How to check a checkbox in capybara?

Question

I'm using Rspec and Capybara.

How can I write a step to check a checkbox? I've tried check by value but it can't find my checkbox. I'm not sure what to do, as I have in fact same ID with different values

Here is the code:

 <input id="cityID" type="checkbox" style="text-align: center; opacity: 0;" value="61" name="cityID">
 <input id="cityID" type="checkbox" style="text-align: center; opacity: 0;" value="62" name="cityID">
 <input id="cityID" type="checkbox" style="text-align: center; opacity: 0;" value="63" name="cityID">

Your inputs shouldn't have the same IDs - they should have the same names, but different IDs. — SamStephens, Jan 15 '15 at 23:28

score 159 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 28 '11 at 15:18

159

I found the following worked for me:

# Check
find(:css, "#cityID[value='62']").set(true)

# Uncheck
find(:css, "#cityID[value='62']").set(false)

answered Nov 28 '11 at 15:18

Jon M

11,669
3
41
47

@Jon M I have some odd id with empty brackets so for the check example... `find(:css, "#cityID[value='62']").set(true)` will work but `find(:css, "#cityID[][value='62']").set(true)` will not be found and fail. How do I run the same function with an empty bracket id? – TangibleDream Dec 14 '12 at 17:05
1

@TangibleDream just to clarify - are you saying the checkbox has an ID of '[]'? – Jon M Dec 14 '12 at 20:50
@Jin M Yes, it looks like so `` – TangibleDream Dec 14 '12 at 21:02
I guess you'll just need to escape the square brackets, similar to [this question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1239095/find-dom-element-by-id-when-id-contains-square-brackets). Maybe something like `find(:css, "#Extrapainful\\[\\][value='12345']").set(true)`. – Jon M Dec 14 '12 at 21:40
@Jon M arrgh \\\[\\\] throws back `findElements execution failed; Unable to locate an element with the xpath expression .//Extrapain\[\][ @value = '12345'] because of the following error: Error: INVALID_EXPRESSION_ERR: DOM XPath Exception 51 (Selenium::WebDriver ::Error::InvalidSelectorError)` – TangibleDream Dec 15 '12 at 07:16
on the other hand if I do \\[\\] I get... `unexpected ']' after '[' (Nokogiri::CSS::SyntaxError) (eval):3:in _racc_do_parse_c' (eval):3:in do_parse'` – TangibleDream Dec 15 '12 at 07:18
1

I couldn't find a way to make this work with the CSS selector at all! There must be some way to escape the square bracket but I couldn't find it. I had to resort to an XPath finder: `find(:xpath, ".//input[@id='Extrapainful[]'][@value='12345']").set(true)` – Jon M Dec 16 '12 at 00:53
This is one of those answers that works technically, but doesn't really make full use of the Capybara DSL. See the answer below – Mark Weston Apr 10 '13 at 15:59
@MarkWeston indeed, I have the similar experience. Using Installero answer works perfectly and seems much simpler. – rept Jul 11 '13 at 22:11
3

Can I mark this answer down... I know it works, but its counter intuitive to mark up an answer that isn't part of the simple api available: check('name, id or text here') (see answer below) – Pure Function Dec 07 '13 at 03:12
agree with the above -- "check" and "uncheck" are provided for this purpose. http://www.rubydoc.info/github/jnicklas/capybara/Capybara/Node/Actions#check-instance_method – Jacob Oct 23 '14 at 21:55
if one looks at the capybara tests https://github.com/jnicklas/capybara/blob/master/lib/capybara/spec/session/check_spec.rb and associated views https://github.com/jnicklas/capybara/blob/master/lib/capybara/spec/views/form.erb#L157 it seems clear that the way check is intended to be used is with a proper HTML label ... – Sam Joseph Jun 25 '15 at 06:28

score 150 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 13 '13 at 12:22

150

It's better not to create multiple elements with the same id, so that (and not only for that) you can easily check/uncheck a checkbox with elegant

check 'cityID'
uncheck 'cityID'

If one can not avoid multiple elements with the same id and still needs to check a checkbox with certain value, he can do so with

find(:css, "#cityID[value='62']").set(true)
find(:css, "#cityID[value='62']").set(false)

More information on capybara input manipulations can be found here

answered Mar 13 '13 at 12:22

installero

9,096
3
39
43

2

It's also better to not create multiple elements with the same id because it's not valid HTML. That should not be an issue if using rails form helpers properly. – ihaztehcodez Jan 06 '16 at 17:43
2

I would like to add that the checkbox/uncheck only accepts the following values: id, name or related label element. [Here](https://kolosek.com/rails-capybara-setup/) you can read more about it. – Nesha Zoric Feb 26 '18 at 12:26

score 60 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 11 '13 at 14:05

60

When running capybara test, you got the page object. This you can use to check/uncheck any checkboxes. As @buruzaemon already mentioned:

to find and check a checkbox by name, id, or label text.

