There were many cases where we were clicking on a link or (most of the
time) a button and then calling the `visit` method. In the past, it
worked just fine because clicking on buttons usually results in non-AJAX
requests, meaning that the test waited for the request to finish before
continuing.
That's no longer the case, though. In the last few months/years (not
sure since when) we're getting sporadic failures because the test
doesn't wait for the request to finish before making another request
with the `visit` method. This sometimes results in flaky tests.
Some of these tests have recently failed in our CI. Here are a few
examples (note the numbers don't follow an order because these tests
failed in different jobs):
```
1) Admin edit translatable records Current locale translation does not
exist For ActivePoll Shows first available fallback
Failure/Error: expect(page).to have_content "Sondage en Français"
expected to find text "Sondage en Français" in "Language: \n
\nEnglish\nDeutsch\nEspañol\nFrançais\nNederlands\nPortuguês
brasileiro\n中文\n Go back to CONSUL DEMOCRACY\nCONSUL
DEMOCRACY\nADMINISTRATION\nMenu\nNotifications\nMy content\nMy
account\nSign out\nProposals\nDebates\nComments\nPolls\n
Collaborative Legislation\nParticipatory budgets\nVoting booths
\nSignature Sheets\nMessages to users\nSite content\nModerated
content\nProfiles\nStatistics\nSettings\nProposals dashboard\n×
\nPolls description updated successfully.\nList of polls\nPolls
description\nCreate poll\nThere are no polls."
2) Public area translatable records Existing records Update a
translation With valid data Changes the existing translation
Failure/Error: expect(page).to have_field "Debate title",
with: "Title in English"
expected to find field "Debate title" that is not disabled but
there were no matches
2) Admin collaborative legislation Update Edit milestones summary
Failure/Error: expect(page).to have_content "There is still a long
journey ahead of us"
expected to find text "There is still a long journey ahead of us"
in "Language: \n
\nEnglish\nDeutsch\nEspañol\nFrançais\nNederlands\nPortuguês
brasileiro\n中文\n Go back to CONSUL DEMOCRACY\nCONSUL
DEMOCRACY\nADMINISTRATION\nMenu\nNotifications\nMy content\nMy
account\nSign out\nProposals\nDebates\nComments\nPolls\n
Collaborative Legislation\nParticipatory budgets\nVoting booths
\nSignature Sheets\nMessages to users\nSite content\nModerated
content\nProfiles\nStatistics\nSettings\nProposals dashboard\n×
\nProcess updated successfully. Click to visit\nBack\nAn example
legislation process\nInformation\nHomepage\nDebate\nProposals\n
Drafting\nFollowing\n1 language in use\nCurrent language\n
English\nSummary\n Format\n ◢\n Milestone\nManage progress
bars\nDon't have defined milestones\nCreate new milestone".
(However, it was found 1 time including non-visible text.)
3) Admin collaborative legislation SDG related list create Collaborative
Legislation with sdg related list
Failure/Error:
within("tr", text: "Legislation process with SDG related content") do
expect(page).to have_css "td", exact_text: "17"
end
Capybara::ElementNotFound:
Unable to find css "tr"
4) Valuation budget investments Valuate Feasibility can be marked as
pending
Failure/Error: expect(find("#budget_investment_feasibility_undecided"))
.not_to be_checked
Capybara::ElementNotFound:
Unable to find css "#budget_investment_feasibility_undecided"
3) Custom information texts Show custom texts instead of default ones
Failure/Error:
within("#section_help") do
expect(page).to have_content "Custom help with debates"
expect(page).not_to have_content "Help with debates"
end
4) Admin budgets Update Deselect all selected staff
Failure/Error: expect(page).to have_link "Select administrators"
expected to find link "Select administrators" but there were no
matches
3) Admin polls SDG related list edit poll with sdg related list
Failure/Error:
within("tr", text: "Upcoming poll with SDG related content") do
expect(page).to have_css "td", exact_text: "17"
end
Capybara::ElementNotFound:
Unable to find css "tr"
4) Admin polls SDG related list create poll with sdg related list
Failure/Error:
within("tr", text: "Upcoming poll with SDG related content") do
expect(page).to have_css "td", exact_text: "17"
end
Capybara::ElementNotFound:
Unable to find css "tr"
5) Admin custom images Image is replaced on admin newsletters
Failure/Error:
within(".newsletter-body-content") do
expect(page).to have_css("img[src*='logo_email_custom.png']")
end
Capybara::ElementNotFound:
Unable to find css ".newsletter-body-content"
6) Admin custom images Image is replaced on front views
Failure/Error:
within("#map") do
expect(page).to
have_css("img[src*='custom_map.jpg'][alt='Districts list']")
end
Capybara::ElementNotFound:
Unable to find css "#map"
```
We were using Foundation's accordion menu to open/close nested lists of
links. Unfortunately, Foundation's accordion makes it impossible to
access links in nested links using the keyboard [1] (note the issue is
closed, but in the latest version of Foundation, 6.8.1, it's still
present, and Foundation's development is mostly discontinued).
Furtheremore, it adds the `menuitem` role to links, but ARIA menus are
not ment for navigation but for application behavior and, since it
doesn't add the `menubar` or `menu` roles to the parent elements, it
results in accessibility issues for people using screen readers (also
reported by the Axe accessibility testing engine).
So we need to implement our own solution. We're using the most commonly
used pattern: a buttton with the `aria-expanded` attribute. And, for
people using browsers where JavaScript hasn't loaded, we're keeping the
submenus open at all times (just like we were doing until now), and
we're disabling the buttons (since they do nothing without JavaScript).
