zc.testbrowser 1.0a2

Programmable web browser for functional black-box testing of web applications

Overview

The zc.testbrowser package provides web user agents (browsers) with programmatic interfaces designed to be used for testing web applications, especially in conjunction with doctests.

There are currently two type of testbrowser provided. One for accessing web sites via HTTP (zc.testbrowser.browser) and one that controls a Firefox web browser (zc.testbrowser.real). All flavors of testbrowser have the same API.

This project originates in the Zope 3 community, but is not Zope-specific (the zc namespace package stands for “Zope Corporation”).

Note:

zc.testbrowser.real requires 0.1.8 of MozLab. 0.1.9 does not work because of changes in the API.

Changes

1.0a2 (2008-02-15)

Bugfix: removed pdb invocation on javascript error

Bugfix: text content types where wrapped in html tags in testbrowser.real

Bugfix: getLink did not wait until page is loaded in testbrowser.real

1.0a1 (2007-09-28)

First release under new name (non Zope-specific code extracted from zope.testbrowser)

Contents

Contents

• Overview

• Note:

• Changes

  • 1.0a2 (2008-02-15)

  • 1.0a1 (2007-09-28)

• Contents

• Detailed Documentation

  • Page Contents

  • Checking for HTML

  • HTML Page Title

  • Navigation and Link Objects

  • Other Navigation

  • Controls

    • Obtaining a Control

    • Control Objects

    • ItemControl Objects

    • Various Controls

    • Using Submitting Controls

  • Forms

  • Performance Testing

  • Hand-Holding

  • Fixed Bugs

    • Spaces in URL

    • .goBack() Truncation

  • Authors

Detailed Documentation

Before being of much interest, we need to open a web page. Browser instances have a base attribute that sets the URL from which open-ed URLs are relative. This lets you target tests at servers running in various, or even variable locations (like using randomly chosen ports).

>>> browser = Browser()
>>> browser.base = 'http://localhost:%s/' % TEST_PORT
>>> browser.open('index.html')
>>> browser.url
'http://localhost:.../index.html'

Once you have opened a web page initially, best practice for writing testbrowser doctests suggests using ‘click’ to navigate further (as discussed below), except in unusual circumstances.

The test browser complies with the IBrowser interface; see zc.testbrowser.interfaces for full details on the interface.

>>> import zc.testbrowser.interfaces
>>> from zope.interface.verify import verifyObject
>>> zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IBrowser.providedBy(browser)
True

Page Contents

The contents of the current page are available:

>>> browser.contents
'...<h1>Simple Page</h1>...'

Note: Unfortunately, ellipsis (…) cannot be used at the beginning of the output (this is a limitation of doctest).

Making assertions about page contents is easy.

>>> '<h1>Simple Page</h1>' in browser.contents
True

Checking for HTML

Not all URLs return HTML. Of course our simple page does:

>>> browser.isHtml
True

But if we load an image (or other binary file), we do not get HTML:

>>> browser.open('zope3logo.gif')
>>> browser.isHtml
False

Text types are also handled.

>>> browser.open('test.txt')
>>> browser.isHtml
False
>>> print browser.contents
Some text
>>> browser.open('test.css')
>>> browser.isHtml
False
>>> print browser.contents
* {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}

HTML Page Title

Another useful helper property is the title:

>>> browser.open('index.html')
>>> browser.title
'Simple Page'

If a page does not provide a title, it is simply None:

>>> browser.open('notitle.html')
>>> browser.title

However, if the output is not HTML, then an error will occur trying to access the title:

>>> browser.open('zope3logo.gif')
>>> browser.title
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
BrowserStateError: not viewing HTML

Navigation and Link Objects

If you want to simulate clicking on a link, get the link and call its click method. In the navigate.html file there are several links set up to demonstrate the capabilities of the link objects and their click method.

