rspec users - Jun 2008 - Selenium/Watir usage along side Webrat in story testing

This is related to Selenium/Watir usage along side webrat in story
testing.

MHS_Testing and Rspec-ui provide some great help for testing through
frameworks like Selenium/Watir.

But there is something missing, Webrat has changed the landscape
somewhat with Acceptance Tests/Story Driven development.

Now I have a choice:

1. Tests and rails process run as one test process (Webrat)

2. Use framework accesses a separate test process than the one driving
the
tests. (Selenium)


Option 1 is super fast but cannot run complex JavaScript/advanced UI
actions (mouse over, etc.)

So I use a mixture of both based on the test I have to write.

So there are **two syntaxes I have to use**. When I have common Givens
like login I have to duplicate the Given, one for Selenium one for
Webrat.

So I was thinking of ways to avoid this duplication:

Create two classes (this is already what MHS_testing has done for
Selenium)

----
class RailsSeleniumStory < RailsStory
class RailsWebratStory < RailsStory
----

Create a common interface for all shared functionailty.

(I suspect Webrat represents the smallest set of functionality -
Selenium can do everything Webrat can do but not the other way around).
The different UI testing frameworks implement such interface giving
Selenium/Webrat/Other UI adapters.

You choose which adapter to use by the story class.

Example
-------

#Webrat syntax
steps_for(:login) do
  Given(''I''m logged in'') do
    visits ''/login''
    fills_in ''username'' ''test''
    fills_in ''password'' ''password''
    clicks ''login''
  end
end


#Make webrat syntax work with selenium
with_steps_for(:login) do
   run ''/example/story'', {:type => RailsSeleniumStory}
end

#Use Webrat
with_steps_for(:login) do
   run ''/example/story'', {:type => RailsWebratStory} #Could
just be
RailsStory
end

class RailsSeleniumStory < RailsStory

  ...

  #Map webrats visit to seleniums open
  def visits(url)
    browser.open(url)
    browser.wait_for_page_to_load "30000"
  end

  ...

end

-------

I''m not sure what direction MHS_testing or Rspec-ui are going, whether
they will merge? I''m looking at this problem now and want to start
contributing to whatever project is going to be the best fit. So I''m
interested to hear:

*Feedback/discussion about this direction
*Any better ideas of solving the problem
*Any other frameworks out there were people have started to look at this
problem.

--
Joseph Wilk
http://www.joesniff.co.uk
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Joseph Wilk wrote:
> Create two classes (this is already what MHS_testing has done for
> Selenium)
>
> ----
> class RailsSeleniumStory < RailsStory
> class RailsWebratStory < RailsStory
> ----
>
> Create a common interface for all shared functionailty.
>
> (I suspect Webrat represents the smallest set of functionality -
> Selenium can do everything Webrat can do but not the other way around).
> The different UI testing frameworks implement such interface giving
> Selenium/Webrat/Other UI adapters.
>
> You choose which adapter to use by the story class.
>
> ...
>
> I''m not sure what direction MHS_testing or Rspec-ui are going,
whether
> they will merge? I''m looking at this problem now and want to start
> contributing to whatever project is going to be the best fit. So
I''m
> interested to hear:
>
> *Feedback/discussion about this direction
> *Any better ideas of solving the problem
> *Any other frameworks out there were people have started to look at this
> problem.
>
> --
> Joseph Wilk
> http://www.joesniff.co.uk
>   
Hey Joseph,
Have you looked at webrat in github lately?  
http://github.com/brynary/webrat/tree/master
Bryan is abstracting webrat so that different adapters can be plugged 
into it.. Meaning, the same wrappers/syntax can be used to drive rails, 
merb, mechanize, etc... I think a selenium or watir adapter for webrat 
would be awesome.  I''m not too experienced with selenium but it
doesn''t
strike me as being too hard to do.  You make a good point in that webrat 
is a small subset of what the other JS aware frameworks can do but I 
think what webrat currently has would handle a lot of the use cases.  
One could then perhaps create an extension of webrat''s language to form
a uniform way of expressing JS/AJAX behaviour. 

The mechanize adapter idea is neat too, because you could then use it to 
test any website no matter what the implementation is.  I know that part 
of Bryan''s motivation behind the mechanize spike is to eventually use 
the stories to do performance testing as well.

This is a problem I''m also interested in but I haven''t yet
needed to use
selenium enough to make me want to do anything about it. :)  I think the 
selenuim adapter for webrat approach would be a great way to approach 
this problem though.  What do you think?

-Ben

If Bryan wraps the webrat API around the Watir API, it can also be  
used against the new kid on the block: http://celerity.rubyforge.org,  
which implements the Watir API backed by JRuby and HTMLUnit - orders  
of magnitudes faster than Watir - and agnostic of webapp architecture  
(http based). This means webrat could be used against e.g. Java webapps.

I''m planning on adding native webrat support to Cucumber (on Github)  
and you can see it in action in Ba (on Gitorious).