This might not be an ideal solution, but it's probably good enough, and
way better than what we had until now.
We've also considered using the <details> and <summary> elements instead
of using buttons to open/close items on the list. However, these
elements still present some accessibility issues [2], and the transition
between open and closed can't be animated unless we overwrite the
`click` event with JavaScript. The pattern of using these elements to
open/close a nested list of links isn't common either, and some people
using screen readers might get confused when entering/leaving the nested
list.
We tried other approaches to get the animation effect, all of them based
on adding `[aria-expanded="false"]:not([disabled]) + * { display: none;
}` to the CSS file.
Unfortunately, animation using CSS isn't feasible right now because
browsers can't animate a change form `height: 0` to `height: auto`.
There are some hacks like animating the `max-height` or the `flex-grow`
property, but the resulting animation is inconsistent. A perfect
animation can be done using the `grid-template-rows` property [3], but
it requires adding a grid container and only works in Firefox and recent
versions of Chrome and similar browsers.
Getting to a solution with JavaScript was also tricky. With the
following approach, `slideToggle()` opened the menu the first time, even
if it was already open (not sure why):
```
toggle_buttons.on("click", function() {
$(this).attr("aria-expanded", !JSON.parse($(this).attr("aria-expanded")));
$(this).next().slideToggle();
});
```
This made the arrow turn after the menu had slided instead of doing it
at the same time:
```
toggle_buttons.on("click", function() {
var button = $(this);
button.next().slideToggle(function() {
button.attr("aria-expanded",
!JSON.parse(button.attr("aria-expanded")));
});
}
```
With this, everything disappeared quickly:
```
toggle_buttons.on("click", function() {
var expanded = JSON.parse($(this).attr("aria-expanded"));
if (expanded) {
$(this).next().slideUp();
} else {
$(this).next().slideDown();
}
$(this).attr("aria-expanded", !expanded);
}
```
So, in the end, we're hiding the nested link lists with JavaScript
instead of CSS.
[1] Issue 12046 in https://github.com/foundation/foundation-sites
[2] https://www.scottohara.me/blog/2022/09/12/details-summary.html
[3] https://css-tricks.com/css-grid-can-do-auto-height-transitions
Note that we used to have the link to delete images inside the same
<form> tag as the button to update the image. However, using a button
means we're adding a new <form> tag for the action to delete the image.
This isn't valid HTML and, in some browsers, might result in the button
sending the request to the wrong URL.
As explained in commit 5311daadf, to avoid this, we'd need to replace
`button_to` with `button_tag` in the action in order to generate a
button without a form. Then, we could add either a `form` or a
`formaction` attribute to the button.
However, I thik it's easier to move the delete button outside the update
button <form> tag. On the minus side, since the buttons no longer share
a parent, they're harder to style. So we're using a mix of nested flex
layouts with one of the nested elements using a container unit as width.
Since we're at it, we're also improving the styles on small and medium
screens by making sure the "Update" button wraps before the "Delete"
button does (using a container query), by giving enough width to the
column containing this actions on small screens as well (removing
`small-12` and giving it two-thirds of the width on all screen sizes)
and by having a gap between elements.
Note that, at the time of writing, container queries are only supported
by about 91%-93% of the browsers, meaning that some administrators will
see all from controls displayed vertically, one on top of the other, on
all screen sizes. We think this is acceptable, and the page remains
fully functional in this case.
There were already some menu items to customization pages under the "Site content" menu. It therefore makes sense to move "Custom images" and "Custom content blocks" (which were previously
located under "Settings") to "Site content" as well.
We were using this hack in order to allow `File.new` attachments in
tests files. However, we can use the `fixture_file_upload` helper
instead.
Just like it happened with `file_fixture`, this helper method doesn't
work in fixtures, so in this case we're using `Rack::Test::UploadedFile`
instead.
This way we don't have to write `"spec/fixtures/files"` every time.
Note this method isn't included in factories. We could include it like
so:
```
FactoryBot::SyntaxRunner.class_eval do
include ActiveSupport::Testing::FileFixtures
self.file_fixture_path = RSpec.configuration.file_fixture_path
end
```
However, I'm not sure about the possible side effects, and since we only
use attachments in a few factories, there isn't much gain in applying
the monkey-patch.
Just like we did with regular attachments, we're moving the logic to
generate URLs out of the model.
Note we're changing the `image_path_for` helper method in order to
return a `polymorphic_path` because sometimes it's used in combination
with `favicon_link_tag`, and `favicon_link_tag` doesn't automatically
generate a polymorphic URL when given an `ActiveStorage::Attachment`
record.
JavaScript is used by about 98% of web users, so by testing without it
enabled, we're only testing that the application works for a very
reduced number of users.
We proceeded this way in the past because CONSUL started using Rails 4.2
and truncating the database between JavaScript tests with database
cleaner, which made these tests terribly slow.
When we upgraded to Rails 5.1 and introduced system tests, we started
using database transactions in JavaScript tests, making these tests much
faster. So now we can use JavaScript tests everywhere without critically
slowing down our test suite.
This menu requires JavaScript to open/close subnavigation menus, so
we're now testing the way users with a browser supporting JavaScript
(98%-99% of the users) deal with the menu.
IMHO testing the navigation once is enough. In the rest of the tests we
can access the page directly and make the tests faster by reducing the
number of requests.
We were repeating the same code over and over (with a few variants) to
setup tests which require an administrator. We can use a tag and
simplify the code.
