Capybara::Harness

Capybara::Harness implements a test harness strategy to easily query and manipulate DOM elements as self-contained objects in the context of feature or acceptance tests.

By pulling redundant behavior out of scenarios and tests (such as filling out and submitting forms, or ensuring a comment element is visible on the page), the focus moves to the essential steps of the use cases and the intent of the feature becomes more legible.

This library is still very much in the baking phase, although I am successfully using it in 2 production projects. I'll be adding specs in the coming weeks.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'capybara-harness'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install capybara-harness

First, create a new harness in spec/support/harnesses:

class BlogPostHarness < Capybara::Harness::DomHarness
  define_reader :post do |r|
    r.attribute :title, :finder => true
    r.attribute :author do |attrs|
      "#{attrs[:first_name]} #{attrs[:last_name][0][1].}"
    end    
    r.attribute :body
  end

  define_writer do |w|
    w.field :title, :label => 'Blog Post Title'
    w.field :body
  end
end

Now in your feature spec, e.g. spec/features/blog_posts_spec.rb, create the new harness and interact with it:

scenario "Add blog post" do
    post = BlogPostHarness.new
    
    visit blog_posts_path
    click_link 'Add'
    post.create(attributes_for(:blog_post))
    expect(post).to be_on_the_page
  end

I had been playing with the concept for a while in my acceptance tests, but this thoughtbot article really helped solidify the concept and highly influenced me:

http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/35776432958/better-support-with-test-harnesses

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request