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dynamic_element_validation.md

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Dynamic Element Validation

We devised a solution to solve common test automation problems such as the dreaded NoSuchElementException.

Other problems that dynamic element validations solve are...

  • When we perform an action with the mouse, we expect something to occur.
  • When our test is navigating to (or from) a page, we ensure that we are on the page we expect before test continuation.

How it works

We interpret user actions on the page to have some sort of effect. These actions are

Navigation

When a page is navigated to, there are elements that will always appear on the page unconditionally.

Dynamic element validation is instituted when using

Runtime::Browser.visit(:gitlab, Some::Page)

Clicks

When we perform a click within our tests, we expect something to occur. That something could be a component to now appear on the webpage, or the test to navigate away from the page entirely.

Dynamic element validation is instituted when using

click_element :my_element, Some::Page

Required Elements

Definition

First it is important to define what a "required element" is.

Simply put, a required element is a visible HTML element that appears on a UI component without any user input.

"Visible" can be defined as

  • Not having any CSS preventing its display. E.g.: display: none or width: 0px; height: 0px;
  • Being able to be interacted with by the user

"UI component" can be defined as

  • Anything the user sees
  • A button, a text field
  • A layer that sits atop the page

Application

Requiring elements is very easy. By adding required: true as a parameter to an element, you've now made it a requirement that the element appear on the page upon navigation.

Examples

Given ...

class MyPage < Page::Base
  view 'app/views/view.html.haml' do
    element :my_element, required: true
    element :another_element, required: true
    element :conditional_element
  end
  
  def open_layer
    click_element :my_element, Layer::MyLayer
  end
end

class Layer < Page::Component
  view 'app/views/mylayer/layer.html.haml' do
    element :message_content, required: true
  end
end

Navigating

Given the source ...

Runtime::Browser.visit(:gitlab, Page::MyPage)

execute_stuff

will invoke GitLab QA to scan MyPage for my_element and another_element to be on the page before continuing to execute_stuff

Clicking

Given the source ...

def open_layer
  click_element :my_element, Layer::MyLayer
end

will invoke GitLab QA to ensure that message_content appears on the Layer upon clicking my_element.

This will imply that the Layer is indeed rendered before we continue our test.