Selenium to test Page without opening the page again - unit-testing

Question

I have a requirement where I want to test the below scenario with Selenium:
Open the xhtml page and the value in the datatable is 10.
Change the value in the database from 10 to 20
Click on the refresh button(Without opening the same xhtml page again) and value should be 20 now.
Below is what I am doing. But no success..
#Test
#InSequence(1)
public void addTestData() {
Warp.initiate(new Activity() {
#Override
public void perform() {
OurPage page = OurPage.on(selenium).withPath(SetupTestData.PATH);
page.addTestDataFor(REFRESH_SHOULD_WORK);
}
}).inspect(new Inspection() {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
});
}
#InSequence(2)
#Test
public void refreshShouldWork() {
Warp.initiate(new Activity() {
#Override
public void perform() {
CountryDetailsPage page = new CountryDetailsPage(selenium).withPath(CountryDetailsPage.PATH);
page.open();
System.out.println("*** PAGE OPENED ****");
waitGui().until().element(page.table(PROGRESSES_TABLE)).is().present();
assertThat(page.table.row(FIRST).cell(FIFTH).text(), is("10"));
// FIXME: Need to find out the way to change the value
page.refresh().click();
System.out.println("*** CLICKED REFRESH ****");
waitGui().until().element(page.table(PROGRESSES_TABLE)).is().present();
assertThat(page.table.row(FIRST).cell(FIFTH).text(), is("20"));
}
}).inspect(new Inspection() {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
#AfterPhase(RENDER_RESPONSE)
public void beforeRenderResponse() {
System.out.println("*** AFTER RENDER RESPONSE****");
}
#AfterPhase(Phase.APPLY_REQUEST_VALUES)
public void afterRenderResponse() {
System.out.println("*** AFTER APPLY REQUEST VALUES ****");
}
});
}
If you have any idea how can I achieve this, please let me know. Thanks

Answer 1

Being that Selenium automates only the UI, you should let a different technology handle the database. Selenium by itself is unable to connect to any database and change what you want.
You can use Java to do this. More specifically, use Java Database Connectivity (JDBC).
Here's an example that Vogella uses
try {
// this will load the MySQL driver, each DB has its own driver
Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
// setup the connection with the DB.
connect = DriverManager
.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://localhost/feedback?"
+ "user=sqluser&password=sqluserpw");
// statements allow to issue SQL queries to the database
statement = connect.createStatement();
// resultSet gets the result of the SQL query
resultSet = statement
.executeQuery("select * from FEEDBACK.COMMENTS");
writeResultSet(resultSet);
// preparedStatements can use variables and are more efficient
preparedStatement = connect
.prepareStatement("insert into FEEDBACK.COMMENTS values (default, ?, ?, ?, ? , ?, ?)");
// "myuser, webpage, datum, summary, COMMENTS from FEEDBACK.COMMENTS");
// parameters start with 1
preparedStatement.setString(1, "Test");
preparedStatement.setString(2, "TestEmail");
preparedStatement.setString(3, "TestWebpage");
preparedStatement.setDate(4, new java.sql.Date(2009, 12, 11));
preparedStatement.setString(5, "TestSummary");
preparedStatement.setString(6, "TestComment");
preparedStatement.executeUpdate();
...
} catch (Exception e) {
throw e;
} finally {
close();
}
}
Update the above code to update the actual mysql field, and you'll be golden. Though I don't think this is a good test, as again, the UI should be making the change and Selenium should be detecting it. This might be a good candidate for an integration test. Not a Selenium test.