Discussion on "Do not put assertions in Page Objects, why?"

Tan Do · 2023-02-12T07:23:24.774Z

If you search for best practices for page object model in automation tests, you will find that many people suggest not using verify commands in Page Object (PO) methods. However, there are no any details' explanation to the reasons. Even the post on ...

Bullet No. 1: If you place verification functions in the Page object, They will still be used/called in the test layer.

You can either implement your assertions in the PO or in some utils folder. Both cases you still only call those methods in the test layer. So there's never a mixture of verifications functions in 2 layers.

Implementing verifications functions in the test layer is more bad practice. Bloated code which makes the tests difficult to read. Not really a PO issue.

Bullet No.2: I see verification functions in page object as an API's schema because when i access the PO i know these are the verification functions available to me on that page. Its more like an api schema, telling you what's available on that api.

Bullet No.3 A Page object verification is verifying something on a page. Not verifying a particular test. So you shouldn't have "verify for test01" in a PO, it should be "verify component01". Then use that verify in your test layer.

Thank you for your comments. It gives me more points of view in using assertions commands.

I would like to discuss with some of your opinions.

Mixture of verification is still there if you use assertions in both PO and Test level, even these assertions are wrapped in any utils method or class.
As I mention in my post(s), we should define a responsibility for each layer of our code. PO should have only its own responsibility, that is, to describe the business actions or flows.
You mentioned PO like API schema, I think it’s not appropriate. I think PO method like API, and its parameter should be like the API schema and returned values as the API responses.
"Verify component01" I’m not sure whether it is for a specific test case? If not, I think it should not appear in the code.
"verify for test01" means some lines of code will check according to the purposes of the test. And the purpose includes verifying something on a page, and others.

From my point of view,

Test will be presented like a user story (template “As a [persona], I [want to], [so that].”, or GIVEN WHEN THEN). Of course, it could include some additional information as well.
The assertions commands (or wrapped utils methods) would be the implementation of "so that" or "THEN" clause. It should be appeared on test level for easy understand and review.
If you put verification to lower layer, reviewers have to navigate to many places to understand fully your checkpoints of test case.

Search Hashnode

Do not put assertions in Page Objects, why?

Responses1