How to input text to non standard input elements - watir

Question

I'm faced with a span element for text input instead of an input box, and I'm struggling to use Watir (Ruby) to enter text. There's no set method, there is a text method that returns the text fine, but I don't seem to be able to set the text that way.
I've also tried using span.select and span.focus and then browser.send_keys but nothing is input in the field.
<div class="UFIAddCommentInput _1osb _5yk1">
<div class="_5yk2" tabindex="-2">
<div class="_5rp7">
<div class="_1p1t">
<div class="_1p1v">
Write a reply...
</div>
</div>
<div class="_5rpb">
<div aria-autocomplete="list" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="false" aria-owns="js_3i" class="_5rpu" contenteditable="true" data-testid="ufi_reply_composer" role="combobox" spellcheck="true" title="Write a reply..." id="js_3j">
<div data-contents="true">
<div data-block="true" data-offset-key="8c176-0-0" class="_45m_ _2vxa">
<span data-offset-key="8c176-0-0">
<br data-text="true">
</br>
</span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
What could I try next? Is there a way to stop front end designers using non-standard elements?

Answer 1

You can use javascript to do this. The difficulty for me was to handle the nested quotes.
Two pieces of knowledge I had to figure out first before being able to do this w/ regards to nested strings:
a.) regarding how javascript handles nested quotes: http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_strings.asp
b.) on how to deal with nested quotes in ruby: Escaping single and double qoutes from a string in ruby (the %Q operator lets you set whatever you want to begin and end a string)
css_selector = "span[data-offset-key='8c176-0-0']"
b.execute_script(%Q|query="#{css_selector}"|)
b.execute_script("document.querySelector(query).innerHTML='that was tricky'")
Looks like the ability to inject JavaScript using procedures such as this enables you to be able to do just about anything Watir can't do otherwise. Good question, this was a learning experience for me too