Application Testing with Capybara

Everybody understands why implementing automated tests is important but at the same time developing them can be costly and time consuming, and tests can be also be fragile and prone to false positives. By using Capybara, you can develop robust tests quickly and run them in multiple drivers ensuring greater re-use; Capybara’s API also extends the human readable style made popular by frameworks such as Cucumber and RSpec.
“Application Testing with Capybara” takes you from installing the gem to getting up and running with a Google Search scenario within the first two chapters. We then look deeper into the API, using Rack-Test for applications built with Rails or Sinatra and see how to test handle Asynchronous JavaScript and “black box” components such as Flash. Finally, we consider some advanced topics such as looking at alternatives to Selenium and accessing the native driver directly.
This book takes you from the basics of installing Capybara, through its API and onto advanced topics. You will learn how to use Capybara’s extensive API to interact with your application, covering topics such as navigation, filling in forms, and querying your page for expected content. Beyond this we will consider why Capybara is so well suited to testing applications written in frameworks such as Rails and Sinatra. We will look at strategies for validating seemingly “untestable” components such as HTML5 or Flash by building out a testable API. Finally we will turn you into a Capybara ninja by covering advanced topics such as accessing functionality in the base driver, advanced driver configuration, and alternative flavours of drivers outside Selenium and Rack-Test.
What you will learn from this book
Install and configure Capybara
Use Capybara and Cucumber to test scenarios
Exploit Capybara’s API for interacting with web pages
Employ Capybara to test Rack applications implemented using Rails or Sinatra
Handle asynchronous JavaScript
Apply Capybara to test “black box” components such as Flash or HTML5 Canvas, Audio, and Video
Practise Capybara outside Cucumber in bespoke frameworks
Use Capybara with popular Ruby test frameworks
Explore advanced driver configuration
Work with alternative drivers such as Capybara-Webkit and Capybara-Mechanize