Capybara's within() Altering expect(page) Scope

When making assertions inside a within block the assertion scope is limited to the element selected by the within() function, although it looks like you are asserting on the entire page!

scenario 'Pressing Escape closes autocomplete popup' do
  within('#new-broadcast') do
    find('#broadcast_field').set('Hello ')
      start_typing_name('#broadcast_field', '@Bret')
      # will fail below
      expect(page).to have_selector('.ui-autocomplete')
      send_keys('#broadcast_field', :escape)
  end
  expect(page).to have_no_selector('.ui-autocomplete')
end

The above code failed the first expect() and it took me some time before I figured it out. Capybara's test suite itself gives you the answer

it "should assert content in the given scope" do
  @session.within(:css, "#for_foo") do
    expect(@session).not_to have_content('First Name')
  end
  expect(@session).to have_content('First Name')
end

So know your frameworks and happy testing.

Comments !