Cucumber how to simulate multiple drop down selection? - ruby

Question

Hi I'm new to Cucumber and Ruby on Rails, and I can't figure out how to simulate multiple drop down menu selection. I am able to do it for a single drop down menu (in my case "Rating").
Given /the following movies exist:$/ do |movies_table|
movies_table.hashes.each do |movie|
# each returned element will be a hash whose key is the table header.
# you should arrange to add that movie to the database here.
Given %Q{I am on the Create New Movie page}
When %Q{I fill in "Title" with "#{movie[:title]}"}
And %Q{I select "#{movie[:rating]}" from "Rating"}
And %Q{I select "#{movie[:release_date]}" from "Released On"}
And %Q{I press "Save Changes"}
end
assert false, "Unimplmemented"
end
The error that i believe is relevant to my problem is.
cannot select option, no select box with id, name, or label 'Released On' found (Capybara::ElementNotFound)
(eval):2:in `select'
./step_definitions/web_steps.rb:86:in `/^(?:|I )select "([^"]*)" from "([^"]*)"$/'
filter_movie_list.feature:9:in `Given the following movies exist:'
What I believe is the relevant source code from my web app is
<label for="movie_title">Title</label>
<input id="movie_title" name="movie[title]" size="30" type="text" />
<label for="movie_rating">Rating</label>
<select id="movie_rating" name="movie[rating]"><option value="G">G</option>
<option value="PG">PG</option>
<option value="PG-13">PG-13</option>
<option value="R">R</option>
<option value="NC-17">NC-17</option></select>
<label for="movie_release_date">Released On</label>
<select id="movie_release_date_1i" name="movie[release_date(1i)]">
<option value="2007">2007</option>
<option value="2008">2008</option>
< And so on ...>
</select>
<select id="movie_release_date_3i" name="movie[release_date(3i)]">
<option value="1">1</option>
<option value="2">2</option>
<option value="3">3</option>
<option value="4">4</option>
<option value="5">5</option>
<option value="6">6</option>
<option value="7">7</option>
< And so on ...>
</select>
<input name="commit" type="submit" value="Save Changes" />
So I am refered to the label "Released On" but my error message says it has no select box, yet it works for the Rating. Also from my .feature file is in the form of
25-Nov-1992
If it plays a part at all. But I assumed not since since I think ruby understands how to handle dates. Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

The problem is that the Released On label has for="movie_release_date" where as the select box has id="movie_release_date_1i". The for and id values have to match for Capybara to locate the field based on its label text.
Possible Solutions:
1) Correct the HTML if you have control over it.
You want to either have:
<label for="movie_release_date">Released On</label>
<select id="movie_release_date" name="movie[release_date(1i)]">
or
<label for="movie_release_date_1i">Released On</label>
<select id="movie_release_date_1i" name="movie[release_date(1i)]">
2) Access the select field by ID or Name.
And %Q{I select "#{movie[:release_date]}" from "movie_release_date_1i"}
or
And %Q{I select "#{movie[:release_date]}" from "movie[release_date(1i)]"}
This option will only work if the ID or Name is static (ie that number at the end is always the same, not randomly generated each time the page loads).
3) Use Capybara directly rather than using web_steps.rb
If you use Capybara directly, rather than using web_steps.rb (which I assume the steps you have are from), you get a lot more options for locating the select field (ex xpath).