RFC for fetchBy* queries

[balavishnuvj]

Describe the feature you'd like:

To get an element from the dom, we have 6 variants viz. getBy, getAllBy, queryBy, queryAllBy, findBy, and findAllBy.

More often than I like to admit I would visit cheatsheet to find the method I'm looking for.

Suggested implementation:

A sample usage for react(can be adopted for rest)

fetchByText(/text/, { allowEmpty: true, allowMultiple: false });

This would be able to combine get* and query* queries. We would still need to consider find* because of thats the only async query.

Proposal for findBy* is

asyncFetchByText(/text/, { allowMultiple: false });
fetchByTextAsync(/text/, { allowMultiple: false });

Describe alternatives you've considered:

Visit cheatsheet when you forget what does what

Teachability, Documentation, Adoption, Migration Strategy:

We should be able to include this along with the rest of the variants.

Would be happy to implement it myself  😀

[kentcdodds]

A big problem for this would be TypeScript. If the result could be null or undefined then you have to cast the value every time which would be annoying.

I'm sorry, but it's extremely unlikely that we're going to change the name of these methods now. The name of methods is entirely a familiarity thing. It's subjective, so making an API change will cause more confusion than benefit.

I'm willing to be swayed by other maintainers, but right now I'm pretty positive this will not happen. A wrapper library could be created though.

[smeijer]

I'm comfortable with the way that it currently is. If there is a real need, I'm available to help shaping a nice and simplified api for a wrapper lib.

I'm not in favor of adding the change directly to the core, as it would be a HUGE breaking change, if the existing methods are being removed. If the existing methods would be kept to ease migration, the change would only add more methods, making things more confusing.

[balavishnuvj]

I guess it makes more sense to create a library on top of it, so that core is not cluttered.

[Aprillion]

I can imagine import userScreen from '@testing-library/user-screen' with simplified API ...
but it would need to provide more benefits than just the now-familiar method names

e.g. simplified negative asserts like await isRemovedByText('gg')
(sugar for await waitForElementToBeRemoved(() => screen.getByText('gg')))

[kentcdodds]

Here's my proposal. If someone cares enough about this, make a package (not in the Testing Lib org, just your own package). If it gets adoption, then we can bring up the idea of bringing it into the org and potentially adding it to core if it becomes very popular.

Outside of that, we're not going to do anything else here. Thanks anyway!

[balavishnuvj]

Made a package.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/rtl-simple-queries