What is the use of the static initialization block in Groovy. Why does Geb use it? If the use of it is the same as in Java, then how can you initialize non-declared fields in a situtation like this?
class ManualsMenuModule extends Module {
static content = {
toggle { $("div.menu a.manuals") }
linksContainer { $("#manuals-menu") }
links { linksContainer.find("a") }
}
void open() {
toggle.click()
waitFor { !linksContainer.hasClass("animating") }
}
}
Some answers to your questions are provided in the section about the content DSL of the Geb manual.
The DSL is implemented using Groovy's methodMissing() mechanism and modification of the delegate of the closure assigned to the static content field. If you are interested in digging deeper then you can always look at the implementation in PageContentTemplateBuilder.
I'm not expert on Geb, I can only explain the groovy meaning of the code.
1st off, it's not the static initialization block like in java. In those lines static content = {...} you are assigning to a static variable a Closure instance which is evaluated and executed LATER (hence, lazy).
The closure represents a (part of) a Geb's Groovy Builder which is called by Geb framework to register/perform some tasks.
There's no Java counterpart to achieve the same, and that's the reason why groovy-based frameworks are so nice to use for testing purposes and they follow the general rule of thumb:
test code should be more abstract then the code under test
UPDATE:
This line:
toggle { $("div.menu a.manuals") }
can be rewritten like
toggle( { $("div.menu a.manuals") } )
or
def a = { $("div.menu a.manuals") }
toggle a
so it's a method invocation and not an assignment. In groovy you can omit the brackets in some cases.
Related
I have problems to understand the syntax with which pages are described (defined) in Geb. The following is an example page class that works fine but I don't understand how it works.
import geb.Page
class GebHomePage extends Page{
static url = "http://gebish.org"
static at = { title == "Geb - Very Groovy Browser Automation" }
static content = {
seeGuideButton { $('div', class:'ui huge primary button') }
uiHeader { $('h1', class:'ui header', 0)}
}
}
I am interested in the syntax inside the closure referred to by content. Geb describes the syntax for the content DSL as
«name»(«options map») { «definition» }
I don't understand this syntax. The name part looks like a variable, but it is not declared (I miss a def or something similar) and the last part looks like a closure. But where is the connection between the name and the closure. There is no equal sign connecting the two. In a standard groovy class the syntax
«name» { «definition» }
does not compile. What happens in one line of the content DSL? What precisely are uiHeader and seeGuideButton and how are they related to the following closures? How does this syntax work exactly?
Behind the scenes, Geb looks for a method with the signature:
uiHeader(Map, Closure)
In groovy, you can catch when a method is missing (see methodMissing) so internally Geb will catch this and know how to resolve any future requests for that variable
Also in groovy, a Closure as the last parameter can be outside the brackets, which is why you can do
uiHeader(required: false) { $('h1') }
I have a scripting system where depending on where the script is executed you have access to different variables. I also want to have inferred types for a type of Auto-Completion for the script editor.
But when the types are inferred during the compile phase, I have no way of giving a Binding which explains to the compilation phase what types those dynamic variables have.
I have currently solved this by:
Not compiling the code with either #TypeChecked nor #CompileStatic but later manually running a subclassed StaticCompilationVisitor on the dynamically typed codebase and manually filling in the StaticTypesMarker.INFERRED_TYPE inside visitVariableExpression() for the dynamic variables that I know exists.
However, this seems like the wrong way to go about it, and I would actually like to work with the VariableScope instead. But it seems to be under rough lockdown inside the VariableScopeVisitor, so it's difficult to pop in a CustomVariableScope that dynamically does the lookups. I have managed to do this with reflection, replacing the VariableScopeVisitor inside CompilationUnit and currentScope and such inside VaribleScopeVisitor. It works, but I don't like working against hard-coded private field names.
This might be a long-winded way of asking: Is there an official way of handling a situation of static typing with dynamic variables? I cannot do this by setting scriptBaseClass for reasons too complex to explain here.
If the question is unclear, please tell me and I'll try to edit in better explanations.
