Capybara, capybara-webkit and custom file upload form

Question

I have created custom upload form using the following html stack:

<form>
  <label></label>
  <input type="file">
</form>

The file field is hidden via css with display: none property. So the file attach dialogue is being called by user when she clicks on label (which is custom styled).

In my feature test I can't attach a file since the input field is hidden. I've tried few possible solutions, but neither of them work:

find(:xpath, '//input', visible: false).set(some_file_path)

or

within('form') do                                                                                                                                                                       
  attach_file(:input, some_file_path, visible: false)                                                                                                                                          
end

And many others. All of the time I end up with Failed to click element at unknown position error. Once I remove the label overlapping the input field, make it visible and run my spec everything passes. So the issue here is the fact that:

1. The input file field has display: none property (and by thus is can't be found)
2. There is a label overlapping the hidden file field (probably)

Is there any way to make Capybara with Capybara-webkit driver handle this delicate situation in some sane way?

Answer 1

With capybara-webkit you can tell the driver to run any javascript you want within the context of the page, so you can write something custom to hack around the visibility issue:

script = "$('thelabel').toggle(); " # hide the label
script << "$('myfield').toggle();"  # show your field

page.driver.browser.execute_script(script)

This is pseudo-code, but you should be able to do something similar to make the field visible before you call attach_file on it.

That said, every time (I at least) do something a little gross like this in my tests it is a good idea to take a quick moment and ask if it is the test or the interface that needs to be fixed. If you're happy with the interface, you should be able to use a small js snippet like the above to get the element visible for your test.

Update:

Support for this behavior has become more widespread and is now standardized in capybara, so you can just:

page.execute_script(script)

This shorter version should work with capybara 2.x and recent versions of capybara-webkit or poltergeist, which is a lower-dependency alternative I'm using now.

There is also a partner method, evaluate_script:

result = page.evaluate_script('4 + 4');

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Matt Sanders suggests using JS to toggle the element's visibility. That'll work but here's another solution which is a bit cleaner, IMO.

I recommend including hidden fields only when necessary. To accomplish this, I used this helper for those rare cases when you actually want Capybara to include hidden fields. For example:

# features/support/capybara_helpers.rb
module CapybaraHelpers
  # By default, capybara will ignore all hidden fields. This is a smart default
  # except in rare cases. For example, our AS3 file uploader requires you to
  # click a hidden file field - and that makes perfect sense. In those rare
  # cases, you can use this helper to override the default and force capybara
  # to include hidden fields.
  #
  # Examples
  #
  #   include_hidden_fields do
  #     attach_file("hidden-input", "path/to/fixture/file")
  #   end
  #
  def include_hidden_fields
    Capybara.ignore_hidden_elements = false
    yield
    Capybara.ignore_hidden_elements = true
  end
end
World(CapybaraHelpers)