Skip to main content

Is page object returning another page object a bad practice?

I have come across few articles which talk of page object returning another page object being bad practice. The reason cited are following -

  • Tight coupling between page objects and less flexibility
  • Duplication of code as two variant of a method need to be created returning two different page object depending on if operation was valid or not, i.e. -
loginAs‘ and ‘loginAsExpectingError

Let’s see following example of page objects wherein a page object class does not return another page object. For the sake of simplicity, I have consider three page object classes -


  • LoginPage class which lets user login
  • LoggedInUserHomePage class which provides services when user is logged in
  • InvoiceDetailPage class using which user invoice details

A simplified version of classes would be -

public class LoginPage {

  public LoginPage() {
      if(!WebUIDriver.getWebDriver().getTitle().equalsIgnoreCase("login page")) {
          throw new IllegalStateException("Not Login Page");
      }
  }

private TextFieldElement loginTextBox = new TextFieldElement("login text box", Locator.locateById("login"));

private TextFieldElement passwordTextBox = new TextFieldElement("password text box", Locato.locateById("password"));

private ButtonElement submitButton = new ButtonElement("password text box", Locator.locateById("password"));


public void login(User user) {
      loginTextBox.sendKeys(user.getUserName());
      passwordTextBox.sendKeys(user.getPassword());
      submitButton.click();
  }
}

public class LoggedInUserHomePage {

  public LoggedInUserHomePage() {
      if(!WebUIDriver.getWebDriver().getTitle().equalsIgnoreCase("logged in user page")) {
          throw new IllegalStateException("not logged in user page");
      }
  }

  public void getInvoiceDetailsOfOrderNumber(Object orderNumber) {
  }
}

And

public class InvoiceDetailPage {

public InvoiceDetailPage() {
      if(!WebUIDriver.getWebDriver().getTitle().equalsIgnoreCase("invoice detail page")) {
          throw new IllegalStateException("Not invoice detail Page");
      }
  }

public BigDecimal getOrderAmount(Object orderNumber) {
      return orderAmount;
  }
}


A test method may look as -

@Test
public void shouldDisplayOrderAmountOfGivenOrderNumber() {
  int orderNumber = 12345;
  BigDecimal expectedOrderAmount = new BigDecimal(50.0);

  LoginPage loginPage = new LoginPage();
  loginPage.login(new User());

LoggedInUserHomePage loggedInUserHomePage = new LoggedInUserHomePage();
  loggedInUserHomePage.getInvoiceDetailsOfOrderNumber(orderNumber);

  InvoiceDetailPage invoiceDetailPage = new InvoiceDetailPage();
  BigDecimal orderAmount = invoiceDetailPage.getOrderAmount(orderNumber);

  assertThat("Wrong order amount", orderAmount, is(expectedOrderAmount));
}


Notice that how each page object class had to be instantiated each time before being able to use the corresponding page object. That’s because none of our page object method return a page object.
Now let’s consider the old page object approach wherein each page object method return object of another page if it brings control on it. In this case test method would looks as -


@Test
public void shouldDisplayOrderAmountOfGivenOrderNumber() {
  int orderNumber = 12345;
  BigDecimal expectedOrderAmount = new BigDecimal(50.0);

  BigDecimal orderAmount = new LoginPage()
                              .login(new User())
                              .getInvoiceDetailsOfOrderNumber(orderNumber)
                              .getOrderAmount(orderNumber);
  assertThat("Wrong order amount", orderAmount, is(expectedOrderAmount));
}

You can see how succinct and comprehensible test is when page object method return other objects. This is an example of just three page objects but real world applications have more deep linked pages than this. And the advantages I cited earlier begin to diminish when pages are deep linked. Do you page object methods also return other page objects? What is your opinion about this?

Popular posts from this blog

Distributed Load Testing with JMeter

Distributed Testing with JMeter When one JMeter client is not able to offer amount of threads required for load testing then distributed testing is used. In distributed testing - One instance of JMeter client can control number of JMeter instances and collect data from them Test plan does not need to be copied to each server, the client sends it to all servers note - JMeter will run all the threads on all the servers, hence 100 threads on 5 JMeter server would pump 500 threads in total. If many server instances are used, the client JMeter can become overloaded and so the client network connection. This has been improved in latest versions of JMeter by switching to Stripped modes, but you should always check that your client is not overloaded When Client (master) and Server (slave) nodes are on same network (no SSH required) Configure Client Node Herein client is referred as the machine controlling test execution on other JMeter nodes. This is also referred

Appium and android mobile app automation

Next appium and Android mobile app automation video tutoria l is live. If you are new to appium then please check - appium-tutorial This video tutorial covers - Start vysor (Just for this session and not mobile automation :)) Start appium and start appium inspector Desired Capabilities platformName - Android deviceName - L2N0219828001013 (as seen on "adb devices") Saved Capability Sets Start Session Scan app elements using appium inspector Get appPackage and appActivity using "APK info" app Install "APK info" app and open app whose appPackage and appActivity are required i.e. calculator Check top section of app icon com.android.calculator2 is app package com.android.calculator2.Calculator is app activity testng.xml file settings for running Android app tests Test details com.seleniumtests.tests.mobile.AndroidAppTest and CalculatorScreen class View beautiful STF test report  

Using chrome console to test xPath and css selectors

Note: If you are new to java and selenium then start with selenium java training videos .       Since the advent of selenium there have been many plugin to test xPath / css selectors but you don’t need any of them if you have chrome browser. Using Chrome console you can test both xPath and css selectors. Launch website to be tested in chrome browser and hit F-12 and you would see chrome console opened in lower pane of application - Hit escape key and console would open another pane to write element locators - And now you can start writing xPath or css selectors in chrome console and test them - The syntax for writing css id - $$(“ ”) And hit the enter key. If your expression is right then html snippet of the application element corresponding to the css selector would be displayed - If you mouse over the html snippet in chrome console then it would highlight the corresponding element in application - If you want to clean console of previously wri