Automation automatically detects your proxy settings and has a Network Settings feature to manage network and proxy settings in a user-friendly way from inside Automation.

The settings defined here will be persistent in the system across any Automation version with no changes required to modify them with each new installation. If you have multiple versions of Automation installed, changes made in one version will be reflected in all other versions.

If you previously defined proxy settings in the provar.ini file, you can follow the new approach defined below. The provar.ini file will be refreshed automatically with the new version with no additional steps required by the user.

You can access Network Settings by clicking Help > Network Settings:

You can also access Network Settings via the License Manager (Help > License Manager).

Using system provided proxy settings

Network settings use your standard system-provided proxy settings as the default option.

This means that you do not need to provide additional details unless the settings you want to use are different from the system-provided settings.

If Provar is using your system-provided defaults, Network Settings will show this as follows:

Testing network settings

You can test your default settings or any custom settings you define (see below) by clicking the Test Settings button.

This will open a dialog box to test your settings against the URLs you select. This will test that Automation is able to reach these URLs using the selected network settings.

You can also specify a custom URL in the Other option.

Defining other network proxy settings

Proxy Server: In computer networks, a proxy server is a server (a computer system or an application) that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers.

You can define any of the following proxy types in Network Settings:

• HTTP Proxy: HTTP proxy operates between the sending web server and your receiving web client. It processes the HTTP protocol line-by-line for any potentially harmful content before sending it to an internal web client. It also acts as a buffer between your web server and potentially harmful web clients by enforcing HTTP RFC compliance and preventing potential buffer overflow attacks.
• SOCKS Proxy: Socket Secure (SOCKS) is an Internet protocol that exchanges network packets between a client and server through a proxy server
• PAC Proxy: A proxy auto-config (PAC) file defines how web browsers and other user agents can automatically choose the appropriate proxy server (access method) for fetching a given URL.

There is also a Direct (no proxy) option for if you do not want Automation to use any proxy. This will instruct Automation to ignore the system default network settings.

To define any one of these options, click the New button.

In the dialog which appears, provide a Configuration Name and select the proxy type.

Refer back to the definitions above if you are unsure which type to select.

Depending on the proxy type you select, additional fields will appear for you to complete.

If you select Direct (no proxy), there are no additional fields to complete.

If you select HTTP(S) or SOCKS Proxy, the following additional fields will appear:

• HTTP/SOCKS Proxy Host (Required)
• HTTP/SOCKS Proxy Port (Required)
• Proxy User name
• Proxy Password

HTTP(S):

SOCKS:

If you select PAC Proxy, you will be asked to provide the PAC URL.

Once you have finished adding any additional information, use the Test Settings button to verify the details.

Then click the Save button. Your new settings will be added to the Network Settings list in inactive mode.

To make your new settings active and apply the settings in Automation, click on the new settings so that they are highlighted and then click the Activate button.

The following dialog box will appear:

To activate these changes immediately, click Restart Now to relaunch Automation with the new settings. The new settings will not apply until Automation has been restarted.

Location of proxy settings

All proxy settings are stored in the .networking folder which can be found under your {UserHome}/Provar folder.

ANT/Jenkins run

If you are using a custom proxy setup and a Jenkins/Ant execution is scheduled for Automation tests, please ensure that the .networking folder is placed under the same folder as the .license folder, i.e. so that both folders have the same parent folder. This only applies if you are using a custom proxy setup. If system defaults are used, there is no need to do this configuration. This is also referring to the standard location of licenses, {UserHome}/Provar, not a custom one.

In Windows you cannot generally create a folder that begins with a period via the UI, so you may need to use the command prompt to create the folder.

On occasion errors can occur where Automation does not pick up .networking setup files from {UserHome}/Provar/.

If this occurs, it can be resolved by following the steps below:

Step 1: Go to {UserHome}/Provar/ and copy the .networking folder.

Step 2: Go to the location where Jenkins is trying to identify the networking folder.

Step 3: Paste the .networking folder under the same folder as the .license folder, i.e. so that both folders have the same parent folder. There might be multiple custom proxy entries under the networking folder.

Provar will seek the active setting from all the options and select it for execution. If there is no active proxy present in the .networking folder, Provar will automatically pick the system default settings.

Step 4: Execute the tests via Jenkins now and this time the network settings should be identified.

Backwards compatibility 

In case you encounter any issues while defining proxy settings using the new Network Settings dialog, you can also fall back to the legacy method of configuring proxy information. For this we need to add one more entry in the provar.ini file:

-Dcom.provar.proxy.legacy=true

All other proxy entries will be same.

Important note 

This proxy setup should done one time only per system. Automation will reflect these settings across all installed Provar versions, in the same way as for license information.

Proxies without username and password

If proxy is not username and password enabled, the following arguments should be added to the provar.ini file. To prevent errors, copy and paste the arguments into the prover.ini file, adding your own information where shown.

Djava.net.useSystemProxies=true
-DproxyHost=<host>
-DproxyPort=<port>
-Dcom.provar.proxy.host=<host> 
-Dcom.provar.proxy.port=<port>

Proxies with username and password

If a proxy is username and password enabled, the following arguments should be added to the provar.ini file.

Djava.net.useSystemProxies=true
-Dcom.provar.proxy.host=<host>
-Dcom.provar.proxy.port=<port>
-DproxyHost=<host>
-DproxyPort=<port>
-Dcom.provar.proxy.user=<userName>
-Dcom.provar.proxy.password=<password>

PAC proxies

For a PAC proxy, the following should be added to the provar.ini file.

-Dcom.provar.pac.url=<PAC proxy URL>
-Djava.net.useSystemProxies=true

MS exchange connections

Provar also supports the use of Proxy/PAC for Microsoft Exchange Connections. Use the instructions above to define your proxy information.

You can also use the following tracing variable to provide more information about errors:

-Dcom.provar.exchange.trace=true

Copy and paste this into the provar.ini file: