WatiN test using IE.GetCookie failing only from CruiseControl

Question

I added some simple WatiN tests to our app today to check that a cookie value is stored correctly.

The tests pass locally on all machines in the team. However, when CruiseControl runs the tests on our Build server these new tests fail on the line containing

browser.GetCookie(url, cookieName)

The error given in the CruiseControl log is the old chestnut of:

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

I have logged on to the Build server with Remote Desktop, using the same user account that CruiseControl runs under, and run MbUnit manually, and the tests pass. So it can't be a problem with the permissions on the Build server to access cookies.

I have looked through all the WatiN documentation for help, but come up empty. I've restarted the CruiseControl service. I've tried everything I can think of and I'm now completely at a loss now as to what could be different in the way Cruise Control runs these tests.

Does anybody know what could be causing this and/or how to resolve it?

Answer 1

Try running CruiseControl as a application instead of as a service. WatiN tends to hang when run from a service (since windows services are not attached to a UI session, and WatiN requires one for handling dialog boxes in IE).

But besides that ... recall that IE cookies are stored in your user profile. Profiles are not loaded when services run -- they are daemon processes that run quietly in the background and don't actually run in the context of a logon session. I suspect that's the cause of your exception.