RSpec and Watir, easy script structure question

Testing RSpec
1

Howdy! I’m relatively new to RSpec, but I’ve worked with Watir and Ruby
for
about 5 years now. My company is redesigning a web app from the ground
up,
so I’m taking the opportunity to leverage RSpec instead of Test/Unit.

I’ve run into a problem with RSpec organization that I just can’t sort
out
on my own, so I’m hoping it’s straightforward enough that someone can
help
me out.

Basically I have a single HTML page with an organized list of links.
Each
link points to a new page with a single verifiable item on it. The
script
collects all the links into an array, then iterates over the array,
loading
each link and verifying a single piece of text. That’s the easy part.

Here’s the relevant code for what I believe to be the closest attempt
right
now:

@links = Array.new
@browser = Watir::Browser.new
@browser.goto(page)

@browser.link.each do |link|
@links << [link.name, link.href]
end

@links.each do |name, link|
     describe name do
          it "should contain the word #{name}" do
                @browser.goto link
                @browser.div(:id, /example/).text.should

include(name)
end #it
end #desc
end #@links

I’ve tried a combination of methods – putting all of this code inside a
describe block, etc, but I end up with the variables being unknown
because
they’re not inside the same describe or it block (even when set to
$global),
or the describe/it blocks being layered incorrectly.

I’m sure there’s a simple solution to the format, but unfortunately I
haven’t been able to Google or RDoc my way to an answer. I appreciate
any
advice you can offer!

Thanks,
Adam

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2

An update for this issue. This script works, but only if I explicitly
define
the array that I’m iterating over (][countryname, url]].each do, rather
than
@countries.each do).

Can someone help me understand why my array here (@countries) is not
recognized? I tried to instantiate it as a global variable ($countries)
and
it still was not recognized. If I explicitly describe an array in place
of
the variable, the script works.

Is it an issue with my organization format, or something else?

global_page_spec.rb
$LOAD_PATH.unshift File.join(File.dirname(FILE), ‘…’) if $0 ==
FILE
require ‘helpers/example_helper’

describe “The country page for” do
include ExHelper

before(:all) do
setup
collect_global_countries
end

@countries.each do |name, link|
describe name do
it “should contain the word #{name} in the title” do
@browser.goto link
@browser.div(:id, /content-content/).text.should include(name)
end #it
end #desc
end #countries

after(:all) do
teardown
end #after
end #spec

example_helper.rb
$LOAD_PATH.unshift File.join(File.dirname(FILE), ‘…’) if $0 ==
FILE
require ‘helpers/global_helper’

module ExHelper
include GlobalHelper

def setup
@browser = Watir::Browser.new
@browser.add_checker lambda {|b| b.text.should_not include(‘The
requested page could not be found.’)}
end # setup

def collect_global_countries
@countries = Array.new
@countries.should be_empty

@browser.goto "http://www.#{$env}.com/global"
@browser.table(:class, /global-list/).links.each do |link|
  @countries << [link.text, link.href]
end #links

@countries.should_not be_empty

def teardown
@browser.close
end # teardown
end #module

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3

On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 11:24 AM, Adam R [email protected] wrote:

link points to a new page with a single verifiable item on it. The script
@browser.link.each do |link|
end #@links

I’ve tried a combination of methods – putting all of this code inside a
describe block, etc, but I end up with the variables being unknown because
they’re not inside the same describe or it block (even when set to $global),
or the describe/it blocks being layered incorrectly.

I’m sure there’s a simple solution to the format, but unfortunately I
haven’t been able to Google or RDoc my way to an answer. I appreciate any
advice you can offer!

describe “something” do
it “does something” do
end
end

That’s the simplest format - everything should go in the example (it
block), not directly inside the describe block.

HTH,
David

4

Thanks David. I have the basic format working in other scripts, so
that’s a
good sign. Another user pointed me to this example, which is why I was
exploring a different format:

[“Los A.”, “Austin”].each do |location|
it “should show #{location}” do
@browser.div(:id, /example/).text.should include(location)
end
end

Is this not correct/usable?

Thanks again,
Adam

5

On 2 Mar 2010, at 21:05, Adam R wrote:

it still was not recognized. If I explicitly describe an array in
describe “The country page for” do
@browser.goto link
example_helper.rb
requested page could not be found.')}

rspec-users mailing list
[email protected]
http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users

Briefly, think of two passes over this file: the first ‘parse’ pass,
and the second ‘execution’ pass. The #before and #it blocks run during
the ‘execution’ pass, but the code in the #describe blocks runs in the
initial ‘parse’ pass. Because @countries is not created until the
before blocks run, there’s no way for the ‘parse’ pass to know what
value it has.

That’s the basic essence of your issue. I’d recommend paring this back
to a much simpler example, getting that working, then building up from
there.

I’m also not sure why you’re using the SUT to generate the tests, but
that’s for another thread…

cheers,
Matt

+447974 430184

6

On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 7:40 PM, Adam R. [email protected] wrote:

collects all the links into an array, then iterates over the array,

         end #it

I’m sure there’s a simple solution to the format, but unfortunately I
block), not directly inside the describe block.

Is this not correct/usable?

Correct is subjective. What you have here is somewhat harmless, but
I’ve seen simple lists like that grow into nested lists with
conditional logic where members of one list impact what is done with
the values in the other. That makes it very difficult to understand
failures and difficult to change as requirements change.

HTH,
David

7

Thanks again for the parse/execute perspective Matt, that really sorted
me
out.

Solution: Hey dummy, collect the data and create the array before
starting
the describe function.

Moral of the story: I was trying to make collecting the data that I
wanted
to verify part of the test/spec, partially because I had it stuck in my
head
that ‘everything’ had to be inside a describe block, and partially
because I
was treating RSpec like some new alien technology instead of a Ruby
library.

Code:

@Array = […] or Method to collect array data

@array.each do |name, stuff|
describe name do
it “should put the lotion in the basket” do

end
end
end

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