rspec-rails-2

rspec-2 for rails-3 with lightweight extensions to each

Install

gem install rspec-rails --pre

This installs the following gems:

rspec
rspec-core
rspec-expectations
rspec-mocks
rspec-rails

Configure:

Add rspec-rails to the :test and :development groups in the Gemfile:

group :test, :development do
  gem "rspec-rails", ">= 2.0.0.beta.22"
end

It needs to be in the :development group to expose generators and rake tasks without having to type RAILS_ENV=test.

Now you can run: 

script/rails generate rspec:install

This adds the spec directory and some skeleton files, including the "rake spec" task.

Generators

If you type script/rails generate, the only RSpec generator you'll actually see is rspec:install. That's because RSpec is registered with Rails as the test framework, so whenever you generate application components like models, controllers, etc, RSpec specs are generated instead of Test::Unit tests.

Note that the generators are there to help you get started, but they are no substitute for writing your own examples, and they are only guaranteed to work out of the box for the default scenario (ActiveRecord + Webrat).

Autotest

The rspec:install generator creates an ./autotest/discover.rb file, which tells Autotest that you're using RSpec and Rails. You'll also need to add the autotest (not autotest-rails) gem to your Gemfile:

gem "autotest"

At this point, if all of the gems in your Gemfile are installed in system gems, you can just type autotest. If, however, Bundler is managing any gems for you directly (i.e. you've got :git or :path attributes in the Gemfile), you'll need to run bundle exec autotest.

Webrat and Capybara

You can choose between webrat or capybara for simulating a browser, automating a browser, or setting expectations using the matchers they supply. Just add your preference to the Gemfile:

gem "webrat"
gem "capybara"

Note that Capybara matchers are not available in view or helper specs.

Living on edge

Bundler makes it a snap to use the latest code for any gem your app depends on. For rspec-rails, you'll need to point bundler to the git repositories for rspec-rails and the other rspec related gems it depends on:

gem "rspec-rails",        :git => "git://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails.git"
gem "rspec",              :git => "git://github.com/rspec/rspec.git"
gem "rspec-core",         :git => "git://github.com/rspec/rspec-core.git"
gem "rspec-expectations", :git => "git://github.com/rspec/rspec-expectations.git"
gem "rspec-mocks",        :git => "git://github.com/rspec/rspec-mocks.git"

Run bundle install and you'll have whatever is in git right now. Any time you want to update to a newer head, just run bundle update.

Keep in mind that each of these codebases is under active development, which means that its entirely possible that you'll pull from these repos and they won't play nice together. If playing nice is important to you, stick to the published gems.

Backwards compatibility

This is a complete rewrite of the rspec-rails extension designed to work with rails-3.x and rspec-2.x. It will not work with older versions of either rspec or rails. Many of the APIs from rspec-rails-1 have been carried forward, however, so upgrading an app from rspec-1/rails-2, while not pain-free, should not send you to the doctor with a migraine.

Known issues

See http://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails/issues

Also see Gotchas.markdown

Request Specs

Request specs live in spec/requests.

describe "widgets resource" do
  describe "GET index" do
    it "contains the widgets header" do
      get "/widgets/index"
      response.should have_selector("h1", :content => "Widgets")
    end
  end
end

Request specs mix in behavior from Rails' integration tests. See the docs for ActionDispatch::Integration::Runner for more information.

Controller Specs

Controller specs live in spec/controllers, and mix in ActionController::TestCase::Behavior. See the documentation for ActionController::TestCase to see what facilities are available from Rails.

You can use RSpec expectations/matchers or Test::Unit assertions.

render_views

By default, controller specs do not render views. This supports specifying controllers without concern for whether the views they render work correctly (NOTE: the template must exist, unlike rspec-rails-1. See Upgrade.markdown for more information about this). If you prefer to render the views (a la Rails' functional tests), you can use the render_views declaration in each example group:

describe SomeController do
  render_views
  ...

