Doing integration tests on apps with real-time multi-user features like chat is incredibly useful since it’s a pain to hop between multiple browsers with different users logged in to test them manually. It wasn’t immediately obvious to me that this capability is built into Capybara, but after spotting this post I adapted it slightly for RSpec request specs since that’s what I use.

A helpful helper

Here’s the helper I use to manage which browser is in use:

# spec/requests/helpers.rb
def in_browser(name)
  old_session = Capybara.session_name

  Capybara.session_name = name
  yield

  Capybara.session_name = old_session
end

Example spec

Here’s how it looks in practice:

# spec/requests/chat.rb
it "allows chatting" do
  in_browser(:one) do
    sign_in_as "joe"

    visit "/chat"
  end

  in_browser(:two) do
    sign_in_as "bob"

    visit "/chat"
  end

  in_browser(:one) do
    page.should have_content("bob just entered the chat")
    add_comment "Hey Bob"
  end

  in_browser(:two) do
    page.should have_content("Hey Bob")
    add_comment "Hey Joe"
  end

  in_browser(:one) do
    page.should have_content("Hey Joe")
  end
end

This assumes the helpers signinas and add_comment exist, just for the sake of keeping the example short.

At first it was tempting to use a helper like as_user(:bob), but each time Capybara.session_name is set to a new value it opens a new browser instance, so across a bunch of request specs opening as different user names you could end up with a lot of browsers open which can have a substantial memory footprint.