Aslak.

Sent from my iPhone

On 9. juni. 2008, at 20.11, Ben Mabey <ben at benmabey.com> wrote:
> Joseph Wilk wrote:
>> Create two classes (this is already what MHS_testing has done for
>> Selenium)
>>
>> ----
>> class RailsSeleniumStory < RailsStory
>> class RailsWebratStory < RailsStory
>> ----
>>
>> Create a common interface for all shared functionailty.
>>
>> (I suspect Webrat represents the smallest set of functionality -
>> Selenium can do everything Webrat can do but not the other way  
>> around).
>> The different UI testing frameworks implement such interface giving
>> Selenium/Webrat/Other UI adapters.
>>
>> You choose which adapter to use by the story class.
>>
>> ...
>>
>> I''m not sure what direction MHS_testing or Rspec-ui are going,
>> whether
>> they will merge? I''m looking at this problem now and want to
start
>> contributing to whatever project is going to be the best fit. So
I''m
>> interested to hear:
>>
>> *Feedback/discussion about this direction
>> *Any better ideas of solving the problem
>> *Any other frameworks out there were people have started to look at  
>> this
>> problem.
>>
>> --
>> Joseph Wilk
>> http://www.joesniff.co.uk
>>
>
> Hey Joseph,
> Have you looked at webrat in github lately? 
http://github.com/brynary/webrat/tree/master
> Bryan is abstracting webrat so that different adapters can be  
> plugged into it.. Meaning, the same wrappers/syntax can be used to  
> drive rails, merb, mechanize, etc... I think a selenium or watir  
> adapter for webrat would be awesome.  I''m not too experienced with
> selenium but it doesn''t strike me as being too hard to do.  You
make
> a good point in that webrat is a small subset of what the other JS  
> aware frameworks can do but I think what webrat currently has would  
> handle a lot of the use cases.  One could then perhaps create an  
> extension of webrat''s language to form a uniform way of expressing
> JS/AJAX behaviour.
> The mechanize adapter idea is neat too, because you could then use  
> it to test any website no matter what the implementation is.  I know  
> that part of Bryan''s motivation behind the mechanize spike is to  
> eventually use the stories to do performance testing as well.
>
> This is a problem I''m also interested in but I haven''t
yet needed to
> use selenium enough to make me want to do anything about it. :)  I  
> think the selenuim adapter for webrat approach would be a great way  
> to approach this problem though.  What do you think?
>
> -Ben
>
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users

My mind was stuck in Rspec but looking at this as an adapter for Webrat 
is a great idea.

I''ve had a play with Webrat and a test Selenium adapter ala the 
Mechanize one. Things start to get a little tricky around having to have 
the domain defined first in the Selenium. Meaning in Selenium its hard 
to do:

1. visits(''http://www.google.co.uk'')
2. visits(''http://www.monkeys.co.uk'')

Status codes are also not great fun 
(http://clearspace.openqa.org/message/8115#8115). I''ll continue playing
with this and see how easy it will be to squeeze Selenium into the 
Webrat box.
>One could then perhaps create an extension of webrat''s language to
form
>a uniform way of expressing JS/AJAX behavior.
Sounds like a good idea. I guessing you mean some friendly wrapper to 
something like: ''xml_http_request'' in 
ActionController::Integration::Session
http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionController/Integration/Session.html#M000251

Aswell as just Ajax/JS stuff as an ability to perform more advanced 
interrogations (but always optional to keep the wonderful simplicity of 
Webrat''s usage) would be a nice addition to Webrat. Something similar
to
Selenium''s xpath like expressions. I''m not sure if Watir has
something
similar.

The whole JS/AJAX behavior missing from Webrat has been making me look 
at the introduction of Server-side JS. Things like: 
Jaxer(http://www.aptana.com/jaxer) & 
Rhino(http://www.mozilla.org/rhino/). Whether its possible to push 
forward what JS Webrat can handle (be it that its never going to be a 
real browser).
The real browser testing makes a lot of sense when examining different 
browsers JS/CSS processing but there are a lot of use-cases where simple 
DOM manipulation is good enough.
http://www.magpiebrain.com/blog/2007/01/28/selenium-rocks-and-you-dont-need-it/

