For up to date installation instructions, download free version of Watir book, or go directly to the page for your operating system: Windows, Mac, Ubuntu Linux.

Troubleshooting

Visit the following links for having trouble with installation:

• Watir FAQ
• Watir Installation Issues

Installing Behind an Authenticating Proxy

Watir drivers are packaged as gems, Ruby libraries that can be installed over the internet. If installing behind an authenticating proxy, first set the HTTP_PROXY environment variable:

Windows:

set HTTP_PROXY=http://username:password@your.proxy.com:80

Linux:

export http_proxy=http://username:password@your.proxy.com:80

Tips

Install Ruby on Linux

Use your relevant package manager to update or install Ruby with the following at a terminal window:

sudo apt-get install ruby  # for Ubuntu / Debian users
sudo yum install ruby      # for Red Hat / Fedora users

Update RubyGems on Linux

Make sure you have the latest rubygems version 1.3.7 or above installed. Use your relevant package manager to install the latest version with the following at a terminal window:

sudo apt-get install rubygems # for Ubuntu / Debian users
sudo yum install rubygems  # for Red Hat / Fedora users

Install a HTML Inspector

To use Watir effectively, you’ll need to be able to browse through the structure of your application’s HTML pages. These tools help you do that.

• On Firefox, use Firebug
• On Internet Explorer, use the IE Developer Toolbar

Installing or Updating RubyGems

While updating RubyGems, or installing any of the gems, you can use the following additional flags:

--no-rdoc --no-ri

For example:

gem update --system --no-rdoc --no-ri
gem install watir --no-rdoc --no-ri

It will be much faster, but you will not install RDoc and ri.