Get it here: http://www.bewildr.info

After writing an automation framework to test a WPF GUI using IronRuby and White, I decided to write a ruby-specific gem for automating WPF UI tests. Kinda like Watir, but for WPF instead of the web. The gem is called bewildr - I’ve been working on it for a while and it’s finally in a releasable state.

Here’s an example of bewildr being used in rspec to show you what it’s all about:

require 'rubygems'
require 'spec'
require 'bewildr'

describe "my example app" do
  it "should not allow invalid users to log in" do
    #start the app and wait for the main window
    @app, @main_window = Bewildr::Application.start_app_and_wait_for_window("c:\\app.exe", /App v1.\d+/)

    username_field = @main_window.get(:id => "username")
    password_field = @main_window.get(:id => "password")
    login_button   = @main_window.get(:type => :button, :name => "Go")

    #some initial checks...
    username_field.should be_enabled
    password_field.should be_a_password_field

    #attempt login with invalid user
    username_field.text = "invalidUser"
    password_field.text = "s3cr3t"
    login_button.click

    #check we're not logged in
    @main_window.get(:id => "login_message").text.should match("Wrong username/password")
  end
end

And, since bewildr was written ‘BDD-style’ there are loads of examples of its use in cucumber here: http://github.com/natritmeyer/bewildr/tree/master/features/

Cool:

• It’s written in ruby
• It’s free (as in speech – BSD license)
• It’s free (as in beer – there are no bazillion-dollar yearly license fees)
• It’s easy to install (here’s how: gem install bewildr)
• It has a clean API (makes for idiomatic tests in cucumber/rspec)
• It has a strong test focus (…of the testers, by the testers, for the testers…)
• It’s been written BDD-style
• It’s updated frequently
• It allows tests to be written in an interpreted language (with all the flexibility which that gives you – unlike White)

Not Cool:

• It’s limited to IronRuby, not MRI/YARV (it needs access to .Net automation)
• It’s new – expect bugs (please raise them when you find them)
• It’s built on top of MS UI Automation (expect quirkiness)
• There is quite a bit to do before it does everything I want it to, eg: it doesn’t yet allow you to test for visibility, there’s no drag-and-drop; see here for more

Note: I have no intention to support anything but WPF. No WinForms, no Silverlight, no [insert non-WPF tech here]. Not yet anyway…

So, if you’re looking for a UI testing tool to automate your WPF app with, but QTP is too expensive and White is too [insert pejorative here]… Well, what are you waiting for?  http://www.bewildr.info