The simplest way to get a link is via the anchor text. In other words the text you would see in a browser:

>>> browser.open('navigate.html')
>>> browser.contents
'...<a href="target.html">Link Text</a>...'
>>> link = browser.getLink('Link Text')
>>> link
<Link text='Link Text' url='http://localhost:.../target.html'>

Link objects comply with the ILink interface.

>>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.ILink, link)
True

Links expose several attributes for easy access.

>>> link.text
'Link Text'

Links can be “clicked” and the browser will navigate to the referenced URL.

>>> link.click()
>>> browser.url
'http://localhost:.../target.html'
>>> browser.contents
'...This page is the target of a link...'

When finding a link by its text, whitespace is normalized.

>>> browser.open('navigate.html')
>>> browser.contents
'...> Link Text \n    with     Whitespace\tNormalization (and parens) </...'
>>> link = browser.getLink('Link Text with Whitespace Normalization '
...                        '(and parens)')
>>> link
<Link text='Link Text with Whitespace Normalization (and parens)'...>
>>> link.text
'Link Text with Whitespace Normalization (and parens)'
>>> link.click()
>>> browser.url
'http://localhost:.../target.html'

When a link text matches more than one link, by default the first one is chosen. You can, however, specify the index of the link and thus retrieve a later matching link:

>>> browser.open('navigate.html')
>>> browser.getLink('Link Text')
<Link text='Link Text' ...>

>>> browser.getLink('Link Text', index=1)
<Link text='Link Text with Whitespace Normalization (and parens)' ...>

Note that clicking a link object after its browser page has expired will generate an error.

>>> link.click()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ExpiredError

You can also find links by URL,

>>> browser.open('navigate.html')
>>> browser.getLink(url='target.html').click()
>>> browser.url
'http://localhost:.../target.html'

or its id:

>>> browser.open('navigate.html')
>>> browser.contents
'...<a href="target.html" id="anchorid">By Anchor Id</a>...'

>>> browser.getLink(id='anchorid').click()
>>> browser.url
'http://localhost:.../target.html'

You thought we were done here? Not so quickly. The getLink method also supports image maps, though not by specifying the coordinates, but using the area’s id:

>>> browser.open('navigate.html')
>>> link = browser.getLink(id='zope3')
>>> link.click()
>>> browser.url
'http://localhost:.../target.html'

Getting a nonexistent link raises an exception.

>>> browser.open('navigate.html')
>>> browser.getLink('This does not exist')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
LinkNotFoundError

Other Navigation

Like in any normal browser, you can reload a page:

>>> browser.open('index.html')
>>> browser.url
'http://localhost:.../index.html'
>>> browser.reload()
>>> browser.url
'http://localhost:.../index.html'

You can also go back:

>>> browser.open('notitle.html')
>>> browser.url
'http://localhost:.../notitle.html'
>>> browser.goBack()
>>> browser.url
'http://localhost:.../index.html'

Controls

One of the most important features of the browser is the ability to inspect and fill in values for the controls of input forms. To do so, let’s first open a page that has a bunch of controls:

>>> browser.open('controls.html')

Obtaining a Control

You look up browser controls with the ‘getControl’ method. The default first argument is ‘label’, and looks up the form on the basis of any associated label.

>>> control = browser.getControl('Text Control')
>>> control
<Control name='text-value' type='text'>
>>> browser.getControl(label='Text Control') # equivalent
<Control name='text-value' type='text'>

If you request a control that doesn’t exist, the code raises a LookupError:

>>> browser.getControl('Does Not Exist')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
LookupError: label 'Does Not Exist'

If you request a control with an ambiguous lookup, the code raises an AmbiguityError.

>>> browser.getControl('Ambiguous Control')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AmbiguityError: label 'Ambiguous Control'

This is also true if an option in a control is ambiguous in relation to the control itself.

>>> browser.getControl('Sub-control Ambiguity')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AmbiguityError: label 'Sub-control Ambiguity'

Ambiguous controls may be specified using an index value. We use the control’s value attribute to show the two controls; this attribute is properly introduced below.

