Make your Rails Capybara testing even faster and more accurate! Looking for hardcoded text strings is for the birds. A lot of this assumes you're using a form builder to generate forms, like Formtastic. It's faster that way. ## Your Views It's easier to find things in Capybara tests if you add extra `data` attributes to fields and such. This gem does that for you if you link to and refer to things in a certain way. If you do, your tests turn from text blob and CSS selector messes to nice, clean, simple references to objects and attributes. ### Linking to things Link to things using `link_to_model`, `link_to_model_action`, `link_to_collection`, and `link_to_route`. Data attributes will be added that Capybara can then find later, and quickly: ``` haml #menu = link_to_route :root = link_to_collection [ :admin, :users ] = link_to_model current_user = link_to_model_action current_user, :edit ``` ``` ruby # finding those things within '#menu' do find_semantic_link(:root) find_semantic_link(:users) find_object(@user) find_action(:edit) end ``` ### Form fields Don't worry about tying your field entry with text labels. It's much easier to look for attributes by name: ``` ruby find_input(:first_name).set("first name") find_input(:last_name).set("last name") set_input(:gender, 'male') find_submit.click ``` ### Attributes Write out attributes using `attributes_for`: ``` haml #object = attributes_for object do |f| %h2= f.field(:name) %h3= f.field(:description) ``` Then look for those fields using Capybara! Because you shouldn't care about the DOM, just that your field is in there: ``` ruby @object = Object.create!(:name => @name, :description => @description) visit object_path(@object) find_attribute(:name, @object.name) find_attribute(:description, @object.description) ``` You can even make simple tables, a la Active Admin: ``` haml #object = attributes_table_for object do |f| = f.field :name = f.field :description ``` ### Active Admin You can add semantic data to Active Admin's `attributes_table`s in `show` views. Just `require 'semantic_rails_view_helpers/active_admin'` in an initializer and you can then target attributes in `show` views. ## Not Finding Things Sometimes the absence of a thing is just as important as the presence of a thing. Make it easy on yourself: ``` ruby # selector's not there dont_find('#user') ```