Testing a list is sorted in the correct order capybara

Question

I'm trying to write some tests in capybara that will test a list of dates are sorted correctly. For example I have a list of dates Wed 27 Jun 12, Mon 13 Aug 12, Thu 31 May 12 and when I click on the button it will rearrange the dates starting from the earliest ie: Thu 31 May 12, Wed 27 Jun 12, 13 Aug 12.

Is there any way in capybara that you can write such tests.

Normally I would use methods like page.find etc but those methods will just find the dates and not tell you if they have been sorted in the correct order.

Answer 1

You need to use the :nth-child css selector.

Lets say your list of dates are in a <ul> with the id #dates, you could test order with:

page.should have_selector("ul#dates li:nth-child(1)", content: @date1.content)
page.should have_selector("ul#dates li:nth-child(2)", content: @date2.content)

The first value passed into have_selector() is your selector, the second (in this example) is the content you expect. You're not limited to passing just content for example if each date linked to the Date#show action you could add url: date_path(@date).