Testing menu interaction

[atdrago]

Love the framework! 👍

Is there any way currently to test menu item functionality through spectron? I could test the code itself but that doesn't take into account menu item states like enabled and visible.

If not, is there a suggested strategy for testing menu items?

Thanks!

[kevinsawicki]

If not, is there a suggested strategy for testing menu items?

Not currently, the require('electron').remote.Menu.getApplicationMenu() API does not serialize to JSON so it can't currently be fetched via Spectron.

This is something that should be added though 👍

[navinjoy]

@atdrago wondering how you test the menu functionality like click on the menu item?

If this functionality is added then that would be nice and looking forward for this implementation.

Thanks.

[atdrago]

@navinjoy The way I did it is not great. It relies on there being a renderer process which makes it very difficult to do anything (besides app.restart()) when all windows are closed. But here's what I did. I'm open to suggestions if anyone knows a better way!

In the main process

1. Inject some ipcMain listeners when NODE_ENV=development https://github.com/atdrago/negative/blob/develop/lib/negative.js#L47-L49
2. The listeners call a simulateMenuClick function https://github.com/atdrago/negative/blob/develop/lib/negative-test.js#L35-L72
3. simulateMenuClick checks if the menuItem is enabled and visible, and then calls its click handler if it has one https://github.com/atdrago/negative/blob/develop/lib/negative-test.js#L27-L29

In the tests
4. Use ipcRenderer to send menuItem messages to ipcMain. For example, testing "Zoom In":
https://github.com/atdrago/negative/blob/develop/test/test.js#L233-L255

A couple downfalls of this approach

• As mentioned above, this fails when there are no windows (no renderer processes), so testing things that close and open new windows is painful
• If the menuItem uses role or performSelector, there's no way to test it

[atdrago]

I created a small demo app to show how I implemented my tests. Much easier to digest than looking at Negative. It's actually working quite well now, except for the fact that I still can't test menus that don't have a click handler. It's written for Node v4.4.4 and Electron v0.37.8. @navinjoy I hope this helps you and your team :)

https://github.com/atdrago/electron-testing-legacy

[navinjoy]

@atdrago Thanks a lot for sharing this... we will try and let you know how it goes....have a great day 👍

[kedunuru]

thanks adam ...will try this and let u know how it goes ...this totally works !!! big thank you to adam !

[atdrago]

Not currently, the require('electron').remote.Menu.getApplicationMenu() API does not serialize to JSON so it can't currently be fetched via Spectron.

@kevinsawicki Should I file a new issue under Electron for this?

[kevinsawicki]

Should I file a new issue under Electron for this?

I don't think so, it isn't really an issue in Electron, many APIs may return objects that don't serialize to JSON.

It should probably be fixed here instead.

[greenmanspirit]

Has there been an update on this? I has a preferences window in my app that is activated by a menu item and would like to be able to test it.

Thanks!

[devinaction]

In Ember acceptance tests, I want to click a customized menu option. Is it possible? How do I do that?

[jdhananjaya]

I am trying to test my electron app - menu functionality using spectron and I wanted to know if there is any update...

Thanks

[kontrollanten]

I don't know if anything has changed since this issue was created, regarding the getApplicationMenu() output. When I try to get the application menu from Spectron it will throw an Maximum call stack size exceeded error. It looks like there's a circular reference in the menu, each menu item got an property named menu which references to its parent. That should be possible to solve, but I don't have time right now.

This is what I tried:

  it('should open menu item', async function () {
    await this.app.client.waitUntilWindowLoaded()
      .pause(3000);
    const menu = await this.app.electron.remote.Menu.getApplicationMenu();
  });