Ruby PageObject, visiting webpages outside of step defintions - ruby

Question

I am trying to call page object methods outside of my step definitions for visiting pages so I can avoid duplication within my steps. I believe the issue now is with how I am creating my browser session, and the object I created in my hooks is not accessible by anything outside of other hooks / steps definitions.
Directory structure:
├── features/
│ ├── Gemfile
│ ├── feature_files
│ │ ├── example1.feature
│ │ ├── example2.feature
│ ├── hooks
│ │ ├── web_hooks.rb
│ ├── step_definitions
│ │ ├── web_steps.rb
│ ├── Support
│ │ ├── example1.feature
| | | |──pages
| | | | |──test.rb
| | | |──controller
| | | | |──controller.rb
My Web hooks are nothing more than the basic new watir session + logging:
#browser = Watir::Browser.new(:chrome)
So when I am visiting my pages within my step definitions that all works as expected, but when I change my step to call a method outside of the step definitions I get back.
Unable to pick a platform for the provided browser or element: nil.
nil was passed to the PageObject constructor instead of a valid browser or element object.
My controller class looks like this:
class TestController
class << self
include PageObject
include PageObject::PageFactory
def test_visit(url)
visit TestPage, :using_params => {:id => url} do |page|
page.populate
embed(#browser.screenshot.base64, 'image/png', "STUB Setup for #{code}")
end
end
end
end
I have several variations of the above controller including turning it into a module and extending pageobject functionality, trying to pass #browser into the method from the step definition etc but they all result in the following. I have also tried requiring everything under my support structure prior to running my cucumber tests.

Answer 1

The visit method assumes that #browser is defined and available. You will need to define it within the test_visit method.
Passing browser instance
The most straightforward solution may be to pass in the Watir::Browser object:
def test_visit(url, browser)
#browser = browser
visit TestPage, :using_params => {:id => url} do |page|
page.populate
embed(#browser.screenshot.base64, 'image/png', "STUB Setup for #{code}")
end
end
With the step definitions presumably looking like:
TestController.test_visit('some_url', #browser)
If you are making a lot of calls to the TestController and always using the same browser instance, you could setup a #browser in the class. This would save you from having to always pass in the browser instance.
class TestController
class << self
include PageObject
include PageObject::PageFactory
def browser=(browser)
#browser = browser
end
def test_visit(url)
visit TestPage, :using_params => {:id => url} do |page|
page.populate
embed(#browser.screenshot.base64, 'image/png', "STUB Setup for #{code}")
end
end
end
end
In your web hooks, where you start the browser, you could configure the TestController to have the browser instance:
#browser = Watir::Browser.new(:chrome)
TestController.browser = #browser
Then your step definitions do not need to pass in the #browser:
TestController.test_visit('some_url')
Make methods available to step definitions
Another option is to make the shared methods directly available to step definitions. As the methods will be in the scope of the step, #browser and embed will be available.
First, define your methods in a module:
module TestController
def test_visit(url)
visit TestPage, :using_params => {:id => url} do |page|
page.populate
embed(#browser.screenshot.base64, 'image/png', "STUB Setup for #{code}")
end
end
end
In your env.rb (or similar), make the module methods available to the step definitions by using World:
World(TestController)
Your step definitions can then simply call the methods directly:
test_visit('some_url')