PHP Scriptable Web Browser

SimpleTest documentation for the scriptable web browser component

SimpleTest's web browser component can be used not just outside of the `WebTestCase` class, but also independently of the SimpleTest framework itself.

# scripting The Scriptable Browser

You can use the web browser in PHP scripts to confirm services are up and running, or to extract information from them at a regular basis. For example, here is a small script to extract the current number of open PHP 5 bugs from the PHP web site... <strong><?php require_once('simpletest/browser.php'); $browser = &new SimpleBrowser(); $browser->get('http://php.net/'); $browser->click('reporting bugs'); $browser->click('statistics'); $page = $browser->click('PHP 5 bugs only'); preg_match('/status=Open.*?by=Any.*?(\d+)<\/a>/', $page, $matches); print $matches[1]; ?></strong> There are simpler methods to do this particular example in PHP of course. For example you can just use the PHP `file()` command against what here is a pretty fixed page. However, using the web browser for scripts allows authentication, correct handling of cookies, automatic loading of frames, redirects, form submission and the ability to examine the page headers.

Methods such as periodic scraping are fragile against a site that is constantly evolving and you would want a more direct way of accessing data in a permanent set up, but for simple tasks this can provide a very rapid solution.

All of the navigation methods used in the WebTestCase are present in the `SimpleBrowser` class, but the assertions are replaced with simpler accessors. Here is a full list of the page navigation methods...

`addHeader($header)` | Adds a header to every fetch
`useProxy($proxy, $username, $password)` | Use this proxy from now on
`head($url, $parameters)` | Perform a HEAD request
`get($url, $parameters)` | Fetch a page with GET
`post($url, $parameters)` | Fetch a page with POST
`click($label)` | Clicks visible link or button text
`clickLink($label)` | Follows a link by label
`clickLinkById($id)` | Follows a link by attribute
`getUrl()` | Current URL of page or frame
`getTitle()` | Page title
`getContent()` | Raw page or frame
`getContentAsText()` | HTML removed except for alt text
`retry()` | Repeat the last request
`back()` | Use the browser back button
`forward()` | Use the browser forward button
`authenticate($username, $password)` | Retry page or frame after a 401 response
`restart($date)` | Restarts the browser for a new session
`ageCookies($interval)` | Ages the cookies by the specified time
`setCookie($name, $value)` | Sets an additional cookie
`getCookieValue($host, $path, $name)` | Reads the most specific cookie
`getCurrentCookieValue($name)` | Reads cookie for the current context

The methods `SimpleBrowser::useProxy()` and `SimpleBrowser::addHeader()` are special. Once called they continue to apply to all subsequent fetches.

Navigating forms is similar to the WebTestCase form navigation...

`setField($label, $value)` | Sets all form fields with that label or name
`setFieldByName($name, $value)` | Sets all form fields with that name
`setFieldById($id, $value)` | Sets all form fields with that id
`getField($label)` | Accessor for a form element value by label tag and then name
`getFieldByName($name)` | Accessor for a form element value using name attribute
`getFieldById($id)` | Accessor for a form element value
`clickSubmit($label)` | Submits form by button label
`clickSubmitByName($name)` | Submits form by button attribute
`clickSubmitById($id)` | Submits form by button attribute
`clickImage($label, $x, $y)` | Clicks an input tag of type image by title or alt text
`clickImageByName($name, $x, $y)` | Clicks an input tag of type image by name
`clickImageById($id, $x, $y)` | Clicks an input tag of type image by ID attribute
`submitFormById($id)` | Submits by the form tag attribute

At the moment there aren't many methods to list available links and fields.

`isClickable($label)` | Test to see if a click target exists by label or name
`isSubmit($label)` | Test for the existence of a button with that label or name
`isImage($label)` | Test for the existence of an image button with that label or name
`getLink($label)` | Finds a URL from it's label
`getLinkById($label)` | Finds a URL from it's ID attribute
`getUrls()` | Lists available links in the current page

This will be expanded in later versions of SimpleTest.

Frames are a rather esoteric feature these days, but SimpleTest has retained support for them.

Within a page, individual frames can be selected. If no selection is made then all the frames are merged together in one large conceptual page. The content of the current page will be a concatenation of all of the frames in the order that they were specified in the "frameset" tags.

