/itest/**
							
						
					
				
			
			
				org.mortbay.jetty
				maven-jetty-plugin
				6.1.26
				
					10
					foo
					9998
					/${project.artifactId}
					true
					${basedir}/src/test/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml
					
						
							9999
							60000
						
					
				
				
					
						start-jetty
						pre-integration-test
						
							run
						
						
							0
							true
						
					
					
						stop-jetty
						post-integration-test
						
							stop
						
					
				
			

Add dependency to selenium maven artifacts

		
			org.seleniumhq.selenium.client-drivers
			selenium-java-client-driver
			1.0.2
			test
		
		
			org.seleniumhq.selenium
			selenium-java
			2.21.0
			test
		

Record ui steps and write a selenium junit test

Install the selenium ide as firefox plugin

Start firefox and install the xpi file as new plugin. Restart firefox afterwards.

Record ui steps

1. Open the menu, choose web developer and their selenium ide.
2. Start inside eclipse the tomcat with your web application
3. Open in firefox the web application
4. Click  inside selenium ide on the red record button for start recording
5. Click through your web application
6. Click again on the red record button for stop recording
7. Choose from menu “Export as testcase” and their “Junit4 (Webdriver backed)”
8. Save file as test.java

Create an new selenium junit test file

1. Copy the test.java into your eclipse project into the src/test/java folder
2. Adopt the class definition and setup method like this

public class SeleniumTest {

	private Log log = LogFactory.getLog(getClass());

	protected Selenium selenium;

	@Before
	public void setUp() throws Exception {
		FirefoxProfile profile = new FirefoxProfile();
		// enable german language locale
		profile.setPreference("intl.accept_languages", "de-de,de");
		profile.setEnableNativeEvents(true);
		profile.layoutOnDisk();
		WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(profile);
		String baseUrl = "http://localhost:9999/"; // port jetty surefire integration test
		selenium = new WebDriverBackedSelenium(driver, baseUrl);
	}

1. Check into subversion and control jenkins job console.