RailsConf 2023 - Teaching Capybara Testing - An Illustrated Adventure by Brandon Weaver

Rails Testing Automation

Teaching Capybara testing in an illustrated adventure, covering its limitations, and best practices for writing effective tests with a focus on accessibility and debugging.

Key takeaways

Test suites are not about providing 100% coverage, but about proving that the application works as expected
Capybara is brittle and can be sensitive to changes in the application’s HTML structure
Using semantic HTML and ARIA properties can make the application more accessible and easier to test
The first part of the test is to set up the driver and configuration
The visit method is used to navigate to a page and the within method is used to constrain the scope of the query
The fill_in method is used to fill in a form field and the click_on method is used to simulate a click on an element
The have_button and have_link helpers are used to find elements on the page
The login helper is used to authenticate to the site
The save_and_open_page method is used to open the page in the default browser
The expectation method is used to specify what should happen on a page
The have_selector method is used to find a specific element on the page
The have_text method is used to find text on the page
The have_content method is used to find the content of an element
The with method is used to constrain the scope of a query
Capybara can be used to test JavaScript-heavy applications, but it’s not always possible to test everything
Debugging capybara tests can be challenging
Tests should be written with the assumption that they will be run frequently
The binding.pry command is used to enter the Ruby console and inspect the state of the application
The visit method is not always possible, especially when testing JavaScript-heavy applications
Capybara is not always the best tool for testing complex applications
The save_and_open_page method is not always necessary, especially when testing small applications
Capybara can be slow and resource-intensive if used improperly
Tests should be written with the assumption that they will be run in a headless environment
The headless method is used to run the tests in a headless environment
Capybara can be used with various drivers, including WebKit, Firefox, and Google Chrome

RailsConf 2023 - Teaching Capybara Testing - An Illustrated Adventure by Brandon Weaver

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