How to click on activation link in the mail in cucumber feature?

Question

I have as usual common functionality as after sign up user receives confirmation mail which contains activation link. After clicking on that link user is confirmed and then only he can sign in to the respective system. So, how to get mail and how to click on that activation link using cucumber features? Please suggest.

Answer 1

Try this email-spec

You can use defined step

When I follow "activate" in the email

And here is list of defined steps.

Answer 2

I would suggest just testing the code that generates the link. So in your step definition just goto the activation_url(@user) or whatever you use to generate the link. Interacting with mail is a bit of a pain, your tests will be cleaner if you just test the mail sent, and then separately test the code that generates the url.

EDIT for example

Given /^I have been sent an activation email$/ do
  @user = FactoryGirl.create(:unactived_user)
end

When /^I click on the activation link$/ do
  visit(activation_url(@user)
end

Then /^I should see a success message$/ do
  page.has_content('Success!')
end

This is assuming you're using FactoryGirl and Capybara, and already have an 'unactived_user' setup in your Factory.rb file.