Problems with authentication in Capybara

Question

I am testing a feature on a staging server that requires a basic authentication in order to access the site. I got it running by using the following:

Capybara.app_host = "http://user:password@this.isanexample.com"

At one point in the scenario I access a page that uses https instead of http and requires me to put in user and password again in order to continue. It would be easy if I just used visit again, but I actually want to click on a link...

How can I get past this? I have googled like crazy, but couldn't really find a solution that works.

I found this: http://theadmin.org/articles/test-http-basic-authentication-in-rails/, but I have no idea how to implement it. I am quite new to all of this, so I might miss the obvious.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Here is my code:

env.rb

require 'capybara/cucumber'

Capybara.app_host = "https://user:password@this.isanexample.com"
Capybara.default_driver = :selenium
Capybara.default_wait_time = 5
Capybara.ignore_hidden_elements = true
Capybara.current_session.driver.browser.manage.window.resize_to(1024, 1000)

checkout_steps.rb (abridged)

Given /^I am on the main page$/ do
  visit('/')
end

When /^I navigate to the page with the available boxes$/ do
    page.find(:xpath, "//a[contains(@href,'how-it-works')]").click
    page.find(:xpath, "//a[contains(@class,'join')]").click
end

When /^I choose a monthly subscription$/ do
    page.find(:xpath, "//span[contains(@class,'title') and .[contains(., 'Unbefristetes Abo')]]").click
    page.find_button("Jetzt Bestellen").click
end

Answer 1

I solved this by getting rid of the authentication on the website itself. If the tests run from within the company network, the authentication popup won't show up anymore. Turns out this is the better solution in a lot of ways.