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Example​

Our example application is available here on the-internet. It has various JavaScript Alerts available (e.g., an alert, a confirmation, and a prompt). Let's demonstrate testing a confirmation dialog (e.g., a prompt which asks the user to click Ok or Cancel).

First, we'll include our requisite libraries (e.g., selenium-webdriver to control the browser and rspec/expectations and RSpec::Matchers for our assertion) and wire up some simple setup, teardown, and run methods.

# filename: javascript_alerts.rb

require 'selenium-webdriver'
require 'rspec/expectations'
include RSpec::Matchers

def setup
  @driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox
end

def teardown
  @driver.quit
end

def run
  setup
  yield
  teardown
end

Now let's write our test.

run do
  @driver.get 'http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/javascript_alerts'
  @driver.find_elements(css: 'button')[1].click

  popup = @driver.switch_to.alert
  popup.accept

  result = @driver.find_element(id: 'result').text
  expect(result).to eql('You clicked: Ok')
end

A quick glance at the page's markup shows that there are no unique IDs on the buttons. So to click on the second button (to trigger the JavaScript confirmation dialog) we find all buttons on the page using find_elements and click on the second one. Since find_elements returns an Array of all found elements, we can assume that the first item can be selected using [0] (since Arrays in Ruby start counting at 0). So the second item would be [1].

After click the button to trigger the JavaScript Alert we use Selenium's switch_to.alert method to focus on the JavaScript pop-up and use .accept to click Ok. If we wanted to click Cancel we would have used .dismiss.

After accepting the alert, our main browser window will automatically regain focus and the page will display the result that we chose. This text is what we use for our assertion, making sure that the words You clicked: Ok are displayed on the page.

Expected Behavior​

If you save this file and run it (e.g., ruby javascript_alerts.rb from the command-line) here is what will happen:

  • Open the browser
  • Load the page
  • Click the second button on the page
  • JavaScript Confirmation Alert appears
  • Accept the JavaScript Confirmation Alert
  • Assert that the result on the page is what we expect
  • Close the browser

Summary​

We've learned how to accept/dismiss Javascript alerts using Selenium Webdriver by locating the alert using Selenium's switchTo().alert(). After accepting/dismissing the alert, our main browser window will automatically regain focus and the page will display the result.

Happy Testing!