Brain storming a method of validating a HTML table's content with Watir-webdrive

Question:

 

 

I am trying to work out a method to check the content of an HTML table with Watir-webdriver. Basically I want to validate the table contents against a saved valid table (CSV file) and they are the same after a refresh or redraw action.

Ideas I've come up with so far are to:

• Grab the table HTML and compare that as a string with the baseline value.
• Iterate through each cell and compare the HTML or text content.
• Generate a 2D array representation on the table contents and do an array compare.

What would be the fastest/best approach? Do you have insights on how you handled a similar problem?

Here is an example of the table:

<table id="attr-table"> <thead> <tr><th id="attr-action-col"><input type="checkbox" id="attr-action-col_box" class="attr-action-box" value=""></th><th id="attr-scope-col"></th><th id="attr-workflow-col">Status</th><th id="attr-type-col"></th><th id="attr-name-col">Name<span class="ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-n"></span></th><th id="attr-value-col">Francais Value</th></tr></thead> <tbody> <tr id="attr-row-209"><td id="attr_action_209" class="attr-action-col"><input type="checkbox" id="attr_action_209_box" class="attr-action-box" value=""></td><td id="attr_scope_209" class="attr-scope-col"><a href="#" class="ws-invoke-editor" id="attr_scope_209_a"><img src="images/attrib_bullet_global.png" title="global"></a></td><td id="attr_workflow_209" class="attr-workflow-col"></td><td id="attr_type_209" class="attr-type-col"><a href="#" class="ws-invoke-editor" id="attr_type_209_a"><img src="images/attrib_text.png"></a></td><td id="attr_name_209" class="attr-name-col"><a href="#" class="ws-invoke-editor" id="attr_name_209_a">Name of: Catalogue</a></td><td id="attr_value_209" class="attr-value-col"><a href="#" class="ws-invoke-editor lang_10" id="attr_value_209_a"><p class="acms ws-editable-content lang_10">2010 EI-176</p></a></td></tr> <tr id="attr-row-316"><td id="attr_action_316" class="attr-action-col"><input type="checkbox" id="attr_action_316_box" class="attr-action-box" value=""></td><td id="attr_scope_316" class="attr-scope-col"><a href="#" class="ws-invoke-editor" id="attr_scope_316_a"><img src="images/attrib_bullet_global.png" title="global"></a></td><td id="attr_workflow_316" class="attr-workflow-col"></td><td id="attr_type_316" class="attr-type-col"><a href="#" class="ws-invoke-editor" id="attr_type_316_a"><img src="images/attrib_text.png"></a></td><td id="attr_name_316" class="attr-name-col"><a href="#" class="ws-invoke-editor" id="attr_name_316_a">_[Key] Media key</a></td><td id="attr_value_316" class="attr-value-col"><a href="#" class="ws-invoke-editor lang_10" id="attr_value_316_a"><p class="acms ws-editable-content lang_10"><span class="acms acms-choice" contenteditable="false" id="568">163</span></p></a></td></tr> <tr id="attr-row-392"><td id="attr_action_392" class="attr-action-col"><input type="checkbox" id="attr_action_392_box" class="attr-action-box" value=""></td><td id="attr_scope_392" class="attr-scope-col"><a href="#" class="ws-invoke-editor" id="attr_scope_392_a"><img src="images/attrib_bullet_global.png" title="global"></a></td><td id="attr_workflow_392" class="attr-workflow-col"></td><td id="attr_type_392" class="attr-type-col"><a href="#" class="ws-invoke-editor" id="attr_type_392_a"><img src="images/attrib_numeric.png"></a></td><td id="attr_name_392" class="attr-name-col"><a href="#" class="ws-invoke-editor" id="attr_name_392_a">_[Key] Numéro d'ordre</a></td><td id="attr_value_392" class="attr-value-col"><a href="#" class="ws-invoke-editor lang_10" id="attr_value_392_a"><p class="acms ws-editable-content lang_10">2</p></a></td></tr> </tbody> </table>

Answers

1：ust one idea I came up with. I used Hash and Class object instead of 2D array.

foo.csv

209,global,text.Catalogue,2010 EI-176 392,global,numeric,Numéro d'ordre,2 

---

require 'csv' expected_datas = CSV.readlines('foo.csv').map do |row|   {     :id => row[0],     :scope => row[1],     :type => row[2],     :name => row[3],     :value => row[4]   } end class Data   attr_reader :id,:scope,:type,:name,:value   def initialize(tr)     id = tr.id.slice(/attr-row-([0-9]+)/,1)     scope = tr.td(:id,/scope/).img.src.slice(/attr_bullet_(.+?).png/,1)     type = tr.td(:id,/type/).img.src.slice(/attrib_(.+?).png/,1)     name = tr.td(:id,/name/).text     value = tr.td(:id,/value/).text   end end browser = Watir::Browser.new browser.goto 'foobar' datas = browser.table(:id,'attr-table').tbody.trs.map{|tr| Data.new(tr)} datas.zip(expected_datas).each do |data,expected_data|   Data.instance_methods(false).each do |method|     data.send(method).should == expected_data[method.to_sym]   end end # something action (refresh or redraw action) browser.refresh after_datas = browser.table(:id,'attr-table').tbody.trs.map{|tr| Data.new(tr)} datas.zip(after_datas).each do |data,after_data|   Data.instance_methods(false).each do |method|     data.send(method).should == after_data.send(method)   end end

2：

 
You could go for exact match
 
before_htmltable <=> after_htmltable
 
Or you could strip whitespace
 
before_htmltable.gsub(/\s+/, ' ') <=> after_htmltable.gsub(/\s+/, ' ')
 
I would think that creating the array then comparing each element would be more expensive.
 
Dave