* Upgrade note

render_views replaces integrate_views from rspec-rails-1.3

assigns

Use assigns(key) to express expectations about instance variables that a controller assigns to the view in the course of an action:

get :index
assigns(:widgets).should eq(expected_value)

View specs

View specs live in spec/views, and mix in ActionView::TestCase::Behavior.

describe "events/index.html.erb" do
  it "renders _event partial for each event" do
    assign(:events, [stub_model(Event), stub_model(Event)])
    render
    view.should render_template(:partial => "_event", :count => 2)
  end
end

describe "events/show.html.erb" do
  it "displays the event location" do
    assign(:event, stub_model(Event,
      :location => "Chicago"
    )
    render
    rendered.should contain("Chicago")
  end
end

View specs infer the controller name and path from the path to the view template. e.g. if the template is "events/index.html.erb" then:

controller.controller_path == "events"
controller.request.path_parameters[:controller] == "events"

This means that most of the time you don't need to set these values. When spec'ing a partial that is included across different controllers, you may need to override these values before rendering the view.

assign(key, val)

Use this to assign values to instance variables in the view:

assign(:widget, stub_model(Widget))
render

The code above assigns stub_model(Widget) to the @widget variable in the view, and then renders the view.

Note that because view specs mix in ActionView::TestCase behavior, any instance variables you set will be transparently propagated into your views (similar to how instance variables you set in controller actions are made available in views). For example:

@widget = stub_model(Widget)
render # @widget is available inside the view

RSpec doesn't officially support this pattern, which only works as a side-effect of the inclusion of ActionView::TestCase. Be aware that it may be made unavailable in the future.

* Upgrade note

assign(key, value) replaces assigns[key] = value from rspec-rails-1.3

rendered

This represents the rendered view.

render
rendered.should =~ /Some text expected to appear on the page/

* Upgrade note

rendered replaces response from rspec-rails-1.3

Routing specs

Routing specs live in spec/routing.

describe "routing to profiles" do
  it "routes /profile/:username to profile#show for username" do
    { :get => "/profiles/jsmith" }.should route_to(
      :controller => "profiles",
      :action => "show",
      :username => "jsmith"
    )
  end

  it "does not expose a list of profiles" do
    { :get => "/profiles" }.should_not be_routable
  end
end

* Upgrade note

route_for from rspec-rails-1.x is gone. Use route_to and be_routable instead.

Helper specs

Helper specs live in spec/helpers, and mix in ActionView::TestCase::Behavior.

describe EventsHelper do
  describe "#link_to_event" do
    it "displays the title, and formatted date" do
      event = Event.new("Ruby Kaigi", Date.new(2010, 8, 27))
      # helper is an instance of ActionView::Base configured with the
      # EventsHelper and all of Rails' built-in helpers
      helper.link_to_event.should =~ /Ruby Kaigi, 27 Aug, 2010/
    end
  end
end

Matchers

rspec-rails exposes domain-specific matchers to each of the example group types. Most of them simply delegate to Rails' assertions.

be_a_new

  • Available in all specs.
  • Primarily intended for controller specs

object.should be_a_new(Widget)

Passes if the object is a Widget and returns true for new_record?

render_template

  • Delegates to Rails' assert_template.
  • Available in request, controller, and view specs.

In request and controller specs, apply to the response object:

response.should render_template("new")

In view specs, apply to the view object:

view.should render_template(:partial => "_form", :locals => { :widget => widget } )

redirect_to

  • Delegates to assert_redirect
  • Available in request and controller specs.

response.should redirect_to(widgets_path)

route_to

  • Delegates to Rails' assert_routing.
  • Available in routing and controller specs.

{ :get => "/widgets" }.should route_to(:controller => "widgets", :action => "index")

be_routable

Passes if the path is recognized by Rails' routing. This is primarily intended to be used with should_not to specify routes that should not be routable.

{ :get => "/widgets/1/edit" }.should_not be_routable

Contribute

See http://github.com/rspec/rspec-dev

Also see