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May 14, 2025 23:24
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Selenium WebDriver with Ruby Cheatsheet

A concise guide to using Selenium WebDriver with Ruby for automated web testing. Covers setup, basic commands, element interaction, waits, and best practices.

Setup and Basic Commands

Installation & Setup

Install Selenium WebDriver:

gem install selenium-webdriver

Basic Project Setup:

  1. Create a new Ruby file (e.g., example.rb).
  2. Require the Selenium WebDriver library.

Require Statement:

require 'selenium-webdriver'

Driver Configuration (ChromeDriver):
Ensure ChromeDriver is in your system’s PATH.

Initialize Driver:

driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :chrome

Alternative Driver Initialization (with options):

options = Selenium::WebDriver::Chrome::Options.new
options.add_argument('--headless') # Run in headless mode
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :chrome, options: options

Browser Navigation

Launch and Navigate:

 
driver.get 'https://www.example.com'

Get Current URL:

 
current_url = driver.current_url
puts current_url

Get Page Title:

 
title = driver.title
puts title

Refresh Page:

 
driver.navigate.refresh

Navigate Back/Forward:

 
driver.navigate.back
driver.navigate.forward

Quit/Close Browser:

 
driver.quit # Closes all browser windows and ends the WebDriver session
driver.close # Closes current window

Finding and Interacting with Elements

Finding Elements

Finding a Single Element:
Use find_element to locate the first matching element.

By ID:

element = driver.find_element(id: 'element_id')

By Name:

element = driver.find_element(name: 'element_name')

By Class Name:

element = driver.find_element(class: 'element_class')

By CSS Selector:

element = driver.find_element(css: '#element_id > .element_class')

By XPath:

element = driver.find_element(xpath: '//div[@id="element_id"]')

Finding Multiple Elements:
Use find_elements to locate all matching elements (returns an array).

Example:

elements = driver.find_elements(class: 'element_class')
elements.each { |el| puts el.text }

Interacting with Elements

Clicking:

 
element.click

Sending Keys (Typing):

 
element.send_keys 'text to type'

Clearing Text Field:

 
element.clear

Getting Text:

 
text = element.text
puts text

Getting Attribute Value:

 
attribute_value = element.attribute('value')
puts attribute_value

Is Element Displayed?:

 
element.displayed?

Is Element Enabled?:

 
element.enabled?

Is Element Selected?:

 
element.selected?

Waits, Alerts and Frames

Waits and Synchronization

Implicit Wait:
Sets a default wait time for all find_element calls. Not recommended for large projects.

Example:

driver.manage.timeouts.implicit_wait = 10 # seconds

Explicit Wait:
Waits for a specific condition to be true before proceeding.

Example:

wait = Selenium::WebDriver::Wait.new(timeout: 10)
element = wait.until { driver.find_element(id: 'element_id') }

Expected Conditions (with explicit wait):

  • element_to_be_clickable(element)
  • presence_of_element_located(locator)
  • visibility_of_element_located(locator)
  • title_contains(title)

Sleep (Avoid if possible):
Only use as a last resort. Introduce delays.

Example:

sleep 2 # seconds

Alerts and Frames

Switching to Alert:

 
alert = driver.switch_to.alert

Accepting Alert:

 
alert.accept

Dismissing Alert:

 
alert.dismiss

Getting Alert Text:

 
alert_text = alert.text
puts alert_text

Switching to IFrame (by index):

 
driver.switch_to.frame(0)

Switching to IFrame (by name or ID):

 
driver.switch_to.frame('frame_name')

Switching back to Default Content:

 
driver.switch_to.default_content

Advanced Interactions and Best Practices

Advanced Interactions

Action Chains (Mouse Actions):
Performs complex user interactions like hover, drag and drop, right-click, etc.

Example (Hover):

element = driver.find_element(id: 'hover_element')
driver.action.move_to(element).perform

Example (Drag and Drop):

source = driver.find_element(id: 'draggable')
target = driver.find_element(id: 'droppable')
driver.action.drag_and_drop(source, target).perform

Example (Right Click):

element = driver.find_element(id: 'right_click_element')
driver.action.context_click(element).perform

Screenshots and Debugging

Taking Screenshot:

 
driver.save_screenshot('screenshot.png')

Saving HTML Source:

 
File.write('page_source.html', driver.page_source)

Debugging Tips:
  • Use puts or p to print variable values.
  • Inspect element in browser’s developer tools.
  • Use explicit waits to avoid timing issues.

Best Practices - Page Object Model (POM)

Page Object Model (POM):
Create separate classes for each page, encapsulating locators and actions.

Example:

class LoginPage
  def initialize(driver)
    @driver = driver
    @username_field = { id: 'username' }
    @password_field = { id: 'password' }
    @login_button = { id: 'login' }
  end

  def enter_username(username)
    @driver.find_element(@username_field).send_keys(username)
  end

  def enter_password(password)
    @driver.find_element(@password_field).send_keys(password)
  end

  def click_login
    @driver.find_element(@login_button).click
  end

  def login(username, password)
    enter_username(username)
    enter_password(password)
    click_login
  end
end