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<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>Simple Test documentation for testing HTML forms</title>
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<h1>Form testing documentation</h1>
This page...
<ul>
<li>
Changing form values and successfully
<a href="#submit">Submitting a simple form</a>
</li>
<li>
Handling <a href="#multiple">widgets with multiple values</a>
by setting lists.
</li>
<li>
Bypassing javascript to <a href="#hidden-field">set a hidden field</a>.
</li>
<li>
<a href="#raw">Raw posting</a> when you don't have a button
to click.
</li>
</ul>
<div class="content">
<p><a class="target" name="submit"><h2>Submitting a simple form</h2></a></p>
<p>
When a page is fetched by the <span class="new_code">WebTestCase</span>
using <span class="new_code">get()</span> or
<span class="new_code">post()</span> the page content is
automatically parsed.
This results in any form controls that are inside <form> tags
being available from within the test case.
For example, if we have this snippet of HTML...
<pre>
<form>
<input type="text" name="a" value="A default" />
<input type="submit" value="Go" />
</form>
</pre>
Which looks like this...
</p>
<p>
<form class="demo">
<input type="text" name="a" value="A default">
<input type="submit" value="Go">
</form>
</p>
<p>
We can navigate to this code, via the
<a href="http://www.lastcraft.com/form_testing_documentation.php">LastCraft</a>
site, with the following test...
<pre>
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
<strong>
function testDefaultValue() {
$this->get('http://www.lastcraft.com/form_testing_documentation.php');
$this->assertField('a', 'A default');
}</strong>
}
</pre>
Immediately after loading the page all of the HTML controls are set at
their default values just as they would appear in the web browser.
The assertion tests that a HTML widget exists in the page with the
name "a" and that it is currently set to the value
"A default".
As usual, we could use a pattern expectation instead if a fixed
string.
</p>
<p>
We could submit the form straight away, but first we'll change
the value of the text field and only then submit it...
<pre>
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
function testDefaultValue() {
$this->get('http://www.my-site.com/');
$this->assertField('a', 'A default');<strong>
$this->setField('a', 'New value');
$this->click('Go');</strong>
}
}
</pre>
Because we didn't specify a method attribute on the form tag, and
didn't specify an action either, the test case will follow
the usual browser behaviour of submitting the form data as a <em>GET</em>
request back to the same location.
SimpleTest tries to emulate typical browser behaviour as much as possible,
rather than attempting to catch missing attributes on tags.
This is because the target of the testing framework is the PHP application
logic, not syntax or other errors in the HTML code.
For HTML errors, other tools such as
<a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/">HTMLTidy</a> should be used.
</p>
<p>
If a field is not present in any form, or if an option is unavailable,
then <span class="new_code">WebTestCase::setField()</span> will return
<span class="new_code">false</span>.
For example, suppose we wish to verify that a "Superuser"
option is not present in this form...
<pre>
<strong>Select type of user to add:</strong>
<select name="type">
<option>Subscriber</option>
<option>Author</option>
<option>Administrator</option>
</select>
</pre>
Which looks like...
</p>
<p>
<form class="demo">
<strong>Select type of user to add:</strong>
<select name="type">
<option>Subscriber</option>
<option>Author</option>
<option>Administrator</option>
</select>
</form>
</p>
<p>
The following test will confirm it...
<pre>
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
...
function testNoSuperuserChoiceAvailable() {<strong>
$this->get('http://www.lastcraft.com/form_testing_documentation.php');
$this->assertFalse($this->setField('type', 'Superuser'));</strong>
}
}
</pre>
The selection will not be changed on a failure to set
a widget value.
</p>
<p>
Here is the full list of widgets currently supported...
<ul>
<li>Text fields, including hidden and password fields.</li>
<li>Submit buttons including the button tag, although not yet reset buttons</li>
<li>Text area. This includes text wrapping behaviour.</li>
<li>Checkboxes, including multiple checkboxes in the same form.</li>
<li>Drop down selections, including multiple selects.</li>
<li>Radio buttons.</li>
<li>Images.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
The browser emulation offered by SimpleTest mimics
the actions which can be perform by a user on a
standard HTML page. Javascript is not supported, and
it's unlikely that support will be added any time
soon.
