Cucumber/Capybara: check that a page does NOT have content?

Question

Using Cucumber and Capybara, is there a way to verify that a string is NOT present on a page?

For example, how would I write the opposite of this step:

Then /^I should see "(.*?)"$/ do |arg1|
  page.should have_content(arg1)
end

This passes if arg1 is present.

How would I write a step that fails if arg1 is found?

Answer 1

http://rubydoc.info/github/jnicklas/capybara/master/Capybara/Node/Matchers#has_no_text%3F-instance_method

There is a has_no_content matcher in Capybara. So you can write

  Then /^I should not see "(.*?)"$/ do |arg1|
    page.should have_no_content(arg1)
  end

Answer 2

In Rspec 3.4 currently (2016) this is the recommended way to test for not having content:

expect(page).not_to have_content(arg1)

Answer 3

You can also use should_not if you want it read a little better:

Then /^I should not see "(.*?)"$/ do |arg1|
  page.should_not have_content(arg1)
end

Some more info: https://www.relishapp.com/rspec/rspec-expectations/docs

Answer 4

currently, you can use:

Then /^I not see "(.*?)"$/ do |arg1|
  expect(page).to have_no_content(arg1)
end

And if the content is found in the page, your test is red

Answer 5

Oh, wait, I figured it out. This works:

Then /^I should see "(.*?)"$/ do |arg1|
  page.has_content?(arg1) == false
end