`getFrames()` | A dump of the current frame structure
`getFrameFocus()` | Current frame label or index
`setFrameFocusByIndex($choice)` | Select a frame numbered from 1
`setFrameFocus($name)` | Select frame by label
`clearFrameFocus()` | Treat all the frames as a single page

When focused on a single frame, the content will come from that frame only. This includes links to click and forms to submit.

# debug What went wrong?

All of this functionality is great when we actually manage to fetch pages, but that doesn't always happen. To help figure out what went wrong, the browser has some methods to aid in debugging...

`setConnectionTimeout($timeout)` | Close the socket on overrun
`getUrl()` | Url of most recent page fetched
`getRequest()` | Raw request header of page or frame
`getHeaders()` | Raw response header of page or frame
`getTransportError()` | Any socket level errors in the last fetch
`getResponseCode()` | HTTP response of page or frame
`getMimeType()` | Mime type of page or frame
`getAuthentication()` | Authentication type in 401 challenge header
`getRealm()` | Authentication realm in 401 challenge header
`getBaseUrl()` | Base url only of most recent page fetched
`setMaximumRedirects($max)` | Number of redirects before page is loaded anyway
`setMaximumNestedFrames($max)` | Protection against recursive framesets
`ignoreFrames()` | Disables frames support
`useFrames()` | Enables frames support
`ignoreCookies()` | Disables sending and receiving of cookies
`useCookies()` | Enables cookie support

The methods `SimpleBrowser::setConnectionTimeout()` `SimpleBrowser::setMaximumRedirects()`, `SimpleBrowser::setMaximumNestedFrames()`, `SimpleBrowser::ignoreFrames()`, `SimpleBrowser::useFrames()`, `SimpleBrowser::ignoreCookies()` and `SimpleBrowser::useCokies()` continue to apply to every subsequent request. The other methods are frames aware. This means that if you have an individual frame that is not loading, navigate to it using `SimpleBrowser::setFrameFocus()` and you can then use `SimpleBrowser::getRequest()`, etc to see what happened.

# unit Complex unit tests with multiple browsers

Anything that could be done in a WebTestCase can now be done in a UnitTestCase. This means that we could freely mix domain object testing with the web interface... <strong>class TestOfRegistration extends UnitTestCase { function testNewUserAddedToAuthenticator() {</strong> $browser = new SimpleBrowser(); $browser->get('http://my-site.com/register.php'); $browser->setField('email', 'me@here'); $browser->setField('password', 'Secret'); $browser->click('Register'); <strong> $authenticator = new Authenticator(); $member = $authenticator->findByEmail('me@here'); $this->assertEqual($member->getPassword(), 'Secret'); } }</strong> While this may be a useful temporary expediency, I am not a fan of this type of testing. The testing has cut across application layers, make it twice as likely it will need refactoring when the code changes.

A more useful case of where using the browser directly can be helpful is where the `WebTestCase` cannot cope. An example is where two browsers are needed at the same time.

For example, say we want to disallow multiple simultaneous usage of a site with the same username. This test case will do the job... class TestOfSecurity extends UnitTestCase { function testNoMultipleLoginsFromSameUser() {<strong> $first_attempt = new SimpleBrowser(); $first_attempt->get('http://my-site.com/login.php'); $first_attempt->setField('name', 'Me'); $first_attempt->setField('password', 'Secret'); $first_attempt->click('Enter'); $this->assertEqual($first_attempt->getTitle(), 'Welcome'); $second_attempt = new SimpleBrowser(); $second_attempt->get('http://my-site.com/login.php'); $second_attempt->setField('name', 'Me'); $second_attempt->setField('password', 'Secret'); $second_attempt->click('Enter'); $this->assertEqual($second_attempt->getTitle(), 'Access Denied');</strong> } } You can also use the `SimpleBrowser` class directly when you want to write test cases using a different test tool than SimpleTest, such as PHPUnit.

Using the bundled web browser in scripts Debugging failed pages Complex tests with multiple web browsers
SimpleTest project page on SourceForge. SimpleTest download page on LastCraft. The developer's API for SimpleTest gives full detail on the classes and assertions available.
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