How to unload 'require' in ruby/rspec?

Question

We are currently running rspec tests that check for specific libraries/models to be loaded. Specifically, we want to test that when creating an object, we get the correct Watir object back: Watir::Browser for FF and Chrome, and Watir::Safari for Safari.

We already tried doing this: Unload a ruby class but it just deletes the constant, which isn't what we want.

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem but due to compatibility problems with safariwatir and watir-webdriver, this is not the case. It errors out with:

superclass mismatch for class UnknownObjectException

And to 'fix' this, we basically have to choose which webdriver to load(hence the original logic - which we plan to test)

Is there a way to solve this? Our tests pass, not just when ran as a whole. So we basically have to skip a step just to circumvent the require problem.

Answer 1

Classes in Ruby are objects, but the idea of classes as a 'one per execution/objectspace" only exists because Ruby class objects are assigned as constants.

Since your classes are namespaced with theater module, you can check the type of an object dynamically. If that isn't enough, you can duck-type. Since you mentioned compatibility issues, there are methods that exist for one that do not for another (which you can test for) or there are methods that return different values for each (which you can test for.)

Answer 2

I've handled something similar to this by using conditional logic when I require the 'watir' gem, so that only one version ends up being required based on what the environment is configured for. I can provide more details later, perhaps after the watir test automation bazaar is over and I have a little time to think and dig out some code samples for you.

Answer 3

New Anser: NEWS FLASH webdriver now supports Safari! ditch safariwatir and do it all with webdriver. I just found this out today at the Test Automation Bazaar, so don't have much in the way of details.. I'd expect to see some blog postings about this from the Watir community in the next week or so once people recover from the conference.

UPDATE: Details now up on the watir-webdriver blog regarding how to make things work with Safari