Running Capybara without rack produces errors when using url parameters - ruby

Question

Here's my setup, based on this recommendation: How to get Cucumber/Capybara/Mechanize to work against external non-rails site
It works until I add parameters to the URL. Any advice on addressing this issue?
require 'rspec'
require 'capybara/rspec'
require 'capybara/dsl'
#test_url = "test"
RSpec.configure do |config|
config.include Capybara::DSL
end
Capybara.configure do |config|
config.run_server = false
config.current_driver = :selenium
config.app = "fake app name"
config.app_host = "http://site.com/#{#test_url}"
end
This works fine:
describe "the page, without URL parameters" do
it "shows the regular form" do
visit "/registration.aspx"
page.should have_content "YES"
end
end
But this:
describe "the page, when not fully pre-filled" do
it "shows the regular form if only passed the attendance" do
visit "/registration.aspx?r=y"
page.should have_content "YES"
end
it "shows the regular form if only passed the attendance" do
visit "/registration.aspx?f=Jim"
page.should have_content "YES"
end
end
results in
....FF
Failures:
1) the page, when not fully pre-filled shows the regular form if only passed the attendance
Failure/Error: visit "/registration.aspx?r=y"
NoMethodError:
undefined method `call' for "fake app name":String
# ./conf_spec.rb:39:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'
2) the page, when not fully pre-filled shows the regular form if only passed the attendance
Failure/Error: visit "/registration.aspx?f=Jim"
NoMethodError:
undefined method `call' for "fake app name":String
# ./conf_spec.rb:44:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'

Answer 1

You can set only one of app and app_host. So you should remove config.app from configuration.
Also you should set default_driver instead of current_driver.
As it's shown in my answer in linked question working configuration is:
Capybara.configure do |config|
config.run_server = false
config.default_driver = :selenium
config.app_host = 'https://www.google.com' # change url
end

Answer 2

If you're specifying an app_host instead of using rack, you need to specify default_driver instead of current_driver. For example:
Capybara.run_server = false
Capybara.default_driver = :selenium
Capybara.app_host = 'https://www.google.com'
instead of
Capybara.run_server = false
Capybara.current_driver = :selenium
Capybara.app_host = 'https://www.google.com'

Answer 3

Assuming you have a non-Rack application and are following the instructions in the second answer which references https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/ruby-capybara/9UFnfrc1S-s/TfQO5uBv7gMJ, it seems to me that the hack/workaround is only valid for the simplest of use cases, namely when you're not attempting to pass in parameters to the app. I assume that either Rack or Capybara is attempting to invoke your app to pass the parameters and it's failing because you app is just a String and not a callable object.