So lets assume you got a checkbox in your html like:

<label>  
  <input type="checkbox" value="myvalue" name="myname" id="myid">
  MyLabel
</label>

You could check this with:

page.check('myid')
page.check('MyLabel')
page.check('myname')

Uncheck is the same just use page.uncheck method.

answered Feb 11 '13 at 14:05

p1100i

3,710
2
29
45

1

solid answer, seems cleaner than the accepted answer using css selectors (even if that's what the check method does underneath the covers) – agmin Jul 10 '13 at 23:15
1

Yep, this is the best answer. It is cleaner and it closely mimics the user action. It does not pollute the form with extra id's and it makes the tests easy to read. – B Seven Jun 04 '15 at 09:52
1

I agree this is cleaner. Interestingly though, the accepted answer isn't much different from how the `check` method is implemented in Capybara. `def check(locator, options={}) find(:checkbox, locator, options).set(true) end` – bigtunacan Jun 12 '15 at 15:04
Thanks, and this is the same answer according to the docs: http://www.rubydoc.info/github/jnicklas/capybara/master/Capybara/Node/Actions#check-instance_method "Find a check box and mark it as checked. The check box can be found via name, id or label text." – Mike Vallano Feb 21 '18 at 15:11

score 26 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 28 '11 at 15:09

26

I think you may have to give unique ids to your form elements, first of all.

But with regards to Capybara and checkboxes, the Capybara::Node::Actions#check instance method will allow you to find and check a checkbox by name, id, or label text.

answered Nov 28 '11 at 15:09

buruzaemon

3,847
1
23
44

score 14 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 22 '18 at 23:03

14

If the box is associated with text, e.g. 'Option 3', then as of capybara 3.0.3 you can just do

check 'Option 3'

answered Nov 22 '18 at 23:03

Obromios

15,408
15
72
127

1

This response should be at the top, not the 8 years old syntax. – sloneorzeszki Mar 19 '19 at 09:57
actually for the scenario described by the author, the answer from @samuel is the right own – VP. Oct 10 '19 at 11:40

Vic · Answer 6 · 2020-08-27T10:48:40.820

9

Had some issues with custom checkbox which is hidden behind label element. Needed a allow_label_click: true.

With reference to this blog post,

check 'checkbox[name]', allow_label_click: true

For cases where there is a link in your label like "I agree to terms and conditions", the above code will open the page, which is not what you want.

Do this instead.

find(:css, "#checkbox_id", visible: false).execute_script('this.checked = true')

edited Aug 27 '20 at 10:48

answered Jun 18 '20 at 09:55

Vic

1,512
17
25

1

Thank you! This worked perfectly with a Boostrap 4 custom checkbox field. Also, in case you need to uncheck it, you can: uncheck 'checkbox[name]', allow_label_click: true – pastullo Jul 29 '20 at 13:57
Great answer! This works really well! – holyonline Feb 25 '22 at 02:53

score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 14 '14 at 16:54

I know this is an older question, but I have been working through this myself, and having tried all of the above, this is what finally worked for me:

find("input[type='checkbox'][value='#{cityID.id}']").set(true)

Hope this is helpful to someone. I am using Capybara 2.4.4.

score 7 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 02 '23 at 13:01

7

An old topic but another solution is:

check('Option 3', allow_label_click: true)

edited Jun 02 '23 at 13:01

Deepak Mahakale

22,834
10
68
88

answered Jun 19 '19 at 12:38

Samuel

513
3
17

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 16 '12 at 09:40

you can also use :xpath instead of :css if you have some problems finding it.

find(:xpath , '//*[@id="example"]').set(true)

on Chrome (and surely other browsers), you can "inspect element" and then by right clicking on the element you are interested in, there is 'copy xpath' if you don't know what xpath was, now you do.

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered May 15 '15 at 08:04

1

You can also check that all the checkboxes are not checked with this example.

all('input[type=checkbox]').each do |checkbox| checkbox.should_not be_checked end

answered May 15 '15 at 08:04

user3853159

21
2

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Nov 11 '15 at 11:58

1

.set(true) didn't work for me so I had to call .click:

find(...).click

answered Nov 11 '15 at 11:58

HectorPerez

744
6
11

(1) I do not think `click` on its own is a valid capybara command (or at least if it is, it doesn't seem to be on the docs), and (2) if it was, it would probably toggle the checkbox, not make sure it was on or off – NotAnAmbiTurner Dec 06 '17 at 06:22

vidur punj · Answer 12 · 2022-09-01T13:02:13.590

1

To select the checkbox

  check 'name_of_checkbox'

edited Sep 01 '22 at 13:02

answered May 21 '20 at 20:11

vidur punj

5,019
4
46
65

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 09 '22 at 00:52

1

I believe this looks more elegant:

find_by_id("cityID").set(true)

Tested on Rails 7. Works fine.

answered Aug 09 '22 at 00:52

drjorgepolanco

7,479
5
46
47

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered May 12 '17 at 21:09

check find(".whenever input")[:id]

I think this will make capybara wait for any event listener attached to that input, which sometimes is a pain-in-the-ass if it doesn't waits .... If that input doesn't have an ID, choose another property (there must be one)...

How to check a checkbox in capybara?

14 Answers14

Linked