postfixadmin/tests/simpletest/docs/source/en/form_testing_documentation.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page title="Form testing documentation" here="Testing forms">
    <long_title>Simple Test documentation for testing HTML forms</long_title>
    <content>
        <section name="submit" title="Submitting a simple form">
            <p>
                When a page is fetched by the <code>WebTestCase</code>
                using <code>get()</code> or
                <code>post()</code> the page content is
                automatically parsed.
                This results in any form controls that are inside &lt;form&gt; tags
                being available from within the test case.
                For example, if we have this snippet of HTML...
<pre><![CDATA[
<form>
    <input type="text" name="a" value="A default" />
    <input type="submit" value="Go" />
</form>
]]></pre>
                Which looks like this...
            </p>
            <p>
                <form class="demo">
                    <input type="text" name="a" value="A default" />
                    <input type="submit" value="Go" />
                </form>
            </p>
            <p>
                We can navigate to this code, via the
                <a href="http://www.lastcraft.com/form_testing_documentation.php">LastCraft</a>
                site, with the following test...
<php><![CDATA[
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
    <strong>
    function testDefaultValue() {
        $this->get('http://www.lastcraft.com/form_testing_documentation.php');
        $this->assertField('a', 'A default');
    }</strong>
}
]]></php>
                Immediately after loading the page all of the HTML controls are set at
                their default values just as they would appear in the web browser.
                The assertion tests that a HTML widget exists in the page with the
                name &quot;a&quot; and that it is currently set to the value
                &quot;A default&quot;.
                As usual, we could use a pattern expectation instead if a fixed
                string.
            </p>
            <p>
                We could submit the form straight away, but first we&apos;ll change
                the value of the text field and only then submit it...
<php><![CDATA[
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {

    function testDefaultValue() {
        $this->get('http://www.my-site.com/');
        $this->assertField('a', 'A default');<strong>
        $this->setField('a', 'New value');
        $this->click('Go');</strong>
    }
}
]]></php>
                Because we didn&apos;t specify a method attribute on the form tag, and
                didn&apos;t specify an action either, the test case will follow
                the usual browser behaviour of submitting the form data as a <em>GET</em>
                request back to the same location.
                SimpleTest tries to emulate typical browser behaviour as much as possible,
                rather than attempting to catch missing attributes on tags.
                This is because the target of the testing framework is the PHP application
                logic, not syntax or other errors in the HTML code.
                For HTML errors, other tools such as
                <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/">HTMLTidy</a> should be used.
            </p>
            <p>
                If a field is not present in any form, or if an option is unavailable,
                then <code>WebTestCase::setField()</code> will return
                <code>false</code>.
                For example, suppose we wish to verify that a &quot;Superuser&quot;
                option is not present in this form...
<pre><![CDATA[
<strong>Select type of user to add:</strong>
<select name="type">
    <option>Subscriber</option>
    <option>Author</option>
    <option>Administrator</option>
</select>
]]></pre>
                Which looks like...
            </p>
            <p>
                <form class="demo">
                    <strong>Select type of user to add:</strong>
                    <select name="type">
                        <option>Subscriber</option>
                        <option>Author</option>
                        <option>Administrator</option>
                    </select>
                </form>
            </p>
            <p>
                The following test will confirm it...
<php><![CDATA[
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
    ...
    function testNoSuperuserChoiceAvailable() {<strong>
        $this->get('http://www.lastcraft.com/form_testing_documentation.php');
        $this->assertFalse($this->setField('type', 'Superuser'));</strong>
    }
}
]]></php>
                The selection will not be changed on a failure to set
                a widget value.
            </p>
            <p>
                Here is the full list of widgets currently supported...
