Deployment Script with Watir (Take THAT, Websphere!)

So, after some struggling with Websphere on deploying an EAR file (Don't ask me question about why we still bother, please... ) and not able to get a hand on a simple deployment script (I think there should be one but I just didn't have the time to look further), I have decided to automate the web process that I have been doing, using WATIR.

Task
Call me innocent, but I really thought that depolying an EAR file on an application server would be easy, given the 'comprehensive' file structure and all the deployment descriptors.

But no..., you have to click through this long 'wizard' (ooohhh...) process every single time. Not only you have to do it manually, it also takes quite a lot of time. And I happen to be one of the impatient guys who thinks that it is a machine's job, then a human should not suffer.

Watir
In case you haven't heard of it, Watir (http://wtr.rubyforge.org/) is a ruby library used for web testing. I am still not sure how exactly it works, but the result is that you can control an internet explorer instance using Ruby script. So basically almost anything you do with IE, you can write a script and automate it.

Code
So long story short, I was finally able to write a script that uploads the file to the server, click through the steps, and save the configurations. Needless to say, I am very impressed the progess that Watir has made, functionality as well as the documentations.

The script is actually not that long. Here it is (with comments):

require 'watir'
 
class IeLauncher
  def IeLauncher.open(*args)
    result = ie = Watir::IE.start(*args)
    if block_given?
      begin
        result = yield ie
      ensure
        ie.close
      end
    end
    return result
  end
end
 
# Ignore the above, they are just basic set up.
 
# Launch IE, go to the specified URL
IeLauncher.open('http://localhost:9060/ibm/console/') do |ie|
  # Log in, my local server doesn't have a password
  ie.text_field(:name, 'username').set('admin')
  ie.button(:value, 'Log in').click
 
  # Only one login is allowed so you will have to log out last one
  if ie.contains_text('Login Conflict')
    ie.radio(:name, 'action', 'force').set
    ie.button(:value, 'OK').click
  end
 
  # Apprantly when you deploy an application, you need to 'save' it.
  # This recovers it
  if ie.contains_text('Recover prior changes')
    ie.radio(:name, 'action', 'recover').set
    ie.button(:value, /OK/).click
  end
 
  # This get the frame that has the navigation tree and look for the right node
  navigation = ie.frame('navigation_tree')
  navigation.link(:text, 'Applications').click
  navigation.link(:text, 'Enterprise Applications').click
  detail_frame = ie.frame('detail')
 
  # Uninstall the existing deployment
  if detail_frame.contains_text('DukesBank')
    dukesbank_checkbox = detail_frame.checkbox(:value, /DukesBank/)
    dukesbank_checkbox.click
    detail_frame.button(:value, 'Uninstall').click
    detail_frame.button(:value, 'OK').click
  end
 
  # Install
  detail_frame.button(:value, 'Install').click
  detail_frame.radio(:name, 'radioButton', 'local').click
 
  # Upload the file (Note, file path cannot have space)
  detail_frame.file_field(:name, 'localFilepath').set('c:\Work\Dukes\DukesBankEAR\build\artifacts\DukesBankEAR.ear')

  # Clicking through the wizards
  button = detail_frame.button(:value, 'Next')
  while button.exists?
    button.click
    button = detail_frame.button(:value, 'Next')
  end
  detail_frame.button(:value, 'Finish').click
  detail_frame.link(:text, 'Save to Master Configuration').click
  detail_frame.button(:value, 'Save').click
  navigation.link(:text, 'Enterprise Applications').click
end