The answer was to add a GroovyTypeCheckingExtensionSupport to a StaticTypeCheckingVisitor and then use visitClass on the first ClassNode of the CompilationUnit.
final ClassNode classNode = this.compilationUnit.getFirstClassNode();
final StaticCompilationVisitor visitor = new StaticCompilationVisitor(this.sourceUnit, classNode);
visitor.addTypeCheckingExtension(new MyGroovyTypeCheckingExtensionSupport(visitor, this.compilationUnit));
visitor.visitClass(classNode);
visitor.performSecondPass();
And create something like the class below:
private static class MyGroovyTypeCheckingExtensionSupport extends GroovyTypeCheckingExtensionSupport {
private static final ClassNode CLASSNODE_OBJECT = ClassHelper.make(Object.class);
public MyGroovyTypeCheckingExtensionSupport(StaticTypeCheckingVisitor typeCheckingVisitor, CompilationUnit compilationUnit) {
super(typeCheckingVisitor, "", compilationUnit);
}
#Override
public boolean handleUnresolvedVariableExpression(VariableExpression vexp) {
final ClassNode type = this.getType(vexp);
if (type == null || type.equals(CLASSNODE_OBJECT)) {
if (vextp.getName().equals("something")) {
this.storeType(vexp, ClassHelper.make(SomeClass.class));
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
}
Let's consider a simple Groovy DSL
execute {
sendNotification owner
sendNotification payee
}
The implementation of execute is
public static void execute(Closure dslCode) {
Closure clonedCode = dslCode.clone()
def dslDelegate = new MyDslDelegate(owner: 'IncCorp', payee: 'TheBoss')
clonedCode.delegate = dslDelegate
clonedCode.call()
}
and custom Delegate is
public static class MyDslDelegate {
def owner
def payee
void sendNotification(to) {
println "Notification sent to $to"
}
}
The expected result of running execute block is
Notification sent to IncCorp
Notification sent to TheBoss
the actual one is
Notification sent to class package.OwnerClassName
Notification sent to TheBoss
The problem is owner is a reserved property in the Groovy Closure itself and no resolveStrategy options help to replace owner value with custom value from delegate due to Groovy getProperty implementation for Closure
public Object getProperty(final String property) {
if ("delegate".equals(property)) {
return getDelegate();
} else if ("owner".equals(property)) {
return getOwner();
...
} else {
switch(resolveStrategy) {
case DELEGATE_FIRST:
...
}
My question is how some one can outcome this limitation and use owner property name in a custom DSL?
This is a bit of a hack, but this should get you what you want, without altering Groovy source:
public static void execute(Closure dslCode) {
Closure clonedCode = dslCode.clone()
def dslDelegate = new MyDslDelegate(owner: 'IncCorp', payee: 'TheBoss')
clonedCode.#owner = dslDelegate.owner
clonedCode.resolveStrategy = Closure.DELEGATE_ONLY
clonedCode.delegate = dslDelegate
clonedCode.call()
}
Ref: Is it possible to change the owner of a closure?
The simple answer is no, you can't. 'owner' is a reserved keyword in Groovy, and therefore by definition cannot be used as an arbitrary symbol. Even if there is a way to hack around this, you're far better off just using a name that doesn't conflict with the implementation of the language- this is especially true in Groovy, which keeps promising to redesign its MOP completely, meaning that any hack you implement may well stop working in future versions.
Perhaps the question would make more sense if you explained why you are willing to offer a bounty and search for a way of hacking around this problem, rather than just changing the name to something different and avoiding the problem entirely. Reserved symbols are a pretty fundamental limitation of a language, and ever attempting to work around them seems very unwise.
I need to mock a static method. I'm using the EMC approach described at Mocking static methods using groovy. Like this
TestDaemon.metaClass.'static'.newDownloadManager = {downloadManager}
The method newDownloadManager has no parameters and for some reason it is not replaced. The original code is called. In debug mode I can see that the closure that I define has a parameter. May be that's the reason? How can I define a closure without parameters? Or how can I mock a static method with no parameters?
Meta class changes aren't visible to Java code. Groovy can't help you to mock a static method that gets called from Java code. You will have to use something like JMockit instead (or refactor the code under test).
A closure written like that has an implicit parameter. Write the closure with { -> } syntax. Example:
x = { println "foo" }
y = { -> println "foo" }
assert x.parameterTypes as List == [Object]
assert y.parameterTypes as List == []
As new to groovy...
I'm trying to replace the java idiom for event listeners, filters, etc.
