selecting elements using variables in ruby /watir - ruby

Question

The real issue I am encountering is the delay on population of drop down lists in a web page.
The call i am using in the script is :-
clickOndropDown(":id","dropDownAutocomplete","ABC",#b)
where
1. clickOndropDown is the method invoked
2. id is the element selector (which can be :id,xpath, or :css [which are different selectors in my html code for different dropdown boxes] to handle all cases within the code)
3. ABC is the element to be selected from the drop down list
4. #b is the browser object
the function definition is as :
def clickOndropDown(identifier,selector,targetVal,br)
begin
puts "starting off" # gets printed
br.element("#{identifier}" => "#{selector}").fire_event :click #--- does not work---
# br.element(:id => "#{selector}").fire_event :click #--- works
puts "inside selector pass 1"
br.element(:link, targetVal).fire_event :click
...
...
# rest of the code
It does not throw any exception..just does the push statement before the selection statement.
is there any wild card handler for # (--"#{identifier}" ) so that I can write a single code for handling id,xpath,or css

Answer 1

I am surprised that there is no exception. I would expect a MissingWayOfFindingObjectException.
The problem is that the identifier is a String instead of a Symbol. The line that is not working is equivalent to:
br.element(":id" => "dropDownAutocomplete")
Which is not the same as:
br.element(:id => "dropDownAutocomplete")
Notice the difference between the String, ":id", and the Symbol, :id.
You should change the method call to send a Symbol and change the method to no longer change it to a String:
def clickOndropDown(identifier,selector,targetVal,br)
br.element(identifier => selector).fire_event :click
end
clickOndropDown(:id,"dropDownAutocomplete","ABC",#b)
If you want to have a more versatile method, you would be better off to have the clickOndropDown accept a Hash for the locator. This would allow you to accept multiple locator criteria.
def click_on_dropdown(br, target_val, locator)
br.element(locator).fire_event :click
end
# Call for the original example
click_on_dropdown(#b, "ABC", id: "dropDownAutocomplete")
# Call with multiple selectors
click_on_dropdown(#b, "ABC", id: "dropDownAutocomplete", name: "name_value")