rspec users - Mar 2009 - assert2/xhtml specifies your HTML by example

Rubies:

assert_xhtml now works with RSpec. (Call it ".should be_html_with{}"
!)

This is its Rails functional test aspect:

     get :edit_user, :id => users(:Moses).id
     scope = self

     assert_xhtml do
       form :action => ''/users'' do
         fieldset do
           legend ''Personal Information''
           label ''First name''
           input :type => ''text'',
                 :name => ''user[first_name]''
                 :value => scope.users(:Moses).first_name
         end
       end
     end

The assertion tests your form "by example". Your page must contain a
form with
the given action, and it must contain at least the listed elements, attributes, 
and text. Anything you don''t care about - anything your designers might
change -
you simply leave out of the example.

(The example is actually Nokogiri::HTML::Builder notation, so anything Nokogiri 
can do, the assertion can do. But that''s why we needed that
''scope'' variable, as
a kind of "messenger rope", to call your test-side methods inside the
block.
Otherwise, Nokogiri would dutifully convert them into HTML!)

Here''s a similar test, in RSpec:

   it ''should have a cute form'' do
     render ''/users/new''

     response.body.should be_html_with{
       form :action => ''/users'' do
         fieldset do
           legend ''Personal Information''
           label ''First nome''
           input :type => ''text'', :name =>
''user[first_name]''
         end
       end
     }
   end

Oh, except it has a bug in it! Here''s the diagnostic:

''/users/new should have a cute form'' FAILED

Could not find this reference...

<form action="/users">
   <fieldset>
   <legend>Personal Information</legend>
   <label>First nome</label>
   <input type="text" name="user[first_name]">
</fieldset></form>

...in these sample(s)...

<form action="/users">
   <fieldset>
     <legend>Personal Information</legend>
     <ol>
       <li id="control_user_first_name">
         <label for="user_first_name">First name</label>
         <input type="text" name="user[first_name]"
id="user_first_name">
        </li>
     </ol>
   </fieldset>
</form>

Notice, as usual, the specification diagnostic only contained the start of the 
match. The example with <form action="/users"> worked.

That''s all there is to it. Write anything you like inside the block,
and if the
assertion can''t find it, it will explain why it can''t. Install
the gem like this:

   gem install nokogiri assert2  #  make sure the later is 0.3.9!

Then use require ''assert2/xhtml'', in either the test/unit or
RSpec environments.

This project is wide-open for suggestions - with < 200 lines of code
there''s
plenty of room for more features!

-- 
   Phlip
   http://www.zeroplayer.com/