My working code in groovy is the following:
def find() {
ODB odb = ODBFactory.open(files.nodupes); // data nucleus object database
Objects<Prospect> src = odb.getObjects(new QProspect());
src.each { println it };
odb.close();
}
class QProspect extends SimpleNativeQuery {
public boolean match(Prospect p) {
if (p.url) {
return p.url.endsWith(".biz");
}
return false;
}
}
Now, this is far from what I'm used to in java, where the implementation of the Query interface is done right inside the odb.getObjects() method. If I where to code "java" I'd probably do something like the following, yet it's not working:
Objects<Prospect> src = odb.getObjects( {
boolean match(p) {
if (p.url) {
return p.url.endsWith(".biz");
}
return false;
}
} as SimpleNativeQuery);
Or better, I'd like it to be like this:
Objects<Prospect> src = odb.getObjects(
{ it.url.endsWith(".biz") } as SimpleNativeQuery
);
However, what groovy does it to associate the "match" method with the outer script context and fail me.
I find groovy... groovy anyways so I'll stick to learning more about it. Thanks.
What I should've asked was how do we do the "anonymous" class in groovy. Here's the java idiom:
void defReadAFile() {
File[] files = new File(".").listFiles(new FileFilter() {
public boolean accept(File file) {
return file.getPath().endsWith(".biz");
}
});
}
Can groovy be as concise with no additional class declaration?
I think it would have helped you to get answers if you'd abstracted the problem so that it didn't rely on the Neodatis DB interface -- that threw me for a loop, as I've never used it. What I've written below about it is based on a very cursory analysis.
For that matter, I've never used Groovy either, though I like what I've seen of it. But seeing as no one else has answered yet, you're stuck with me :-)
I think the problem (or at least part of it) may be that you're expecting too much of the SimpleNativeQuery class from Neodatis. It doesn't look like it even tries to filter the objects before it adds them to the returned collection. I think instead you want to use org.neodatis.odb.impl.core.query.criteria.CriteriaQuery. (Note the "impl" in the package path. This has me a bit nervous, as I don't know for sure if this class is meant to be used by callers. But I don't see any other classes in Neodatis that allow for query criteria to be specified.)
But instead of using CriteriaQuery directly, I think you'd rather wrap it inside of a Groovy class so that you can use it with closures. So, I think a Groovy version of your code with closures might look something like this:
// Create a class that wraps CriteriaQuery and allows you
// to pass closures. This is wordy too, but at least it's
// reusable.
import org.neodatis.odb.impl.core.query.criteria;
class GroovyCriteriaQuery extends CriteriaQuery {
private final c;
QProspect(theClosure) {
// I prefer to check for null here, instead of in match()
if (theClosure == null) {
throw new InvalidArgumentException("theClosure can't be null!");
}
c = theClosure;
}
public boolean match(AbstractObjectInfo aoi){
//!! I'm assuming here that 'aoi' can be used as the actual
//!! object instance (or at least as proxy for it.)
//!! (You may have to extract the actual object from aoi before calling c.)
return c(aoi);
}
}
// Now use the query class in some random code.
Objects<Prospect> src = odb.getObjects(
new GroovyCriteriaQuery(
{ it.url.endsWith(".biz") }
)
)
I hope this helps!
I believe your real question is "Can I use closures instead of anonymous classes when calling Java APIs that do not use closures". And the answer is a definite "yes". This:
Objects<Prospect> src = odb.getObjects(
{ it.url.endsWith(".biz") } as SimpleNativeQuery
);
should work. You write "However, what groovy does it to associate the "match" method with the outer script context and fail me". How exactly does it fail? It seems to me like you're having a simple technical problem to get the solution that is both "the groovy way" and exactly what you desire to work.
Yep, thanks y'all, it works.
I also found out why SimpleNativeQuery does not work (per Dan Breslau).
I tried the following and it worked wonderfully. So the idiom does work as expected.
new File("c:\\temp").listFiles({ it.path.endsWith(".html") } as FileFilter);
This next one does not work because of the neodatis interface. The interface does not enforce a match() method! It only mentions it in the documentation yet it's not present in the class file:
public class SimpleNativeQuery extends AbstactQuery{
}
Objects<Prospect> src = odb.getObjects(
{ it.url.endsWith(".biz") } as SimpleNativeQuery
);
In the above, as the SimpleNativeQuery does not have a match() method, it makes it impossible for the groovy compiler to identify which method in the SimpleNativeQuery should the closure be attached to; it then defaults to the outer groovy script.
It's my third day with groovy and I'm loving it.
Both books are great:
- Groovy Recipes (Scott Davis)
- Programming Groovy (Venkat Subramaniam)