>>> browser.getControl('Ambiguous Control', index=0)
<Control name='ambiguous-control-name' type='text'>
>>> browser.getControl('Ambiguous Control', index=0).value
'First'
>>> browser.getControl('Ambiguous Control', index=1).value
'Second'
>>> browser.getControl('Sub-control Ambiguity', index=0)
<ListControl name='ambiguous-subcontrol' type='select'>
>>> browser.getControl('Sub-control Ambiguity', index=1).optionValue
'ambiguous'

Label searches are against stripped, whitespace-normalized, no-tag versions of the text. Text applied to searches is also stripped and whitespace normalized. The search finds results if the text search finds the whole words of your text in a label. Thus, for instance, a search for ‘Add’ will match the label ‘Add a Client’ but not ‘Address’. Case is honored.

>>> browser.getControl('Label Needs Whitespace Normalization')
<Control name='label-needs-normalization' type='text'>
>>> browser.getControl('label needs whitespace normalization')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
LookupError: label 'label needs whitespace normalization'
>>> browser.getControl(' Label  Needs Whitespace    ')
<Control name='label-needs-normalization' type='text'>
>>> browser.getControl('Whitespace')
<Control name='label-needs-normalization' type='text'>
>>> browser.getControl('hitespace')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
LookupError: label 'hitespace'
>>> browser.getControl('[non word characters should not confuse]')
<Control name='non-word-characters' type='text'>

Multiple labels can refer to the same control (simply because that is possible in the HTML 4.0 spec).

>>> browser.getControl('Multiple labels really')
<Control name='two-labels' type='text'>

>>> browser.getControl('really are possible')
<Control name='two-labels' type='text'>

>>> browser.getControl('really') # OK: ambiguous labels, but not ambiguous control
<Control name='two-labels' type='text'>

A label can be connected with a control using the ‘for’ attribute and also by containing a control.

>>> browser.getControl(
...     'Labels can be connected by containing their respective fields')
<Control name='contained-in-label' type='text'>

Get also accepts one other search argument, ‘name’. Only one of ‘label’ and ‘name’ may be used at a time. The ‘name’ keyword searches form field names.

>>> browser.getControl(name='text-value')
<Control name='text-value' type='text'>
>>> browser.getControl(name='ambiguous-control-name')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AmbiguityError: name 'ambiguous-control-name'
>>> browser.getControl(name='does-not-exist')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
LookupError: name 'does-not-exist'
>>> browser.getControl(name='ambiguous-control-name', index=1).value
'Second'

Combining ‘label’ and ‘name’ raises a ValueError, as does supplying neither of them.

>>> browser.getControl(label='Ambiguous Control', name='ambiguous-control-name')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: Supply one and only one of "label" and "name" as arguments
>>> browser.getControl()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: Supply one and only one of "label" and "name" as arguments

Radio and checkbox fields are unusual in that their labels and names may point to different objects: names point to logical collections of radio buttons or checkboxes, but labels may only be used for individual choices within the logical collection. This means that obtaining a radio button by label gets a different object than obtaining the radio collection by name. Select options may also be searched by label.

>>> browser.getControl(name='radio-value')
<ListControl name='radio-value' type='radio'>
>>> browser.getControl('Zwei')
<ItemControl name='radio-value' type='radio' optionValue='2' selected=True>
>>> browser.getControl('One')
<ItemControl name='multi-checkbox-value' type='checkbox' optionValue='1' selected=True>
>>> browser.getControl('Tres')
<ItemControl name='single-select-value' type='select' optionValue='3' selected=False>

Characteristics of controls and subcontrols are discussed below.

Control Objects

Controls provide IControl.

