Željko Filipin's Blog on Software and Testing

Sapna asked how to extract id from this link.

RE: Check Copy Request

The solution includes using MatchData. I use it rarely, and I always forget how it is used. So, every time I need it, I have to read documentation. I have decided to make a note here, so I could easily find it later.

This is how you can get href attribute of that link. I will assumed that he knows text (“RE: Check Copy Request”).

ie.link(:text, “RE: Check Copy Request”).href
=> “MessageDetail.aspx?id=1303&messageToUser=True”

This will extract 1303.

m = /id=(1303)/.match(ie.link(:text, “RE: Check Copy Request”).href)
=> #

m[1]
=> “1303″