iMacros for Firefox
From iMacros
This page documents features that are unique to iMacros for Firefox. For the standard features of the iMacros series, please see the Form Filling, Browser Automation, Data Extraction and Web Testing chapters.
Contents |
Bookmarking
You can use iMacros as super-bookmarks: To open the bookmark dialog right-click on the macro that you want to bookmark and select the "local" option. This option adds a link to the macro on your computer to your bookmarks.
If you run a bookmarked macro and the iMacros sidebar is not open, the sidebar will open to run the macro and close again after the macro is complected. If the sidebar was visible before the macro is started, it will remain visible after the macro is completed.
For experts: The bookmarked URL has the format http://run.imacros.net/?m=my_saved_macro.iim iMacros intercepts this URL and runs the local macro file instead. If the macro is inside subfolder(s), please use this format (%5C stands for /): http://run.imacros.net/?m=subfolder1%5subfolder2%5Cmy_saved_macro.iim
Keyboard Shortcuts
Press the F8 function key to open and close the iMacros sidebar.
Social Scripting
The iMacros bookmark dialog gives you the option to embed your macros and scripts directly into a link and share it with others. See the following forum posts for more details.
- A guide to sharing bookmarks, macros and scripts
- Shared Sample Macros on del.icio.us
- Create scripts on the fly (for experts)
Password Security
iMacros allows you to store passwords using secure 256-bit AES encryption. In addition, iMacros for Firefox integrates directly with the Firefox Password Manager and uses it to store the master password (if you decide to store it).
Command Line Support
You can start imacros (or Javascript scripts) inside of Firefox via the command line:
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" http://run.imacros.net/?m=Demo-FillForm.iim
Note: When you first start Firefox via the command line the iMacros extension is not immediately active . It takes a few seconds for Firefox to activate it. So the run.imacros.net command does get intercepted already but not yet processed by iMacros and a blank page appears.
Solution: Make sure that Firefox is already running. If you start Firefox a second time, Firefox will direct this new command automatically to the already running instance. Now iMacros can "see" the run.imacros.net bookmark URL and start the macro.
You can use a batch file like this:
Code:
start /B "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" http://www.google.com ping 127.1.1.1 (or pause or sleep ... it is just to cause a small delay) start /B "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" http://run.imacros.net/?m=Demo-FillForm.iim
Note: If you use the batch start command, Firefox must be the default browser.
More information: Our users created several useful forum posts about the command line feature: Automating task each day, Problem with starting imacros, Starting a script from DOS cmd line?, Batch File: Load Firefox, Run Macro(s), Close
Alternative solution: If you need more control over Firefox you can use the iMacros Scripting Interface that comes with the iMacros Scripting Edition. This method gives you complete control over Firefox and Internet Explorer. For example, you can return error codes or extracted data from the browser to your program or script.
Javascript Scripting Interface
Automate complex tasks: iMacros commands refer to web page elements, so any programming logic must be put into a script that then uses iMacros to automate the website. For this purpose iMacros for Firefox contains a built-in Javascript Scripting Interface, which runs directly inside the browser. Just like Firefox this interface is cross-platform (Win, Mac, Linux).
The following information focuses on this built-in Javascript Scripting Interface.
Supported commands:
- iimDisplay
- iimSet
- iimPlay
- iimGetLastExtract
- iimGetLastError
- iimExit is not supported, but you can use window.close() inside of Firefox
Note that the syntax of the regular, commercial Windows Web Scripting Interface and the built-in Firefox Javascript Scripting Interface is identical (unless where explicitly noted). Therefore they use the same documentation.
Interesting forum posts about the Javascript interface:
- Read and write data from and to a file
- Output data to a file
- Different options to read input data from a CSV file
Important: iMacros macros must have the ".iim" file extension and Javascript scripts must have the ".js" file extension.
Note: Firefox can be remote controlled by the regular iMacros Scripting Interface via iimInit ("-fx"). The Javascript Scripting Interface does not include iimInit and iimExit, because they are not required. The Javascript runs inside the browser.
Portable Firefox
Mozilla Firefox®, Portable Edition is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser bundled with a PortableApps.com Launcher as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you on a USB stick. iMacros is optimized and tested to work well with the Portable Edition. If you plan to use iMacros with the Firefox Portable please check "Store data in profile" folder on the the PATH tab in the OPTIONS dialog. Then iMacros stores all data inside the Firefox data folder (which typically is on your USB stick) instead of using absolute paths. No data gets lost or moved while switching the folder location.
Privacy Policy
Our privacy policy is simple: iMacros stores everything on your PC. In other words, no iMacros information is stored on our website. iMacros is not an online service. We never have access to your macros or scripts. This includes the social scripting feature. Even in this case our servers are not involved.
Technical background information for those who are interested in how it works:
If you want share you macros (social scripting) and select the option "Run everywhere: Embed macro in URL" in the bookmark menu then the macro is encoded in the URL (link). This feature is useful if you want to email the URL (= macro) to your friends and coworkers or want to embed the macro in your website or blog. This means visitors of your website or Intranet page can run the macro. Again, no macro information is stored on our website. The URL contains the complete macro (For experts: The macro is BASE64 encoded).
