{"id":6454,"date":"2014-02-07T17:33:31","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T14:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/railsware.com\/blog\/?p=6454"},"modified":"2021-08-16T13:51:30","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T10:51:30","slug":"ios-acceptance-testing-with-calabash-and-rspec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/railsware.com\/blog\/ios-acceptance-testing-with-calabash-and-rspec\/","title":{"rendered":"iOS acceptance testing with Calabash and Rspec"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While investigating existing automated tools for mobile TDD, we have run into a well-documented and supported library by Xamarin. It’s called calabash, comes with iOS and Android support and has a wide scope of supported user actions, gestures and expectations.
The only drawback we found significant is lack of native Rspec support (cucumber only for now).
This post provides a simple tutorial for using calabash with Rspec to test your iOS applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overview<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Calabash library including \u0441ucumber step definitions is aggregated within single gem calabash-cucumber<\/a>.
Basic tutorial for integrating your project with Calabash testing tool is well described here<\/a>.
We use mixed approach for initial setup by adding Calabash pod<\/a> and manually copying main project target in Xcode.
As cucumber is a primary framework coming out of the box, some additional steps are required to use it with Rspec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Setting up Rspec environment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First of all install rspec gem and initialize your project:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

gem install rspec \/\/or use Gemfile\nrspec --init\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This will generate the following file structure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
  • .\/spec folder for all your test examples.<\/li>
  • .\/spec\/spec_helper.rb file for all configuration and initial setup stuff.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    Using predefined cucumber setup and a bit of source investigation, we came up with the following definitions within spec_helper.rb:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    require 'sim_launcher'\nrequire 'calabash-cucumber\/operations'\n\ninclude Calabash::Cucumber::Core\ninclude Calabash::Cucumber::TestsHelpers\ninclude Calabash::Cucumber::WaitHelpers\ninclude Calabash::Cucumber::KeyboardHelpers\n\nRSpec.configure do |config|\n  config.treat_symbols_as_metadata_keys_with_true_values = true\n  config.run_all_when_everything_filtered = true\n  config.filter_run :focus\n  config.order = 'random'\n\n  config.before do\n    @calabash_launcher = Calabash::Cucumber::Launcher.new\n    unless @calabash_launcher.calabash_no_launch?\n      @calabash_launcher.relaunch\n      @calabash_launcher.calabash_notify(self)\n    end\n  end\n\n  config.before(:each) do\n    element_exists('view')\n  end\n\n  config.after do\n    unless @calabash_launcher.calabash_no_stop?\n      calabash_exit\n      @calabash_launcher.stop if @calabash_launcher.active?\n    end\n  end\nend\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
    A before hook was set up to wait for any view to appear – such trick is required to avoid stupid failures because of initial simulator startup delay.
    There are a few additional method definitions required to make this setup work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    def escape_quotes(str)\n  str.gsub(\"'\", \"\\\\\\\\'\")\nend\n  \n#### emulate cucumber reports\ndef embed(path, type, label)\n  p \"storing report: #{path} (type: #{type}, label:#{label})\"\nend\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
    You can add them to your spec_helper.rb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Sugarize it<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    Basic ruby modules included in calabash-cucumber gem have predefined steps for<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    • querying elements<\/li>
    • performing actions\/gestures<\/li>
    • matching expectations<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      We have added simple wrapper methods to make test examples readable and DRY.
      Here are some examples that are used in our test scenarios:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Step definitions<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      module StepHelper\n  WAIT_TIMEOUT = (ENV['WAIT_TIMEOUT'] || 30).to_f\n  STEP_PAUSE = (ENV['STEP_PAUSE'] || 0.5).to_f\n\n  def wait_to_see_view(expected_mark)\n    wait_for_elements_exist([marked_view_query_string(expected_mark)], :timeout => WAIT_TIMEOUT)\n  end\n\n  #Touches\n  def touch_the_button(name)\n    touch(\"button marked:'#{name}'\")\n    sleep(STEP_PAUSE)\n  end\n\n  def touch_view(expected_mark)\n    touch(marked_view_query_string(expected_mark))\n    sleep(STEP_PAUSE)\n  end\n\n  def go_back\n    touch(\"navigationItemButtonView first\")\n    sleep(STEP_PAUSE)\n  end\n\n  #Waiting\n  def wait_for_seconds(seconds)\n    sleep seconds.to_f\n  end\n\n  #Inputs\n  def enter_text_into_textfield_by_placeholder(text_to_type, placeholder)\n    touch(\"textField placeholder:'#{placeholder}'\")\n    keyboard_enter_text(text_to_type)\n    sleep(STEP_PAUSE)\n  end\n\n  def enter_text_into_textfield_by_label(text_to_type, label)\n    touch(\"textField marked:'#{label}'\")\n    keyboard_enter_text(text_to_type)\n    sleep(STEP_PAUSE)\n  end\n\n  def marked_view_query_string(expected_mark)\n    \"view marked:'#{expected_mark}'\"\n  end\n\n  ...\n\nend\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
      Custom matchers<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      RSpec::Matchers.define :show_view do |expected_mark|\n  match do\n    (element_exists( \"view marked:'#{expected_mark}'\" ) or\n     element_exists( \"view text:'#{expected_mark}'\"))\n  end\n\n  failure_message_for_should do\n    \"No visible view marked '#{expected_mark}' found\"\n  end\n\n  failure_message_for_should_not do\n    \"Found visible view marked '#{expected_mark}'\"\n  end\nend\n\nRSpec::Matchers.define :show_error_alert do |expected_error_message|\n  match do\n    error_message = query(\"view className:'UIAlertView' label className:'UILabel'\", :text).first\n    error_message == expected_error_message\n  end\n\n  failure_message_for_should do\n    \"No alert with text '#{expected_error_message}' found\"\n  end\n\n  failure_message_for_should_not do\n    \"Found visible alert with text '#{expected_error_message}'\"\n  end\nend\n\n...\n\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
      Conclusions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      Adding Rspec support for your acceptance testing using calabash library is really simple.
      Approach described above helped us to build and support application test coverage for wide variety of flows and interactions.
      Here is a short example on login flow test scenario:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      ...\n\nshared_examples_for \"login error\" do\n  it do\n    should show_error_alert(alert_error_message)\n    should_not show_view('Asset list zero case')\n  end\nend\n\n...\n\ndescribe \"login error\" do\n  before do\n    navigate_to_login_screen\n    stub_api_request_with_error(\"POST\", \"\/users\/sign_in\", error_message);\n    submit_login_form\n  end\n\n  context \"wrong credentials\" do\n    let(:error_message) {'login_failed'}\n    let(:alert_error_message) {wrong_email_or_password_error_message}\n\n    it_should_behave_like \"login error\"\n  end\n\n  context \"server exception\/unavailable\" do\n    let(:error_message) {'some_error_message'}\n    let(:alert_error_message) {server_unavailable_error_message}\n\n    it_should_behave_like \"login error\"\n  end\nend\n\n...\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
      Using Rspec instead of cucumber gives you a better opportunity to setup context of test examples.
      It’s also very important to use any CI server you prefer as it takes some time for full test coverage to run.
      Do not hesitate to add your own step definitions and matchers to keep your test examples readable, DRY and clean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
      While investigating existing automated tools for mobile TDD, we have run into a well-documented and supported library by Xamarin. It’s called calabash, comes with iOS and Android support and has a wide scope of supported user actions, gestures and expectations.The only drawback we found significant is lack of native Rspec support (cucumber only for now).This…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":7447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":["Roman Bilous"],"class_list":["post-6454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-development"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t