In Selenium 1, why do all browser commands have an asteric prefix?

Question

Running Selenium 1 locally (not through the grid), all supported browser lines have the * prefix. Assuming Selenium-Server is already running

return new DefaultSelenium("localhost", 4444, "*firefox", "http://www.google.com"); 

Is this just a convention or has some kind of functional purpose? Please note that running using an unsupported browser type is a great way to get a list of supported browsers.

 return new DefaultSelenium("localhost", 4444, "firefox", "http://www.google.com"); 

Answer 1

When you add an asterisk in front of the browser name, you tell selenium to treat it as a “special browser parameter” that will allow selenium to automatically configure it if necessary (for example, disable pop-up blocker). It is recommended to use this option. For more information, see here and here in the documentation for selenium.

at the same links:

"browserString" MUST be either an absolute file path to the browser executable, or a special line starting with an asterisk "*". (See the next section for details.)

and

RECOMMENDED RECOMMENDED support for the following special browsers:

* firefly * Iexplore * opera * Netscape * Konqueror * safari * SeaMonkey * OmniWeb * camino Server MAY support other special browsers.

If the client driver issues a getNewBrowserSession command request for one of these lines, the server MUST start the specified browser.

When the server launches the browser using the special String browser, the server MAY automatically configure the browser so that it is suitable for automated testing. For example, a server MAY disable pop-up blockers or unnecessary security hints.

The server MAY allow parameters to be specified in the String browser by adding them to one of the supported browsers. For example, the server MAY allow the client driver to specify the absolute path to Firefox when the Server automatically configures it by accepting browserString "* firefox c: \ firefox \ firefox.exe".