You can add the iMacros bookmark url with the embedded macro to a social bookmarking service like http://del.icio.us/. Then the information is stored on their website and other users can run your macros. We think this is a very cool feature. But it is your decision to share your scripts, and our website is not involved in this.
Technically what happens if you call a URL that starts with http://run.imacros.net/?code=ABC... is that iMacros intercepts the URL and executes the macro. That's all and it happens locally on your machine. If no iMacros add-on is installed, then a simple web page is opened that provides the user with a download link to iMacros.
Passwords are stored 256-bit AES encrypted inside the macro files. AES is a very strong encryption that can not be broken. So even if somebody would get a hold of your macros, they will useless to him/her without your master password.
Last but not least, you do not have to take our word for it. iMacros for Firefox is open source, so everybody can view and inspect it.
Version History
Read what's new:
- 2009-06-10 V6.2.3
- Added: {{!CLIPBOARD}} support
- Added: Right-click menu to iMacros Editor
- Added: TAG XPATH support
- Added: Error return codes
- Added: TAG.. CONTENT=EVENT:FAIL_IF_FOUND support
- Added: Editor Help Button links to the popular AlertFox Website Monitoring and Wiki
- Added: Demo-Open6Tabs macro
- Improved: Click X/Y command
- Fixed: iimGetLastError did not return an error text
- Fixed: Many smaller issues
- 2009-05-06 V6.2.1.5
- Added: Firefox 3.5 Beta support
- 2009-03-26 V6.2.1.4
- Fixed: PAUSE issue
- Fixed: Other smaller issues
- 2009-03-20 V6.2.1.3
- Added: Editor: maximize/minimize buttons added
- Fixed: Bookmark issue
- Fixed: TAG wait isssue
- Fixed: Freeze with JS script runs and sidebar was closed
- Fixed: SAVEAS issue
- Fixed: Issue with tricky CSV files
- 2009-03-18 V6.2.1.1
- Added: New, completely redesigned, super-fast iMacros Player engine.
- Added: New macro editor with syntax-coloring
- Added: !SINGLESTEP support
- Added: Password dialog link to our password tool
- Added: ONDOWNLOAD sub folder creation, e. g. FOLDER=d:\F1\F2 => Folder F2 will be created
- Fixed: Syntax error for ATTR=TXT:
- Fixed: Issue with Mac OSX default paths.
- Fixed: Several smaller issues
- Changed: Removed Firefox 1.x support. This allowed us to improve and enhance iMacros further.
- 2009-01-09 V6.1.1.4
- Changed: Removed Seamonkey and Flock support because of issues with the latest versions of these browsers. We plan to add support again in the future.
- 2008-12-15 V6.1.1.3
- Added: Better error messages if some paths do not exist
- Fixed: #NOVAR# support
- Fixed: STOPWATCH timer issue
- Fixed: TAB recording issue
- Fixed: ONLOGIN recording issue
- Fixed: URL GOTO syntax check issue (redesigned URL syntax check)
- Fixed: Issue with F5 (Refresh)
- 2008-12-03 V6.1.1.0
- Added: Take screenshots of the complete page in PNG format with the new SAVEAS TYPE=PNG command.
- Added: New demo macro: Demo-TakeScreenshot-FX.iim
- Added: Support for Portable Firefox (Check the "Store data in Profile Folder" box on the Folder options tab)
- Added: Added line numbers to Javascript error messages
- Added: Hide or show Javascript execution with //imacros-js:showsteps yes|no command
- Added: Support for using "", as in CONTENT="Hello Firefox"
- Added: CONTENT=EVENT:SAVEITEM support (in Firefox, this is currently the same as SAVEPICTUREAS)
- Added: TAB T=x generates and error messgae if Tab# x does not exist
- Added: ASCII macro format now supported (in addition to Unicode and UTF-8)
- Added: iMacros Macro Bookmarks show iMacros icon now
- Added: Automatic POS detection for check boxes
- Added: User can press STOP when macro is paused
- Added: Closing of a tab now recorded (TAB CLOSE)
- Improved: iMacros preferences storage consolidated in the imacros: workspace. Old settings are transferred to the new settings.
- Improved: The error window after SET !ERRORIGNORE YES does not steal focus
- Fixed: iimInit ("-fx", FALSE) support
- Fixed: CLICK X/Y command issue
- Fixed: Many smaller issues
- 2008-10-24 V6.0.7.6
- Added: Firefox 3.1 Beta support
Older versions: Read the previous version history here. You can download all older versions here. Be careful with old versions. These versions are provided for reference and testing purposes. You should always use the latest version.
Known Issues
Known issues with the latest version of iMacros for Firefox:
- Currently there are no known issues :-)
Please report any problem in our user forum. We can only fix issues that you report! Thank you for your help.
All issues will be fixed as soon as possible.
Note 1: How to use the Firefox Error Console?
Note 2: If you run iMacros non-stop (24 x 7), you should disable some of Firefox "nag" dialogs and see this FAQ.
Do you want to be informed when the next iMacros update is available? => Please subscribe to the iMacros announcement forum.