--
Joseph Wilk
http://www.joesniff.co.uk


Ben Mabey wrote:
> Joseph Wilk wrote:
>> (I suspect Webrat represents the smallest set of functionality -
>> contributing to whatever project is going to be the best fit. So
I''m
>>   
> Hey Joseph,
> Have you looked at webrat in github lately?
> http://github.com/brynary/webrat/tree/master
> Bryan is abstracting webrat so that different adapters can be plugged
> into it.. Meaning, the same wrappers/syntax can be used to drive rails,
> merb, mechanize, etc... I think a selenium or watir adapter for webrat
> would be awesome.  I''m not too experienced with selenium but it
doesn''t
> strike me as being too hard to do.  You make a good point in that webrat
> is a small subset of what the other JS aware frameworks can do but I
> think what webrat currently has would handle a lot of the use cases.
> One could then perhaps create an extension of webrat''s language to
form
> a uniform way of expressing JS/AJAX behaviour.
> 
> The mechanize adapter idea is neat too, because you could then use it to
> test any website no matter what the implementation is.  I know that part
> of Bryan''s motivation behind the mechanize spike is to eventually
use
> the stories to do performance testing as well.
> 
> This is a problem I''m also interested in but I haven''t
yet needed to use
> selenium enough to make me want to do anything about it. :)  I think the
> selenuim adapter for webrat approach would be a great way to approach
> this problem though.  What do you think?
> 
> -Ben
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Joseph Wilk wrote:
> My mind was stuck in Rspec but looking at this as an adapter for Webrat 
> is a great idea.
>
> I''ve had a play with Webrat and a test Selenium adapter ala the 
> Mechanize one. Things start to get a little tricky around having to have 
> the domain defined first in the Selenium. Meaning in Selenium its hard 
> to do:
>
> 1. visits(''http://www.google.co.uk'')
> 2. visits(''http://www.monkeys.co.uk'')
>
> Status codes are also not great fun 
> (http://clearspace.openqa.org/message/8115#8115). I''ll continue
playing
> with this and see how easy it will be to squeeze Selenium into the 
> Webrat box.
>
>   
>> One could then perhaps create an extension of webrat''s
language to form
>> a uniform way of expressing JS/AJAX behavior.
>>     
>
> Sounds like a good idea. I guessing you mean some friendly wrapper to 
> something like: ''xml_http_request'' in 
> ActionController::Integration::Session
>
http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionController/Integration/Session.html#M000251
>
> Aswell as just Ajax/JS stuff as an ability to perform more advanced 
> interrogations (but always optional to keep the wonderful simplicity of 
> Webrat''s usage) would be a nice addition to Webrat. Something
similar to
> Selenium''s xpath like expressions. I''m not sure if Watir
has something
> similar.
>
> The whole JS/AJAX behavior missing from Webrat has been making me look 
> at the introduction of Server-side JS. Things like: 
> Jaxer(http://www.aptana.com/jaxer) & 
> Rhino(http://www.mozilla.org/rhino/). Whether its possible to push 
> forward what JS Webrat can handle (be it that its never going to be a 
> real browser).
> The real browser testing makes a lot of sense when examining different 
> browsers JS/CSS processing but there are a lot of use-cases where simple 
> DOM manipulation is good enough.
>
http://www.magpiebrain.com/blog/2007/01/28/selenium-rocks-and-you-dont-need-it/
>
>   
Very cool. Keep me posted on your progress. I would love to jump in and 
help but I don''t have the bandwidth to do so quite yet... soon though.
The post you linked to at the bottom talking about HTTPUnit is 
interesting. The project that Aslak mentioned is basically a JRuby 
wrapper for HTTPUnit using the watir API... So, as Aslak suggested if we 
had a webrat adapter for watir then we would not only get waitir support 
but HTTPUnit capabilities! That would be three wrappers!

I''m a little confused by the JS capabilities of HTTPUnit... on the 
bottom of that post the author made a comment:
" anything (not just Javascript) which manipulates the DOM after the 
page has been served will require in-browser testing ? either manual or 
automated."

Does anyone have experience with HTTPUnit? My understanding of HTTPUnit 
is that it will process the JS after the page loaded (and there FAQ 
seems to suggest this as well.) Most of my sites use unobtrusive JS, 
meaning it all works without JS but then JS is used to add additional 
user interfaced niceties (AJAX, effects, etc..) So will HTTPUnit process 
the JS and update the DOM accordingly? This is probably the wrong 
mailing list to answer this, but if anyone has had experience with 
HTTPUnit please share.

-Ben

Hi Ben,
> I''m a little confused by the JS capabilities of HTTPUnit...
You''re confusing HTTPUnit with HtmlUnit. We chose HtmlUnit for Celerity
partly because they seem to care a lot about JavaScript support.

Here''s a comparison of the two (by a HtmlUnit committer, but still ;)

http://daniel.gredler.net/2007/10/04/htmlunit-vs-httpunit/

A Watir adapter for WebRat sounds like a great idea.

Jari

jari.bakken at finntech.no wrote:
> Hi Ben,
>
>   
>> I''m a little confused by the JS capabilities of HTTPUnit...
>>     
>
> You''re confusing HTTPUnit with HtmlUnit. We chose HtmlUnit for
Celerity
> partly because they seem to care a lot about JavaScript support.
>
> Here''s a comparison of the two (by a HtmlUnit committer, but still
;)
>
> http://daniel.gredler.net/2007/10/04/htmlunit-vs-httpunit/
>
> A Watir adapter for WebRat sounds like a great idea.
>
> Jari
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
>   

Ahh... I see.  Thanks for the link.  Those names are easily confused....

-Ben