Allow all form field types to be called using 1 element type: browser.form_field

[sjieg]

As requested by Titus, putting a ticket in for a possible new feature.

In the category "thinking out loud": I've been working the last few weeks on quite some form validation scripts, creating my own custom form_field_to_value functions and it made me wonder. Could we make (or is there already) a selector that groups input, select & textfield into 1 selector: form_field. In practise making it look something as following.

Expected Behavior -

browser.form_field(:name => 'country').set('netherlands') # Selects the option from a <select> field with the value 'netherlands'

browser.form_field(:id => 'acceptTerms').set(true) # Checks the <input type="checkbox">

browser.form_field(:class => 'descriptionField').set('My life story...') # writes the string in the <textarea> field

This would make it much easier to convert configuration values to actual form input values, without having to worry about which element type you're trying to set.

[titusfortner]

This might dovetail with #405. What if we define set method on input class, lookup the type and take the action on an object of that subtype.

[jkotests]

@titusfortner, are you suggesting that someone would use browser.input.set? That'd mean that select lists and textarea are excluded.

[titusfortner]

Oh right... I guess #to_subtype handles all of it, though... FormField class with set method that returns correct element object? Then alias #set for each of those Element objects? Page object gems won't need the extra logic.

[sjieg]

I was thinking in the line of:

def form_field(args*)
  case args
    when b.input(args).exists?
       return b.input(args)
    when b.select(args).exists?
       return b.select(args)
    when b.text_area(args).exists?
       return b.text_area(args)
     else
       raise Watir::ElementNotFoundError
  end
end

Or maybe, to reduce redundancy, make an array with form_field_types ['input', 'select', 'text_area'] and loop trough them checking for it existing.

[titusfortner]

The intention is to make it so you don't have to specify the element type or figure out the appropriate input method?

What if instead of adding another method, we just duck type it? Everything that responds to #set works. So you don't need #form_field and can just use #element.

def set(*args)
  return to_subtype.set(*args) if self.instance_of?(Watir::Element)
  raise "#{self.class} does not support the #set method"
end

This would have the advantage of making Page Object implementations easier. This could also make it easier to implement select list type behavior for weird divs that some devs like to do by simply adding a #set method to it that class.

[titusfortner]

Hmm, though this wouldn't work for the RadioSet class we made since #to_subtype will return a Radio which already has #set defined...

[sjieg]

To solve the radio subtype, how about something like this:

# element(selectors).set(value)
if element.type == 'radio' and value.is_a? String
  browser.input(selectors, :value => value).set
end

Maybe this could actually be implemented in the RadioSet class. Keep the current behaviour if no value is given, else look for the same selectors with a :value added to it.

[titusfortner]

This was implemented and will be available in 7.0.0.beta2

[sjieg]

Cool stuff, thanks @titusfortner !

[titusfortner]

Only took, what, 3 1/2 years? :)