Capybara testing value of hidden field

Question

I have a form with a hidden field that contains the current date.

I'm trying to figure out how to write a capybara finder to:

1. Check that the field is there
2. Check the value of the field

Is this possible with Capybara?

Answer 1

just do this:

find("#id_of_hidden_input", :visible => false).value

Answer 2

You could also instruct Capybara to not ignore hidden elements globally in your spec_helper.rb or equivalent. The default behaviour can be overridden:

# default behavior for hidden elements
# Capybara.ignore_hidden_elements = false

# find all elements (hidden or visible)
page.all(".articles .article[id='foo']")

# find visible elements only (overwrite the standard behavior just for this query)
page.all(".articles .article[id='foo']", :visible => true)


# changing the default behavior (e.g. in your features/support/env.rb file)
Capybara.ignore_hidden_elements = true

# now the query just finds visible nodes by default
page.all(".articles .article[id='foo']")

# but you can change the default behaviour by passing the :visible option again
page.all(".articles .article[id='foo']", :visible => false)

Examples taken from this article.

Answer 3

the matcher has_field? works with hidden fields as well. no need to do weird gymnastics with find or all in this context.

page.has_field? "label of the field", type: :hidden, with: "field value"
page.has_field? "id_of_the_field", type: :hidden, with: "field value"

the key here is setting the :type option to :hidden explicitly.

why use a label with a hidden field? this comes in handy if you're using a js library, like flatpickr, that cloaks your original text field to hide it. not coupling your behavior tests to specific markup is always a good thing.