Question 1

How to install Poltergeist on Ubuntu?

Accepted Answer

Avoid the official Ubuntu phantomjs package as it doesn't work well; instead, download the binary from the PhantomJS website, extract it, and add bin/phantomjs to your PATH, then install the gem via Bundler with 'gem install poltergeist'.

Question 2

Poltergeist vs Cuprite: which is better for headless testing?

Accepted Answer

Poltergeist uses PhantomJS and is stable for legacy projects but outdated, while Cuprite uses headless Chrome and supports modern web standards. Choose Cuprite for ES6+ features, Poltergeist if you're already invested in PhantomJS.

Question 3

How to debug a MouseEventFailed error in Poltergeist?

Accepted Answer

Enable the :debug option to see click coordinates, take screenshots to check if elements are covered, and consider using DOM click events like trigger('click') as a workaround, as detailed in the troubleshooting section.

Question 4

Does Poltergeist support taking screenshots of specific elements?

Accepted Answer

Yes, use save_screenshot with the :selector option to capture a specific CSS element, and you can also render base64 encoded images with render_base64 for formats like PNG or JPEG.

Question 5

Why are my Poltergeist tests failing with JavaScript errors?

Accepted Answer

PhantomJS lacks ES6 support; set js_errors to true to catch errors, but note that bugs can cause silent failures with features like let or const, so you may need to add polyfills or avoid modern JavaScript.

Question 6

How to block network requests in Poltergeist tests?

Accepted Answer

Use url_blacklist to prevent scripts from running on specific domains, or url_whitelist to restrict to essential domains, which can improve test performance by skipping ads or analytics.

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