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Asked: 2026-06-15T13:14:21+00:00

Trying to test that page contains <title>My Title</title> with: # spec/features/reports_spec.rb require ‘spec_helper’ feature

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Trying to test that page contains <title>My Title</title> with:

# spec/features/reports_spec.rb
require 'spec_helper'

feature "Archive Management" do
  subject { page }

  describe "Index Page" do
    before(:all) { 10.times { FactoryGirl.create(:randomreport) } }
    after(:all) { Report.delete_all }

    describe "when no search terms present" do
      before { visit reports_path }

      it { should have_selector('title', text: 'My Title') } # <= Fails w/Capybara 2.0
      it { should have_selector('title') }                   # <= passes
      it { should have_text('My Title') }                    # <= passes
      it { should have_selector('h2', text: "Welcome") }     # <= passes
    end
  end
end

Error message: 

 Failure/Error: it { should have_selector('title', text: base_title) }
 Capybara::ExpectationNotMet:
   expected to find css "title" with text "My Title" but there were no matches. Also found "", which matched the selector but not all filters.

I know I’m overlooking the painfully obvious but can’t figure out what it is? Are <title> tags no longer considered ‘selectors’?!? Or…?!?

Edit (debugger info):

If I drop down into the debugger as cleverly suggested by @shioyama it is clear that the page.body contains <title>My Title</title>. The same page.body that contains <h2>Welcome to My Title Project</h2> and passes!

It appears to find the <title>…</title> tag but not My Title within it. But it does find My Title later in the page within <a href=\"/\" class=\"brand\">My Title</a> and/or in <h2>Welcome to The My Title Project</h2>:

(rdb:1) p page
#<Capybara::Session>
(rdb:1) p page.body
"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<title>My Title</title>\n
<meta content='research, report, technology' name='keywords'>\n<meta 
content='Some Project' name='description'>\n<link href=\"/assets/application.css\"
...
</head>\n<body>\n<header class='navbar navbar-fixed-top 
navbar-inverse'>\n<div class='navbar-inner'>\n<div class='container'>\n
<a href=\"/\" class=\"brand\">My Title</a>\n<div class='pull-right'>\n
<ul class='nav'>\n<li><a href=\"/about\">About</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"/help\">Help</a>
</li>\n</ul>\n<form accept-charset=\"UTF-8\" action=\"/reports\" 
class=\"navbar-search\" method=\"get\"><div style=\"margin:0;padding:0;display:inline\">
<input name=\"utf8\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"&#x2713;\" /></div>\n
<input class=\"search-query\" id=\"query\" name=\"query\" 
placeholder=\"Search\" type=\"text\" />\n</form>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</header>\n\n
<div class='container'>\n<div class='hero-unit center'>\n<h1>My Title</h1>\n
<h2>Welcome to The My Title Project</h2>\n<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur 
adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. 
...

What else could I try in the debugger to figure out why have_selector?(‘title’, text: …) is failing?

So, what is the proper way to test for a title in Capybara 2.0?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I had the same issues when I upgraded to Capybara 2.0, and managed to solve them by creating the following custom RSpec matcher using Capybara.string:

    spec/support/utilities.rb

    RSpec::Matchers::define :have_title do |text|
  match do |page|
    Capybara.string(page.body).has_selector?('title', text: text)
  end
end

    Now, in a spec file where subject { page }, I can use:

    it { should have_title("My Title") }
it { should_not have_title("My Title") }

    As an aside, the conversation on this question was extremely helpful in getting me to this answer, so thank you!

    Update 1:

    If you don’t want to create a custom RSpec matcher, thanks to this StackOverflow answer by user dimuch I now know that you can call have_selector directly on page.source (aliased page.body) to test for non-visible DOM elements:

    it "should show the correct title" do
  page.source.should have_selector('title', text: 'My Title')
end

    or where subject { page }:

    its(:source) { should have_selector('title', text: 'My Title') }

    Update 2:

    From Capybara 2.1, there are built-in have_title/has_title? matchers, negating the need for the custom RSpec matcher in this answer. Furthermore, the its(:source) { ... } tests described in Update 1 seem to break under Capybara 2.1; I’ve confirmed the have_title/has_title? work as expected, so it’s probably best to go with the following syntax if you plan on upgrading:

    When subject { page }:

    it { should have_title("My Title") }
it { should_not have_title("My Title") }

    When using expect syntax within an it/scenario block:

    expect(page).to have_title("My Title")
expect(page).to_not have_title("My Title")
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