watir, element not currently visible

Question

I'm trying to interact with a widget on a webpage, enter data into a form element. But I'm getting an error saying the elements isn't currently visible so cannot be interacted with. When manually interacting with the page, the text box asks you to enter something, then that text goes away when you click on the box and accepts input. I've tried having watir click the box first but that isn't working for me either. Here is the raw html:

<input class="symbol-search ui-autocomplete-input x-defaulttext-ghost" autocomplete="off" role="textbox" aria-autocomplete="list" aria-haspopup="true">`

after I click on the box in my browser that changes to this:

<input class="symbol-search ui-autocomplete-input" autocomplete="off" role="textbox" aria-autocomplete="list" aria-haspopup="true">`

Suggestions? Not possible?

Answer 1

One potential problem is that the input element in your code lacks a 'type' attribute, which is what watir uses to distinguish things like text_field from checkbox (since they are all input elements, but act differently)

Without that type attribute (role doesn't really cut it, it's not even a standard element for an input field, not even in html5, not as far as I can tell

Lacking a type attribute, you won't be able to use most of the standard input types supported by watir, which means you won't have access to a .set method You are likely going to have to address this with the basic 'element' class, and then use something like .send_keys once it has been clicked in order to fire keystrokes at it.

Who's widget is this anyway? do they have a demo page that shows an example of it? that would make it easier for people to discover potential ways to work with the control.

Answer 2

This worked for me:

b.text_field(:class => /autocomplete/).set 'hello'