tobytripp-selenium_specr

= SeleniumSpecr

This is a library/plugin that aims to ease the creation and maintenance of Selenium[http://selenium.openqa.org/] functional tests.

SeleniumSpecr operates in one of two modes: as a Rails[http://rubyonrails.com/] plug-in, or as a stand-alone project to test any running web application.

== Using SeleniumSpecr Stand-Alone

Generate your test project using the 'specr' application generator:

specr my_test_project

This will create a new project directory called 'my_test_project'. Start creating selenium specs by using the included spec generator:

cd my_test_project script/generate selenium_spec open_page

Run your specs using the included rake task:

rake test:selenium

=== Configuration

Your test project will include a YAML configuration file that tells SeleniumSpecr where to find your web application. You can find it in 'config/selenium.yml'.

If you provide 'start' and 'stop' configurations, SeleniumSpecr will start and stop your application server for you by executing the provided commands in a shell. For example, the following configuration snippet will instruct SeleniumSpecr to start and stop a mongrel rails server before and after each test run:

app_server: url: http://localhost:3800 start: mongrel_rails start -d -p 3800 -P log/mongrel.pid stop: mongrel_rails stop -P log/mongrel.pid && rm -f log/mongrel.pid

Note: P Gross has requested this be converted from YAML to just a Ruby file. Sounds like a plan.

== Using SeleniumSpecr as a Rails plug-in

=== Installation

You can SeleniumSpecr as a git submodule (if you're using git for your Rails project) like this: git submodule add git://github.com/tobytripp/selenium-specr.git vendor/plugins/selenium_specr or, if you're using Rails 2.0.2 or later, you can use script/plugin to install it from github[http://github.com]: ./script/plugin install git://github.com/tobytripp/selenium-specr.git

= TODO

1. Make Selenium tests easier to run by bundling a set of Rake tasks that manage starting the selenium RC server, starting the application server, running all the specs, and then shutting the whole thing down when it's finished.
2. Make Selenium tests easier to write by including a set of action macros and spec generators.
3. Make Selenium tests easier to maintain by making it easier to push specs down into unit or integration tests.