>>> ctrl = browser.getControl('Text Control')
>>> ctrl
<Control name='text-value' type='text'>
>>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IControl, ctrl)
True

They have several useful attributes:

• the name as which the control is known to the form:

  >>> ctrl.name
  'text-value'
  

• the value of the control, which may also be set:

  >>> ctrl.value
  'Some Text'
  >>> ctrl.value = 'More Text'
  >>> ctrl.value
  'More Text'
  

• the type of the control:

  >>> ctrl.type
  'text'
  

• a flag describing whether the control is disabled:

  >>> ctrl.disabled
  False
  

• and a flag to tell us whether the control can have multiple values:

  >>> ctrl.multiple
  False
  

Additionally, controllers for select, radio, and checkbox provide IListControl. These fields have four other attributes and an additional method:

>>> ctrl = browser.getControl('Multiple Select Control')

>>> ctrl
<ListControl name='multi-select-value' type='select'>
>>> ctrl.disabled
False

>>> ctrl.multiple
True

>>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IListControl, ctrl)
True

• ‘options’ lists all available value options.

  >>> [unicode(o) for o in ctrl.options]
  [u'1', u'2', u'3']
  

• ‘displayOptions’ lists all available options by label. The ‘label’ attribute on an option has precedence over its contents, which is why our last option is ‘Third’ in the display.

  >>> ctrl.displayOptions
  ['Un', 'Deux', 'Third']
  

• ‘displayValue’ lets you get and set the displayed values of the control of the select box, rather than the actual values.

  >>> ctrl.value
  []
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  []
  >>> ctrl.displayValue = ['Un', 'Deux']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  ['Un', 'Deux']
  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.value]
  [u'1', u'2']
  

• ‘controls’ gives you a list of the subcontrol objects in the control (subcontrols are discussed below).

  >>> ctrl.controls
  [<ItemControl name='multi-select-value' type='select' optionValue='1' selected=True>,
   <ItemControl name='multi-select-value' type='select' optionValue='2' selected=True>,
   <ItemControl name='multi-select-value' type='select' optionValue='3' selected=False>]
  

• The ‘getControl’ method lets you get subcontrols by their label or their value.

  >>> ctrl.getControl('Un')
  <ItemControl name='multi-select-value' type='select' optionValue='1' selected=True>
  >>> ctrl.getControl('Deux')
  <ItemControl name='multi-select-value' type='select' optionValue='2' selected=True>
  >>> ctrl.getControl('Trois') # label attribute
  <ItemControl name='multi-select-value' type='select' optionValue='3' selected=False>
  >>> ctrl.getControl('Third') # contents
  <ItemControl name='multi-select-value' type='select' optionValue='3' selected=False>
  >>> browser.getControl('Third') # ambiguous in the browser, so useful
  Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
  AmbiguityError: label 'Third'
  

Finally, submit controls provide ISubmitControl, and image controls provide IImageSubmitControl, which extents ISubmitControl. These both simply add a ‘click’ method. For image submit controls, you may also provide a coordinates argument, which is a tuple of (x, y). These submit the forms, and are demonstrated below as we examine each control individually.

ItemControl Objects

As introduced briefly above, using labels to obtain elements of a logical radio button or checkbox collection returns item controls, which are parents. Manipulating the value of these controls affects the parent control.

>>> [unicode(v) for v in browser.getControl(name='radio-value').value]
[u'2']
>>> browser.getControl('Zwei').optionValue # read-only.
'2'
>>> browser.getControl('Zwei').selected
True

>>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IItemControl,
...     browser.getControl('Zwei'))
True
>>> browser.getControl('Ein').selected
False
>>> browser.getControl('Ein').selected = True
>>> browser.getControl('Ein').selected
True

Of course at this point the previously selected “Zwei” will be unselected since only one radio button can be selected.

>>> browser.getControl('Zwei').selected
False

>>> browser.getControl('Zwei').selected
False
>>> [unicode(v) for v in browser.getControl(name='radio-value').value]
[u'1']

This test is not valid because it is impossible (with the browser) to unselect a radio box … one radio box (must always remain selected). This used to be a test for mechanize and used to pass because mechanize didn’t realize. And by running the level 3 tests we are running these tests under both mechanize and the “real” browser testing.

browser.getControl('Ein').selected = False
browser.getControl('Ein').selected
False

browser.getControl(name='radio-value').value
[]

>>> browser.getControl('Zwei').selected = True

Checkbox collections behave similarly, as shown below.

