Web Application Testing In Ruby

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Web Application Testing In Ruby
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What is Watir?

• A free, open-source functional testing tool for
  web applications.
• It is a Ruby library which drives Internet
  Explorer the same way people do, clicks links,
  fills in forms, and presses buttons.
• Watir also checks results, such as whether
  expected text appears on the page.
• Because its build on Ruby, you have the power to
  connect to databases, read data files, export XML
  and structure your code into reusable libraries.

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Why use Watir?

• Free
• Powerful
• Simple (easy to use and learn)
• Excellent Support
• It uses Ruby, a full-featured object-oriented
  scripting language, rather than a proprietary
  vendorscript.
• Don't just take our word for it, read what our
  users are saying.

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What the Users say

• WATIR is by far the most complete web testing
  framework out here--that doesn't cost an arm and
  a leg. And this forum is the most active and well
  supported that I have seen. You can post a
  question and is just a short period of time get
  someone (most of the time the architects of the
  framework!) who will steer you in the right
  direct, give you a work around to get over any
  roadblocks, or add it to the framework if it
  doesn't currently exist. That is the reason I
  switched and tell everyone interest (and those
  not) that Ruby is the way to go! Save your money,
  get WATIR!

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What the Users say

• Ruby is an awesome language and Watir is just
  too cool. It does things that other companies
  (ie. IBM/Rational, Mercury, Segue, et al) charge
  thousands and thousands of dollars a seat for.
  Anyway, now that I'm gettin' the hang of Ruby and
  Watir, I'm starting to automate everything I do
  on the web. Even the simple things like logging
  in to web sites, searches, you name it.

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What the Users say

• I was able to write a few unit tests using Watir
  in about 15 minutes and Ive looked at Ruby code
  for all around 48 hours. Granted, I have been
  object-oriented programming for the last four
  years so its not like Ruby looks Russian to me,
  but I wasnt able to figure out JUnit that
  quickly by a long shot.

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How do I get started?

• Install Ruby Use the Ruby One-Click Installer
  for Windows.
• Install the latest Watir Gem
• Follow this Presentation or Read the User's
  Guide, documentation, examples and tests. Figure
  out your test case, start typing your script, and
  run it!

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Some Helpful Tools

• Editors
• Scite (A good light-weight editor installed with
  Ruby - ruby\scite\scite.exe)
• RDT (Eclipse plug-in for Ruby, great if you
  need a graphical debugger)
• Tips for finding/accessing HTML elements
• IE Developer Tool bar (Lets you explore the HTML
  elements behind the visible elements on a web
  page by clicking on the elements
• FireBug (Excellent FireFox extension for
  identifying HTML elements while writing scripts.)
• WATIRSupportsSubElements (Watir API for
  accessing html elements)

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How do I

• Navigate the browser?
• Find elements on the page?
• Interact with elements on the page?
• Check output on the page?
• Create and use Methods?
• Create formal test cases?

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Navigating the Browser

• Always Load the Watir library at the top of
  your script
• require 'watir'
• Start IE and navigate to a given URL
• ie WatirIE.start('http//news.google.com')
• or..Attach to an existing IE window by title or
  url
• ie WatirIE.attach(title,'title')
• ie WatirIE.attach(url,/regex matching url/)
• Navigate to a different URL
• ie.goto("http//mentorweb/")
• Close IE.
• ie.close

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Finding Elements

• Common Functions of the IE object

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Hows and Whats

• Hows tell your method how to find the
  element youre looking for. Whats tell your
  method the value for how.

• Hows
• name
• id
• index
• value
• text
• title

• Whats
• String value of how
• /Regular expression/

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Interacting with Elements

• Set the text field (or text area) specified name
  specified value.
• ie.text_field(name,'name').set('value')
• Sets the select with to the specified value
• ie.select_list(name,'name').select('value')
• Click the button with the specified value
  (label)
• ie.button(value,'value').click
• Clicks the link matching 'text'
• ie.link(text,'text').click
• Accessing elements in a "frame" or "iframe"
• ie.frame(name,"someFrame").text_field(name,'name
  ').set('value')

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Checking Output

• Get the title of the page
• ie.title
• Get all the text displayed on the page
• ie.text
• Get all the HTML in the body of the page
• ie.html
• Return true if text is displayed on the page
• ie.contains_text('text')

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Creating and using Methods

• Here is an example method for logging into a web
  application. Its two parameters are a user and
  password (both of which have defaults). It
  returns an instance of IE
• def login(usertest_admin,password
  Password123)
• ieWatirIE.start(http//someURL.com/login)
• ie.text_field(name,/user/i).set(user)
• ie.text_field(name,/password/i).set(password)
• ie.button(value,/login/i).click
• return ie
• End
• Now we can easily login with the default user..
• ie login
• or with a unique user
• ie login(Fred,flinstone)

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Creating Formal Test Cases

• require 'test/unit' includes Ruby's test case
  functionality
• Require util Assuming our login method is
  saved in util.rb
• Test cases are contained within classes which
  extend Rubys base test case class
• class MyTest
• def setup Optional, will be run before each
  test method.
• _at_ie login() call our login function.
• end
• def test_some_link Test methods must begin with
  "test_
• _at_ie.link(text,some_link).click click on
  some link
• verify that the proper page loaded
• assert(_at_ie.contains_text(My Some Link Page))
• end
• def teardown Optional, will be run after each
  test method.
• _at_ie.close
• end

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Debugging with IRB

• IRB Interactive Ruby Shell
• Command line-like interface that allows immediate
  running of Ruby script
• Great for debugging one line at a time, rather
  then having to run through an entire script
• Great for testing single lines
• Try ruby out using an online IRB. This is a great
  way to learn ruby basics!

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Watir Ruby Resources

• Watir
• Watir main site http//wiki.openqa.org/display/WT
  R/
• Watir user guide wtr.rubyforge.org/watir_user_gui
  de.html
• Watir API wtr.rubyforge.org/rdoc/index.html
• Mailing List rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/wtr-g
  eneral
• Project site http//wiki.openqa.org/display/WTR/
• User Contributions/examples http//wiki.openqa.or
  g/display/WTR/Contributions
• Watir FAQ http//wiki.openqa.org/display/WTR/FAQ
• Ruby
• Ruby site http//ruby-lang.org
• Ruby docs http//ruby-doc.org/
• Ruby Quickstart ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/qu
  ickstart/

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Thats it!

• Note All information contained in the
  presentation was compiled from documentation on
  the official Watir site, or from its mailing
  list.