Performance issue with geb lookup on module object attributes vs. using selectors - performance

Question

Problem Description
I am writing a geb/spock spec which fetches test data from DB2 into a map (the map variable is called "preFilledFields" - see the "MySpec" class further down).
This map is then being iterated over, and for each iteration I check too see if the value matches one in a row on the page.
When I perform the assertion above accessing the module object attributes, then the average execution time per assertion is approx. 5-6 seconds. If I perform the assertion using selectors directly, then the average execution time per assertion is approx. 70-80 ms. See the "MyPage" class for more details regarding the assertions.
Does anyone know what could be the cause of this? Is the bad performance a result of my code, or is there a general problem with regards to performance when using modules in geb?
Appreciate any help and input I can get.
Code:
My "RowModule" class looks like this:
class RowModule extends Module {
static final PREDEFINED_ATTR = "data-predefined-amount"
static content = {
cell { $("td", it) }
description { cell(0).text() }
rubrikNum { cell(1).text().toInteger() }
preDefinedAmount { cell(0).parent("tr").$("td[$PREDEFINED_ATTR]").attr("$PREDEFINED_ATTR") }
inputField { cell(0).parent("tr").$("td input") ?: false }
dataType{ cell(0).parent("tr").attr("data-type") }
}
}
My Page class looks like this:
class MyPage extends Page {
static url = "<some_url>"
static at = { $("h1").text() == "<some_text>" }
static content = {
submitButton { $("input", name:"<some_name>") }
myPageItems {
$("table tr").collect { it.module(RowModule) }
}
}
void verifyPrePopulatedFields(name, amount) {
long now = System.currentTimeMillis();
assert amount == selvangivelseItems.find { it.dataType== name}.preDefinedAmount.toInteger()
//assert amount == $("tr[data-type='" + name+ "']").$(".skts-tooltip-holder").text().toInteger()
println "Execution time" + (System.currentTimeMillis() - now) + " ms"
}
void submit() { submitTaxReturnButton.click() }
}
My Spec file looks like this:
class MySpec extends GebReportingSpec {
#Unroll
def "field #name is pre-populated with amount #amount from the database"() {
expect:
page(MyPage) verifyPrePopulatedFields(name, amount)
where:
name << preFilledFields.keySet()
amount << preFilledFields.values()
}
}

Answer 1

There are no general performance problems with using modules in Geb, at least none that I know of. Your selectors on the other hand are definitely suboptimal.
Firstly by doing myPageItems.find { it.dataType == name } you are iterating over all rows in your table and executing 3 WebDriver commands (that is http request between your test and the browser that is being driven) for each of them. You could improve the selector for dataType to dataType { attr("data-type") } (not 100% sure here because I don't see your DOM structure but this is what logic would suggest) but it would still mean potentially making a lot of requests. You should instead add a site content definition like this:
myItem { dataType ->
$("table tr[data-type='$dataType']").module(RowModule)
}
And then use it like:
assert amount == myPageItem(name).preDefinedAmount.toInteger()
Secondly you can simplify and improve performance of your selectors in the module (if my assumptions about your DOM are correct):
static content = {
cell { $("td", it) }
description { cell(0).text() }
rubrikNum { cell(1).text().toInteger() }
preDefinedAmount { $("td[$PREDEFINED_ATTR]").attr("$PREDEFINED_ATTR") }
inputField { $("td input") ?: false }
dataType{ attr("data-type") }
}
You should avoid using multiple selectors for things that can be found using a single selector or using unnecessary selectors because they will always carry a performance penalty.