</p>
<p>
Of particular note is that the Javascript idiom of
passing form results by setting a hidden field cannot
be performed using the normal SimpleTest
commands. See below for a way to test such forms.
</p>
<p><a class="target" name="multiple"><h2>Fields with multiple values</h2></a></p>
<p>
SimpleTest can cope with two types of multivalue controls: Multiple
selection drop downs, and multiple checkboxes with the same name
within a form.
The multivalue nature of these means that setting and testing
are slightly different.
Using checkboxes as an example...
<pre>
<form class="demo">
<strong>Create privileges allowed:</strong>
<input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="c" checked><br>
<strong>Retrieve privileges allowed:</strong>
<input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="r" checked><br>
<strong>Update privileges allowed:</strong>
<input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="u" checked><br>
<strong>Destroy privileges allowed:</strong>
<input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="d" checked><br>
<input type="submit" value="Enable Privileges">
</form>
</pre>
Which renders as...
</p>
<p>
<form class="demo">
<strong>Create privileges allowed:</strong>
<input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="c" checked><br>
<strong>Retrieve privileges allowed:</strong>
<input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="r" checked><br>
<strong>Update privileges allowed:</strong>
<input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="u" checked><br>
<strong>Destroy privileges allowed:</strong>
<input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="d" checked><br>
<input type="submit" value="Enable Privileges">
</form>
</p>
<p>
If we wish to disable all but the retrieval privileges and
submit this information we can do it like this...
<pre>
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
...<strong>
function testDisableNastyPrivileges() {
$this->get('http://www.lastcraft.com/form_testing_documentation.php');
$this->assertField('crud', array('c', 'r', 'u', 'd'));
$this->setField('crud', array('r'));
$this->click('Enable Privileges');
}</strong>
}
</pre>
Instead of setting the field to a single value, we give it a list
of values.
We do the same when testing expected values.
We can then write other test code to confirm the effect of this, perhaps
by logging in as that user and attempting an update.
</p>
<p><a class="target" name="hidden-field"><h2>Forms which use javascript to set a hidden field</h2></a></p>
<p>
If you want to test a form which relies on javascript to set a hidden
field, you can't just call setField().
The following code will <em>not</em> work:
<pre>
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
function testMyJavascriptForm() {
<strong>// This does *not* work</strong>
$this->setField('a_hidden_field', '123');
$this->clickSubmit('OK');
}
}
</pre>
Instead, you need to pass the additional form parameters to the
clickSubmit() method:
<pre>
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
function testMyJavascriptForm() {
// Pass the hidden field value as an additional POST variable
<strong>$this->clickSubmit('OK', array('a_hidden_field'=>'123'));</strong>
}
}
</pre>
</p>
<p>
Bear in mind that in doing this you're effectively stubbing out a
part of your software (the javascript code in the form), and
perhaps you might be better off using something like
<a href="http://selenium.openqa.org/">Selenium</a> to ensure a complete
acceptance test.
</p>
<p><a class="target" name="raw"><h2>Raw posting</h2></a></p>
<p>
If you want to test a form handler, but have not yet written
or do not have access to the form itself, you can create a
form submission by hand.
<pre>
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
...<strong>
function testAttemptedHack() {
$this->post(
'http://www.my-site.com/add_user.php',
array('type' => 'superuser'));
$this->assertNoText('user created');
}</strong>
}
</pre>
By adding data to the <span class="new_code">WebTestCase::post()</span>
method, we are attempting to fetch the page as a form submission.
</p>
</div>
References and related information...
<ul>
<li>
SimpleTest project page on <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/simpletest/">SourceForge</a>.
</li>
<li>
SimpleTest download page on <a href="http://www.lastcraft.com/simple_test.php">LastCraft</a>.
</li>
<li>
The <a href="http://simpletest.org/api/">developer's API for SimpleTest</a>
gives full detail on the classes and assertions available.
</li>
</ul>
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Copyright<br>Marcus Baker 2006
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