Capybara cheatsheet

Form Navigation/Interaction

  • Navigating 
    visit('/projects')
visit(post_comments_path(post))
  • Clicking links and buttons 
    click_link('id-of-link')
click_link('Link Text')
click_button('Save')
# Click either a link or a button
click('Link Text')
click('Button Value')
  • Click the first link with the name of ‘Show’ 
    click_link('Show', match: :first) # or
first(:link, 'Show')
  • Click the first button with the name of ‘Update’ 
    click_button('Update', match: :first) # or
first(:button, 'Update')
  • Interacting with forms 
    fill_in('First Name', :with => 'John')
fill_in('Password', :with => 'Seekrit')
fill_in('Description', :with => 'Really Long Text…')
choose('A Radio Button')
check('A Checkbox')
uncheck('A Checkbox')
attach_file('Image', '/path/to/image.jpg')
select('Option', :from => 'Select Box')
# Find disabled fields with
find_field 'This is disabled', disabled: true
  • Scripting 
    result = page.evaluate_script('4 + 4');
  • Debugging 
    save_and_open_page

Capybara Finders

page.has_xpath?('//table/tr')

page.has_css?('table tr.foo')

page.has_content?('foo')

find_field('First Name').value

find_link('Hello').visible?

find_button('Send').click

find('//table/tr').click

page.all(:xpath, '//a')

page.first(:xpath, '//a')

page.find('//textarea[@id="additional_newline"]')

page.find(:xpath, "//input[@id='form_pets_dog']")['checked']
# => true

page.find(:css, '#with_focus_event').trigger(:focus)

page.find(:css,'.wrapper').hover

page.find_field("test_field").value
# => 'blah'

page.find_by_id('red').tag_name
# => 'a'

# finds invisible elements when false
page.find_by_id("hidden_via_ancestor", visible: false)

page.find_button('What an Awesome')[:value]
# => 'awesome'

page.find_link('abo').text
# => 'labore'

page.find_link('other')[:href]
# => '/some_uri'

Note: find will wait for an element to appear on the page, as explained in the Ajax section. If the element does not appear it will raise an error.

Note: In XPath the expression // means something very specific, and it might not be what you think. Contrary to common belief, // means “anywhere in the document” not “anywhere in the current context”.

Attributes for find or All

Options Hash (options):

text (String, Regexp) — Only find elements which contain this text or match this regexp


:all - same as false; finds visible and invisible elements.
:hidden - only finds invisible elements.
:visible - same as true; only finds visible elements.

function visible (Boolean, Symbol) — Only find elements with the specified visibility:
          true - only finds visible elements.
          false - finds invisible and visible elements.

count (Integer) — Exact number of matches that are expected to be found
maximum (Integer) — Maximum number of matches that are expected to be found
minimum (Integer) — Minimum number of matches that are expected to be found
between (Range) — Number of matches found must be within the given range
exact (Boolean) — Control whether `is` expressions in the given XPath match exactly or partially
wait (Integer) — default: Capybara.default_max_wait_time — The time to wait for element count expectations to become true


Exemples:
find("#btn_login", :visible => true).click # search only the visible element.
find("#btn_login", :visible => false).click # Search only the invisible element.
find("#btn_login", :hidden => true).click # Serch for the hidden element.
find("#btn_login", :all => true).click # Search for both visible or hidden elements.
find("#btn_login", :wait => 10).click # Changes the internal timeout - in seconds.

Capybara Scoped Finder within

within('.search_form') do
  fill_in 'Name', with: 'iOS 7'
  click_button 'Search'
end
within("//li[@id='employee']") do
   fill_in 'Name', :with => 'Jimmy'
end
within(:css, "li#employee") do
  fill_in 'Name', :with => 'Jimmy'
end
within_fieldset('Employee') do
  fill_in 'Name', :with => 'Jimmy'
end
within_table('Employee') do
  fill_in 'Name', :with => 'Jimmy'
end
# Execute the given block within the given iframe using given frame name or index.
within_frame('some_frame') do
end

Capybara Matchers

expect(page).to have_content("Some Content")
expect(page).to have_no_content("Some Content")

# True if the current path matches the browsing session
expect(page).to have_current_path( "Some path" )

# True if there is a anchor tag with text matching regex
expect(page).to have_xpath("//a")
expect(page).to have_xpath("//a",:href => "google.com")
expect(page).to have_xpath("//a[@href => 'google.com']")
expect(page).to have_xpath("//a[contains(.,'some string')]")
expect(page).to have_xpath("//p//a", :text => /re[dab]i/i, :count => 1)

 # can take both xpath and css as input and can take arguments similar to both have_css and have_xpath
 expect(page).to have_selector(:xpath, "//p/h1")
 expect(page).to have_selector(:css, "p a#post_edit_path")

 expect(page).to have_css("input#post_title")
 expect(page).to have_css("input#post_title", :value => "Capybara cheatsheet")

 # True if there are 3 input tags in response
 expect(page).to have_css("input", :count => 3)

 # True if there or fewer or equal to 3 input tags
 expect(page).to have_css("input", :maximum => 3)

 # True if there are minimum of 3 input tags
 expect(page).to have_css("input", :minimum => 3)

 # True if there 1 to 3 input tags
 expect(page).to have_css("input", :between => 1..3)

 # True if there is a anchor tag with text hello
 expect(page).to have_css("p a", :text => "hello")
 expect(page).to have_css("p a", :text => /[hH]ello(.+)/i)

# For making capybara to take css as default selector
Capybara.default_selector = :css

# checks for the presence of the input tag
expect(page).to have_selector("input")

# checks for input tag with value
expect(page).to have_selector("input", :value =>"Post Title")

expect(page).to have_no_selector("input")

# For making capybara to take css as default selector
Capybara.default_selector = :xpath
# checks for the presence of the input tag
expect(page).to have_selector("//input")

# checks for input tag with value
expect(page).to have_selector("//input", :value =>"Post Title")

# checks for presence of a input field named FirstName in a form
expect(page).to have_field("FirstName")

expect(page).to have_field("FirstName", :value => "Rambo")
expect(page).to have_field("FirstName", :with => "Rambo")

expect(page).to have_link("Foo")
expect(page).to have_link("Foo", :href=>"googl.com")
expect(page).to have_no_link("Foo", :href=>"google.com")

Asynchronous JavaScript

click_link('foo')
click_link('bar')
page.should have_content('baz')
page.should_not have_xpath('//a')
page.should have_no_xpath('//a')
  • =XPath and CSS= 
    within(:css, 'ul li') { … }
find(:css, 'ul li').text
locate(:css, 'input#name').value
Capybara.default_selector = :css
within('ul li') { … }
find('ul li').text
locate('input#name').value
  • Accept alert 
    page.driver.browser.switch_to.alert.accept
  • Find meta tag 
    page.find("meta[name='keywords']", visible: false)
page.find("meta[name='description']", visible: false)
  • Close previous opened window 
    within_window(page.driver.browser.window_handles.first) do
page.driver.browser.close
end
  • Set hidden input value 
    page.execute_script("$('#hidden_input_id').val('value')")