how to instantly set/send_keys a textarea in capybara
The only way to instantly do it would be using execute_script
to set the value via JS
element = find('textarea') # however you locate the elementexecute_script('arguments[0].value = arguments[1]', element, text_to_set)
Note: this won't trigger all the events a user would generate when inputting into the textarea
TL;DR: Use Javascript/JQuery (.val()
function) to set the field's value
via the .execute_script()
/.evaluate_script()
function. It will automatically send the full string. You have more details bellow.
Example:
def execute_script(script) browser.execute(function() { $('<yourSelectorHere>').val("blablabla"); }) nilend
Selenium team decided a LOOOONG way back to make it work this way, because it will actually simulate the real way a user would fill that input
/textarea
/field
/etc.
Note: I wrote the command in WebdriverIO
, but now have updated to Capybara
as well.
Indeed, using the .setValue()
/.set()
, or the .keys()
/.send_keys()
methods will issue a POST action on the target element (presumably an <input>
) in the form of an array of characters. See example:
Command: browser.setValue('input[connectqa-input="rename-device"]','stackoverflowstackoverflowstack');
Output:
> browser.setValue('input[connectqa-input="rename-device"]','stackoverflowstackoverflowstack'){ state: 'pending' }> [21:52:25] COMMAND POST "/wd/hub/session/3d830ffd-21c6-4e5f-a6b3-4f8a03821991/elements"[21:52:25] DATA {"using":"css selector","value":"input[connectqa-input=\"rename-device\"]"}[21:52:25] RESULT [{"ELEMENT":"6"}][21:52:25] COMMAND POST "/wd/hub/session/3d830ffd-21c6-4e5f-a6b3-4f8a03821991/element/6/clear"[21:52:25] DATA {}[21:52:25] COMMAND POST "/wd/hub/session/3d830ffd-21c6-4e5f-a6b3-4f8a03821991/element/6/value"[21:52:25] DATA {"value":["s","t","a","c","k","o","v","e","r","f","(21 more items)"],"text":"stackoverflowstackoverflowstack"}
One quick and easy way to escape this is to go ahead and abuse the .val()
JQuery function via the .execute()
/.executeScript()
methods:
Command: browser.execute(function() { $('input[connectqa-input="rename-device"]').val("dwadawdawdawdawdawdwadawawdadawdawdaw"); })
(WebdriverIO
)
For Capybara
syntax, see this question. It covers both .execute_script()
& .evaluate_script()
. (I don't want to mooch-off their views). Also you should document on the methods before-hand here.
Output:
> [21:59:38] COMMAND POST "/wd/hub/session/3d830ffd-21c6-4e5f-a6b3-4f8a03821991/execute"[21:59:38] DATA {"script":"return (function () { $('input[connectqa-input=\"rename-device\"]').val(\"dwadawdawdawdawdawdwadawawdadawdawdaw\"); }).apply(null, arguments)","args":[]}
Hope it helped!