Controls with subcontrols–

Various Controls

The various types of controls are demonstrated here.

• Text Control

  The text control we already introduced above.

• Password Control

  >>> ctrl = browser.getControl('Password Control')
  >>> ctrl
  <Control name='password-value' type='password'>
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IControl, ctrl)
  True
  >>> ctrl.value
  'Password'
  >>> ctrl.value = 'pass now'
  >>> ctrl.value
  'pass now'
  >>> ctrl.disabled
  False
  >>> ctrl.multiple
  False
  

• Hidden Control

  >>> ctrl = browser.getControl(name='hidden-value')
  >>> ctrl
  <Control name='hidden-value' type='hidden'>
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IControl, ctrl)
  True
  >>> ctrl.value
  'Hidden'
  >>> ctrl.value = 'More Hidden'
  >>> ctrl.disabled
  False
  >>> ctrl.multiple
  False
  

• Text Area Control

  >>> ctrl = browser.getControl('Text Area Control')
  >>> ctrl
  <Control name='textarea-value' type='textarea'>
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IControl, ctrl)
  True
  >>> ctrl.value
  '        Text inside\n        area!\n      '
  >>> ctrl.value = 'A lot of\n text.'
  >>> ctrl.value
  'A lot of\n text.'
  >>> ctrl.disabled
  False
  >>> ctrl.multiple
  False
  

• File Control

  File controls are used when a form has a file-upload field. To specify data, call the add_file method, passing:

  • A file-like object

  • a content type, and

  • a file name

  >>> ctrl = browser.getControl('File Control')
  >>> ctrl
  <Control name='file-value' type='file'>
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IControl, ctrl)
  True
  >>> ctrl.value is None
  True
  >>> import cStringIO
  

  >>> ctrl.add_file(cStringIO.StringIO('File contents'),
  ...               'text/plain', 'test.txt')
  

  The file control (like the other controls) also knows if it is disabled or if it can have multiple values.

  >>> ctrl.disabled
  False
  >>> ctrl.multiple
  False
  

• Selection Control (Single-Valued)

  >>> ctrl = browser.getControl('Single Select Control')
  >>> ctrl
  <ListControl name='single-select-value' type='select'>
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IListControl, ctrl)
  True
  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.value]
  [u'1']
  >>> ctrl.value = ['2']
  >>> ctrl.disabled
  False
  >>> ctrl.multiple
  False
  >>> [unicode(o) for o in ctrl.options]
  [u'1', u'2', u'3']
  >>> ctrl.displayOptions
  ['Uno', 'Dos', 'Third']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  ['Dos']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue = ['Tres']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  ['Third']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue = ['Dos']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  ['Dos']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue = ['Third']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  ['Third']
  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.value]
  [u'3']
  

• Selection Control (Multi-Valued)

  >>> ctrl = browser.getControl('Multiple Select Control')
  >>> ctrl
  <ListControl name='multi-select-value' type='select'>
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IListControl, ctrl)
  True
  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.value]
  [u'1', u'2']
  >>> ctrl.value = ['1', '3']
  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.displayValue]
  [u'Un', u'Third']
  

• Checkbox Control (Single-Valued; Unvalued)

