ASP.NET Lightweight Automation Framework - List, Paging, Sorting (2/3)

In the last post, I wrote about LAF, difference between LAF and unit test, controller test, etc. Now we are going to get into on how to user LAF, especially in ASP.NET MVC project.

In my demo project I have a Customer list (it can be any list) that looks like this:

So I want to test all web functionality that an end user will and can possibly do. How do I do it with LAF?

First, create a web application to run your LAF project. ou can follow the instruction to do that here.

After you got that setup, create a class file and start writing tests. So in my example, I want to tests for simply displaying the list, sorting, paging, clicking "New", clicking "Select", and clicking "Delete".

OK, let's begin with displaying the list:

[WebTestMethod]
public void FullList()
{
   HtmlPage page = new HtmlPage("");

   // navigate to Customer list page
   page.Navigate("/Customer/");
            
   // Verify search result
   HtmlTableElement gridView = (HtmlTableElement)page.Elements.Find("CustomerListingTable");
   Assert.IsNotNull(gridView);
}

So a very simple test where basically I navigate to the Customer page and make sure it displays my table. I can do additional checks like whether there are 10 rows in my list, whether the first record is correct, etc. We will see how to do those things in the following test examples.

So, how about testing Sorting functionality? In our list, a user should be able to click on the header and sort the data based on that field ascendingly and then descendingly.

[WebTestMethod]
public void SortByFirstName()
{
    HtmlPage page = new HtmlPage("");

    // navigate to Customer list page
    page.Navigate("/Customer/");

    // Verify search result
    HtmlTableElement gridView = (HtmlTableElement)page.Elements.Find("CustomerListingTable");
    Assert.IsNotNull(gridView);

    // sort by first name desc
    gridView.Rows[0].Cells[(int)ColumnNames.FirstName].ChildElements[0].Click(WaitFor.None);
    // wait for my jQuery ajax
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);

    // verify
    Assert.IsTrue(gridView.Rows[1].Cells[(int)ColumnNames.FirstName].GetInnerText().CompareTo(gridView.Rows[2].Cells[(int)ColumnNames.FirstName].GetInnerText()) >= 0);

    // sort by first name asc
    gridView.Rows[0].Cells[(int)ColumnNames.FirstName].ChildElements[0].Click(WaitFor.None);
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);

    // verify
    Assert.IsTrue(gridView.Rows[1].Cells[(int)ColumnNames.FirstName].GetInnerText().CompareTo(gridView.Rows[2].Cells[(int)ColumnNames.FirstName].GetInnerText()) <= 0);
}

What happen in the code above is quite simple; after navigating to the Customer list page, the test verify whether the grid/table exists. After that, it navigate within the table and click the header of the first name column (I enumerated my columns). Then I verify the result by comparing the first name data between the 1st record and the 2nd record according to the sort direction.

Now let's test our paging. There are multiple ways to page through the data according to our list. A user can click on the page number, or click on a previous or next link, and they can do it through the top page numbers or the bottom one.

[WebTestMethod]
public void PageByNumberTop()
{
    HtmlPage page = new HtmlPage("");

    // navigate to Customer list page
    page.Navigate("/Customer/");

    // Verify search result
    HtmlTableElement gridView = (HtmlTableElement)page.Elements.Find("CustomerListingTable");
    Assert.IsNotNull(gridView);

    // get the paging links
    HtmlElement topPaging = page.Elements.Find("pagination-clean-top");

    // verify page 1 and goto page 2
    page.Elements.Find("toppage2").Click(WaitFor.None);
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);

    // verify page 2 and goto page 3
    Assert.AreEqual("2", topPaging.ChildElements[2].GetInnerText());
    page.Elements.Find("toppage3").Click(WaitFor.None);
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);

    // verify page 3 and goto page 4
    Assert.AreEqual("3", topPaging.ChildElements[3].GetInnerText());
    page.Elements.Find("toppage4").Click(WaitFor.None);
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);

    // verify page 4 and goto page 1
    Assert.AreEqual("4", topPaging.ChildElements[4].GetInnerText());
    page.Elements.Find("toppage1").Click(WaitFor.None);
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);

    // verify page 1 and goto page 3
    Assert.AreEqual("1", topPaging.ChildElements[1].GetInnerText());
    page.Elements.Find("toppage3").Click(WaitFor.None);
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);

    // verify page 3 
    Assert.AreEqual("3", topPaging.ChildElements[3].GetInnerText());

}

What happen on the code above is basically I queried the page number link and click it. From the default page 1, to page 2, then page 3, then page 4, to test consecutive paging. After that, from page 4 jumped to page 1, then jumped to page 3. Obviously, there are more variety of these that we can do, but hopefully you get the idea. Also, in this code, I am just testing on paging by number for if the users are just paging using the page numbers on the top. To test the previous or next link, the code should be pretty similar to this.

- Part 1: Overview
- Part 3: Add, Edit, Delete