Checking Navigation Sequences in Systems with Cookie-Based Session Authentication and Maintenance¶

Some Web sites use session authentication and maintenance techniques based on cookies that can cause the failure of the reproduction of a sequence using the Play button, even though, in fact, the sequence is being generated correctly.

In particular, some Web sites only provide users with authentication forms when they are accessing the system for the first time after starting up the browser (or after a certain session expiry time lapses).

Thus, if during the generation of a sequence that requires login/password authentication an attempt is made to reproduce said sequence in a new browser window, it may happen that the reproduction fails due to the fact that the session in the Web site is still open (and, thus, it is not possible to locate the login/password form that did appear, however, when it was being generated).

A similar situation can arise when, in a Web site, the effects of any other navigation event vary according to whether or not a session has been established.

The solution to this problem is very simple: the sequence is being generated correctly and the only difficulty arises when checking it to ensure that it is functioning correctly. To overcome this difficulty the ITPilot sequence generation toolbar lets the user eliminate the session “cookies” when starting a recording session.