  >>> ctrl = browser.getControl(name='single-unvalued-checkbox-value')
  >>> ctrl
  <ListControl name='single-unvalued-checkbox-value' type='checkbox'>
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IListControl, ctrl)
  True
  >>> ctrl.value
  True
  >>> ctrl.value = False
  >>> ctrl.disabled
  False
  >>> ctrl.multiple
  True
  >>> ctrl.options
  [True]
  >>> ctrl.displayOptions
  ['Single Unvalued Checkbox']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  []
  >>> verifyObject(
  ...     zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IItemControl,
  ...     browser.getControl('Single Unvalued Checkbox'))
  True
  >>> browser.getControl('Single Unvalued Checkbox').optionValue
  'on'
  >>> browser.getControl('Single Unvalued Checkbox').selected
  False
  >>> ctrl.displayValue = ['Single Unvalued Checkbox']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  ['Single Unvalued Checkbox']
  >>> browser.getControl('Single Unvalued Checkbox').selected
  True
  >>> browser.getControl('Single Unvalued Checkbox').selected = False
  >>> browser.getControl('Single Unvalued Checkbox').selected
  False
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  []
  >>> browser.getControl(
  ...     name='single-disabled-unvalued-checkbox-value').disabled
  True
  

• Checkbox Control (Single-Valued, Valued)

  >>> ctrl = browser.getControl(name='single-valued-checkbox-value')
  >>> ctrl
  <ListControl name='single-valued-checkbox-value' type='checkbox'>
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IListControl, ctrl)
  True
  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.value]
  [u'1']
  >>> ctrl.value = []
  >>> ctrl.disabled
  False
  >>> ctrl.multiple
  True
  >>> [unicode(o) for o in ctrl.options]
  [u'1']
  >>> ctrl.displayOptions
  ['Single Valued Checkbox']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  []
  >>> verifyObject(
  ...     zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IItemControl,
  ...     browser.getControl('Single Valued Checkbox'))
  True
  >>> browser.getControl('Single Valued Checkbox').selected
  False
  >>> browser.getControl('Single Valued Checkbox').optionValue
  '1'
  >>> ctrl.displayValue = ['Single Valued Checkbox']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  ['Single Valued Checkbox']
  >>> browser.getControl('Single Valued Checkbox').selected
  True
  >>> browser.getControl('Single Valued Checkbox').selected = False
  >>> browser.getControl('Single Valued Checkbox').selected
  False
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  []
  

• Checkbox Control (Multi-Valued)

  >>> ctrl = browser.getControl(name='multi-checkbox-value')
  >>> ctrl
  <ListControl name='multi-checkbox-value' type='checkbox'>
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IListControl, ctrl)
  True
  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.value]
  [u'1', u'3']
  >>> ctrl.value = ['1', '2']
  >>> ctrl.disabled
  False
  >>> ctrl.multiple
  True
  >>> [unicode(o) for o in ctrl.options]
  [u'1', u'2', u'3']
  >>> ctrl.displayOptions
  ['One', 'Two', 'Three']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  ['One', 'Two']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue = ['Two']
  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.value]
  [u'2']
  >>> browser.getControl('Two').optionValue
  '2'
  >>> browser.getControl('Two').selected
  True
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IItemControl,
  ...     browser.getControl('Two'))
  True
  >>> browser.getControl('Three').selected = True
  >>> browser.getControl('Three').selected
  True
  >>> browser.getControl('Two').selected
  True
  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.value]
  [u'2', u'3']
  >>> browser.getControl('Two').selected = False
  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.value]
  [u'3']
  >>> browser.getControl('Three').selected = False
  >>> ctrl.value
  []
  

• Radio Control

  This is how you get a radio button based control:

  >>> ctrl = browser.getControl(name='radio-value')
  

  This shows the existing value of the control, as it was in the HTML received from the server:

  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.value]
  [u'2']
  

  We can then unselect it:

  >>> ctrl.value = []
  >>> ctrl.value
  []
  

  We can also reselect it:

  >>> ctrl.value = ['2']
  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.value]
  [u'2']
  

  displayValue shows the text the user would see next to the control:

  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  ['Zwei']
  

  This is just unit testing:

  >>> ctrl
  <ListControl name='radio-value' type='radio'>
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IListControl, ctrl)
  True
  >>> ctrl.disabled
  False
  >>> ctrl.multiple
  False
  >>> [unicode(o) for o in ctrl.options]
  [u'1', u'2', u'3']
  >>> ctrl.displayOptions
  ['Ein', 'Zwei', 'Drei']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue = ['Ein']
  >>> [unicode(v) for v in ctrl.value]
  [u'1']
  >>> ctrl.displayValue
  ['Ein']
  

  The radio control subcontrols were illustrated above.

