page-object API should be more similar to watir API
Random photo: Rijeka, Croatia.
I have just created issue 102 for page-object gem. After I wrote it, I thought it would be a good blog post too, so I am reposting it here. If you agree, or not, please comment at GitHub issue, not here.
I am pretty sure I am not the only one that has experience with watir API, and gets confused because page-object gem uses different names for some page elements.
Examples:
| HTML | watir | page-object |
|---|---|---|
| td | td | cell |
| hidden | hidden | hidden_field |
| img | img | image |
| a | a | link |
| li | li | list_item |
| ol | ol | ordered_list |
| p | p | paragraph |
| input type=”radio” | radio | radio_button |
| select | select | select_list |
| td | td | cell |
| textarea | textarea | text_area |
| ul | ul | unordered_list |
I am all for making the API human-friendly, that is what watir tried to do in the beginning. After a few years we have noticed that people are getting confused with the API that sometimes uses the same names as HTML, and sometimes does not.
I would suggest that you leave the existing API as is and to create aliases for the people that are familiar with HTML and watir APIs.
Example: we should be able to access unordered list with both unordered_list and ul.
For more people thinking page-object API should be more similar to watir API, take a look at Alister’s Roll your own page objects blog post (and comments).
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