Focusing Areas

By default, Alumnium operates over the entire application under test. However, this approach can have drawbacks, sometimes resulting in cumbersome and slow tests.

For example, imagine you are testing two similar-looking tables:

Suppose you want to assert data from each table separately. You would need to repeat the table name in each call:

last_names = al.get("last names from 'Example 1' table")
first_names = al.get("first names from 'Example 1' table")
assert last_names == ["Smith", "Bach", "Doe", "Conway"]
assert first_names == ["John", "Frank", "Jason", "Tim"]

const lastNames = await al.get("last names from 'Example 1' table");
const firstNames = await al.get("first names from 'Example 1' table");
expect(lastNames).toEqual(["Smith", "Bach", "Doe", "Conway"]);
expect(firstNames).toEqual(["John", "Frank", "Jason", "Tim"]);

This repetition is not only cumbersome but also affects accuracy and performance, as Alumnium must process the accessibility tree of the entire application each time, including both tables. To simplify your tests and improve both accuracy and speed, you can locate an area and retrieve data from it instead:

area = al.area("'Example 1' table")
assert area.get("last names") == ["Smith", "Bach", "Doe", "Conway"]
assert area.get("first names") == ["John", "Frank", "Jason", "Tim"]

const area = await al.area("'Example 1' table");
expect(await area.get("last names")).toEqual(["Smith", "Bach", "Doe", "Conway"]);
expect(await area.get("first names")).toEqual(["John", "Frank", "Jason", "Tim"]);

You can use all regular Alumnium methods on areas, including do, get, check, and find. Once located, the area is not automatically updated when UI of the application changes. This means that you need to re-locate area again so it’s fresh:

area = al.area("'Example 1' table")
assert area.get("last names") == ["Smith", "Bach", "Doe", "Conway"]

area.do("sort by last name")  # change order of rows
assert area.get("last names") == ["Bach", "Conway", "Doe", "Smith"]  # error

area = al.area("'Example 1' table")  # re-locate the table
assert area.get("last names") == ["Bach", "Conway", "Doe", "Smith"]  # passes

let area = await al.area("'Example 1' table");
expect(await area.get("last names")).toEqual(["Smith", "Bach", "Doe", "Conway"]);

await area.do("sort by last name"); // change order of rows
expect(await area.get("last names")).toEqual(["Bach", "Conway", "Doe", "Smith"]); // error

area = await al.area("'Example 1' table"); // re-locate the table
expect(await area.get("last names")).toEqual(["Bach", "Conway", "Doe", "Smith"]); // passes