I’m running automated tests using Watir and Cucumber through Jenkins CI. The tests work fine when I execute them manually from the command line, but they consistently fail when triggered by Jenkins builds.
The main issue happens when my Watir scripts try to find popup windows by their title. The test failure occurs because the script can’t locate the popup window that should appear during test execution.
Here’s what I’ve tried:
- Running the same test suite manually in the Jenkins workspace directory (works perfectly)
- Executing the identical tests through Jenkins automated build (fails every time)
My theory is that Jenkins runs browsers in headless mode, which might not display window titles or browser chrome elements that my Watir scripts depend on for window identification.
I’m working with Watir version 1.8.1 and Internet Explorer 8 on a Windows system. Has anyone encountered similar popup handling issues in headless browser environments? What’s the best approach to make popup window detection work reliably in Jenkins?
You’re right about Jenkins being the issue, but there’s more to it. I’ve hit similar Watir popup problems - timing gets way worse in CI environments. Jenkins runs with different resources and priorities than manual tests, so popups don’t always appear when expected. The real kicker with IE8 in Jenkins? Windows treats browsers launched as services completely differently for security popups. I fixed this by switching to a polling approach - use browser.windows.each to loop through windows and match partial title patterns instead of direct title matching. Check your Jenkins node setup too. If you’re on a slave node, the display session might not be initialized properly for GUI apps. Try adding a short sleep before popup detection and make sure your Jenkins user has interactive desktop permissions. Honestly though, switching from IE to Firefox or Chrome WebDriver usually fixes these Windows service account headaches entirely.
Had the exact same issue two years back when moving our test suite to Jenkins. It’s not really about Jenkins being headless - it’s the user context and session differences between running tests manually vs in CI. In my case, the popups were showing up but with different titles or timing than I expected. Here’s what helped me figure it out: add explicit waits and log the actual window titles Watir can see during execution. Grab all available window handles and their properties in your Jenkins logs so you can see what’s really happening. Also discovered IE8 acts weird under the Jenkins service account compared to interactive sessions. Security zones and popup blocker settings can be totally different. Check if your Jenkins service runs under the right user account with proper IE security settings. For a better long-term fix, I ditched title-based window detection and switched to window handles or URL patterns instead. Made the tests way more reliable across different environments.
Oh man, this brings back memories! Jenkins + Watir + IE8 is a nightmare combo. Your popup detection’s probably failing because Jenkins runs without proper window station access. Switch your Jenkins service to run as “local system” with “allow service to interact with desktop” checked - that’s what fixed it for me. Also, IE8’s popup blocker acts totally different under service accounts, so you’ll probably need to modify registry settings for the Jenkins user.