safe_alert() fails at UI element startup in Selenium IDE

[lukeis]

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 8428

If you have a UI-Element definition with test case(s) (as per https://selenium.googlecode.com/git/javascript/selenium-core/scripts/ui-doc.html
> UI-Element Shorthand > testcase*), and the test case(s) fail, then Selenium IDE shows
an ugly error, but not even a hint of the failed test case(s).

UI-Element calls safe_alert() twice from UIElement's test(), once from UIElement's
init(), twice from UIMap's addPageset(), three times from UIMap's addElement(). The
only other call is in getLocator(), which should work since that's when Selenium IDE
window is already shown.

This may be caused by Firefox change in 2013 mentioned at https://forums.mozilla.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=14917,
or related to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=912655, or who knows....

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Selenium IDE > Options > Options > Selenium Core extensions > select the attached
ui_element_with_brokent_testcase.js
2. Restart Selenium IDE
3. You get an error popup: "Cannot call openModalWindow on a hidden window".

Following stack trace uses a different filename than attached, but it demonstrates
the same problem:
"openModalWindow@resource://gre/components/nsPrompter.js:356:18
ModalPrompter.prototype.openPrompt@resource://gre/components/nsPrompter.js:552:8
ModalPrompter.prototype.alert@resource://gre/components/nsPrompter.js:604:8
safe_alert@chrome://selenium-ide/content/selenium-core/scripts/htmlutils.js:999:8
UIElement/this.test@chrome://selenium-ide/content/selenium-core/scripts/ui-element.js:225:16
UIMap/this.addElement@chrome://selenium-ide/content/selenium-core/scripts/ui-element.js:888:48
@chrome://selenium-ide/content/tools.js -> file:///home/pkehl/selite/phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq-ui_elements.js?1422309604591:16:0
@chrome://selenium-ide/content/tools.js -> file:///home/pkehl/selite/phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq-ui_elements.js?1422309604591:7:1
ExtensionsLoader.loadSubScript/<@chrome://selenium-ide/content/tools.js:206:10
ExtensionsLoader.loadSubScript@chrome://selenium-ide/content/tools.js:203:4
Editor.prototype.loadSeleniumAPI@chrome://selenium-ide/content/editor.js:1068:6
Editor@chrome://selenium-ide/content/editor.js:162:2
StandaloneEditor@chrome://selenium-ide/content/standalone-editor.js:22:4
onload@chrome://selenium-ide/content/selenium-ide.xul:1:0"

There may be similar problems elsewhere in Selenium IDE, if it uses safe_alert() before
its window is displayed.

Selenium version: 2.8.0 IDE
OS: Fedora 20
Browser: Firefox 35

Reported by peter.kehl on 2015-01-26 23:30:56

---

- _Attachment: [ui_element_with_brokent_testcase.js](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/selenium/issue-8428/comment-0/ui_element_with_brokent_testcase.js)_

[lukeis]

To streamline, I suggest you implement it together with https://code.google.com/p/selenium/issues/detail?id=8429

Reported by peter.kehl on 2015-01-26 23:50:25

[lukeis]

Reported by barancev on 2015-02-14 21:48:42

• Labels added: Component-IDE

[lukeis]

I too have noticed this.  It seems to make the testcase functionality useless, since
the user can't get meaningful insight into what failed.

Reported by ellisd23 on 2015-05-16 22:35:35

[lukeis]

Reported by luke.semerau on 2015-09-17 17:47:30

• Labels added: Restrict-AddIssueComment-Commit