How to run tests in headless mode using watir webdriver & headless gem on a mac?

Question

I have installed gem - headless (1.0.1) & tried to run tests by setting up the BROWSER to headless and I have also got xvfb installed on my box however I get the following error

unknown driver HEADLESS.

Information on the read me file of headless gem states the following "Headless would only work with applications using the X Server on OSX. Practically any native OSX application uses Quartz, the OSX graphics subsystem, and not X. That includes Chrome and Firefox on OSX."

so can I run tests in headless mode on a mac using watir webdriver ?

Answer 1

Short answer - no.

Long answer: unlike in Linux, there is no generic way to make an application hidden in OSX. There are specific solutions for specific situations, but there is no turnkey solution for headless Firefox.

Here's a related question that has lots of alternatives discussed: Headless, scriptable Firefox/Webkit on linux?