Automating expanding trees and selecting checkboxes with Watir - ruby

Question

On a site, there is tree of nodes each associated with a checkbox. Those nodes then expand further into more checkboxes.
It looks similar to the following where [] represents a checkbox:
+ [] All
+ [] Fruit
+ [] Vegetables
and then expanded looks like this:
+ [] All
- [] Fruit
[] apple
- [] Vegetables
[] potato
[] cucumber
There is then a button at the bottom of the screen that when pressed, gives you the price of the selected item.
I would like to write a script in Watir that does the following sequence of events:
1) Expands the node Fruit
2) Checks apple
3) Clicks the run button
4) Unchecks apple
5) Expands the node Vegetables
6) Checks potato
7) Clicks the run button
8) Unchecks potato
etc.. for all checkboxes and nodes
The tag for the apple checkbox looks like this:
<td onmouseover="TreeView_HoverNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this)" onmouseout="TreeView_UnhoverNode(this)" style="white-space:nowrap;" class="">
<input type="checkbox" name="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn2CheckBox" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn2CheckBox">
<a class="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_0" href="javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$tvPartners','s0\\0\\189')" onclick="TreeView_SelectNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this,'ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst2');" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst2">
<font style="color:#FF0000;">apple</font>
</td>
Also, there are more nodes and items that will be added to the list later so I need the script to take that into account and go through the checkboxes in order without calling the specific id of the checkbox.
Any help in solving this problem would greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!
Update:
I came up with this code but I'd like to check for the last checkbox/node rather than hardcoding the for loops. I would also like to skip the checkboxes for nodes such as Fruit and Vegetable.
for n in (1...250)
nodename = "ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn" + n.to_s
if ie.a(:id => nodename).exists?
ie.link(:id, nodename).click
end
end
ie.checkbox(:id => "ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn0CheckBox").clear
x = 1
for r in (1...250)
checkboxname = "ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn" + x.to_s + "CheckBox"
nodename = "ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn" + r.to_s
if ie.a(:id => nodename).exists?
x = x+1
checkboxname = "ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn" + x.to_s + "CheckBox"
end
if ie.checkbox(:id => checkboxname).exists?
ie.checkbox(:id => checkboxname).set
puts x
ie.checkbox(:id => checkboxname).clear
end
x = x + 1
end
Update: Here is more of the HTML. I actually have a hash set up as itemlist[[n,"item"]]=item, for example itemlist[[1,"item"]] = apple, that contains all the items I need to check the price on. Is there a way/would it be easier to see what the text is for each checkbox and then if itemlist.has_value?(checkbox_text) then check the box and assign that text to another hash? Basically, is there a way to check the boxes according to the text rather than the id of the checkbox?
<td><a id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn0" href="javascript:TreeView_ToggleNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data,0,document.getElementById('ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn0'),'-',document.getElementById('ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn0Nodes'))"><img src="/WebResource.axd?d=VNrMPzAA2o87avzl3UgiY8OisS6wrOp46COe6QqNhDQHCsy9zX-GTuzHAKk7njulOEns3hNoLIxbv9x1bv530iY_Shsd9ZHlF3pm4jNQi6u0zB6atkT0-K9kirzHDQNHYxlY8Q2&t=634963835619397560" alt="Collapse All (133,060)" style="border-width:0;" /></a></td><td onmouseover="TreeView_HoverNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this)" onmouseout="TreeView_UnhoverNode(this)" style="white-space:nowrap;"><input type="checkbox" name="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn0CheckBox" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn0CheckBox" /><a class="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_0" href="javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$tvPartners','s0')" onclick="TreeView_SelectNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this,'ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst0');" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst0">All (133,060)</a></td>
</tr>
</table><div id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn0Nodes" style="display:block;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-width:0;">
<tr>
<td><div style="width:20px;height:1px"></div></td><td><a id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn1" href="javascript:TreeView_ToggleNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data,1,document.getElementById('ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn1'),'t',document.getElementById('ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn1Nodes'))"><img src="/WebResource.axd?d=D2aGfOHUjBmg4quHNr-mKkyc5juoGHdurzZqtoCU3qo2d457eKX9x0d2AS3LrrQULzPjC-9wC6hLlMxSFEvU6c9r8LmzgOeKWAi6ouEEkShvclKr0&t=634963835619397560" alt="Expand Ace Communications Group (0) <img src='images/emergency.png' alt='alert' />" style="border-width:0;" /></a></td><td onmouseover="TreeView_HoverNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this)" onmouseout="TreeView_UnhoverNode(this)" style="white-space:nowrap;"><input type="checkbox" name="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn1CheckBox" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn1CheckBox" /><a class="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_0" href="javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$tvPartners','s0\\0')" onclick="TreeView_SelectNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this,'ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst1');" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst1">Fruit </a></td>
</tr>
</table><div id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn1Nodes" style="display:none;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-width:0;">
<tr>
<td><div style="width:20px;height:1px"></div></td><td><div style="width:20px;height:1px"><img src="/WebResource.axd?d=UZyrk961AUQRa1Dg14aXeNUU3AZcfF9PiakU0o_cO8MfbyWz58k50vr47p2ICDOjgAqF5UX_lVIhbj_y2BqKRU5Xwhic3cBNooK1CBd_cGP6COn60&t=634963835619397560" alt="" /></div></td><td><img src="/WebResource.axd?d=OftTkmJCEf6tGohvvdo_cbMxdnyHMLxScANk1YxbAhfKKp3_gvqoKFAIbK4gGFAKMagH78cKVSIS61WrK5fGcCaHWVUMPjXLTtDZIJISdqqtXFNI0&t=634963835619397560" alt="" /></td><td onmouseover="TreeView_HoverNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this)" onmouseout="TreeView_UnhoverNode(this)" style="white-space:nowrap;"><input type="checkbox" name="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn2CheckBox" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn2CheckBox" /><a class="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_0" href="javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$tvPartners','s0\\0\\189')" onclick="TreeView_SelectNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this,'ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst2');" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst2"><font style='color:#FF0000;'>apple</font> </a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-width:0;">
<tr>
<td><div style="width:20px;height:1px"></div></td><td><a id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn3" href="javascript:TreeView_ToggleNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data,3,document.getElementById('ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn3'),'t',document.getElementById('ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn3Nodes'))"><img src="/WebResource.axd?d=D2aGfOHUjBmg4quHNr-mKkyc5juoGHdurzZqtoCU3qo2d457eKX9x0d2AS3LrrQULzPjC-9wC6hLlMxSFEvU6c9r8LmzgOeKWAi6ouEEkShvclKr0&t=634963835619397560" alt="Expand Advantage (0)" style="border-width:0;" /></a></td><td onmouseover="TreeView_HoverNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this)" onmouseout="TreeView_UnhoverNode(this)" style="white-space:nowrap;"><input type="checkbox" name="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn3CheckBox" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn3CheckBox" /><a class="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_0" href="javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$tvPartners','s0\\0')" onclick="TreeView_SelectNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this,'ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst3');" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst3">Vegetable</a></td>
</tr>
</table><div id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn3Nodes" style="display:none;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-width:0;">
<tr>
<td><div style="width:20px;height:1px"></div></td><td><div style="width:20px;height:1px"><img src="/WebResource.axd?d=UZyrk961AUQRa1Dg14aXeNUU3AZcfF9PiakU0o_cO8MfbyWz58k50vr47p2ICDOjgAqF5UX_lVIhbj_y2BqKRU5Xwhic3cBNooK1CBd_cGP6COn60&t=634963835619397560" alt="" /></div></td><td><img src="/WebResource.axd?d=yCq0KCcfK0lqwrgCU1UxuFJ0bJHMKjxD6S5t8OvIWXwTUBOYh1ZiQA4lD3ZpRuMNI-itrPIn3_rFzvZtrMP5g7PyyensT-Z003WldrY9pIgMSY5p0&t=634963835619397560" alt="" /></td><td onmouseover="TreeView_HoverNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this)" onmouseout="TreeView_UnhoverNode(this)" style="white-space:nowrap;"><input type="checkbox" name="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn4CheckBox" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn4CheckBox" /><a class="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_0" href="javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$tvPartners','s0\\0\\119')" onclick="TreeView_SelectNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this,'ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst4');" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst4">potato</a></td>
</tr>
</table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-width:0;">
<tr>
<td><div style="width:20px;height:1px"></div></td><td><div style="width:20px;height:1px"><img src="/WebResource.axd?d=UZyrk961AUQRa1Dg14aXeNUU3AZcfF9PiakU0o_cO8MfbyWz58k50vr47p2ICDOjgAqF5UX_lVIhbj_y2BqKRU5Xwhic3cBNooK1CBd_cGP6COn60&t=634963835619397560" alt="" /></div></td><td><img src="/WebResource.axd?d=yCq0KCcfK0lqwrgCU1UxuFJ0bJHMKjxD6S5t8OvIWXwTUBOYh1ZiQA4lD3ZpRuMNI-itrPIn3_rFzvZtrMP5g7PyyensT-Z003WldrY9pIgMSY5p0&t=634963835619397560" alt="" /></td><td onmouseover="TreeView_HoverNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this)" onmouseout="TreeView_UnhoverNode(this)" style="white-space:nowrap;"><input type="checkbox" name="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn5CheckBox" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn5CheckBox" /><a class="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_0" href="javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$tvPartners','s0\\0\\1')" onclick="TreeView_SelectNode(ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartners_Data, this,'ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst5');" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnerst5">cucumber</a></td>
</tr>

