#CodeConfident: Serenity Cucumber Practice

As announced, I plan to publish my coding journal for each GitHub repository I create within my #CodeConfident challenge. I've just finished the scope of my first challenge, so here are my related notes; as raw as they are, in chronological order. My hope is that they will serve three goals.

1. Act as learning journal for myself, making my learning journey visible helping me acknowledge what I achieved
2. Provide context for anyone who would like to check out my repository and maybe provide feedback and support
3. Potentially provide a source of learning and inspiration for anyone else following my journey

Here's my journal for my first GitHub repository serenity-cucumber-practice. Want to provide feedback on it or pair up with me on further challenges? I hereby call for collaboration!

January 13

• start from Serenity Cucumber starter project (https://github.com/serenity-bdd/serenity-cucumber-starter)
• set up remote Chrome running Docker  
• install TigerVNC for Windows 
• revise scenario 
• adapt step definitions -> still successful (gradlew clean test aggregate) 
• create first page object and try to open it -> not compiling, packages to import "don't exist": "error: package net.serenitybdd.core.pages does not exist" 
• TODO: fix issue

January 14

• followed instructions to have page objects in main>java, which resulted in lots of fruitless searching why I got a "error: package does not exist" and the class and import could not be added to the classpath by IntelliJ; tried lots of things until realizing the resolved dependencies are shown in External Libraries for each module in the packages sidebar (always checked in the projects view); move of page object to another place solved the issue
• "error: package net.serenitybdd.core.pages does not exist"  -> realized it has to be in test as only there dependencies are resolved by gradle build  
• Selenium Grid setup in Docker is working as usual  
• TODO: Clean up and do first minimal commit

January 15

• Cleaned up repo, updated readme
• Prepared first commit
• Push was rejected
• Found out it was due to GitHub's security (https://help.github.com/articles/blocking-command-line-pushes-that-expose-your-personal-email-address/) & that my first commit indeed contained my private email address (git show)
• Found I can use a generated no-reply address from them
• https://help.github.com/articles/setting-your-commit-email-address-in-git/ 
• git config --global user.email "lisihocke@users.noreply.github.com" 
• git config --global user.email 
• Found how to change the author of the last commit:
• https://www.git-tower.com/learn/git/faq/change-author-name-email 
• git commit --amend --author="lisihocke <lisihocke@users.noreply.github.com>" 
• https://help.github.com/articles/caching-your-github-password-in-git/
• TODO: decide how to store passwords so I don't have to enter them on every push

January 17

• generated SSH key and added it (all of https://help.github.com/articles/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/) -> worked like a charm, IntelliJ saves passphrase
• discovered https://desktop.github.com/ -> could delete old branch via UI
• first version of add item to cart scenario
• cleaned up a bit
• revising package structure: learned I need to put everything into one custom package, otherwise test runner fails
• TODO: improve first scenario, then implement second

January 20

• add product to shopping cart scenario: removed hardcoded values, made steps reusable, check for product reference, quantity and price
• used Serenity session and step parameters
• learned about Jquery selectors, how to find parent, what are unsupported pseudo classes
• https://css-tricks.com/forums/topic/jquery-parent-parent-easier-way-to-target-a-previous-element/
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7089229/how-to-select-first-parent-div-using-jquery 
• https://api.jquery.com/category/selectors/
• https://www.w3schools.com/jquery/jquery_ref_selectors.asp
• learned how to add parameters in jquery selectors in Java (just like in Strings, e.g. "#"+parameter+" .className"); groovy uses $
• TODO: implement second scenario

January 24

• separated step definitions in two files - decided to go for 2 further shopping cart scenarios, updated quantity and delete
• found I can replay the request via Postman (imported)
• researched how to call rest calls within scenarios
• https://www.toolsqa.com/rest-assured/post-request-using-rest-assured/
• https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.json/json/20180813
• https://alexromanov.github.io/2017/04/22/serenity-rest-assured/
• https://www.baeldung.com/serenity-bdd