                <ul>
                    <li>Text fields, including hidden and password fields.</li>
                    <li>Submit buttons including the button tag, although not yet reset buttons</li>
                    <li>Text area. This includes text wrapping behaviour.</li>
                    <li>Checkboxes, including multiple checkboxes in the same form.</li>
                    <li>Drop down selections, including multiple selects.</li>
                    <li>Radio buttons.</li>
                    <li>Images.</li>
                </ul>
            </p>
            <p>
                Although most standard HTML widgets are catered for by <em>SimpleTest</em>&apos;s
                built in parser, it is unlikely that JavaScript will be implemented
                anytime soon.
            </p>
        </section>
        <section name="multiple" title="Fields with multiple values">
            <p>
                SimpleTest can cope with two types of multivalue controls: Multiple
                selection drop downs, and multiple checkboxes with the same name
                within a form.
                The multivalue nature of these means that setting and testing
                are slightly different.
                Using checkboxes as an example...
<pre><![CDATA[
<form class="demo">
    <strong>Create privileges allowed:</strong>
    <input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="c" checked><br>
    <strong>Retrieve privileges allowed:</strong>
    <input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="r" checked><br>
    <strong>Update privileges allowed:</strong>
    <input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="u" checked><br>
    <strong>Destroy privileges allowed:</strong>
    <input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="d" checked><br>
    <input type="submit" value="Enable Privileges">
</form>
]]></pre>
                Which renders as...
            </p>
            <p>
                <form class="demo">
                    <strong>Create privileges allowed:</strong>
                    <input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="c" checked=""/><br/>
                    <strong>Retrieve privileges allowed:</strong>
                    <input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="r" checked=""/><br/>
                    <strong>Update privileges allowed:</strong>
                    <input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="u" checked=""/><br/>
                    <strong>Destroy privileges allowed:</strong>
                    <input type="checkbox" name="crud" value="d" checked=""/><br/>
                    <input type="submit" value="Enable Privileges"/>
                </form>
            </p>
            <p>
                If we wish to disable all but the retrieval privileges and
                submit this information we can do it like this...
<php><![CDATA[
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
    ...<strong>
    function testDisableNastyPrivileges() {
        $this->get('http://www.lastcraft.com/form_testing_documentation.php');
        $this->assertField('crud', array('c', 'r', 'u', 'd'));
        $this->setField('crud', array('r'));
        $this->click('Enable Privileges');
    }</strong>
}
]]></php>
                Instead of setting the field to a single value, we give it a list
                of values.
                We do the same when testing expected values.
                We can then write other test code to confirm the effect of this, perhaps
                by logging in as that user and attempting an update.
            </p>
            <p>
                <a class="target" name="raw"><h2>Raw posting</h2></a>
            </p>
            <p>
                If you want to test a form handler, but have not yet written
                or do not have access to the form itself, you can create a
                form submission by hand.
<php><![CDATA[
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
    ...<strong>    
    function testAttemptedHack() {
        $this->post(
                'http://www.my-site.com/add_user.php',
                array('type' => 'superuser'));
        $this->assertNoText('user created');
    }</strong>
}
]]></php>
                By adding data to the <code>WebTestCase::post()</code>
                method, we are attempting to fetch the page as a form submission.
            </p>
        </section>
    </content>
    <internal>
        <link>
            Changing form values and successfully
            <a href="#submit">Submitting a simple form</a>
        </link>
        <link>
            Handling <a href="#multiple">widgets with multiple values</a>
            by setting lists.
        </link>
        <link>
            <a href="#raw">Raw posting</a> when you don&apos;t have a button
            to click.
        </link>
    </internal>
    <external>
        <link>
            SimpleTest project page on <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/simpletest/">SourceForge</a>.
        </link>
        <link>
            SimpleTest download page on <a href="http://www.lastcraft.com/simple_test.php">LastCraft</a>.
        </link>
        <link>
            The <a href="http://simpletest.sourceforge.net/">developer&apos;s API for SimpleTest</a>
            gives full detail on the classes and assertions available.
        </link>
    </external>
    <meta>
        <keywords>
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    </meta>
</page>