Question

I am unable to use a method when I move a piece of code to another file.

Below mentioned code works cause all the code is in one file.

require 'rubygems'
require 'watir'
require 'win32ole'
require 'erb' 
require 'ostruct' 
require 'C:/classes/html.class'
require 'C:/classes/Xls'
require 'C:/classes/screen_capture'
require 'C:/classes/RequiredRubies'
include Watir
begin

      xlFile = XLS.new(Dir.pwd + '/testdata.xls') 
      myData = xlFile.getRowRecords('a2:z3','Pit') 
      xlFile.close
      myData.each do |record| 

      @ie = IE.new 
      @ie.maximize
      @ie.goto (record['Url'])
      @ie.focus

end
end

In above code ‘URL’ is present in an excel sheet names testdata.xls. The above code works just fine. Lets say this file name is file1.rb

But I want to move the opening of browser into different file so that I don’t use this code in all the test files and use it in only one file and call from it to all other test. Below is the change which I have done but this does not work.

In File1.rb I have kept

All Required Files+new file where I have mentioned the common code to open the browser

require 'C:/function.rb

include Watir
include Commonfunctions

begin

      xlFile = XLS.new(Dir.pwd + '/testdata.xls') 
      myData = xlFile.getRowRecords('a2:z3','Pit') 
      xlFile.close
      myData.each do |record| 

   openie = openbrowser

end

end

And I have created a file for opening the browser which I want to use as common function. Lets say this file name in function.rb

All Required files+below code

include Watir

module Commonfunctions


def openbrowser
      @ie = IE.new 
      @ie.maximize
      @ie.goto (record['Url'])
      @ie.focus
end

end

Now when I run my file1.rb I get the below error

C:/function.rb:17:in `openbrowser': undefined local variable or method `reco
rd' for main:Object (NameError)
        from test.rb:23:in `block in <main>'
        from test.rb:21:in `each'
        from test.rb:21:in `<main>'

The ‘record’ object is coming from different file which is my data drive. In that file this is the code where method record is present

    numRecords = myRange.Rows.Count
    (0..numRecords-1).each do |i|
      record=[]
      areas.each do |area|
        record.concat(area[i])
      end
      #Clean up formatting
      record.collect! do |x|
        if x.is_a?(Float) and x % 1 == 0
           x.to_i.to_s
         else
          x.to_s.strip
        end
      end
      data << record
    end
    return data
  end

Can any one please help me to resolve this issue. I want to move all the common functions to one file and use those functions in all test instead of writing the same functions in all tests.

Answer 1

record is a lexically scoped variable defined in the args to your block which begins myData.each do |record|. Since it’s lexically scoped it can not be referenced by name outside of the context it’s declared in, so you must pass it to the method you made explicitly.

myData.each do |record| 
   openie = openbrowser record # pass it here
end

# and in the other file

def openbrowser record
      @ie = IE.new 
      @ie.maximize
      @ie.goto (record['Url'])
      @ie.focus
end

BTW, In your question you state that “The ‘record’ object is coming from diffent file”. This is not true, as I’ve already pointed out where the record in the context of your issue is set. You were confused here because you’re using poor generic names and not writing small blocks of code with limited scope.

I appreciate that you’re working to refactor to improve the code organization. There are many more things with your code samples that deserve some attention: some stylistic (camelCaseNames, random indentation), some structural (no OO, imperative file scripting), some syntactic traps (space between method name and first paren of args), some idiom (poor command of enumerable methods). You might benefit by walking through your code with an experienced ruby programmer and ask for pointers in a code review.