January 26

• working on second scenario; request to add item to cart is sent successfully but the cart is empty - how to send a POST request with RestAssured: http://appsdeveloperblog.com/rest-assured-http-post-request/
• Postman offers option to copy full request in several programming languages
• problem: cannot replay request anymore in Postman; what changed?
• "?rand" query parameter is different on all requests, also for same session
• learned that cart product item is stored in the cookie; could set it to same value in FireFox
• learned I can set cookie for driver but first have to navigate to the page (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45842709/unable-to-set-cookies-in-selenium-webdriver); also at best first delete other cookies; this works when I first set up the session for that cookie that it contains the named product; cannot repeat test like this
• with this workaround, managed to make the rest of the scenario work
• TODO: find out how to have cart reliably prepared
• can replay XHR request in browser; investigated how to send request via code (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37654521/how-to-send-a-body-of-data-to-xmlhttprequest-that-looks-like-this)
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/XMLHttpRequest/send
• found in source code: ajax-cart.js add to cart button on product page; also: ajax call in line 271; found that the "rand" query parameter is build of date and time; saw meaning of other parameters (add : function(idProduct, idCombination, addedFromProductPage, callerElement, quantity, whishlist))
• researching how to send ajax / xhr request in Java
• https://howtodoinjava.com/ajax/complete-ajax-tutorial/
• maybe running in a wrong direction here; for a REST API I would have the solution already via RestAssured; maybe it should not even be allowed for a shop to add items to cart via API; how to build cookie then? but cookie value does not change when adding or removing items to the cart, so seems only identification of same user session, not more
• running out of ideas now
• frustrated that this scenario is a lot more than expected; wanted to frequently commit small things, feel I cannot right now; don't want to switch to easier scenarios unless I have to; if I have to, I'd like to do a rest assured repo next, need app with restful api then; could make things work if I don't use setup but click through it, it's just not what it's meant to be
• found another practice repo for that, did a workflow scenario: https://github.com/StMarco89/automationpractice.com
• overview page for official demo sites: http://www.seleniumframework.com/demo-sites/ there's a demo user account offered - but it's not working
• found interesting tutorials for selenium & cucumber: http://www.seleniumframework.com/cucumber-jvm-3/complete-hybrid-framework-implementation-3/
• tried Java way: https://www.baeldung.com/java-http-request also not working
• https://www.mkyong.com/java/how-to-send-http-request-getpost-in-java/ 
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3324717/sending-http-post-request-in-java 
• https://dzone.com/articles/how-to-implement-get-and-post-request-through-simp
• another option: ask for feedback how to do it, in own team or in community
• worked for 4.5-5h in a row, couldn't let go; time for a break
• idea after sleeping over it: implement other 2 more simple scenarios to fulfill the scope, have the not working one in a separate branch so I can still get feedback and support on it

January 29

• found the GitHub starting page shows new followers - some known names here! :)
• how to create a new branch via GitHub UI: search for branch, if it does not exist it offers you to create it (https://help.github.com/articles/creating-and-deleting-branches-within-your-repository/)
• committed to master what was not related
• TODO: clean up delete cart item and commit to branch 

January 30

• cleaned up branch
• split different test version into methods to keep code for feedback and be able to switch between them easier
• none of them is working, need feedback
• TODO: implement 2 other scenarios on master to finish scope and ask for feedback

February 5

• implemented search for product scenario within very short time
• tried different ways of for loops (https://crunchify.com/how-to-iterate-through-java-list-4-way-to-iterate-through-loop/)
• tested the test: made sure to compare lowercase versions; scenario works for "shirt" (1 result) or "print" (more results) but not for dress (not all show the search term)
• what's the best way to iterate a list nowadays? new foreach (:) or .foreach
• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/for-each-loop-in-java/
• https://blog.jooq.org/2015/12/08/3-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-replace-your-for-loops-by-stream-foreach/
• https://www.baeldung.com/foreach-java
• TODO: implement 3rd scenario, then final cleanup, merge master to branch, and ask for feedback

February 6

• several potential scenarios to try
• tried to go for categories; stumbled across finding a good selector for menu element, was not interactable
• switched to extend the search feature by further scenarios; added view product page
• tried to add view product preview and again element was not interactable; found I was using the mobile site not the website for locating it!
• learned how to use actions to mouse over the element then the next element is interactable
• learned how to switch to an iframe (https://www.guru99.com/handling-iframes-selenium.html)
• merged latest master into branch
• TODO: write blog post with learnings, ask for feedback

Calling for Feedback

That's it so far, good enough for now! Your feedback is appreciated.