!2 Profiles in Firefox
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A profile in Firefox is where your personal configuration is stored (i.e. bookmarks, proxy settings etc).

When Firefox is installed, a profile called ''default'' is created.

It is possible to create new profiles using the ''-profileManager'' command line option for Firefox.

 * The majority of settings that you modify through the ''tools->options'' are stored inside this profile, as well as many options that can't be set via Firefox's menus.

You can see a list of all these properties by typing
{{{    about:config
}}}into the URL bar.

Firefox will show in bold any changes you have made from the default profile setting.

 * This will include any changes to your proxy/network settings.
 * You can change and even add new properties here although you need to be careful.

For further information on Firefox profiles see http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Profiles
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!2 Setting Profile Properties with Spider
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Before ''!-SpiderFixture-!'' opens the browser, it will create a brand new profile just as if you had installed Firefox for the first time.

 * You can use Spider's ''firefox profile'' call to directly manipulate those same ''about:config'' properties.

Here's an example of some of the properties I use:

|''firefox profile''|network.proxy.http|''as string''|myproxy|
|''firefox profile''|network.proxy.type|''as integer''|1|
|''firefox profile''|network.proxy.http_port|''as integer''|5862|
|''firefox profile''|network.proxy.no_proxies_on|''as string''|localhost, 127.0.0.1|
|''firefox profile''|app.update.enabled|''as boolean''|false|
|''firefox profile''|extensions.update.enabled|''as boolean''|false|
|''firefox profile''|layout.spellcheckDefault|''as integer''|0|
|''firefox profile''|browser.formfill.enable|''as boolean''|false|

Again you can figure out what works for you by making changes in Firefox and looking at the values in ''about:config''.

The benefit of this approach is that anyone can run your tests without needing to create a Firefox profile beforehand.
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!2 Selecting an existing Profile with Spider
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Sometimes it's necessary to use an existing profile because some of Firefox's options cannot be set with about:config properties. Eg:

    * disabling the Flash add-on or
    * installing extensions.

''!-SpiderFixture-!'' will allow you to use a specific profile if you want to, using:

|''use firefox profile''|!-MyProfileNameHere-!|

When you do this, ''!-Spiderfixture-!'' creates a copy of this profile.

 * You can reconfigure it further using ''firefox profile'' options and it will have a separate session / cookies etc.

Darren
