Put simply, Watir is a browser driver. Lightweight and simple to use, Watir excels at automating modern browsers. Built in Ruby, it also works well with other testing frameworks and solutions in the Ruby ecosystem. This section explores frameworks which are compatible with Watir including:

1. RSpec – Behaviour driven development
2. Cucumber – Business readable behaviour driven development
3. Test/Unit – Basic unit testing framework

RSpec

RSpec is a Behaviour-Driven Development tool for Ruby programmers. BDD is an approach to software development that combines Test-Driven Development, Domain Driven Design, and Acceptance Test-Driven Planning. RSpec helps you do the TDD part of that equation, focusing on the documentation and design aspects of TDD. The following code demonstrates using Watir and a basic RSpec example.
More info …

Install

gem install rspec

Example

rspec test_spec.rb

will execute the following rspec example …

test_spec.rb

 require "rubygems" require "rspec" require "watir-webdriver" describe "google.com" do let(:browser) { @browser ||= Watir::Browser.new :firefox } before { browser.goto "google.com" } after { browser.close } it "should search for watir" do browser.text_field(:name => "q").set "watir" browser.button.click browser.div(:id => "resultStats").wait_until_present browser.title.should == "watir - Google Search" end end

Cucumber

Cucumber lets software development teams describe how software should behave in plain text. The text is written in a business-readable domain-specific language and serves as documentation, automated tests and development-aid – all rolled into one format.
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Install

gem install cucumber

Example

cucumber features

will execute the following cucumber feature …

features/example.feature

Feature: Search In order to use Google users must be able to search for content Scenario: Search for a term Given I have entered "watir" into the query When I click "search" Then I should see some results

features/step_definitions/example_steps.rb

require "watir-webdriver" require "rspec/expectations" Given /^I have entered "([^"]*)" into the query$/ do |term| @browser ||= Watir::Browser.new :firefox @browser.goto "google.com" @browser.text_field(:name => "q").set term end When /^I click "([^"]*)"$/ do |button_name| @browser.button.click end Then /^I should see some results$/ do @browser.div(:id => "resultStats").wait_until_present @browser.div(:id => "resultStats").should exist @browser.close end

Test::Unit

Test::Unit is a framework for unit testing in Ruby, helping you to design, debug and evaluate your code by making it easy to write and have tests for it. The following code demonstrates using Watir and a basic Test::Unit example.
More info …

Install

Test::Unit already comes bundled with most ruby installations.

Example

ruby example_test.rb

will execute the following test case …

example_test.rb

require "rubygems" require "test/unit" require "watir-webdriver" class GoogleSearch < Test::Unit::TestCase def setup @browser ||= Watir::Browser.new :firefox end def teardown @browser.close end def test_search @browser.goto "google.com" @browser.text_field(:name => "q").set "watir" @browser.button.click @browser.div(:id => "resultStats").wait_until_present assert @browser.title == "watir - Google Search" end end