Email Spec

A collection of RSpec matchers and Cucumber steps to make testing emails go smoothly.

This library works with ActionMailer and Pony. When using it with ActionMailer it works with DelayedJob, ActiveRecord Mailer, and action_mailer_cache_delivery.

If you are testing emails in conjunction with an automated browser solution, like Selenium, you will want to use action_mailer_cache_delivery in your test environment. (This is because your test process and server processes are distinct and therefore need an intermediate store for the emails.) DelayedJob and ActiveRecord Mailer will also work but you generally don't want to include those projects unless you need them in production.

Setup

script/plugin install git://github.com/bmabey/email-spec.git

Gem Setup

gem install email_spec

# Gemfile
group :test do
  gem 'email_spec'
end

Cucumber

To use the steps in features put the following in your env.rb:

# Make sure this require is after you require cucumber/rails/world.
require 'email_spec' # add this line if you use spork
require 'email_spec/cucumber'

This will load all the helpers that the steps rely on. It will also add a Before hook for Cucumber so that emails are cleared at the start of each scenario.

Then:

rails generate email_spec:steps

This will give you a bunch of steps to get started with in step_definitions/email_steps.rb

By default, the generated file will look for email to example@example.com. You can either change this by editing the current_email_address method in email_steps.rb, or by simply specifying the target email in your features:

Scenario: A new person signs up
    Given I am at "/"
    When I fill in "Email" with "quentin@example.com"
    And I press "Sign up"
    And "quentin@example.com" should receive an email   # Specify who should receive the email

RSpec

First you need to require email_spec in your spec_helper.rb:

require "email_spec"

You will then need to include EmailSpec::Helpers and EmailSpec::Matchers in your example groups. If you want to have access to the helpers and matchers in all of your examples you can do the following in your spec_helper.rb:

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include(EmailSpec::Helpers)
  config.include(EmailSpec::Matchers)
end

Otherwise, you will need to include them in the example groups you wish to use them:

describe "Signup Email" do
  include EmailSpec::Helpers
  include EmailSpec::Matchers
  ...
end

Usage

Cucumber

Scenario: A new person signs up
    Given I am at "/"
    When I fill in "Email" with "quentin@example.com"
    And I press "Sign up"
    And I should receive an email
    When I open the email
    Then I should see "confirm" in the email body
    When I follow "confirm" in the email
    Then I should see "Confirm your new account"

For more examples, check out examples/rails_root in the source for a small example app that implements these steps.

Cucumber Matchers (Ruby)

See RSpec Matchers (they are the same)

RSpec

Testing In Isolation

It is often useful to test your mailers in isolation. You can accomplish this by using mocks to verify that the mailer is being called in the correct place and then write focused examples for the actual mailer. This is a simple example from the sample app found in the gem:

Verify that the mailer is used correctly in the controller (this would apply to a model as well):

describe "POST /signup (#signup)" do
  it "should deliver the signup email" do
    # expect
    UserMailer.should_receive(:deliver_signup).with("email@example.com", "Jimmy Bean")
    # when
    post :signup, "Email" => "email@example.com", "Name" => "Jimmy Bean"
  end
end

Examples for the #signup method in UserMailer:

describe "Signup Email" do
  include EmailSpec::Helpers
  include EmailSpec::Matchers
  # include ActionController::UrlWriter - old rails
  include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers

  before(:all) do
    @email = UserMailer.create_signup("jojo@yahoo.com", "Jojo Binks")
  end

  it "should be set to be delivered to the email passed in" do
    @email.should deliver_to("jojo@yahoo.com")
  end

  it "should contain the user's message in the mail body" do
    @email.should have_body_text(/Jojo Binks/)
  end

  it "should contain a link to the confirmation link" do
    @email.should have_body_text(/#{confirm_account_url}/)
  end

  it "should have the correct subject" do
    @email.should have_subject(/Account confirmation/)
  end

end

RSpec Matchers

reply_to(email)

alias: have_reply_to

This checks that the Reply-To header's email address (the bob@example.com of "Bob Saget bob@example.com") is set to the given string.

email = UserMailer.create_signup("jojo@yahoo.com", "Jojo Binks")
email.should reply_to("support@myapp.com")

deliver_to(*email_addresses)

alias: be_delivered_to

This checks that the To header's email addresses (the bob@example.com of "Bob Saget bob@example.com") are set to the addresses.

email = UserMailer.create_signup("jojo@yahoo.com", "Jojo Binks")
email.should deliver_to("jojo@yahoo.com")

deliver_from(email)

alias: be_delivered_from

This checks that the From header's email address (the bob@example.com of "Bob Saget bob@example.com") is set to the given string.

email = UserMailer.create_signup("jojo@yahoo.com", "Jojo Binks")
email.should deliver_from("sally@yahoo.com")

bcc_to(*email_addresses)

This checks that the BCC header's email addresses (the bob@example.com of "Bob Saget bob@example.com") are set to the addresses.

email = UserMailer.create_signup("jojo@yahoo.com", "Jojo Binks")
email.should bcc_to("sue@yahoo.com", "bill@yahoo.com")

cc_to(*email_addresses)

This checks that the CC header's email addresses (the bob@example.com of "Bob Saget bob@example.com") are set to the addresses.

email = UserMailer.create_signup("jojo@yahoo.com", "Jojo Binks")
email.should cc_to("sue@yahoo.com", "bill@yahoo.com")

have_subject(subject)

This checks that the Subject header's value is set to the given subject.

email = UserMailer.create_signup("jojo@yahoo.com", "Jojo Binks")
email.should have_subject("Welcome!")

include_email_with_subject(subject)

Note: subject can be either a String or a Regexp

This checks that one of the given emails' subjects includes the subject.

email = UserMailer.create_signup("jojo@yahoo.com", "Jojo Binks")
email2 = UserMailer.forgot_password("jojo@yahoo.com", "Jojo Binks")
[email, email2].should include_email_with_subject("Welcome!")

have_body_text(text)

Note: text can be either a String or a Regexp

This checks that the text of the body has the given body.

email = UserMailer.create_signup("jojo@yahoo.com", "Jojo Binks")
email.should have_body_text(/Hi Jojo Binks,/)

have_header(key, value)

This checks that the expected key/value pair is in the headers of the email.

email = UserMailer.create_signup("jojo@yahoo.com", "Jojo Binks")
email.should have_header("X-Campaign", "1234abc")

Using the helpers when not testing in isolation

Don't. :) Seriously, if you do just take a look at the helpers and use them as you wish.

Original Authors

Ben Mabey, Aaron Gibralter, Mischa Fierer

Please see History.txt for upcoming changsets and other contributors.