• Image Control

  >>> ctrl = browser.getControl(name='image-value')
  >>> ctrl
  <ImageControl name='image-value' type='image'>
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IImageSubmitControl, ctrl)
  True
  >>> ctrl.value
  ''
  >>> ctrl.disabled
  False
  >>> ctrl.multiple
  False
  

• Submit Control

  >>> ctrl = browser.getControl(name='submit-value')
  >>> ctrl
  <SubmitControl name='submit-value' type='submit'>
  

  >>> browser.getControl('Submit This') # value of submit button is a label
  <SubmitControl name='submit-value' type='submit'>
  >>> browser.getControl('Standard Submit Control') # label tag is legal
  <SubmitControl name='submit-value' type='submit'>
  

  >>> browser.getControl('Submit') # multiple labels, but same control
  <SubmitControl name='submit-value' type='submit'>
  >>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.ISubmitControl, ctrl)
  True
  >>> ctrl.value
  'Submit This'
  >>> ctrl.disabled
  False
  >>> ctrl.multiple
  False
  

Using Submitting Controls

Both the submit and image type should be clickable and submit the form:

>>> browser.getControl('Text Control').value = 'Other Text'
>>> browser.getControl('Submit').click()
>>> browser.contents
"...'text-value': ['Other Text']..."

Note that if you click a submit object after the associated page has expired, you will get an error.

>>> browser.open('controls.html')
>>> ctrl = browser.getControl('Submit')
>>> ctrl.click()
>>> ctrl.click()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ExpiredError

All the above also holds true for the image control:

>>> browser.open('controls.html')
>>> browser.getControl('Text Control').value = 'Other Text'
>>> browser.getControl(name='image-value').click()
>>> browser.contents
"...'text-value': ['Other Text']..."

>>> browser.open('controls.html')
>>> ctrl = browser.getControl(name='image-value')
>>> ctrl.click()
>>> ctrl.click()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ExpiredError

But when sending an image, you can also specify the coordinate you clicked:

# >>> browser.open(‘controls.html’) # >>> browser.getControl(name=’image-value’).click((50,25)) # >>> browser.contents # “…’image-value.x’: [‘50’]…’image-value.y’: [‘25’]…”

Forms

Because pages can have multiple forms with like-named controls, it is sometimes necessary to access forms by name or id. The browser’s forms attribute can be used to do so. The key value is the form’s name or id. If more than one form has the same name or id, the first one will be returned.

>>> browser.open('forms.html')
>>> form = browser.getForm(name='one')

Form instances conform to the IForm interface.

>>> verifyObject(zc.testbrowser.interfaces.IForm, form)
True

The form exposes several attributes related to forms:

• The name of the form:

  >>> unicode(form.name)
  u'one'
  

• The id of the form:

  >>> unicode(form.id)
  u'1'
  

• The action (target URL) when the form is submitted:

  >>> unicode(form.action)
  u'http://localhost:.../forms.html'
  

• The method (HTTP verb) used to transmit the form data:

  >>> unicode(form.method)
  u'POST'
  

• The encoding type of the form data:

  >>> unicode(form.enctype)
  u'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
  

Besides those attributes, you have also a couple of methods. Like for the browser, you can get control objects, but limited to the current form…

>>> form.getControl(name='text-value')
<Control name='text-value' type='text'>

…and submit the form.

>>> form.submit('Submit')
>>> browser.contents
"...'text-value': ['First Text']..."

Submitting also works without specifying a control, as shown below, which is it’s primary reason for existing in competition with the control submission discussed above.

