WTA with Ruby - Install and prepare

In the previous blogpost I explained the concepts of a test automation framework and which one I particularly like and want to share with you. In this blogpost we'll start to get our hands dirty by installing all necessary software so we can start with the fun. Keep in mind I'm writing this guide while working on a Windows computer, so it might be that you need to do some research for your OS if your following this guide while working on OSX or Linux.

Browsers

I'm not going to explain how to install a browser. But it's recommended to pre-install Firefox so it does not matter on what kind of OS you're working, you could still follow most of the instructions later on. And I'll start with the Firefox browser in the first test run. Other browsers will be covered later. So you can install them now or when we're getting there, that's up to you.

Ruby

Let's start with the installation of Ruby. My instructions will be similar if not identical from the Windows installation instructions that you can find on the testautomation.info website (minus the pictures). I went for the 32 bit version of Ruby because when I installed the software, that was the most stable version at that time. You can install the 64-bit version if you want, just keep in mind that if there are issues try the 32-bit version.

1. Download Ruby version 2.3.x on https://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/ 
2. Accept the terms and conditions
3. Just leave the default folder as is
• e.g. Ruby version 2.3 (32 bit) will be installed in C:\Ruby23
• e.g. Ruby version 2.3 (64 bit) will be installed in C:\Ruby23-x64
4. Check all 3 checkboxes (this one is important, don't skip it)
5. And complete the installation

Devkit (required for Ruby 2.3 and below)

In addition to Ruby we also need to install devkit. If during the Ruby installation you did not check the setting to add ruby to your PATH, you can still do this manually first (see Known Error section below) or in step 6 and 7 you need to go to the ruby folder first before you can execute those commands.

1. Download and open the latest Devkit for Windows 64 bit on https://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/
2. In your ruby directory create a new Folder with the name: devkit
3. Extract the Devkit download into the newly created folder
4. Open command prompt
5. In CMD go to your ruby directory `cd c:\ruby23\devkit` 
6. Write ruby `dk.rb init`
7. Write `ruby dk.rb install`
8. The installation is completed

Webdrivers

Let's not forget about the webdrivers. Without them our setup doesn't do anything. Each browser needs it's own webdriver. Links to the downloads you can find on the Watir website, on the Selenium website, or just find them yourself (Everyone know how to Google right?). Which version you need depends on the browser version you’re on. Since you just started, make sure all browsers are on the latest version they can be, then it's safe to assume the latest webdriver works for you. Unpack/unzip these downloads into the Ruby bin folder since the bin folder is already in the PATH environment variables of Windows.

Ruby gems - lapis_lazuli does all the work

First make sure we have Ruby up and running.

Open CMD and type `ruby --version`

Then make sure we're completely up to date `gem update –system

Now install the lapis_lazuli gem `gem install lapis_lazuli` 

This gem makes life easy. It will take care of installing cucumber, selenium-webdriver and water gems, among other needed gems, so all tools, frameworks and webdriver bindings are ready to be used. A deeper explanation of lapis_lazuli will follow in the next blogpost.

Make sure it all works

Open a CMD window and start `irb` followed by an ENTER.

Type the following commands and see the browser open, navigate to a website and close.

`require ‘lapis_lazuli’`

`include LapisLazuli`

`browser.goto “service-hub.com”`

This will open Firefox and navigate to the website

`browser.title` Shows you the current title of the website

`browser.quit` Closes the browser

Ansicon

Additional, but not mandatory, I've downloaded and installed ANSICON (from Github) to get some colors when you make use of the Cucumber command later on in this guide. It works perfect without as well, so it's up to you if you want it or not.

Known Error

No webdriver, webdriver not in ruby's bin folder, bin folder is not in PATH or you decided you want the drivers somewhere else and that folder is not in the PATH environment variable, this is what you'll see:

"Selenium::WebDriver::Error::WebDriverError: Unable to find Mozilla geckodriver. Please download the server from https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver/releases and place it somewhere on your PATH. More info at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/QA/Marionette/WebDriver"

There are so many ways to add this. If you like the command prompt of powershell go ahead. But you can also use the GUI, check this site https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm

Make sure the Ruby bin folder is in there and the driver is unpacked/unzipped in that folder.

Next blog

By now you should have a working set of tools to use. If you can't wait, go ahead and play with it. In the next blog I'll dive into Editors, IRB, Browser Development tools and some best practices I've learned so far to make it easier for you to start with test automation if you really start from scratch. Also if you have any feedback or questions so far, feel free to reach out to me.