Capybara can not find element by id

Question

Capybara is not able to find a <p> tag by it's id in my cucumber test. I'm able to see the element when I save_and_open_page. But I can't locate it with has_css? or find:

pry(#<Object>)> page.html.scan(/notice_sent/).count
=> 1
pry(#<Object>)> page.html.scan(/id=\"notice_sent\"/).count
=> 1
pry(#<Object>)> page.find('#notice_sent')
Capybara::ElementNotFound: Unable to find css "#notice_sent"
from /Users/me/.gem/ruby/2.1.7/gems/capybara-2.4.4/lib/capybara/node/finders.rb:41:in 'block in find'

What am I missing?

Answer 1

By default Capybara doesn't find elements that are not visible on the page. You can try

page.find('#notice_sent', visible: :all)

to see if that's the case. If so, and you're testing an app, then you should perform whatever actions a user would perform that would make that element visible, and then check for its presence.

Answer 2

Though I am a newbie to Capybara, I think this might work for you !!

page.find('#notice_sent', :visible => false)

Also, add this code to your env.rb file.

Capybara.ignore_hidden_elements = false