Now let me show you briefly that looking up forms is sometimes important. In the forms.html template, we have four forms all having a text control named text-value. Now, if I use the browser’s get method,

>>> browser.open('forms.html')
>>> browser.getControl(name='text-value')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AmbiguityError: name 'text-value'
>>> browser.getControl('Text Control')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AmbiguityError: label 'Text Control'

I’ll always get an ambiguous form field. I can use the index argument, or with the getForm method I can disambiguate by searching only within a given form:

>>> form = browser.getForm('2')
>>> form.getControl(name='text-value').value
'Second Text'
>>> form.submit('Submit')
>>> browser.contents
"...'text-value': ['Second Text']..."
>>> browser.open('forms.html')
>>> form = browser.getForm('2')
>>> form.getControl('Submit').click()
>>> browser.contents
"...'text-value': ['Second Text']..."
>>> browser.open('forms.html')
>>> browser.getForm('3').getControl('Text Control').value
'Third Text'

The last form on the page does not have a name, an id, or a submit button. Working with it is still easy, thanks to a index attribute that guarantees order. (Forms without submit buttons are sometimes useful for JavaScript.)

>>> form = browser.getForm(index=3)
>>> form.submit()
>>> browser.contents
"...'text-value': ['Fourth Text']..."

If a form is requested that does not exists, an exception will be raised.

>>> browser.open('forms.html')
>>> form = browser.getForm('does-not-exist')
Traceback (most recent call last):
LookupError

If the HTML page contains only one form, no arguments to getForm are needed:

>>> browser.open('oneform.html')
>>> browser.getForm()
<zc.testbrowser...Form object at ...>

If the HTML page contains more than one form, index is needed to disambiguate if no other arguments are provided:

>>> browser.open('forms.html')
>>> browser.getForm()
Traceback (most recent call last):
ValueError: if no other arguments are given, index is required.

Performance Testing

Browser objects keep up with how much time each request takes. This can be used to ensure a particular request’s performance is within a tolerable range. Be very careful using raw seconds, cross-machine differences can be huge, pystones is usually a better choice.

>>> browser.open('index.html')
>>> browser.lastRequestSeconds < 10 # really big number for safety
True
>>> browser.lastRequestPystones < 100000 # really big number for safety
True

Hand-Holding

Instances of the various objects ensure that users don’t set incorrect instance attributes accidentally.

>>> browser.nonexistant = None
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AttributeError: 'Browser' object has no attribute 'nonexistant'

>>> form.nonexistant = None
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AttributeError: 'Form' object has no attribute 'nonexistant'

>>> control.nonexistant = None
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AttributeError: 'Control' object has no attribute 'nonexistant'

>>> link.nonexistant = None
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AttributeError: 'Link' object has no attribute 'nonexistant'

Fixed Bugs

This section includes tests for bugs that were found and then fixed that don’t fit into the more documentation-centric sections above.

Spaces in URL

When URLs have spaces in them, they’re handled correctly (before the bug was fixed, you’d get “ValueError: too many values to unpack”):

>>> browser.open('navigate.html')
>>> browser.getLink('Spaces in the URL').click()

.goBack() Truncation

The .goBack() method used to truncate the .contents.

>>> browser.open('navigate.html')
>>> actual_length = len(browser.contents)

>>> browser.open('navigate.html')
>>> browser.open('index.html')
>>> browser.goBack()
>>> len(browser.contents) == actual_length
True

Authors

Benji York created testbrowser (originally zope.testbrowser) in 2005 with Gary Poster and Stephan Richter making large contributions.

The zc.testbrowser.real version was conceptualized by Benji York in 2007 and after an initial implementation sketch, brought to fruition by Stephan Richter, Rocky Burt, Justas Sadzevicius, and others at the Foliage Zope 3 sprint in Boston, MA during the week of September 24, 2007.

There have been many other contributions from users of testbrowser that are greatly appreciated.