What is chickenfoot? ==================== Chickenfoot is a Firefox/Iceweasel extension for automating web browsing tasks. It allows a programmer to easily match patterns against what browser shows on screen. This is in contrast to extensions like Greasemonkey where you need to read HTML source code and depend on possibly automatically generated element names. For more info see http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/chickenfoot/ What is chickenfoot-launcher? ============================= Chickenfoot allows user to load a script file and run it but requires the user to manually start X, browser and click "Run". chickenfoot-launcher is a wrapper that makes it possible to run chickenfoot scripts from command line. It uses VNC as a "background X server" and passes command line arguments to javascript using temporary files and also lets javascript programs output data to stdout by using temporary files. This program is currently a proof-of-concept. If you want to use it please first become familiar with using VNC since you might occasionally need to connect to the VNC server to sort things out. Simple example: hello1.js ------------------------- hello1.js demonstrates how command line arguments are visible through ARGV array and how writing to stdoutFile can be used to print text to stdout: $ ./chickenfoot-launcher hello.js 1 2 3 "foo bar" Hello world My arguments are: 0 : hello.js 1 : 1 2 : 2 3 : 3 4 : foo bar Slightly more complex example: google1.js ----------------------------------------- google1.js does a google search query and prints all links found on the result page: $ ./chickenfoot-launcher google1.js symbolic model checking query: symbolic model checking ... link: Symbolic Model Checking: 10 20 States and Beyond - Burch, Clarke ... ... link: Symbolic model checking for sequential circuit verification ... ... Utterly complex example: halli.js --------------------------------- halli.js is a script to list and add work hours to halli.tkk.fi. In its simplest form it reads service username and password from file and lists work hours: $ ./chickenfoot-launcher halli.js list ~/.service-auth | lynx -force_html -dump -stdin Date Project Duration 28.11.2007 Tekninen ylläpito / Technical Maintenance 7,25 21.11.2007 Tekninen ylläpito / Technical Maintenance 7,25 14.11.2007 Tekninen ylläpito / Technical Maintenance 7,25 ... Adding work hours is a bit more complex task. $ ./chickenfoot-launcher halli.js add ~/.service-auth 2007 12 4 7,25 "9943010002 ATK" "fixed nfs server" adds 7,25 hours for day 2007-12-04 under category "9943010002 ATK" with the description "fixed nfs server". You can see the order of arguments in the usage message you get when you run halli.js without arguments: $ ./chickenfoot-launcher halli.js usage: chickenfoot-launcher halli.js list authfile chickenfoot-launcher halli.js add authfile year month day duration category desc Detailed usage instructions for using chickenfoot-launcher and halli.js on debian squeeze -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) darcs get http://iki.fi/lindi/darcs/chickenfoot ; cd chickenfoot 2) chmod a+x ./chickenfoot-launcher && ./chickenfoot-launcher 3) ./chickenfoot-launcher for the second time to get the command to connect to VNC: No script given, starting browser anyway. You can connect to VNC using xvncviewer -passwd /home/lindi/.chickenfoot-launcher-home/.vnc/passwd apps2:5 4) xvncviewer -passwd /home/lindi/.chickenfoot-launcher-home/.vnc/passwd apps2:5 5) Go to http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/chickenfoot/ 6) Follow "Install" and then "Install Chickenfoot" link 7) Click "Edit Options", "Allow" and "Close" 8) Click "Install Chickenfoot" again and then "Install Now" 9) Go to http://halli.tkk.fi/ and click "Ok" when asked if you want to move to an encrypted page. 10) Close firefox. 11) Test ./chickenfoot-launcher hello.js 12) Put your service username and password separated by a space to a file named ~/.service-auth and make sure other people can't read it. 13) Test ./chickenfoot-launcher halli.js list ~/.service-auth | lynx -force_html -dump -stdin 14) If all went well, try to add a work hour with something like ./chickenfoot-launcher halli.js add ~/.service-auth 2007 12 4 7,25 "9943010002 ATK" "fixed nfs server" Using chickenfoot-launcher at niksula ------------------------------------- 1) After step 5) disable java from browser preferences or firefox will crash. 2) Figure out why firefox still often crashes with The program 'Gecko' received an X Window System error. This probably reflects a bug in the program. The error was 'BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)'. (Details: serial 23374 error_code 2 request_code 53 minor_code 0) (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously; that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it. To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)