How do I check for text inside a
?

Question

I am trying to access some text that is located in a DIV.
I need to check to see if the page holds the text so I can return a true or false.
The code I am using is below:

cancel = browser.text.include?("Current Cancelled")
if cancel == true
puts "Line item cancelled"
else
puts "****Line item not cancelled****"
end

But it returns false every time.
Here is a code snippet of what I am looking into:

enter image description here

I don't know ruby but my first (and only) guess is that it's not recognized because it has different styles ("current" is in a span while "cancelled" isn't) — BlackBear, Mar 12 '11 at 22:01
Wow. That makes sense. I wonder how I could split these up and get them to combine for my check. — Curtis Miller, Mar 12 '11 at 22:38
In the future, it'd help get answers if you'd use the actual source, rather than a screen capture. There's no way I'd bother typing in a full XML sample, while having it available to copy and paste when working on a solution makes it easy. — the Tin Man, Mar 13 '11 at 07:23

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 13 '11 at 07:19

5

I'd really recommend using Nokogiri to parse the content.

require 'nokogiri'

doc = Nokogiri::HTML('<div><span class="label">Current</span>Cancelled</div>')
doc.at('//div/span[@class="label"]/../text()').text # => "Cancelled"

(doc.at('//div/span[@class="label"]/../text()').text.downcase == 'cancelled') # => true
!!(doc.at('//div/span[@class="label"]/../text()').text.downcase['cancelled']) # => true

Something like one of the two bottom statements will get you a usable true/false.

answered Mar 13 '11 at 07:19

the Tin Man

158,662
42
215
303

I attempted at this 'Nokogiri' stuff but it isn't really giving me what I wanted. Thanks for showing me what Nokogiri is, I might be able to use it for something in the future. – Curtis Miller Mar 15 '11 at 22:38

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 15 '11 at 13:14

4

The probable reason this isn't working is because the string you're testing for contains a newline character and a non breaking space.

This could work...

if browser.div(:text, /Current.*Cancelled/).exists?
  puts "Line item cancelled"
else
  puts "****Line item not cancelled****"
end

or

if browser.text =~ /Current.*Cancelled/
  puts "Line item cancelled"
else
  puts "****Line item not cancelled****"
end

etc.

answered Mar 15 '11 at 13:14

kinofrost

768
6
16

This was my thinking as well, KF just beat me to it by a few hours You could even try this to be sure – Chuck van der Linden Mar 15 '11 at 16:06
1

puts browser.table(:Class, 'basic-table').cell(:text, /Current/).text That should print out the text for just that one cell so you have a better idea what is 'in there' according to the DOM. – Chuck van der Linden Mar 15 '11 at 16:13
I used the first line. Worked great! Thanks a bunch kinofrost. – Curtis Miller Mar 15 '11 at 22:33
@Curtis Miller No problem. I live to give. And to beat Chuck to the answers. Just kidding :). – kinofrost Mar 16 '11 at 09:13

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

1

Watir's Browser object has now the #elements_by_xpath method... See Watir's API

Just pin-point your DIV and ask for its #text method. Pretty much like what the Tin Man suggests but without requiring nokogiri.

AFIK Watir uses internally exactly for the purpose of locating elements (it's a dependency gem that Watir installs) anyway.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

Community

1
1

answered Mar 13 '11 at 12:56

Georgi

11
1

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 14 '11 at 14:31

1

I believe the fact that the text is inside a table is causing this problem.

You might consider drilling into the table doing:

cancel = browser.table(:class, 'basic-table').each { |row|
  test = row.text.include?("Current Cancelled")
  return test if test == true
}

answered Mar 14 '11 at 14:31

Mike Cornell

5,909
4
29
38

1

Is there anything stopping one from using browser.table(:class, 'basic-table').text.include?("Current Cancelled") instead? Would be quicker. Also, to check this, one could try accessing the DIV from irb. – kinofrost Mar 15 '11 at 13:04
@kinofrost Probably not, I just wanted to have something I thought would work for sure. Your suggestion is cleaner. – Mike Cornell Mar 15 '11 at 13:30

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 15 '11 at 13:20

1

Wow. That makes sense. I wonder how I could split these up and get them to combine for my check.

Okay, here's a really quick draft:

div = browser.table(:class, 'basic-table').div(:text, /Cancelled/)

cancel = div.exist? and div.span(:index, 1).text == 'Current'
if cancel
   puts "Line item cancelled"
else
   puts "****Line item not cancelled****"
end

answered Mar 15 '11 at 13:20

kinofrost

768
6
16

1

This ought to work also, but frankly I think the use of the regular expression to look for a single match (the other post you made at about the same time) reads a lot cleaner and is easier to understand. – Chuck van der Linden Mar 15 '11 at 16:17

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 15 '11 at 16:24

You could also combine a few of the regular expression approaches below (mostly those from Kinofrost), with the idea of narrowing it down to looking just inside a single cell within the table. That should be faster, and less prone to a false alert should the words 'Current' and 'Cancelled' occur in that order with anything between them, elsewhere on the page.

if browser.table(:class, 'basic-table').cell(:text, /Current.*Cancelled/).exists?
   puts "Line item cancelled"
else
   puts "****Line item not cancelled****"
end

How do I check for text inside a ?

6 Answers6

How do I check for text inside a
?