IProgrammable

Selenium RC and FitNesse as a service on Windows Server 2008

If you are working in a team or running a continuous integration process the most comfortable way to run tools like Selenum RC Server or FitNesse is to install them as a windows service. I was doing this earlier on my old Windows Server 2003 by issuing the  instsrv.exe (to install a service) on srvany.exe (to run anything) - both from Windows Resource Kit. I had to edit the registry to provide what exactly do I wanted to run (java –jar selenium-server.jar or java –jar fitnesse.jar).

But there is no Windows Resource Kit for 2008. You might use the sc.exe and get the old srvany.exe (with compatibility issues according to Microsoft itself). It would work but why bother when there is a Non-Sucking Service Manager! All you have to do to install a service with this tool is to download it, issue a

nssm.exe install SeleniumRC

and edit this dialog box:

Click Install service and you are done. Selenium RC Server is installed. All you have to do is to start it. Voila!

How to make CruiseControl.NET accept SSL certificate under Windows Server 2008?

If you are running CruiseControl.NET under the Local System account and your SVN server certificate was issued by yourself (or by VisualSVN Server) you will quickly run into trouble. Normally if you run any command on your repository you will get this information:

C:\Program Files\svn\bin>svn log https://your_server/svn/your_repository/trunk –username username –password password
Error validating server certificate for ‘https://your_server:443′:
- The certificate is not issued by a trusted authority. Use the
fingerprint to validate the certificate manually!
- The certificate hostname does not match.
Certificate information:
- Hostname: your_server
- Valid: from Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:24:27 GMT until Tue, 24 Sep 2019 17:24:27 GMT

- Issuer: your_server
- Fingerprint: 24:8e:f6:ba:c7:a6:3f:69:32:c0:21:92:64:44:62:fe:2c:bb:b4:69
(R)eject, accept (t)emporarily or accept (p)ermanently?

If you accept you will not be bothered again. But CCNet works as a Windows Service. There is no one to make the decision. How to deal with this issue. Well earlier it was easy enough. You had to use one of the security holes and start cmd.exe in interactive mode wit at command (look here for more details). But with Windows Server 2008 it is not possible you will simply get this:

C:\Users\Administrator>time
The current time is: 23:31:11.59
Enter the new time:

C:\Users\Administrator>at 22:32 /interactive cmd.exe
Warning: Due to security enhancements, this task will run at the time
expected but not interactively.
Use schtasks.exe utility if interactive task is required (’schtasks /?’
for details).
Added a new job with job ID = 1

How to deal with this. There is very easy solution. Set the CruiseContril.NET service “Allow to interact with desktop” flag (Start –> Control Panel –> Administrative Tools –> Services –CruiseControl.NET) like this

Restart the service and wait a while for this windows to appear:

Select show me the message.

Voila! You have command line as Local System user available. You can now issue the

C:\Program Files\svn\bin>svn log https://your_server/svn/your_repository/trunk –username username –password password
command and accept the SSL certificate permanently.

From this time on you CCNet server will not have any problems with accessing your secured repository.

How to associate a file extension with a given file?

(Windows) You can edit a file type in Explorer (XP: Tools –> Folder options, Vista: Start –> Default Programs). But lets say you want to do it automatically and you have to set an additional parameter to the program you want to start (I have still not figured it out how to define such parameter under Vista). The easiest way is to create a file with *.reg extension that contains this script:

Red (cicstarter) – Schell command name

Blue (startf) – Action name

Brown (cicvlm.exe f=\”%1\”) – Application path (parameter inside f=)

Green (.cic) – File extension

You can manipulate the colored parts to feet your needs. Here is the script. Good luck!