Answer 1

Instead of hard-coding a loop for 1 to 250, you should be using collections to find all elements that match a particular criteria.
So instead of
for n in (1...250)
nodename = "ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn" + n.to_s
if ie.a(:id => nodename).exists?
ie.link(:id, nodename).click
end
end
It should be
ie.links(:id => /ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn/).each do |link|
link.click
end
Which could also be written as
ie.links(:id => /ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn/).each(&:click)
The key here is that ie.links(:id => /ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn/) returns all links that match the criteria or locator. A regular expression (regex) is used for checking the id as this allows partial matching of ids (ie any link id that contains the text ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn).
The same logic could be applied to the rest of your script (note that without a complete html sample, I am guessing a bit on what your code does):
#Expand the entire tree
ie.links(:id => /ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn/).each(&:click)
#Clear the first checkbox
ie.checkbox(:id => "ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn0CheckBox").clear
#Set and clear each checkbox
checkbox_id = /ContentPlaceHolder1_tvPartnersn/
ie.checkboxes(:id => checkbox_id).each do |checkbox|
checkbox.set
puts checkbox.id
checkbox.clear
end
Depending on the html for the 'fruit' and 'vegetable' nodes, they may already get ignored by this code. Otherwise, you might need to change the checkbox_id or add a conditional check.
Update
If you want to set the checkbox based on the text, you can do:
ie.td(:text => 'apple').checkbox.set